Centuries Of Oppression
And Neglect In Addition To A Deceptive Climate Have Rendered Them The
Mere Slaves Of Circumstances, But
They exhibit a patience and stolid
endurance which is beyond all praise; and when Cyprus shall belong
absolutely to Great
Britain, so that the Cypriotes shall feel that they
are British subjects, they will become the most amenable and contented
people in the Empire.
The usual difficulty exists in passing through this island which is felt
by most English travellers in wild countries. The sick invariably
assemble, believing that your medical knowledge will produce miraculous
cures; and the lame, halt, and blind besiege you even cripples from
their birth are brought by their hopeful mothers to receive something
from your medicine-chest that will restore them to strength. It was in
vain that I explained to these afflicted people that spleen-disease
required a long course of medicine, and could not be cured in a day. It
was equally in vain that I assured them that raw vegetables were
unwholesome for children, and that sea-bathing was invigorating to the
system: they hated bathing; so did the children; and they liked raw
vegetables. I was obliged to give them some trifle which could neither
do harm nor good; and they went away contented.
I now discovered from the head-men of the village the cause of the wreck
which was lying in the bay. An Austrian steamer was conveying 1200
Circassians from Constantinople to some port on the coast of Asia Minor,
when the wild horde of emigrants mutinied and threatened to murder the
chief officers.
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