The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-07-21
CYPRUS.

The island of Cyprus, which Lord Bea:
consfeld has 30 ceverly acquired and
welded into the chain connecting Europe
and India, the other links whereof are
Gibraltar, Malta, the Suez Canal and Alden, +,
is the most eastern island of the Mediter-
ranean, being only sixty five miles from
the Syrian coast on the north it approaches
to within forty four miles of Asia Minor.
Its length is about one hundred and forty
miles and its breadth from fifteen, at the
northeastern extremity, to forty, the total
area being 3 67S square miles. The popu
lation is estimated at 200, 600 souls, of
whom perhaps two thirds are Greeks, the
remainder being Ottomans, jews, Catho-
lies, Msronites, and Armenians. Hitherto
it has formed part of the vilayet of the
islands of the Mediterranean, having as it's
capital Nicosis, where resides the Archbi-
shop, though his title is Metropolitan of
Constantia. Since the council of Ephesus
any patriarch, and the Church of Cyprus
forms one of the independent groups into
which the Greek Church is divided.
Cyprus early belonged to the Pf Dui
clans of the DeighboriDg coast ; then it
was colonized by the Greeks, and became
the seat of several independent kingdoms
then it passed under the power successive
ly of the Pharoshs, Persians, Ptolemies
and Romans, excepting short period of
independence under Eyapgoras in the
fourth century, B. C. Here was one of the
chief seats of the uorship of Venus, as the
name pIia,-Rill remind the-reader
Paphos and Salamis were among its famous
cities Of old time. The Crusaders refr it
from the Greek Emperor and made it
kiu gdom for Guy of Lusignan, whose de-
sceudsnts lost 1t TO the VenetiaDs, the en-
ploytIs, az readers of Shakespeare will re-
call, of Otkello. After a siege marked by
prodigies of valor at immense slaughter,
hn fnnlx fhn 1Rlanh s3ff|
and have held it ever since, except during
the period of 1882 40, when the viceroy of
Egypt Administered d its affairs.
The island is fertile aod rich, though the
frequent drought shrInks its principal
stream, the PedIa, to q mere rill and COM
pels the Inhabitants, the waters of the
wells being brackish, to have recourse to
cisterns. Minerals abound, including cop
per al d precious stones, though tie mines
have hitherto been sadly neglected. Among
the vegetable productions are fruits, cot
ton, tobacco, dyewood and drugs silk is
also produced, and wine. In old times the
wine of the Commanderis, a vineyard TAX
ing it's name from the Knights of Malts,
enjoyed a wide vogue, but as the popula-
ton has fallen from ,000, 900 in Venetian
times to its present low figure, 30 the wine
production has fallen off from 600, 600
gallons to 200. 900. There is some demand
in Egypt, though none in Europe, for the
common red and black wines of the coun-
try, against which Europeans have preju-
dice because of the taste they acquire from
being kept in tarred casks.
The island has one splendid port-Fam-
agosta, the Arsinoe of the aucients-which,
though 80 choked with filth as only to
afford anchorage for few email craft,
might easily be restored to it's prominence
under the old Venetian rule, when hun
dreds of vessels rode within it's roadstead at
ease and in safety. Despite the iocusts which
scourge it ceaselessly, and the even more
rapacIous Turkish tax gatherer, Cyprus has
of late years been increasing in prosperity.
Its grain crop is small, and both the wheat
and oats are inferior, but colocynth is ex
tensively cultivated; large exports of
madder are made, and cotton and cBrob
beans are sent abroad to the extent of some
thousands of tons annually.