Cyprus, as I Saw It in 1879Baker, Samuel White, Sir
History
Cyprus, as I Saw It in 1879
Baker, Samuel White, Sir
Cyprus -- Description and travel
On arrival at Trichomo we pitched our tent at some distance from the
dwelling in which we had fed some thousand fleas upon our former visit;
and on the following morning I determined to go straight Famagousta,
about twelve miles distant.
The route from Trichomo is for the most part along the seashore, but
occasionally cutting off the bends by a direct line. The plain is a dead
level, as it has been entirely deposited by the floods of the Pedias
river. We rode tolerably fast, the sun being hot and the country most
uninteresting; we had left the shrub-covered surface of the Carpas with
its romantic cliffs and deep valleys rich in verdure, and once more we
were upon the hateful treeless plain of Messaria. During our sojourn in
the Carpas district the rainfall by our gauge had been 1.28 inches, but
in this unattractive region there had only been one or two faint
showers, hardly sufficient to lay the dust. The crops about five inches
above the ground were almost dead, and the young wheat and barley were
completely withered.
About four or five miles from Famagousta we arrived at the ruins of
ancient Salamis. The stringent prohibition of the British authorities
against a search for antiquities in Cyprus had destroyed the interest
which would otherwise have been taken by travellers in such
explorations. As I have before remarked, there are no remains to attract
attention upon the surface, but all ancient works are buried far
beneath, therefore in the absence of permission to excavate, the
practical study of the past is impossible, and it is a sealed book.
Fortunately General di Cesnola has published his most interesting
volume, combining historical sketches of ancient times with a minute
description of the enormous collection of antiquities which rewarded his
labours during ten years' research; so that if our government will
neither explore nor permit others to investigate, we have at least an
invaluable fund of information collected by those whose consular
position during the Turkish rule enabled them to make additions to our
historical knowledge. Mr. Hamilton Lang has also published his
experiences of a long residence in the island, during which his
successful excavations brought to light valuable relics of the past
which explain more forcibly than the leaves of a book the manners,
customs, and incidents among the various races which have made up
Cyprian history. General di Cesnola, after quoting the legend which
connects the origin of Salamis with the arrival of a colony of Greeks
under Teucer (the son of Telamon, king of the island of Salamis) from
the Trojan expedition, continues, "Of the history of Salamis almost
nothing is known till we come to the time of the Persian wars; but from
that time down to the reign of the Ptolemies it was by far the most
conspicuous and flourishing of the towns of Cyprus." "Onesius seized the
government of Salamis from his brother, Gorgus, and set up an obstinate
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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