We saw these children again a month afterwards
upon our return, and they ran across the fields to meet us, at once
opening their mouths to show that they had not forgotten the lesson, and
that their teeth were properly attended to. I pitied all these poor
people: they are downtrodden and miserable in mind and body. Instead of
squeezing them for taxes they should be supported and encouraged by
government assistance in every manner possible. 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. The captain accordingly ran the vessel ashore upon this
coast, having ordered the engineer to blow up the boilers.
A great number of the mutineers perished in the attempt to land, but the
captain and officers were hospitably received by the people of
Volokalida and forwarded to Famagousta. The vessel was pierced amidships
by a rock that had completely impaled her, otherwise she might have been
saved and repaired.
We left this village on March 4th, a heavy but welcome shower on the
preceding day having laid the dust and freshened the vegetation. The
route lay through a hilly and rocky country covered with the usual
evergreens.
