broiled ready for the table."

"I don't know how that is, Flix, and we haven't time to investigate the
matter. The interior of the island is mostly composed of a great plain,
which was once famous for its crops of grain; but the system of
irrigation which prevailed has been discontinued, and its fertility no
longer exists. In a scarcity of rain five years ago there was almost a
famine in the island.

"As you have seen for yourselves, there is a deficiency of harbors, and
this bay is a fair specimen of them. It has two places they call
seaports, but they are not worthy of the name. They are on the south
side, and in such a blow as we had last night, they afford no shelter to
shipping from southerly storms; and Captain Scott was wise in coming
here instead of going to Limasol, which is just inside of Cape Gata.
The ports on this side of the island would be similarly exposed in a
northerly storm. Safe ports are necessary for the commerce of a country
or an island, and therefore to its prosperity.

"In ancient times there were ports at Salamis, Paphos, and Famagusta, in
the eastern part of the island, which was the portion celebrated in the
past. The capital is Leucosia, as I find it on my chart, though I find
it elsewhere put down as Nicosia; and even the cape we have in sight is
Pifanio in a standard atlas. The population is 186,000, of whom not
quite 50,000 are Mohammedans, and the rest are orthodox Greeks. The
great majority of the people speak the Greek language, but it is so much
corrupted that Flix would not understand it."

"You are right, my darling; I want the pure Greek of Kilkenny, or I
don't take it in," replied the Milesian.

"The island was colonized by the Phoenicians, who have a history too
long to be related now; but they occupied the northern part of Syria and
the country to the north of us. They were the New Yorkers of their day
and generation, and were largely engaged in commerce. They brought the
worship of Venus over here, and called the island Kupros after her. It
had at first nine independent kingdoms, and I should suppose that almost
anybody could afford to be a king in this locality. It was conquered by
the Egyptians about five hundred years before the time of Christ; then
by the Persians; and finally came into the possession of the Romans.

"It went with the Eastern Empire when Rome was divided. The people
embraced Christianity at an early date. It was said that a shepherd
discovered the bo