The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-07-12
Cyprus.

The island of Cyprus, which Lord Beacons
has so cleverly acquired and welded into the
chain connecting Europe and India, the other
er links whereof are Gbralter, Malta, the Susz
Canal and Alden, is the most eastern island of
the Mediterranean, being only sixty.fvs miles
from the Syrian coast; on the north it ap-
proaches to within forty-four miles of Asia
Minor. Its length is about one hundred and
forty miles and breadth from fifteen, at the
northeastern extremity, to forty, the total area
being 1878 square miles. The population is
estimated at 100000 souls, of whom perhaps
two-thirds are Greeks, the remainder being
Ottomans Jews, Catholics, Maronites and Ar
menians. Hitherto it has formed part of the
vilayet of islands of the Mediterranean, having
as its capitol Nicosia, where resides the Arch
bishop, though his title Is Metropolitan of Con-
stansia. Since the council of Ephesus in 431
he has retained his independence of any patri-
arch and the Church of Cyprus forms one Of
the independent groups into which the Greek
Church is divided.
Cyprus early belonged to the Pbeuioians Of
the neighboring coast; then it was colonized
by the Greeks and became the seat of seyeraT
independent Kingdoms; then il passed under
tne power successfully of the Pharaohs, Per-
SLAMS, Ptolmies and Romans, excepting short
period OF independence under Evagoras in the
fourth century b. @. Here was one of the
chief seats of the worship of Venus. as the
name, Cypris, will remind the reader; Paphos
ana oalamls were among its famous cities Of
old time. The Crusaders reft it from the Greek
Emperor and made it a kingdom for Guy of
Lusigan, whose descendants lost it to the We
netians, the employers, as readers of Shakes
peara will recall, of Otheio. After q siege
marked by prodigies of valor aud immense
slaughter. the Turks took the island 307 years
ago and have held it ever since, except during
the period OF 1920 when the Viceroy OF
Egypt administered its affairs.
The island is fertile and rich, though the fire.
quen drought shrinks its principal stream, the
Pedia to mere rill and compels the inhabi-
tants, the waters of the wells being brackish,
to have recourse to cisterns. Minerals abound,
including copper and precious stones, though
mines have hitherto been sadly neglected
Among the vegetable productions are fruits,
cotton, tobacco, dyewood and drugs; silk is also
produced. and wine. In old times the wine of
the Communicate, avineyard taking its name
from the Knights of Malta, enjoyed wide
vogue, but as the population has fallen from
1,0O0000 in Venetian times to its present low
figure, so the wine production has fallen off
from 100000 gallons to 100000. There is
some demand in Egypt, though none In Europe
for the common red and black wines of the
country, against which Europeans have pre-
ludice because of the taste they acquire from
being kept in tarred casks.
The island has one splendid port-Fama-
costa, the Arsinoe of the aucients-which-
though 80 choked with filth as only to afford
anchorage for few small craft, might easily
be restored to its prominence under the old We
netiau rule, where hundreds of vessels rode
within its roadstead at ease aud in safety
Despite the locusts which scourge it ceaselessly
and the even more rapacious Turkish tax
gatherer, Cyprus has of late years been in
creasing in prosperity. Its grain crop is small,
and both the wheat and oats are inferior, but
colocynth is extensively cultivated; large ex-
ports of madder are made, and cotton and
carob-beans are sent abroad to the extent of
some thousands of tons annually.
To Americans the island will be familiar
through the Di Cesnols collection of Cypriote
antiquities. According to that distinguished
Assyriologist, the late George Smith, and other
eminent authorities, the language Of their in
scriptions is Greek dialect approaching the
Arcadian, but possessing many peculiarties,
the characters (not Greek, but OF unknown
origin) being usually from right to left and syl-
la6ic; some of them, however, representing
different forms of the vowels and others cons
nants only.