mosques, numerous fruit gardens, and about 1500 commodious
clay-built houses, usually of one story, amongst which are
displayed the flags of the different European consuls. It is
situated in the plain adjoining the salt marshes along the river
Tesio, and nearly a mile and a half from the store-houses at
the port called Salines. The population is under 6000 souls ;
and the inhabitants, like those of Famagosta and other towns
in the plains, are exposed to intermittent fevers, and also occasionally
to the plague.
The villages on the slopes of the mountains, as well as the
rest of the country, are very healthy; and the Cypriots in
general are a fine race of people. The island, which in the
time of Edrisi contained numerous villages, cultivated fields,
woods, meadows and mines,1 is now almost waste; in certain
places, however, the sugar-cane succeeds admirably. The
other products are fine silk, cotton, hemp, tobacco, corn,
wine, oil, opium, fine honey, turpentine, madder, pomegranates,
oranges, lemons, and other fruits; the exports of which
might be increased so as to realize the abundance existing in
the time of Strabo.®
The ancients gave various names to the island, such as
Cerastis,3 alluding to its numerous promontories; Cypros4 or
Cyprus, from an indigenous shrub; it was also called Aerosa,
from its copper mines. There have been preserved some historical
traces of the island, which are particularly interesting;
It appears, according to Eratosthenes,6 that the Phoenicians
first visited Cyprus 17 centuries before our era, and not long
subsequently it was occupied by the Ethiopians and other
people,6 amongst whom probably were the sons of Cethimus
and the descendants of Japhet, who, according to Josephus,’
were its earliest possessors, and who called the island Cethima.8
The Salaminians, led by Teucer, son of Telamon, founded
Salamis in the island about 1160 B .C .9 This city became the
* Jaubert’s translation of Edrisi, p. 130, tome VI., Recueil de Voyages,'&c.
» Lib. XIV., p. 683. I Plin., lib. V., c. xxxv.
4 Plin., lib. X II., c. xxvi. 5 Strabo, lib. XIV.. p. 684.
45 Herod., lib. VIII., c. 90. 7 Ant., lib. I., c. vi., s. 1.
‘ Ibid. B Tacit., lib. III., Annal., cap- 62.
seat of one of the nine sovereignties which existed at the time
of its conquest by Cyrus the Great; and here were instituted1
the first sacrifices and immolations to Jupiter. The island
long remained subject to the Persians; but, after the death of
Alexander, Cyprus fell to Antigonus, who was subsequently
deprived of it by Ptolemy, and it continued to belong to
Egypt till it was seized by the Romans. It afterwards formed
part of the Eastern 'Empire, to which it remained subject till
it was taken, in the year 650, by the Saracens, under Moa-
wiyah Ebn Abu Sosian. Subsequently it reverted to the
Greek Emperors, and was governed as a separate principality
by one of the Comneni till 1191. In that year, on a supposed
affront, Richard Cceur de Lion seized the island, which he
first sold to the Templars, and afterwards transferred, with
little ceremony, to the Lusignans, by whom it was retained
nearly three centuries. In consequence of a marriage, it subsequently
came to the Venetians, with whom it remained till
1570, since which period it has belonged to the Turks.
The Pashalik of Sai'de, or Akka Proper, is situated between
the preceding PaShalik and those of Damascus and Gaza;
having within its limits at the northern extremity the Kesruan,
which formerly belonged to Tripoli. A line running from
the bay of Jumi north-eastward along the latter as far as the
eastern slope of the Lebanon, and a little north of Baalbek,
separates the district from that of Tarabolus, from which latter
it extends southward to Ka'isariyeh; its southern limit extends
eastward from the Mediterranean to the Anti-Lebanon, and to
the great depression of Lake Tiberias. The tract adjoining
the latter portion of the district has already been described,2
and the remainder, which extends westward to the shores of
the Mediterranean, is divided by the river Kasmieh (Leontes)
into two nearly equal portions, which, however, present a
marked contrast to each other; the territory to the northward
of the river just mentioned, representing the greater part'of
•Upper Galilee, is furrowed with gorges, ravines, and cultivated
valleys, whilst the territory on the southward side, or the