166 ISLAND OF ZIA. 
will not be lost upon the Cabinets of Europe. It 
was not the property of the natives alone which 
suffered upon this occasion: the Russians removed 
or destroyed the most valuable antiquities ; 
which could not have been more effectually sacri- 
ficed if they had perished, with the plunder of 
the Parthenon, among the rocks of Cythera 1 . The 
Fine Arts, which always deprecate their coming 
as they would another invasion of j4laric, will 
remember with regret the days they passed in 
the Archipelago: and when truth prevails over 
the interests of political intrigue and the preju- 
dices of party zeal, it will be seen that an author 
has not erred who thus described them ! ; RVSSI 
INTER CHRISTIANOS BARBAPftTATOI. 
The male population of Z'ia amounts to three 
thousand persons. Each house pays a tax 
of ten, twelve, or fifteen piastres, annually. 
We called upon the English Consul, who pro- 
mised to send mules for us to the marine, if we 
would come the next day and dine with him ; 
to which we consented. He informed us of a 
(1) The memorable fate which attended the spoils of the finest 
temple Greece ever saw, in Cerlgo Bay, A. D. 1802. 
(2) Vid. Johannis Lomeieri Lib. dc Bibliothecis, cap. xi. p. 358. 
ntrajcei. 1680. 
