from falling into the fame state as her fifter Tyre. They load yearly twenty and more veffels for France. The goods exported from this place confift chiefly in fpun cotton, with fome filk, and amount annually to at leaft a million of livres. Next to them must be reckoned the filks, particularly the fine watered half-filks which come from Damafcus, and are brought hither in confiderable quantities for the French, who carry them to Italy; for they are prohibited in France, though the French make none equal to them in goodnefs. Afhes, Oil and Galls, make likewife a fmall part of this town's produce. They import Cloths, Spices, Spanish Iron, and Drugs for dying, the greatest part of which is fent to Damafcus, which town fupports Seide and Baruth, to be confidered only as its harbours. They receive alfo a large quantity of Piafters yearly from Marfeilles, which moftly go to Damafcus; where, as well as on the whole Syrian coaft, this coin has the greatest circulation, but most of all, the Quarter piafters, called Patines, which are valued at fifteen Med. On the road from Acra to Seide, we saw a herdfman, who reited with his herd of goats, which was one of the largest I faw in this country. He was eating his dinner, confifting of half ripe ears of wheat, which he roafted and eat with as good an appetite, as a Turk does his Pillaus; he treated his guests with the fame difh, and afterwards gave us. milk, warm from the goats, to drink. Roafted ears of wheat are a very ancient difh in the Eaft, of which mention is made in the book of Ruth. In Egypt fuch food is much eaten by the poor, being the ears of Maize or Turkish wheat, and of their Dura, a kind of Milium. When this food was first invented in the earlft ages of the world, art was in a fimple ftate; yet the custom is ftill continued in fome nations, where the inhabitants have not, even at this time, time, learned to pamper nature. After all, how great is the difference between good bread, and half ripe ears of wheat roafted! WITHOUT the town, towards the fea fide, is fhewn a Sepulchre, in which three Bafhaws are buried; and not far from thence a demo'ifhed Kan, where the Venetians lived at the time they traded to this town, and in a war were all cut to pieces by the Turks. Not far from the town is a well, which receives its water from a fubterranean fpring, like that of Solomon, and is called Sidon's well; as the old town of that name extended to it, though it is now a league from the fea. The village of Elias is one of the nearest to this town, where this prophet is faid to have dwelt and performed miracles, efpecially that with the widow of Zareptaha. SUPERSTITION, common amongst unpolished people, has its principal feat in the Eaft. I have particularly found it amongst thofe who breed filk worms, especially women, who have, almost through the whole world, a taint of the religion of the ancient Egyptians, as far as relates to omens and fuperftition. They believe in almoft all parts of the Eaft, that if a ftranger fees their filk worms, all hope of fuccefs is loft. This was the reafon I could never fee any Silk-worms before to day, the 18th of May, neither during my stay in Smyrna, nor in all my travels in Natolia and the Archipelago, where filk is produced. There is a hut made of boughs of trees in every garden round Seide, in which they are at this time fed, grow, fpin, and are transformed. My fervant, who was a daring Armenian, procured me an opportunity of entering one of thefe huts, where I contemplated this noble worm, fo common and yet fo much efteemed in the Eaft, but never to be enough admired. a 1 Kings xvii. THE THE 21ft, I viewed the aquæducts of the town, an ancient work, and the nobleft that has been preferved. The water has been by them conveyed twelve miles from the hills into the town, and is by pipes carried to every part of it, which is not uncommon in thofe places of the Eaft, where there are no refervoirs. Near the town there is fomething curious in this aquæduct. It runs on walls through great part of the town gardens, and has on each fide a grove, of all the different forts of trees to be found here. In fome places the channel is open, but for the moft part covered; in a few places are openings on both fides, through which the water runs to the gardens, making pretty cascades, which have an agreeable effect amongst the green trees, то TO CYPR U S. I LEFT Seide on the 23d of May, 1751, and at the fame time the Syrian coaft, of which I could not fee any more for many reafons. I went on board a fmall French veffel, in which I failed to Cyprus. On the 28th, we anchored in the road of Larnaco, a village, where the European Confuls dwell; part of which lies on the fhore, but the greatest part a quarter of a league from it. In the former lives the Conful from Naples; in the latter the Confuls from France, England, Venice and Ragufa, have their houses. I lived at the house of the Venetian Conful, who was alfo Conful for Sweden, during the time I waited for an opportunity of continuing my return. As this was the reafon of my coming to Cyprus, I had no notion of travelling through the island, for which this feafon of the year is not the beft, as one can hardly crofs the ftreet in the day time, on account of the heat, and therefore must travel by night. The season to botanize was likewife over; and befides, the country affords little extraordinary in botany; wherefore I found it not worth my while to make long excur fions in the country. For this reafon I made only two fhort journies in Cyprus. St. Crux, the highest mountain mountain on the island, was the first thing I went to fee. I UNDERTOOK this journey on the evening of the 9th, having only my fervant and a guide with me, not being incumbered with armed companions, who are not wanted in a country in which a robbery has never been heard of. We rid on mules, the common equipage of this country, where, they fay, they have the best beafts of this kind to be found in the Levant wherefore they are bought up for Syria, which in return fends fmall Horfes, for the few who have a privilege of riding them. The road to the mountain is broad and level; hills of a moderate height, and large vales, fill the country round it. The mountain confists of a rusty limestone, fatuturated with vitriol. In the vales I found also fome grey limeftone, pure and unmixed, in large quanti ties, in the dried-up beds of rivulets. In many places the craggy mountain afforded lead and copper ore, and a quantity of fmall mountain cryftals. Of these ftones a fine fort is found towards Paphos, which is large and clear, of which I faw a fine cluster at the French Conful's. They were fhewn fome years ago by a perfon at the court of the Turkish Emperor, who faid they were Diamonds. This dif covery was much approved of by those who knew no better than himself; and the Grand Turk was perfuaded he had within his dominions, a Diamondmine. He therefore fent workmen to Cyprus, to fetch these treasures. They began to work, and the place was ftrictly guarded, but they left off in a fhort time. Myrtle, Pine, Oriental Cistus Ladanifera, and Arbutus Andrachne, grew altogether in the woods, with the Oleander, which was now in bloffom. On this journey we saw several villages, better built than they commonly are in the Levant. We went into one of them, not far from the |