"IT is more particularly in the islands of the Ægean Sea that I have directed my researches, in that multitude of groups of lands and rocks, feattered without order in the middle of this fea, as an eternal monument of its conqueft over the continent. Divided by the ancients into Cylades and Sporades, denominations at prefent forgotten, they are at this day known under the general defignation of Islands of the Archipelago. Although I have not vifited them all, the rather long ftay which I made in fome of them, the intercourfe that I had with men who inhabited them, or were perfectly acquainted with them, the information that I acquired in the fame countries, have enabled me to collect certain particulars refpecting each of them, and to speak of them with precition.

"The islands of the Archipelago, moft of which are remarkable for the fertility and the beauty of their foil, celebrated in antiquity, and famed for having given birth to great men, are ftill at this day important points of eftablishment, communication, or commerce. We have a great intereft in being well acquainted with them; and I am of opinion, that my work will leave nothing to be withed for in that refpect. This, at leaft, is the talk which I have impofed on myfelf, and which I have endeavoured to accomplish.

"We had already fome general defcriptions of the islands of the Archipelago; one of the moft extenfive is that of Dapper; it is the work of a geographer who defcribes what he has not feen, and only by copying what others had written before him. Tournefort, that immortal man, full of fcience and taste, and whom every traveller who publishes his accounts ought to take for a model, has likewise defcribed, but with a different pencil from Dapper, these fame islands of the Archipelago of the Levant. But fince the travels of the French naturalift, as well as fince the defcription of Dapper, they no longer have the fame ap

pearance. The change of masters in fome, the confequences of tyranny in all, time and other circumftances, have introduced differences between former accounts and the narrative which I now prefent. Befides, I fhall here repeat what I have already said on the fubject of my Travels in Egypt, that it is impoffible for the fame man to obferve every thing; the one collects what efcaped him by whom he was preceded; and, in fhort, in like manner as painters have their particu lar ftyle in reprefenting the fame fubject, each obferver has alfo his manner of feeing and defcribing what he has feen; fo that the fame object may be perceived under different points of view, and the fame circumstance be differently related by feveral perfons, and still be interesting." P. xxvii.

"It is not, however, to the islands of the Archipelago that my excurfions have been limited, and that my obfervations will be confined: the large and beautiful island of Candia, in which I made feveral journies, fome parts of Turkey in Afia Minor, Macedonia, and the Morea, have been the object of my peregrinations, as they will be the fubject of my ftory." P. xxx.

"The chart which is annexed to my book, is one of the handfomeft and most complete that has been conftructed of that extent of fea and land, which is ufually diftinguished by the na:ne of the Levant. To my own nautical and geographical obfervations, I have added thofe of the feamen, travellers, and geographers, the most modern and the moft efteemed; and, in order to give an idea of the pains which I have taken to render this chart as minute and correct as poffible, it will be fufficient for me to remark that I have employed, for the northern part of Egypt, the particular chart of Lake Menzaleh, which an able officer of artillery, the General of Division Andréoffy, inspector-general of the corps of artillery, has very recently published, at the end of two excellent memoirs, refpecting fome points of Lower Egypt *.

"Nor to this alone has the affiftance which I have received from General

Andréofly

Andréoffy been confined; he has been fo kind as to communicate to me, and to permit me to add to my chart the manufcript plan, which he him elf took of the part of the coaft of Egypt comprehended between Damietta and Roffetta; fo that this extent of the fhores of the Mediterranean, hitherto thrown on our charts, as at random, and with which it never was more important to us to be well acquainted, is that which is traced with the greateft exactnefs and precifion; thanks to the attention of a diftinguifhed foldier, who, amid the terrible agitations of war, has found means to fix in the camp the timid fciences, scared by the din of arms, and to join to the dazzling, but enfanguined laurels of valour, the more modeft, but fruitful olive, with which they encircle the brow of those who welcome them, and whom they are fond of loading with favours." P. xxxi.

EXTRACTS.

GRASSHOPPERS OR LOCUSTS.

"ENDEAVOURS have been made to explain how infects, winged indeed, but little capable of a fight of long duration, could appear all at once, like a devaftating storm, on lands furrounded by the fea. Naturalifts have imagined that grafshoppers, incapable of croffing a large space of fea, repaired to Cyprus with the veffels from Syria, in which they kept themselves concealed during the voyage; but it would be difficult, on this hypothefis, to explain the fudden appearance of thefe living clouds in certain years, while in others none of them are to be feen. On the other hand, muft not navigators per ceive this prodigious multitude of frangers; and could it be fuppofed that they would confent to carry them obligingly into countries where fcarcity and defolation would land with them? Befides, there is a certain fact, which removes the idea of grafshoppers getting on thipboard; this is, that the fea-fhores, on the coaft of Cyprus, are fometimes covered, and infected to a great diftance, with their

dead bodies floating on the furface of the waters; and thefe vaft wrecks imply a paffage more perilous than a voyage on board fhip. It cannot therefore be doubted that these swarms of grafs hoppers arrive from the continent, where, according to the opinion of M. Haffelquitz, they must be formed in the midft of the deferts of Arabia, whence they depart, fupported and impelled by the winds..

"The moft eaftern point of the ifland of Cyprus, Cape Sant Andrea, being fcarcely diftant from the coaft of Syria more than from twenty to twen ty-five leagues, a gale of wind may easily carry thither light infects, which aflift themfelves with their wings, and poffefs much ftrength and agility. It is pofitively known that roving grafs hoppers have croffed feas wider than this ftrait. M. Niebuhr mentions, that in the month of November 1762, a prodigious quantity of grafshoppers fell in the environs of Dsjidda, a town of Arabia, on the borders of the Red Sea, after having croffed that fea, which, in this place, is upwards of fifty leagues in width; a great many perished, indeed, in the paflage; which did not prevent the reft from ipreading themfelves over the fields in inconceivable numbers. I have myfeif keen grafshoppers alight on a veffel, in a voyage along the west coast of Africa, abreast of Cape Blanco, and out of fight of all land. We could not ima gine that thefe infects had come on board with us; they arrived from the eaft, and were of a fpecies unknown in France; every part of them was of a pale yellow, or filemot colour, They who do not content themfelves with ftudying Nature in books or in colleetions, and who vifit with fome attention the immenfe galleries which the has herself arranged with admirable order, for the purpose of making them an eternal fubject of contemplation; they, I fay, may have remarked that the large green grafhopper of our meadows raifes itfelf with rapidity to a height fomewhat confiderable, and fupports itfelf tor fome time in the air, when the weather is warm, the

By

ky ferene, and the atmosphere free from humidity: from this we may judge, that the wandering species, probably more vigorous, as well as more accuftomed to travelling, may, in warm and dry climates, undertake long paffages in clofe columns, and, favoured by the winds, venture to crofs gulfs and ftraits.

"And the frightful havock of thefe numberlefs phalanxes of devouring infects is not always confined to the fertile plains of the Eaft; they are feen, more rarely it is true, but with the fame fury, to ftrip the fields of more weftern countries of their harvests, of their verdure, to change in an inftant the rich and smiling carpet of fecundity into a hideous fcene of nakednefs and devaftation; and, after having deprived the earth of her drefs, men of the fruit of their labours and of their means of fubfiftence, to finish by infecting the air with their carcates heaped up, and by spreading contagion and death. Who knows whether this be not one of the principal caufes of the melancholy and cruel permanence of the plague in the Eaft?

"France herfelf has not been exempt from the misfortunes produced by these prodigious and formidable bodies, carrying in their train confternation and want. In the year 1784, a vaft fwarm of thefe infects, coming from the eaft, croffed France, devoured every thing on their paffage, and fell into the British Channel Mezerai mentions with great detail another irruption of grafshoppers, which deprived the fouth of France of its harvefts, of its vegetables, and of its trefoil. That hiftorian informs us, that the grafshoppers which efcaped from the birds, depofited fuch a quantity of eggs on the ground, particularly in the fandy fpots, that it was thought neceflary to caufe them to be picked up in order to deftroy them. They were found in heaps, and in this manner were collected upwards of three thousand quintals, which were burnt or thrown into the Rhone. On calculating the number of infects that were to be hatched by these maffes of eggs, it was found, by a very low eftimate, that there was 1,750,000 to the quin

tal, which might give, for the total, 550,000,000,000 of grafshoppers eggs, that would have been hatched the fol lowing year. On other occafions a reward was fet on graf hoppers; in 1767, two fous a pound were paid for them in fome parts of Languedoc; in 1787, only one fou was given; and yet it was known, by the examination of the accounts of the little community of Saint Gilles, that eleven or twelve hundred quintals of them had been de ftroyed on its territory alone †.” P. 40.

CYPRUS WINE.

"ONE of the productions which the Cypriots rear with the greatest attention, and which has not ceafed to be to them an advantageous branch of trade, although, like every other, it has felt the violence and want of reflection of the government, is the famous wine which is yielded them by vines with twifting and creeping stems, and large and delicious fruit. The best vines, a natural temple, dear to Bacchus, whence flows this yellowish, rich, and perfumed wine, which conftitutes the delight and luxury of our tables, occupy a diftrict called the Commandery, because it made a part of the great commandery of the Templars and of the knights of Malta. It is comprised between Mount Olympus and the towns of Limaffol and Paphos. Although all the wines of Cyprus come not from this diftrict, they do not the lefs, on that account, bear, in trade, the name of the wines of the commandery, in order to enhance their value. Under that name is found fome very common, and at a very low price. I have purchased at Alexandria fome of this pretended wine of the commandery, at ten parats, or a little more than twelve fous the dame-jeanne*; it was new, very light, and had no refemblance in point of flavour to the diftinguished Cyprus wine. From all parts of the island the wines are collected at Larnica, where they are kept till they are shipped; but they want age in order to acquire the excellent qualities which caufe them to be fo much in request. The Grecks of Cyprus, from a very ancient cuftom, when

VOL. V.-No. LII.

they