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
All hands set about righting the ship--which was upon her beam-ends, and
the wheels uppermost. The first thing necessary was to discharge cargo;
this we quickly effected, as there were doors in front and behind, and
the numerous packages were soon piled upon the wayside. No sooner was
the van empty, than my dogs, who had been watching the operation in
bewilderment, jumped in, and no inducement would persuade them to quit
the comfortable vehicle, which they supposed had been specially cleared
for their convenience; the doors were accordingly shut, and they were
locked up. We now passed ropes beneath the van, and secured the ends to
the bottom of the wheels, which rested upon the ground; the other ends
were thrown over the cap-roof and manned, while the rest of the party
endeavoured to raise the van bodily. All working together, we righted it
immediately, the astonished dogs were liberated, and we soon replaced
the contents. I sent a messenger to Arshia to purchase if possible a
piece of wood sufficiently long to form a pole, and in the meantime I
employed my tools and myself in splicing the broken pole sufficiently to
enable us to creep a little nearer to the village, as we were far from
water.
It was nearly dark by the time I had completed my work, and the bullocks
were once more fastened to the van. In this way we approached within a
quarter of a mile of the village and halted for the night. I made a
capital pole from the stem of a young fir-tree which I procured from the
natives, and lashed it securely to the rough but strong splinter-bar of
dwarf-cypress.
On the following morning at daybreak I made a few alterations in the
work of the preceding night, and having thoroughly secured the new pole,
we started for Kuklia, about thirteen miles distant. After passing a few
more watercourses, we arrived at the best ground we had seen in Cyprus,
and the vans travelled with ease at upwards of three miles an hour.
Throughout this march I observed that the water in the various wells and
open pits was hardly five feet from the surface, although the country
was suffering from an absence of rain. Notwithstanding this natural
advantage, there were only two farms upon which the cattle-wheels were
used for purposes of irrigation, which proves the lack of enterprise and
capital throughout this miserable district.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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