The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1878-07-24

New York World, 10Th ]

The island of Cyprus, which Lord Bea-
cOnsfeld has so cleverly acquired aud
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
Mediterranean, being only sixty-tiv 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 breadth
from fifteen, at the northwestern extrem-
ity, to forty, the total area being 3,678
square miles. The population is estimat-
ed at zoe, 900 souls, Of whom perhaps
two-thirds are Geeeks, the remainder
being Ottomans, Jews, Catholics: Maron
ties and Armenians Hitherto it has
formed part of the vilayet Of the islands
Of the Mediterranean, having as It's CAPT
tai Nicosia, where resides the Arch
Bishop, though his title Is Metropolitan
of Constantia Since the Council of
Ephesus in 43I he has retained his indie
pendence of any patriarch, and the Churh
of Cyprus forms one of the independent
groups into which the Greek Church IS
divided.
Cyprus early belonged to the Ph@ni-
clans Of the neighboring coast; when it
was colonized by the Greeks, and became
the seat of several independent kingdoms;
then it passed under the power success
sivelY of the Pharoahs, Persians, Ptole-
mics and Romans, excepting short
period Of independence under Evagoras
in the fourth century, B. G. Here was
one of the chief seats Of the worship Of
Venus, as the name Cypria, will remind
the reader; Paphos and Salamis were
among its famous cities of old time. the
Crusaders reft it from the Greek Empe
ror and made it kingdom for Guy of
Lusignan, whose descendants lost it to
the Venetians, the employers, as readers
of Shakespeare will recall, of Othello.
After a siege marked by prOdigles of
vaIor and immense slaughter, the Turks
took the island 307 years ago and have
held ii ever since, except during the
perod Of 1882 40, when the Nieeroy of
Egypt administered its affairs.
The island is fertile and rich though
the frequent drought shrinks IS principal
stream, the Pedia, to mere rlll and
compels the inhabitants, the waters of
the wells being brackish, to have recourse
to cisterns. Minerals abound, including
copper and precious stones, though the
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 wines of the COmmaderla,
vineyard taking its name from the
knights of Malta, enjoyed a wide vogue,
but as the population has fallen from
| 900, 900 in Venetian times to its present
low figure, so the wine production has
fallen off from 1900, 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 a
prejudice because OF the taste they ac-
quire from being kept in tarred casks.
The island has one splendid port-Fa-
magosta, the Arsin@ of the aDcients-
which, though so choked with filth as only
to afford anchorage for few small craft,
might easily be restored to its prominence
under the old Venetian rule, where hun
dreds of vessels rode within its road st cad
at ease and in safety. Despite the locusts
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,
colocynth is extensively cultivated; large
exports of madden are made, and cotton
and carob beans are sent abroad to the
extent of some thousands Of tons an
nually.
To Americans, and especially to New
Workers, the island will be familiar through
the Di Cesnolan collection of Cypri0te
antiquities. According to that distin
guished Assyriologist, the late George
Smith and other eminent authorities, the
language of their inscriptions is a Greek
dialect, approaching the Areadian, but
possessing many peculiarities, the charac
tiers (not Greek, but of unknown origin
being usually from right to left and syl
Liable; some of them, however, represent
ing different forms of the vowels and 9th
ers consonants only.