162 ANACARDIACEiE. 



(the ancient Phoceea), north-west of Smyrna, for ten years, renouncing 

 all tribute during that period. The concession was very lucrative, a 

 large revenue being derived from the Contrata del Mastico or Mastich 

 district : and the Zaccaria family, taking advantage of the weakness of 

 the emperor, determined to hold it as long as possible. In fact they 

 made themselves the real sovereigns of Scio and of some of the adjacent 

 islands, and retained their position until expelled by Andronicus III. 

 in 1329.1 



The island was retaken by the Genoese under Simone Vignosi in 

 1346 ; and then by a remarkable series of events became the property 

 of an association called the Maona (the Arabic word for subsidy or 

 reinforcement). Many of the noblest families of Genoa enrolled them- 

 selves in this corporation and settled in the island of Scio ; and in order 

 to express the community of interest that governed their proceedings, 

 some of them relinquished their family names and assumed the general 

 name of Giiistiniani?' This extraordinary society played a part ex- 

 actly comparable to that of the late East India Company. In Genoa 

 it had its " O^ciuni Chii " ; it had its own constitution and mint, and 

 it engaged in wars with the emperors of Constantinople, the Venetians 

 and the Turks, who in turn attacked and ravaged the mastich island 

 and adjacent possessions. 



The Giustinianis regulated very strictly the culture of the lentisk 

 and the gathering and export of its produce, and cruelly punished all 

 offenders. The annual export of the drug was 300 to 400 quintals,^ 

 which were immediately assigned to the four regions with which the 

 Maona chiefly traded. These were Romania (i.e. Greece, Constanti- 

 nople and the Crimea), Occidente (Italy, France, Spain and Germany), 

 Vey^a Turchia (Asia Minor), and Oriente (Syria, Egypt, and Northern 

 Africa). In 1364, a quintal was sold for 40 lire ; in 1417, the price was 

 fixed at 25 lire. In the 16th century, the whole income from the drug 

 was 30,000 ducats (£13,750),* a lai-ge sum for that period. 



In 1560, the Giustinianis definitively lost their beautiful island, the 

 Turks under Piali Pasha taking it by force of arms under pretext that 

 the customary tribute was not duly paid.^ A few years before that 

 event, it was visited by the French naturalist Belon ^ who testifies from 



^ Friar Jordanus who visited Scio chxa what may be, obtained from the island of 



1330 (?) noticed the production of mastich, Hispaniola, he mentions — gold and spices . . 



and also the loss of the island by Martino and maHtich, hitherto found only in Greece 



Zsicca,na.—Mirabtlia descripta, or Wonders in the island of Scio, and which the Sig- 



of the East, edited by Col. Yule for the noria sells at its own price, as much as their 



Hakluyt Society, 1863. Highnesses [Ferdinand and Isabella] shall 



2 Probably partly for the reason that a command to be shipped. The letter bears 



Palazzo Giustiniani in Genoa had become date 15 Feb. \iQ^. ^Letters of Christobal 



the property of the Society. In the little Columbus (Hakluyt Society) 1870. p. 15. 



"Piazza Giustiniani," near the cathedral ^ The ducat being reckoned at 9s. 2d. 



of San Lorenzo, that palace may still be ^ For further particulars respecting the 



seen, but there is only a large view of the history of Scio, the Maona, and the trade 



island of Scio which would remind of the of the Genoese in the Levant, see Hopf in 



Maona. I was told in 1874 by Sig. Canale, Ersch and Grubber's Encyclopddie, vol. 68 



the historian of Genoa, that he thought it (Leipzig, 1859) art. Giustiniani ; also Heyd 



doubtful that the Officium Chii had resided C'olonie ccnimerciali degli Italiani in Oriente 



in the said palace. — F. A. F, i. ( 1 866). 



^ An incidental notice showing the value * Observations de plv^ieurs singularitez et 



of the trade occurs in the letter of Columbus choses mtimoi-ahles trouvees en Grhce, etc. 



(himself a Genoese) announcing the result Paris, 1554. liv. ii. ch. 8. p. 836. 

 of his first voyage to the Indies. In stating 



