Upon arrival at the village we selected a pretty spot upon elevated ground which overlooked the entire country, and from which we could faintly distinguish Famagousta, twelve miles distant. Upon our right, within a hundred and twenty yards, was an aqueduct of masonry supported upon arches, which conveyed a powerful stream to turn a large overshot water-wheel in the valley immediately below. The surplus water, after having worked the mill, was used for the irrigation of extensive cotton-grounds, beyond which it flowed into the marshes and formed a swamp. On the opposite side of this narrow valley were heights and undulating ground, corresponding to those upon which we stood—all treeless and cold; while upon our right, close to the aqueduct, was the bright green of high cultivation, and groves of tall trees which towered above gardens of oranges and lemons now bending beneath the burden of yellow fruit. The village was disappointing, as the houses were of a low order and much neglected; the lanes were occupied by the usual filth and noisy dogs; but the agreeable view of bright green fields and real thriving trees was a delightful change, and exhibited a picture of what Cyprus might become when developed by capital and enterprise. While the camp was being arranged I took my gun and strolled with the dogs into the narrow valley below the mill. The waterwheel was at work, and the people were engaged in cleaning cotton, as the machinery was adapted for both purposes of grinding corn or of ginning cotton when required. There were plenty of snipe in the marshes below the cotton-fields, for which rushes, low bushes of tamarisk and other shrubs, afforded excellent cover. I quickly bagged two couple and my first Francolin partridge, and was just in time, before dark, to assist the dinner.
At sunrise on the following morning the view was interesting, as the sea glittered brightly to the south, while the bold rocks and wall-like sides of the Carpas mountains stood out in sharply-defined edges and varying colours on the north. To the east we looked over the broadest portion of a dead flat created by the deposit from inundations of the eccentric river Pedias, which, although dry at the present time, periodically floods the country and converts the valley into an extensive lake. It was about twenty miles across this broad flat to the important town of Trichomo, and the ruins of Salamis were discernible with the telescope about midway, close to the seashore.
There was an extent of several miles of marsh around the heights of Kuklia, in some portions of which cotton was cultivated in considerable quantities, but I was surprised at the inferiority of the quality, and at the apparent weakness of the plants where the water-supply was plentiful. On closer examination I observed great carelessness in the absence of drainage; the plants were allowed to perish in stagnant water, which soured the land. Upon a longer acquaintance with M. Mattei's farm, I found the same fault generally. Many portions of valuable land were chilled and rendered fruitless by too much water, which remained in the ground for want of the most simple drains. I shot plenty of snipe in the fields of barley, although they were not supposed to be under irrigation. M. Mattei is well known as the largest landed proprietor in Cyprus, and the representative of agricultural progress; but his bailiff at Kuklia could hardly have expected a prize at an exhibition, although every facility exists for creating a perfect model-farm. The springs which supply the water-power were discovered in three different positions about three miles distant. The usual chains of wells (already described) were sunk, and at a convenient spot they converged into a single line, until a lower level introduced the channel to the surface. The water was then received into a stone aqueduct, and led with great judgment in a half circle beneath the higher ground which was occupied by the village, at a level which not only enabled it to command the extensive flats beneath, but eventually passed beyond the village, and turned an overshot wheel of more than twenty feet diameter. This great work was at the sole expense of the proprietor. After a considerable outlay and perfect success in the engineering, it is to be regretted that greater care is not bestowed upon the land; although the gardens contain a mass of fruit-trees, large groves of figs, and relieve the eye by their cheerful aspect, only enough has been attained to exhibit the great power that exists for producing a still greater abundance under proper administration.
Having examined the neighbourhood thoroughly, I changed the position of our camp and halted a mile and a half up the aqueduct on the higher side of the village, at a point where the water first issued from its subterranean channel into the conduit of masonry and cement. We thus secured a supply in its original purity, before it should be contaminated by any washing of clothes in passing through the village in an open channel, which from its convenience offered an irresistible invitation. Such a tempting stream, running through a canal upon a broad wall of masonry open to all comers would, in any European country, have been the natural resort of boys, who would have revelled in the freedom of nakedness and the delight of bathing in forbidden waters; but in Cyprus I have never once seen a person washing himself in public. This is not from any sense of indecent exposure, but from their absolute dislike to the operation. I had subsequently in my service a remarkably fine man who was always carefully dressed, and in fact was quite a dandy in exterior, but during the hot weather when he on one occasion saw my Abyssinian Amarn swimming in the sea, he declared that, "rather than bathe, he would prefer to cut his throat."
I had arranged the camp close to a hawthorn-tree, which was already green in its first spring leaves, and had formed blossom-buds that would open in a few days. There were a considerable number of the same species scattered in the vicinity, but they had been defaced by the mutilations usual throughout Cyprus. If a man requires a stick or a piece of wood for any purpose, he hacks unsparingly at the first tree; whether it belongs to him or to another proprietor. The ground sloped gradually to the lowest level of the hollow about four hundred yards distant, all of which was in cultivation; the broad-beans were in blossom, and a species of trefoil was already eight or nine inches high (22nd February); this was in anticipation of a lack of natural pasturage.
It was pitiable to see the wretched condition of the cattle throughout this district; the absence of rain had prevented the growth of the usual herbaceous plants, and the animals were forced to seek unnatural food produced in the stagnant swamps; these were full of skeletons and carcasses of oxen, that afforded bones of contention for the numerous village dogs who acted as scavengers. When the droves of oxen returned from pasture every evening, many were in a state of weakness that scarcely allowed them step by step to ascend the rising ground; all were reduced to mere skin and bones, and it would have been a mercy to have put them out of their misery. I was assured that, "the few whose constitution could hold out for another six weeks would recover when the trefoil should be fit to cut."
I daily walked over the adjoining country, and there was little difficulty in discovering the origin of M. Mattei's water sources. Upon the heights behind our camp, a plateau of many miles in extent, with an almost imperceptible inclination towards the south-east, received the rainfall, in addition to the subterranean drainage of the hills in the far distance. A great portion of this area was uncultivated, as the sedimentary limestone was generally close to the surface; this was covered with the usual prickly shrubs that some writers have misnamed "heath," together with the highly aromatic herbs that seem to delight in a thirsty soil; among these is a thorny species of wild thyme, that is a favourite food for hares. In some places the soil was red, forming a strong contrast to the white surface around, and in such spots the earth had been already ploughed in preparation for the forthcoming season. The large area at a higher altitude formed an example of a principle that may be accepted as the rule throughout the island. In walking over this extensive surface, there was occasionally a hollow, drum-like sound beneath the feet, denoting subterranean cavities in the porous and soluble strata beneath the harder upper stratum. It was a natural consequence that a substratum impervious to water should form a bed at a certain level to retain the drainage: by tapping this bed at any point, the water would be discovered; but by piercing the surface below this level, the hydraulic pressure would force the water into a running stream.
This M. Mattei has accomplished, not as a new invention, but as the application of a rule well known to the Cypriotes from ancient times; and I repeat my argument, that, "the hereditary ability of these people in discovering and utilising springs is a proof that a scarcity of water has been a chronic difficulty in this island from remote periods, and that no important change has been occasioned by the sensational destruction of forests influencing the rainfall," &c., &c., &c. In my opinion, the whole of the now desolate Messaria district may be rendered fruitful and permanently abundant by the scientific employment of a water-power which already exists, although unseen and undeveloped.
It was quite impossible to proceed to Famagousta with the vans, and there was no object in courting their destruction by a desperate advance at all hazards, as we should have in any case been obliged eventually to renew the difficulty when retracing our route. I therefore cantered in upon my mule, with the guide who always lost his way, Hadji Christo. This man was a great ruffian, and had laws existed for the prevention of cruelty to animals, I would have prosecuted him; nominally he had the charge of the mule and two ponies, but he illtreated these poor animals, and the donkeys also, in a disgraceful manner. However, I had no other guide, and although I knew him to be in partnership with some Will-o'-the-wisp, I was obliged to follow him. It was an easy course for saddle-animals, as the cathedral of Famagousta formed the prominent point; therefore a steeple-chase might have been the direct cross-country way. There was no change in the usual features of the barren landscape. We kept upon the high ground on the right, looking down upon the dreary flat for twenty miles to our left. Occasionally we passed villages, all of which were mere copies of each other in filth and squalor. The dogs barked and snapped ineffectually at our heels as we cantered through; the civil and ever-courteous people turned out and salaamed; and we quickly accomplished the twelve miles and approached the walls of Famagousta. Nothing that I saw in Cyprus has impressed me so much as the site of this powerful fortress and once important city. I lunched with Captain Inglis, who as chief commissioner of the district, most kindly received me, and I rode home afterwards; my guide, Hadji Christo, in spite of my assurances that he had mistaken the route, persisted that there were many, and not one; and after plunging into muddy marshes instead of keeping to the high ground, we were completely lost near sundown, when I happily extricated myself from the difficulty by insisting upon his riding behind and leaving me alone to find the track. We arrived at nightfall, after making eighteen miles out of twelve—a profitable enterprise hardly appreciated by our tired animals. Famagousta is too important for a cursory description; I shall therefore reserve it for a future chapter, when on our return from the Carpas district we pass some days in its immediate neighbourhood.