Produced by Turgut Dincer and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) CYPRUS, HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE. [Illustration: MAP OF CYPRUS 1878. London: Wᵐ. H. Allen & Co. _Stanford’s Geog.ˡ Estab.ᵗ London_] CYPRUS, HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE. ADAPTED FROM THE GERMAN OF FRANZ VON LÖHER. WITH MUCH ADDITIONAL MATTER BY MRS. A. BATSON JOYNER. AND TWO MAPS. LONDON: W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE. Publishers to the India Office. 1878. INTRODUCTION. The sudden interest created by recent political events in everything relating to Cyprus, an island which, from its geographical position, seems destined to play no unimportant part in modern history, has rendered the appearance of Herr von Löher’s narrative of his recent journeyings through the length and breadth of that country extremely welcome. It is therefore with much pleasure we have received permission from the Author to lay before the British Public an adaptation of his book (only published during the last few days) which seems well suited to supply information, such as is at present much needed in England. The island of Cyprus from the first dawn of civilisation has been classic ground, extremely interesting to antiquaries, and its history throughout the Middle Ages is largely blended with tales of chivalry and romantic incidents, such as in these matter-of-fact times are scarcely cared for by speculators, whose object is to obtain reliable information on subjects of more practical importance, such as the resources of the country, the character of its soil, the capabilities of its surface, and the industry of its inhabitants. Lessons upon these points are only to be learned from a careful survey, such as that accomplished by our author, who, uninfluenced by prejudice, describes in simple narrative the actual condition of the island, the scenery of the interior, and the everyday employments and pursuits of the people, thus removing many erroneous impressions as to the condition of the Cypriotes, and leaving the reader to form his own opinion as to the status and prospects of our new acquisition. All information connected with these points we have carefully rendered, only omitting such matter as appeared irrelevant, and calculated unnecessarily to increase the size of the book. Additional information gleaned from various sources, relative to the general history and statistics of the island, is to be found in the Appendix.