All Houses Are Paved
With Slabs Of Gypsum, Which Abound In Many Parts Of The Island, And Are
Sold At A Remarkably Low Price, As The Blocks Laminate, And Are Divided
Into Sheets Of The Required Thickness With A Minimum Of Labour.
The Turkish Pacha (Rifat) still remained at Lefkosia, as he was
responsible for the transfer of various movable property to
Constantinople.
The interesting Venetian cannon of bronze that were
utterly valueless as modern weapons had been conveyed away both from
Lefkosia and Famagousta. One of these was a double octagon, or
sixteen-sided, and would have been a valuable specimen in the collection
at the Tower of London. Many of the curious old Venetian cannon had
recently been burst into fragments with dynamite, to save the trouble of
moving the heavy guns entire.
There can be little doubt that the prime object in selecting a central
position for the capital of Cyprus was a regard for safety from any
sudden attack; but upon any other grounds I cannot conceive a greater
absurdity. The capital should be Limasol, which will become the
Liverpool of Cyprus. Lefkosia is completely out of the commercial route;
it is valueless as a military position, and it offers no climatic
advantage, but, on the contrary, it is frightfully hot in the summer
months, and is secluded from the more active portions of the island. It
IS, simply because it WAS; but it should remain as a vestige of the
past, and no longer represent the capital. *
(The census of Nicosia, taken on 31st January, 1879, represents the
population as follows:--
There is no position throughout the plain of Messaria adapted for a
permanent government establishment as head-quarters. The depressing
effect of that horrible landscape, embracing the extensive area from
Trichomo and Famagousta to Larnaca, Lefkosia, and Morphu, is most
demoralising, and few Europeans would be able to resist the deleterious
climate of summer, and the general heart-sinking that results in a
nervous despondency when the dreary and treeless plain is ever present
to the view. There is no reason why officials should be condemned to the
purgatory of such a station when Cyprus possesses superior positions
where the great business of the future will be conducted. The new road
already completed from Larnaca to Lefkosia must be carried on to Morphu,
and thus connect the north and south extremities of the plain; Kyrenia,
sixteen miles distant, must be connected with Lefkosia; branches must
then be extended to Kythrea and to Famagousta; and subsequently, from
the latter town a direct road must be continued parallel with the south
coast to Larnaca. Such roads may be constructed for about 350 pounds per
mile at the low rate of labour in Cyprus, considering the presence of
stone throughout the district, and their completion will open the entire
plain of Messaria to wheeled communication with four ports, to north and
south.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MESSARIA.
Having passed a week with our kind hosts, Sir Garnet and Lady Wolseley,
at Government House, which formed a most agreeable contrast to the
friendless life that we had been leading, the vans once more started en
route for Kythrea, Famagousta, and the Carpas district. I had hired a
good, sure-footed pony for my wife and a powerful mule for myself, and,
having given the vans a start of several hours, we followed in the
afternoon.
The treeless expanse of the Messaria produces nothing but cereals and
cotton; teams of oxen were at work in all directions ploughing, and
otherwise preparing the thistle-covered surface, and the atmosphere was
so delusively clear that Kythrea, twelve miles distant, appeared close
to us. Upon these boundless flats an object may be seen as distinctly as
though upon the water, and we soon descried in the far distance a dark
spot, which the binocular glass, if at sea, would have pronounced to be
the stern of a vessel that had lost her masts, keeping the same course
as ourselves; this was the gipsy-van, which should have already arrived
at Kythrea, where I had expected to have found the camp arranged, dinner
cooked, and everything ready for our reception. Something had happened,
as the other van was not in sight.
It was impossible to dignify the route by the name of a "road," as it
presented an uneven surface and occasionally branched into several
independent tracks, which re-united after an eccentric course of a few
hundred yards; these were caused by droves of mules which in wet weather
had endeavoured to select a better line than the deeply-trodden mud in
the central road. Fortunately the surface was now hard, and we cantered
on, fully expecting some disaster to at least one of our vehicles. Upon
our arrival we found a crowd of people yelling and shouting their
utmost, while they were engaged in company with four oxen harnessed in
dragging and pushing the blue van up a new road which they had scarped
out of the precipitous bank of a river about forty feet deep; this
accounted for only one van being in sight, as the other was in the dry
bed of the river. These good people had been working for several hours
in making a road where none existed; and assured me that the large
bridge over the Pedias was unsafe for so great a weight, and therefore
it was advisable to cross at the present spot. The banks consisted of
the alluvium of ages free from stones, therefore it was easy to cut an
incline; but as many tons of earth had been removed, the operation had
required much labour, and many hands had collected from the adjacent
villages upon seeing the dilemma.
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