CUE* 
and learning, their valour and their virtues, are no more. 
They have loft thefe with the lofs of liberty. So true 
is it that man, when deprived of that aid which nature 
has defigned to ftrengthen and fupport his weaknefs, the 
flame of genius and the ardent glow of valour are extin- 
guidied in his breaft; he becomes incapable of vigorous 
refolution, and finks below the natural virtue and dig¬ 
nity of the fpecies. 
The ifland of Crete, joined with the fmall kingdom 
of Gyrene, on tire Lybian conft, formed a Roman pro¬ 
vince. It was at firft governed by a procor.ful; aqueftor 
and an afliftant were afterwards fent there; at laft, as 
Suetonius informs us, it was put under the government 
of a confwl. This ifland was one of the firft places in 
the world that wefc favoured with the light of the gofpel. 
In the reign of the emperor Leo, it had twelve bidiops, 
who were all fubjeCt to the patriarch of Conftantinople. 
Conftantine feparated Crete from Cyrene in the new divi- 
fron which lie made of the provinces of the empire. 
When Michael Balbus fat on the throne of Conftan¬ 
tinople, the rebellion of Thomas, which lafted three 
years, cauf'ed him to neglect the other parts of the em¬ 
pire. The Agarenians (a people of.Arabia,) who had 
conquered the fineft provinces of Spain, feized that op¬ 
portunity. They fitted out a considerable fleet, plun¬ 
dered the Cyclades, attacked the idand of Crete, and 
made themfelves mafters of it without opposition. In 
order to fecure their conquefts, they built a fortrefs 
which they named Kkandak, “ intrcnchment.” From 
that citadel the barbarians made inroads into the interior 
parts of the ifland, carrying havock and devaftation 
wherever they appeared. By repeated attacks, they 
fubdued all tire cities in Crete except Cvdon. Michael 
made fame ineffectual efforts to expel them from Crete. 
The emperor Bafilius, the Macedonian, was not more 
fuccefsful. They defeated him in a bloody battle ; but 
being vanquifhed by one of his generals, they were fub- 
jeCted to the payment of an annual tribute. At the end 
of ten years, the Arabians refufed the tribute. It was 
referved for Nicephoros Phocas, who was afterwards em¬ 
peror, to deliver this fine ifland from the yoke of the 
infidels. He landed on the ifland with a numerous army, 
boldly attacked them, and routed them in various en¬ 
gagements. The Saracens, no longer daring to meet fo 
formidable a general in the field, fled for protection to 
their fortreffes. Phocas, being plentifully f applied with 
all the warlike machines neceflary for a fiege, levelled 
their walls, and alarmed their hearts with terror. He 
took their cities and fortreffes, and droye them into 
Khandak, their metropolis and laft refource. In tire 
courfe of nine months he fubdued the whole ifland, took 
their king Curup, and his lieutenant Aremas, prifoners, 
and reunited to the empire a province which had been i 27 
years in the hands of the infidels. It remained under 
the dominion of the Romans till the time when Baldwin 
count of Flanders, being railed to the throne, liberally 
rewarded the fervices of Boniface marquis of Mont- 
ferrat, by making him king of Theffalonica, and adding 
the ifland of Crete to his kingdom. That lord, being- 
more covetous of gold than glory, fold it to the Vene¬ 
tians in the year 1194; under whom it affirmed the name 
of Candia ; which fee. 
CRE'TINS, a deformed people of the Alps, fo named, 
either from their chalky colour, or from the cretaceous 
matter formed in the fwellings of their joints, fimilar to 
the chalky concretions formed in gouty perfons. They 
have either wry-necks, deformed limbs, or fwollen 
throats, with protuberances like wens, which they call 
goitres ; and fometimes all thefe afflictions are united in 
the fame individual. Much has been written concerning 
the corporeal deformity and mental imbecility of this 
unhappy race; and many caufes have been affigned for 
this lingular phenomenon. Some have attributed their 
wens to the habitual ufe of fnow water: but the difeafe 
is too local to admit of this folution; others, to their 
2 
C R E 355 
lifting water impregnated with calcareous eartlf: but the 
fame effects are not uniformly produced where fuch wa¬ 
ter is ufed. Some have concluded that their idiotic ftate 
was a judgment from heaven ; others have been tempted 
to exclude thefe miferable objects from the clafs of hu¬ 
manity ; and to give them a lpecies of their own ; while 
the medical phiiofopher has endeavoured to explain 
their mental depravation, by the mechanic preffure of 
thefe protuberances on the vafcular fyftem. 
TheCretins, or idiots, fays fir Richard Clayton, (Me¬ 
moirs of the Manchester Society, vol. iii.) are comprised 
in a part of the Lower Vallais, about thirty miles in 
length, and eight in breadth. Round Sion they are very 
numerous, but they are mod fo between the bridges of 
St. Maurice and Ride. A few of them are to be found 
on each fide, and at the extremity, but they then gradu¬ 
ally difappear. Phyfiognomifts have pretended to dif- 
cover a trait of the inward character, written on almoft 
every countenance ; and one proof may be added, to 
their fyftem, without adopting it in its fulleft extent; 
for, with the Cretin, the vacuum is distinctly vifible. 
Every mental faculty appears benumbed, and the dread¬ 
ful torpor is unequivocally expreffed. There are, how¬ 
ever, different gradations amongft them, from total dark- 
nefs to intellectual twilight, and the dim dawn of under- 
ftanding. Some have a fort of voice, but the deaf and 
dumb are very numerous ; and there are multitudes who 
are mere animal machines, devoid of almoft every fenfu- 
tion. In ftature, four feet and a half is the general 
ftandard, and it is feldom exceeded more than a few 
inches : their countenances are pale and livid ; and, 
excluiive of other external marks of imbecility, they 
have the mouth very .wide, and the tongue and lips un¬ 
commonly thick and large. They die, regularly, young ; 
and there are not any inftances of their arriving at the 
advanced period of human life. The propagation of 
the fpecies is the only appetite which numbers of them 
are ever roufed by, and it rages with more than common 
violence : the fame lafeivioufnefs is fuppofed to apply to 
the monkey and baboon ; and the analogy will not efcape 
the moralift. To conlider fuch groups as accidental, is 
impoffible. There have been generations of them after 
generations, and fome families are almoft entirely com- 
pofed of them. A family coming from a diftance has 
occafior. to lament, on its incrcafe, that idiocy which it 
was before a ftranger to ; and Cretin colonies, removing 
from the diftrict, and marrying only amongft fhemiel.ves, 
after one generation, or at 1110ft two, lole the difguftfi.il 
diftin'Ction they brought with them. Throughout the 
wliole country they are found in, the air is molt certainly 
unwholefome. They reficle, in fact, in a fort of vail 
bafin, full of exceftive exhalations from the Rhone, and 
the marfties on its ftdes; and the reflection of the fun 
from the furrounding mountains, which are almoft ver¬ 
tical, forms an atmcfphere very lingular for its humidity 
and heat. At Sion in particular, the houfes are often 
fteeped up to the fecond ftory in a thick, hot, and gluti¬ 
nous, vapour ; aud the body, during the Summer months, 
is in a very uncommon ftate of perlpiration. This natu¬ 
rally occafions a lallitude and indolence, which unftring 
the human frame ; and along with them, one meets with 
their ufual attendants, excellive poverty and filth. 
Though fir Richard Clayton does not attempt to in- 
veftigate the proximate caufe of the imbecility in quell 
tion, which may, perhaps, ever continue to elude human 
penetration, his ingenious obfervations will.afford ufeful 
hints to the phyliologift. He finds that the Don.dos or 
African white negroes, the Kakcr/aks or Chacrelas, of 
Afia, and the Blafard or white Indian of the Illhmus of 
Darien, have fome peculiarities correfponding to thofe 
by which the Cretin is diftinguilhed ; and that there is 
fome fimilarity alio in local circumttances : for, fays lie,. 
“The air is molt avowedly infalubrious on tiie whole 
Ifthmus of Darien; and what appears decilive, as to its 
influence, is the known fact, that the female negroes 
brought 
