particularly in this harbour that the cargoes of their pods are shipped.

This fruit, known under the name of St. John's bread, and which the Greeks call keraka, bad as it is, is not, on that account, less an article of food for the people of Egypt and Barbary, where the tree itself is not unknown. The Arabs call it karoub or karnóub. In Europe, in places where it is at a low price, the poor likewise live on it. It is also given as food to mules and cattle, which the use of it fattens. Lastly, the wood of the carob-tree being very hard, and consequently proper to be used in different works, we cannot but regret that this serviceable tree, by not thriving in our more northern regions, should not there add to the resources of the arts and of rural

economy.

In the time of the ancient Romans, the carob-tree was already very plentiful in Italy. The fruit, which was called siliqua, served as a weight; it required six pods to make a scruple; and as the pound was composed of two hundred and eighty-eight scruples, it also required one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight pods to make its weight. It may easily be conceived that this manner of weighing, which could serve only for coarse articles of little value, was not likely to be very exact.

Most of the plains, of which cotton constituted the richness, still preserve some traces of that culture; but it is there no more than a feeble image of what it was formerly. The whole island now affords to commerce but about three thousand bales of cotton; whereas, under the government of the Venetians, the annual quantity of these bales amounted to thirty thousand t. Cyprus cotton is the most esteemed, as the finest of all the Levant; it is sold too at a higher price. It is not so fine in the most southern islands of the Archipelago; that of Smyrna is still inferior. In short, the cotton produced in the environs of Salonica is yet worse than that of Smyrna ; so that the more we advance towards the north, the more this article, so valuable in manufactures, loses in quality.

It would therefore be a useless attempt, and prejudicial even to the interests of the cultivator, to endeavour to introduce into the south of France the culture of the cotton-plant, as has been proposed by some persons, seduced by little trials which attest rather the taste and curiosity of the amateur, than the speculations of the husbandAnd should we ever succeed in cultivating on a large scale, and with any success, the cotton-plant in these same, countries of France, precarious crops of bad quality could not indemify us for the expences of raising it, nor exempt us from going up the Levant to look for cottons more abundant and of a superior quality, that is, whiter, finer, and more silky.

man.

See in the Mémoires de l'Académie des Belles-Lettres, vol. xxviii. p. 653, year 1757, the dissertation of M. Dupuis, on the state of the Roman coin, &c. This profound scholar demonstrates that Scaliger is mistaken in taking the siliqua of the Romans for the fruit of the

Cornil-tree.'

The bale of cotton commonly weighs three hundred weight.' • The

The cotton-tree cultivated in the East is that which is called the annual cotton-tree, or cotton plant, in order to distinguish it from that of the colonial plantations in the West Indies, which is the cotton-tree. On a field, well prepared and turned up, are marked furrows, in which are planted, at certain distances, a few seeds of the cottontree, much the same as is practised with respect to maize. It is in the month of April that these sowings are made in Cyprus; as soon as the plants are above ground, those which are too weak are pulled up, and the strongest only are left. They are weeded, and the earth about them is loosened in the course of the summer; their pods ripen towards the month of October, and the silky down which they afford is then separated from the seeds that it surrounds.

The humidity of the atmosphere, rains of long duration, or too frequent, are equally unfavourable to the cotton-tree. A strong heat is very suitable to it; this promotes the dazzling whiteness of the down, and contributes to the fineness and substance of the silk. The impetuous north winds are a scourge to this plantation, particularly at the period of flowering; the fruits miscarry, and the crop, almost totally lost, disappoints the hope of the cultivator as well as that of the trader.'

The whole of this account being too long for our limits, we must content ourselves with adding that the Venetians, when in possession of this island, made large plantations of sugarcanes; which must have been extremely beneficial in a situation so near to Europe. Since the disastrous epoch, however, at which the Turks became masters of Cyprus, the inhabitants, persecuted on every side, have studiously avoided resuming a kind of culture which would have proved only a pretext for fresh exactions on the part of their oppressors.-The locusts commit great ravages in these climes; on the migrations of which insects, the author's reflections are, if not satisfactory, at least ingenious. At present, the arts as well as agriculture languish in this island; those which are cultivated are but few in number, and, excepting the leather called Turkey leather, or Morocco, scarcely any deserve attention.

M. Sonnini's observations on Cyprus, in reference to the late attempt on Egypt, are too curious to allow us to pass them by without an extract :

Should the island of Cyprus (says he) cease to be a prey to the violence and gross incapacity of the government which tears it to pieces; should repairing hands come hither to second the efforts of Nature, which has done so much for this interesting island, both its antient splendour and prosperity would revive, and it would still be once more found to be one of the richest and finest countries in the world.

Had circumstances allowed, had it been possible to obtam the consent of the Porte, or could it have been forescen that respect for that restless, suspicious power, led away by the insinuations of the REV. JAN. 1802. enemies

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enemies of France, could have served only to excite its resentment, the conquest of the Island of Cyprus ought, perhaps, to have preceded that of Egypt. The French would there have found abundant means of subsistence, and in the Greeks, by whom it is inhabited, zealous partisans, friends who would have welcomed and assisted them, instead of barbarians whom it was necessary to fight and slaughter; no obstacle would have opposed the landing of the army; the fortified places which are there to be found are dismantled, and so destitute of troops and military stores, that they could not have made any resistance. Numerous harbours, which it would have been easy to put into a respectable state of defence, would have preserved the fleet secure from all attack; ships cruising in the sea of Syria, would have blocked up all its ports; and when the moment should have been thought favourable, these same ships would, in a very little time, have conveyed to the coast of Egypt, an army already accustomed to the heat of the climate, and reinforced by Cypriots *. The debarkation being effected, the fleet would have abandoned the dangerous shores of Alexandria, and regained the roads of Cyprus. An easy, quick, and continual communication, which it would scarcely have been possible for the enemy to intercept, would have been established between the two colonies: the island would have furnished the continent with provisions, other supplies, and particularly wood, in which Egypt is deficient: the small number of useFul trees which adorn and cool the plains of this latter country, would not have been sacrificed to the wants of the army, and to military erections; the enemy would not have had the facility of establishing himself at St. Jean d'Acre; descents would have been effected, as it were, on every point of the coast of Syria; the desert which separates it from Egypt would not have cost the lives of many brave men in marches excessively laborious, across arid and burning plains which there is no drop of water to moisten; in short, to the glory of breaking the chains of two nations, oppressed and degraded By ages of slavery, we should have added the happiness of restoring to liberty, and to their former prosperity, a people who are not unworthy of those blessings, and whose gratitude would have been ma. nifested towards their deliverers, by every sort of assistance and every act of devotion.

The resources which the possession of the Island of Cyprus would have afforded for the conquest of Egypt, would have extended to its preservation; they would have secured and consolidated the acquisition of a country, which, from its position, is the key and emporium of the commerce of thrce parts of the world, and of which the Roman emperors, who were acquainted with its importance, were so jealous, that they strictly forbad the entrance of it to senators and generals who had not obtained their express permission for that purpose, from an apprehension that the prodigious fecundity and the delights of that beautiful and rich country might lead them to attempt usurpation.

The Island of Cyprus is scarcely seventy leagues from Alexandria, and the current carries vessels thither very rapidly.'

• This

This plan of an expedition, however brilliant, however advanta.. geous it may appear, was not practicable, no doubt, since it was not. adopted; it could not indeed escape the penetrating eye and the profound combinations of that man of genius who certainly perceived, in its execution, obstacles sufficiently powerful for rejecting it; in fact, it could not but have been pleasing to him to emancipate from, the most tyrannical oppression, and to restore to its ancient state of splendour, a country to which its flourishing situation had occasioned to be given the epithet happy, the just application of which is so valuable and so rare; and we must suppose that political considerations of great weight opposed this more extensive developement of the views which directed the expedition to Egypt.

my

However, and it is sufficiently manifest, the ideas which I have just traced, the result of my observations on the very places, and of meditations, can have no merit but in the eyes of philosophy; and it is well kown that philosophy is frequently at variance with po litical arrangements. Little accustomed to the latter, I am scarcely acquainted with any policy but that of humanity, the study of which has been easy to me; I have found it in my heart.'

After a dangerous passage, owing to the unskilfulness of the mariners, the author arrived in the harbour of Rhodes; where he had an opportunity of learning how sailors contrive to get rid of the troublesome company of rats, by sending them off to their neighbours. Our vessel, (says he,) being over-run with these corroding animals, they made considerable havoc by devouring or spoiling the provisions. A Greek bark, loaded with Our sailors, without apples, came and cast anchor near us.

making the least noise, ran out a hawser or cablet to her during the night; and then drawing it tight, rendered it serviceable as a bridge to the rats: these, attracted by the smell of the apples, of which they are very fond, passed, without the exception of a single one, into the bark, and there gave the Greeks good reason to curse their neighbour.'

The famous Colossus at Rhodes employs a portion of this attentive traveller's ingenuity and reading; and he tells us, from Pliny, that few men could embrace the thumb of this gigantic statue; each of its fingers was bigger than the generality of our statues; and its several parts, when broken, discovered vast cavities within, some of which were filled with stones of an immense size, in order to add to its weight and give it a greater stability. Being thrown down by an earthquake, no thoughts were entertained of re-erecting the enormous mass; and it lay on the ground nine hundred years, before it was beaten to pieces and carried away.

M. Sonnini pursued his excursions through the numerous islands of the Archipelago; and he varies his narrative by the interspersion of particular events which occurred on his voyages. Stampali,

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Stampali, he tells us, is one of the most fertile of the islands, and the inhabitants participate in the mildness of the climate and the soil; being free from that harsh and rough character so visible in their neighbours, the islanders of Calamo and Lero, which are hard and rugged countries. In these regions, however, so favoured by Nature, and so disgraced by the form of government to which their unhappy and too durable lot has doomed them, the gifts of superior fertility serve only as a Scourge, and a rocky barrenness would be a desirable boon: since the natural and legitimate source of riches becomes that of frequent extortions. The more smiling and beautiful is the country, the more it invites the attention and the visits of stupid and cruel exactors, who take from the inhabitants all ncouragement to industry, and entirely suppress agriculture; while these senseless despots, who ruin themselves by ruining their territory, avoid the ruder climates, because they are afraid of men who live on mountains, the usual asylum of poverty, courage, and independance.-If the author were allowed to chuse the place of his abode, as an agreeable retreat, he says that he should select Stampali, which he describes in warm and lively colours; provided that it was no longer subjugated to the dominion of the Turks, and that none of those profaners of the most delightful regions of the earth were able to set a foot on its shores.

But the island of Delos, formerly so opulent, (says M. Sonnini,) and where were celebrated with so much pomp religious ceremonies, in presence of an immense concourse who repaired thither from all points of the East, is now no longer any thing but a desert abandoned to filthy animals and covered with ruins and rubbish. Pirates and robbers are almost the only men who land there; they go thither to share the fruit of their plunder, or concert new schemes of rapine, seated on fragments of altars where incense and perfumes burnt in honour of the god of day.

The ruins of Delos, the imposing remains of the most beautiful edifices of which ancient Greece was proud, are now no longer what they were at the periods when modern travellers visited and described thein. They themselves have their ruins, and they owe their fresh degradation to the profane barbarism of people who came thither to take materials for building their houses, or to wretched Turkish sculptors, who carry off every year precious pieces, in order to make of them those little pillars surmounted by a turban, which the Mahometans erect over the grave of the dead. The name even of Delos is forgotten in the seas where it had acquired so great a celebrity. The Greeks at this day name Dili, the two islands of Delos, and our navigators distinguish them by the denomination of Isdiles, Les Isdiles.

A great variety of additional interesting passages might be selected from this work, if we could find room for them: but

the