in Ancient Geography, one of the Sporades (Dionysius); 30 miles in compass (Pliny); concerning which we read very little in authors. It was rendered famous by the exile of St John, and the Revelation showed him there. The greatest part of interpreters think that St John wrote them in the same place during the two years of his exile; but others think that he did not commit them to writing till after his return to Ephesus. The island of Patmos is between the island of Icaria and the promontory of Miletus. Nothing has done it more honour than to have been the place of the banishment of St John. It is now called Patino, or Pacino, or Patmo, or Palmofa. Its circuit is five and twenty or thirty miles. It has a city called Patmos, with a harbour, and some monasteries of Greek monks. It is at present in the hands of the Turks. It is considerable for its harbours; but the inhabitants derive little benefit from them, because the corsairs have obliged them to quit the town, and retire to a hill on which St John's convent stands. This convent is a citadel consisting of several irregular towers, and is a substantial building seated on a very steep rock. The whole island is very barren, and without wood; however, it abounds with partridges, rabbits, quails, turtles, pigeons, and snipes. All their corn does not amount to 1000 barrels in a year. In the whole island there are scarcely 300 men; but there are above 20 women to one man, who expect that all strangers who land in the island should carry some of them away. To the memory of St John is an hermitage on the side of a mountain, where there is a chapel not above eight paces long and five broad. Overhead they show a chink in the rock, through which they pretend that the Holy Ghost dictated to St John. E. Long, 26.84. N. Lat. 37.24.