It certainly delayed us on the march, and as we
rode some miles in advance we noted the obstacles that would cause a
stoppage, and generally halted to assist when the "tortoise" should
arrive. All this was of course annoying in a country where a horse would
have cantered cheerily along and have accomplished forty miles a day;
but, on the other hand, the van was never intended for grande vitesse;
neither is express travelling the proper method of obtaining an accurate
knowledge of a new country. Thus we crawled along, making twelve or
thirteen miles per diem through a most uninteresting country, the usual
scene of treeless waste, but dotted over with extensive villages of
mud-built houses, and the inevitable white arched-roof Greek churches.
The only incidents that occurred in this land of apathy were occasioned
by our guide, who generally lost his way, and spent some hours in
finding the vans at the halting-place in the evening; this was not
improving to the temper, and of course I laid the blame upon Cyprus
generally, and abused the island almost to the superlative degree
adopted by the "newspaper correspondents."
The 17th February was a day of considerable bodily exercise, as we
arrived at a series of watercourses as deep and broad as military
trenches for sapping up to a fortress.
