Cyprus, as I Saw It in 1879

by Sir Samuel White Baker

A responsible official would reply—"We will give you a concession, we will give you every possible encouragement." The capitalist will ask one simple question, "Is Cyprus a portion of the British Empire upon which I can depend, or is it a swallow's nest of a political season, to be abandoned when the party-schemes have flown?"

Any number of questions may be asked at the present moment, but in the absence of all definite information no capitalist will embark in any enterprise in Cyprus, which may be ultimately abandoned like Corfu; and the value of all property would be reduced to a ruinous degree.

The mining interests of Cyprus must remain for the most part undeveloped until some satisfactory change shall be effected in the tenure of the island that will establish confidence.

Polis was a straggling place situated upon either side of a river, through the bed of which a very reduced stream was flowing about three inches in depth. A flat valley lay between the heights, both of which were occupied by numerous houses and narrow lanes, while the rich soil of the low ground, irrigated by the water of the river withdrawn by artificial channels, exhibited splendid crops of wheat and barley. Groves of very ancient olive-trees existed in the valley, and we halted beneath the first oak-trees that I had seen in Cyprus. These were wide- spreading, although not high, and I measured the girth of one solid stem—eighteen feet.

We had hardly off-saddled, when crowds of women and children collected from all quarters, with a few men, to stare at the new-comers; not at ME personally, but at my wife. They were, if possible, more filthy than the average of Cyprian women, and a great proportion of the children were marked with recent attacks of small-pox. I regretted that I had not a supply of crackers to throw amongst and disperse the crowd that daily pestered us; any lady that in future may travel through Cyprus should have a portmanteau full of such simple fireworks. It was in vain to explain that the people were a nuisance if too near: when driven to a moderate distance, they would advance shyly, by degrees; two or three children would come forward and sit down a few paces in front of the main body; after a few minutes several others would overstep this frontier and sit down five or six yards in advance of the last comers, and by this silent system of skirmishing we were always surrounded in twenty minutes after the original crowd had been dispersed. I did not mind them so long as they were not in personal contact, and were free from recent small-pox; but some of the red-pitted faces were full of warning.

There was nothing of interest to detain us at Polis, and we started early upon the 19th April towards Baffo. The valley through which the river Aspropotamo had deposited a layer of fertile alluvium divided the mountain range, leaving the plutonic rocks to the east; and on the western side we ascended a steep path over cretaceous limestone, broken and disturbed at intervals by the protrusion of eruptive rocks. As we increased our altitude we looked down upon a picturesque view of the bay of Krysokhus, with two sails upon its blue waters beneath the dark cliffs of the western shore. The ancient Marium or Arsinoe showed no vestiges except in the modern village of Polis, which, from the distance, looked better than the reality, as the foliage of numerous trees shadowing the terrace-built houses upon either side the rich green valley, backed by the lofty range of pine-covered mountains, completed a lovely landscape.

An hour had passed, but still we ascended; the path was as usual rugged, and we already looked down upon the sea and valley at least 2000 feet beneath. I had serious misgivings concerning the camels and their loads. General di Cesnola had examined the whole of this country in his search for antiquities, but the neighbourhood of the ancient Arsinoe, where much had been expected, was almost unproductive.

The path still rose; until at length we arrived upon an extensive plateau about 2400 feet above the sea. The soil was chocolate-colour, and the surface was covered with large stones of the sedimentary limestone that surrounds the coast, and which forms the flat-topped hills of the Messaria. In many places the natives had built these into walls around their fields, in order to clear the ground required for cultivation. We passed several villages, all squalid and miserable, although the rich soil exhibited green crops far superior to anything we had met with in the lower country. Extensive gardens of mulberry explained the silk-producing power of this neighbourhood, and almonds, figs, apricots, &c., throve in great numbers and luxuriance. This peculiarly fruitful plateau occupies an area of about eight miles from north to south, and four from east to west. We halted at the large Turkish village of Arodes, from which we looked down upon the sea and the small rocky island opposite Cape Drepano, on the western coast, almost beneath our feet. This portion of Cyprus is eminently adapted for the cultivation of fruit-trees, as the climate and soil combine many advantages. The elevation and peculiar geographical position attract moisture, while the lower ground upon the east is parched with drought. The evaporation from the sea below condenses upon the cooler heights immediately above and creates refreshing mists and light rain, which accounted for the superiority of the crops compared with any that I had seen elsewhere. Shortly after halting at Arodes we experienced these atmospherical changes. The thermometer at Polis had been 57 degrees at 7 A. M., and it was only 56 degrees at 3 P.M. at this altitude of 2400 feet. Although the sky had been clear, mists began to ascend from the chasms and gullies along the abrupt face of the mountain which overhung the sea; these curled upwards and thickened, until a dense fog rolled along the surface from the west and condensed into a light shower of rain. The Turkish inhabitants of the village were extremely civil, and made no complaints of scarcity from drought, as they fully appreciated the advantages of their locality. The hawthorn-trees were only just budding into bloom, while those in the low country had shed their flowers, and had already formed the berries. In future an extensive growth of fruit may supply the market of Alexandria, but at present the total absence of roads would render the transport of so perishable a material upon the backs of mules impossible. I had sent back our three riding mules to meet and to relieve the camels, and by this precaution the baggage animals arrived at a convenient hour.

The route to Baffo or Ktima, which is now the principal town, lay across the plateau for about five miles to the verge which formed the table-land, from which margin we looked down upon the deep vale below, bounded by the sea at a few miles distance.

We dismounted and walked down the long and steep pass, the mules being led behind. The entire face of the perpendicular cliffs was cretaceous limestone, but the scaly slopes of a hill upon our left, about a mile and a half distant, formed a loose heap of shale, which had slipped, either during earthquakes or heavy rains, in great masses to the bottom.