4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



That there was great abundance in it, we know from 

 Eratofthenes*, who tells us it was fo overgrown that it could 

 not be tilled ; fo that they firft cut down the timber to be 

 ufed in the furnaces for melting filver and copper ;. that af- 

 ter this they built fleets with it, and when they could not 

 even deftroy it this way, they gave liberty to all ftrangers to 

 cut it down for whatever ufe they pleafed; and not only fo, 

 but they gave them the property of the ground they cleared. 



Things are fadly changed now. Wood is one of the wants 

 of moil parts of the ifland, which' has not become more 

 healthy by being cleared, as is ordinarily the cafe. 



At f Cacamo (Acamas) on the weft fide of the ifland, the 

 wood remains thick and impervious as at the firft difcovery. 

 Large flags, and wild boars of a monftrous fizc, fhelter them- 

 felves unmolefted in thefe their native woods ; and it de- 

 pended only upon the portion of credulity that I was en- 

 dowed with,, that I did not believe that an elephant had, not 

 many years ago, been feen alive there. Several families of 

 Greeks declared it to me upon oath ; nor were there wanting 

 perfons of that nation at Alexandria, who laboured to con- 

 firm the afTertion. Had fkeletons of that animal been there, 

 I fhould have thought them antediluvian ones. I know 

 none could have been at Cyprus, unlefs in the time of Dari- 

 us Ochus, and I do not remember that there were elephants, 

 even with him. 



In, 



Strabo, lib. xiv. p. 684, ■f Strabo, lib. .\iv. p. 780. 



