Which at one time clothed the
mountains of this formerly verdant island, is pronounced by the
inhabitants "Kypresses," which approximates closely to the various
appellations of Cyprus in different languages. The Greek name is Kypros,
and it is probable that as in ancient days the "chittim-wood" was so
called from the fact of its export from Chittim, the same link may
remain unbroken between Kypros and the tree Kypresses.
The geographical advantages which I have enumerated are sufficient to
explain the series of struggles for possession to which the island has
been exposed throughout its history; the tombs that have been examined,
have revealed the secrets of the dead, and in the relics of Phoenicians,
Persians, Assyrians, Egyptians, and the long list of foreign victors, we
discover proofs of the important past, until we at length tread upon
pre-historical vestiges, and become lost in a labyrinth of legends. From
the researches of undoubted authorities, we know that Cyprus possessed a
written character peculiarly original, and that it was occupied by a
people highly civilised according to the standard of the early world at
so primitive an era, that all records have disappeared, and we are left
in the darkness of conjecture.
The changes in the importance of certain geographical positions, owing
to the decline and fall of empires, which at one time governed the
destinies of the Eastern world, have been strikingly exhibited on the
shores of the Mediterranean; Tyre, Sidon, Carthage, Cyprus, had lost
their significance upon modern charts, even before the New Worlds
appeared, when America, Australia, and the Eastern Archipelago were
introduced upon the globe. The progress of Western Europe eclipsed the
Oriental Powers which hitherto represented the civilisation of mankind,
and two points alone remained, which, shorn of their ancient glory,
still maintained their original importance as geographical centres, that
will renew those struggles for their possession which fill the bloody
pages of their history--Egypt and Constantinople.
No country had been more completely excluded from the beaten paths of
British travellers than the island of Cyprus, and England was startled
by the sudden revelation of a mystery connected with the Treaty of
Berlin, that it was to become a strategical point for a British military
occupation!
On the 4th June, 1878, a "Convention of Defensive Alliance between Great
Britain and Turkey" was signed, which agreed upon the following
articles:-
ARTICLE I.
"If Batoum, Ardahan, Kars, or any of them, shall be
retained by Russia, or if any attempt shall be made at
any future time by Russia to take possession of any
further territories of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan
in Asia, as fixed by the definitive treaty of peace,
England engages to join His Imperial Majesty the Sultan
in defending them by force of Arms.
