After a few hours’ sail, therefore, they reached Salamis[867], the eastern port and ancient capital of the island, and preached the word in its synagogues, of which there appear to have been several. Thence they travelled to Paphos[868], at the south-western extremity of Cyprus, the seat of the Roman government and the residence of the proconsul[869], Sergius Paulus. At his court was one of those Jewish sorcerers, whom we have already seen encountering the Apostle Peter in Samaria[870], named Bar-jesus, or, as he called himself in Arabic, Elymas, _the wise_ (Acts xiii. 8). Provoked at the willingness of the proconsul to listen to the preaching of the newly-arrived teachers, he offered a strenuous opposition to his wishes. But Saul, or, as he is now for the first time called Paul[871], fixed his eyes upon him, and in the plenitude of that power which he possessed from the Holy Ghost, sternly rebuked him for thus seeking to _pervert the right ways of the Lord_, and denounced an instantaneous judgment: _the hand of the Lord should be upon him, and he should be blind, nor see the sun for a season_. This privation, which the Apostle had himself experienced, was instantly inflicted on the sorcerer, and he had to seek the aid of others in going from place to place (Acts xiii. 11). Such a vivid exhibition of miraculous power produced a deep impression upon the proconsul, and _he believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord_ (Acts xiii. 12). From Paphos the three sailed in a north-westerly direction to the harbour of Attaleia[872] in Pamphylia[873], and thence up the river Cestrus 6 or 7 miles inland to the town of Perga[874] (Acts xiii. 13). Here Mark, either yearning after the home he had left at Jerusalem, or affrighted by the perils he was likely to encounter[875], departed from his companions, and returned to Jerusalem, while the others pressed on alone to Antioch in Pisidia, a town of considerable importance, having been built by the founder of the Syrian Antioch[876], and since then advanced by Augustus to the dignity of a Roman _colony_[877]. The population of the Pisidian Antioch was mixed, consisting of Greeks, Romans, and native Pisidians, but the influence of the Jews was considerable, and they had succeeded in making not a few converts. Having waited, therefore, for the ensuing Sabbath, Paul and Barnabas repaired to the synagogue, and after the regular service[878] were bidden by the president of the synagogue, if they had _any word of exhortation_, to address those assembled (Acts xiii. 15).