CYPRUS. 155 
their inability to supply the impost, the inhabi- chap. 
taiits fly from the island. So many emigrations v -yl»,) 
of this sort happen during the year, that the 
population of all Cyprus rarely exceeds sixty 
thousand persons; a number formerly insufficient . 
to have peopled one of its towns. The Governor 
resides at Nicotia. His appointment is annual ; 
and as it is obtained by purchase, the highest 
bidder succeeds ; each striving, after his arrival, 
to surpass his predecessor in the enormity of 
his exactions. From this terrible oppression 
the Consuls and a few other families are 'free, 
in consequence of protection granted by their 
respective nations. Over a barren tract of land, desolate 
^ ^ Appear- 
altogether desolate, and destitute even of the ^nce of the 
. . , Country. 
meanest herbage, our journey was neither 
amusing nor profitable. It might have sug- 
gested reflections to a moral philosopher, thus 
viewing the horrid consequences of barbarian 
power ; but when a traveller is exposed to the 
burning beams of an Eastern sun, mounted upon 
a sorry mule dislocating his very loins, fatigued, 
and breathing hot pestilential vapours, he will 
feel little disposition to moralize. We rejoiced 
indeed, when, in a wide plain, we came in 
view of the little huts where we were to pass 
a part of the night, previous to four more hours 
of similar penance. Hadgi Filippo, formerly 
English Consul in Cyprus, together with his 
E 2 
