Nicephorus Mortales, surnamed Glaukos (1729-49), was from Crete, to which he returned and where he died. His body was conveyed to the convent for interment. The next prelate was Constantius (1749-59), who resided for the most part in Moldavia under Vaivode Michael, paying an occasional visit to Sinai. On one occasion he was accompanied by Khalil Sabag, who wrote an account of his visit. The next prelate Cyrillus II (1759-90) dwelt in Smyrna, Jerusalem and Moldavia. He was in contact with Carsten Niebuhr, who visited Sinai in 1762, where he was the first European to visit and describe the great ravines at Serabit. Cyrillus was in relation also with the traveller Volney, who visited the convent in 1783, where he found fifty monks. It was owing to the efforts of Cyrillus II that the standing of the convent of Sinai as an independent centre was definitely established. A synod met in Constantinople in 1782, which declared in favour of its autonomy. The archbishop is elected by a council of the monks, who manage the affairs of the convent in Sinai and its branch establishment in Cairo. The archbishop is always selected from the priests of the monastery. He is consecrated as bishop by the patriarch of Jerusalem in consequence of the ancient connection, and he becomes one of the four independent archbishops of the Greek Church, the others being at Cyprus, Moscow and Ochrida.[302] Cyrillus II was the last prelate who paid a visit to the convent for over a hundred years. The reason was that large sums and gifts had to be presented to the Arabs by the new prelate on his installation. These were so considerable that the monks, in their impoverished state, were unable to raise them. Perhaps owing to this difficulty, there was an interregnum of four years, between the death of Cyrillus in 1790 and the establishment as prelate of Dorotheus of Byzantium (1794-96), after whose death there was again an interregnum of eight years. CHAPTER XVIII SINAI IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY THE close of the eighteenth century witnessed events in Egypt which directly affected the conditions of life in Sinai; they further reduced the man of the desert in his resources.