CYPRUS. 21 
information a traveller can obtain ; agriculture chap. 
neglected — population almost annihilated — pes- ■• <— ' 
tiferous air — indolence — poverty — desolation. 
Even the situation of its once distinguished 
mines cannot now be ascertained. Its anti- 
quities alone render it worthy of resort'; and 
these, if any person had leisure and opportunity 
to search for them, would amply repay the 
trouble. In this pursuit, Cyprus may be con- 
sidered as yet untrodden. A few inscribed 
marbles were removed from Bnffa by Sir Sidney 
Smith. Of two that the author examined, one 
was an epitaph, in Greek hexameter and pen- 
tameter lines ; and the other commemorated 
public benefits conferred by one of the Ptolemies. 
But the Phcenician relics upon the island are Phmxidan 
the most likely to obtain notice, and these have 
hitherto been unresfarded. The inhabitants of 
Larneca rarely dig near their town without 
discovering either the traces of antient buildings. 
(l) That the hunting after antiquities may leave little leisure for 
other inquiries, the author is ready to admit : but his Readers will 
have no reason to regret his inattention to other pursuits, when it is 
known that ,the condition of Cifpru.i at present is such, that an in- 
vestigation of its moral and political state would be attended with as 
little result as a similar research carried on in a desert. What could 
be undertaken for this purpose was attempted by the Abbe Muriti ; and 
if the Reader be curious to learn with how little effect, he may be 
referred to an entire volume which the Abbe has written upon the 
Island of Ct/priis, — See Travels through Gfprus, Sfc. vol. I. fjond. 17.91 • 
C 2 
