The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1877-08-16
CESNOLA'S TRIALS.
some Troubles the General Endured IN
the Interest OF Science,

Oeu6tdl CeSnOla IOunG himself In Cy-
rus with but little to dc. The duties
+ the consulate were not burdensome.
)ne day he saw IN bazar at Laharka, a
own on the southern coast where he
iyed, some terra-cotta heads finely sculp-
ured; and, having asked the salesman
where they came from, learned that they
lad been found on a spot about a mile
IF. This very trifing circumstance led
@ tbs beginning of lis labors as ar ex-
olofer; for be Immediately went to the
place, hifed two or three men to dig for
him, and IN two years obtained nearly
six hundred heads, statuettes and statues,
at depths varying from six inches to Two /
feet So much for beginning. By the |
death of a near relative, he soon came !
into possession of ten thousand dollars. |
He spent every dollar of it, and more |
than sixty thousand dollars besides, dur
ing his ten years oil exploration
The difficulties that he encountered |
make the story of his triumph romantic. |
First and foremost in his Way was the
covetobs, ignorant, tTeacherous, fanatical
Turk, who rules in Cyprus. The sultan,
indeed, allowed him to dig, but the gov
of the island and the local
authorities were suspicious and fault
finding. They bothered him with their
interference, and often set the mob on
his men. Little knew they of the real
value of his treasures, except, of course,
what they learned from the Europeans.
But their cupidity was great, and SO was
the cupidity of the pepUlaee. On one
occasion, General Cesnola, asleep at mid
night in his house, was awakened by the
paving of horses in his courtyard, and
by the loud talking of the riders. Dress
ing himself in haste, he ran down stairs,
and found that his visitors were couriers
come 70 tell him that mob had taken
possession of his digging some distance
off, and were preventing the removal of
some sculptures which he had eEcavated.
While they were telling their story, a
third courier arrived with the intelligence
that two policemen had appeared on the
scene, and had claimed possession of the
sculptures in the name of the sultan.
The general did not wait for any more
arrivals, but, mounting mule, gallOped
to the spot.
1t was about half-past one o'clock in
the morning when he reached it, and the
sight that confronted him he has not for
gotten. The people had lighted fires on
the desert plain, and were bivouacked
there. They made the night hideous
with their shouts and contentious. Each
walking figure cast its shadow in the
freight; around the encampment was
blackness of darkness above it thick
and starless sky. What should be done
with this noisy, fighting crowd? The
tactics of a United States general, and
the sense of a Solomon would not have
been out of place. Gen. Cesnola had at
least one of these qualifications he was
a Federal general. Comprehending the
situation at once, he rode up to one of
the Turkish policemen present, and
asked him to take charge of the mule,
reeking with foam, and to walk the ami
NAL around slowly for its health. The
/ then called, and requested to disperse the
crowd. He proceeded TO do so and
/ before the throng seemed to know what
! the American consul, whom they had
/ recognized, was about, the general had
| his sculptures carefully placed upon
/ carts, had given them and his mule to
! the care of one of his servants, and had
seen them safely started some distance
on the way to his house. He then put
/ himself under the care of the two
! policemen, and, followed by the noisy
| but almost uRacCOuntably harmless rab-
/ bic, proceeded to the nearest village, and
| found a shelter and a wooden shuttle.
/ Wrapping himself in a quilt, he soon
fell fast asleep.
The town of Palace Paphos is especially
attractive to the explorer. 1t gave its
name to the Paphian queen who was
born of the foam. General Cesnola
though that the ruins of castle there
might cover the site of one of the an
cient royal palaces. The ruins were
used by their owner as a stable for bis
camels and donkeys; but, when the
diggings began, this man looked for gold
! beneath them. He watched the diggers
and logged the footsteps OF their chief
and, when his interference had be-
/ come almost uncomfortable, the gen.
eral promised to give him all
the gold that was found.
/ As the work proceeded, aud no gold
made its appearance, the old man-his
name was Osman Aga-threatened one
day that, if before shutdown he got none
of the precious metal, he would put an
end TO the operations. The men were
! then fOrty-ene feet below the surface,
and had struck the foundation of what
seemed to be the very palace that they
were in search Of Something must be
done to appease the cupidity of the Turk.
| General CesnOla happened to have in bis
pocket two gold coins of the Emperor
HeracliUs, which, by the way, were very
common in Cyprus; and he remembered
how the King Of Naples used to do at
POmpeii when taking royal visitors out
to see the excavations. Reckoning to his
foreman, he slyly slipped these coins into
the mans hand, giving him to understand
that they were to be buried, and then
dug up for the benefit of Osman Aga.
After that the aged owner of the place
WAS eager to have the work go on as fast
as possible, and his eyes twinkled at the
thought of the possessions that might be
in store for him. The next day, at the
depth of fifty-twO feet, the wOrkmsn
reached virgin soil, and soon afterwaTd
the excavations were abandoned, the
results not having been encouraging.
The peasants of Cyprus persistently
refused to work with iron spades and
with wheelbarrOws, and their refusal
was one of the principal obstacles en-
countered. Although those useful i'm
plements had been imported from Europe
Tor the purpose, they left them on the
ground. The native basket, sluug over
the shoulder by a rope, was, in their esti-
nation, better than a patented wheel
barrow. Their hands and their knives
were preferable to spades. It sometimes
took these men one month to dig out a
single statue, after the statue had been
reached. In any other country the
labor could have been done in two hours.
The earth around these statues was. in
deed, very difficult to remove, being
mixed with clay from decomposed bricks
and being often as hard as the figures
themselves. 1t was necessary to bring
water and pour it on the concrete mass
a slow process, because the water was
brought good distance, from a spring so
small aud feeble that some time was re-
Gessary for the filling even of a single lar.
La carving this Hvhtar thn inr. as.s