The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-07-19

| Eu8seouS Aee~Ss AcsIOhsstsous
4 The island has an area of 4, 800 sonar,
miles. It's greatest length, from Baffi
in the northwest to Cape Andrea in thu
northeast, is 40 miles, and its greatest
breadth is sixty miles. Population, 200,
900.
The history of Cyprus takes us back
to the morning of civilization. Colo.
nized by the Phenicians, conquered by
the Greeks, wrested from them by the
Egyptians, seized next by the Persians,
made part of the Macedonian kingdom
after the victory of Alexander, subse-
quently Incorporated into the GRECO
Egyptian kingdom of the Ptolemies. it
formed still later portion of the Ro-
man and Byzantine empires. It was
conquered by the Arabs in the seventh
century, and was known as the Kingdom
of Cyprus in the era of the crusades,
when, for the reported wrecking, rob-
bling. and imprisonment of some of his
people, while he lay sick at Rhodes,
Richard the Lion-Hearted visited the
island with his wrath, captured Isaac,
the Comnenian Prince, who styled him
self Emperor of the island, and carried
him off to castle on the coast of Pales-
tine. For a time it formed part of the
Latin Kingdom of Palestine, and the
name of Cyprus was added to the title of
the Christian Kings of Jerusalem. 1t
was, In fact. possession of the
Knights Templar until, after various
vicissitudes, the Venetians obtained and
held it till it was wrested from them by
the Turks.
The contentious over it in ancient
times were not merely because it was an
island fruitful in resources, but because
it was indispensable, as Curtius is his
"History of Greece" observes. to any
state DESTROYS of commanding the seas
between Asia Minor, Phenicia, and
Egypt. 1t supplied mercenaries, al
ways good sailors, to any power that
would pay well for them. 1t furnished
Hiram of Tyre with craftsmen. some of
whom doubtless were sent to Jerusalem
to assist his great friend Solomon in the
building of the temple.
When the Greeks of the cities of Asia
Minor rose against their Persian op-
pressors, the Greeks Of Cyprus offered
no assistance, but served in the armies
of the Persian monarch. A hundred
years later there was Hellenic revolt
on the island under the leadership of
Euagoras, one of the Princes of the nine
petty kingdoms into which the island
was then divided. Euagoras had formed
considerable fleet, and was rapidly
making himself master of the island,
when Artaxerxes, the Persian monarch,
fearing he might become too powerful,
collected an Ionian feet greater than
had been seen since the time of Xerxes.
A great naval battle was fought, in
which Euagoras was defeated, blockaded
in Salamis, and finally brought to terms
by the Persisns, whose vassal he be-
came. Had Cyprus assisted the Greeks
in their rising, the Persian power
would have been broken, and the disas-
tiers of her own conquest would have
been averted.
To-day Cyprus has the same command
ing position in the Levant that she had
when the triremes of Euagoras crowded
the port of Salamis. Asa base of opera
tons, either for the collection of an army
or feet, to protect the Suez canal, to
threaten or defend the ports of Egypt,
or to dispatch an armed force to any part
of Asia Minor or Palestine, none better
could have been selected in the Mediter-
ranean. The cession of Cyprus to En-
gland is. therefore, very significant
event. 1t fully offsets any advantage
Russia may gain by the extension of her
Caucasian frontier over the eastern por-
ton of Armenia. 1t will make a splen-
did rendezvous for troops ordered from
India, and as station for supplies and
coaling for English men-of-war in the
Levant or the Egean sea, or in any part
of the Eastern Mediterranean, it is
more convenient than either Malta or
Gibraltar