It Was In Vain That We
Declined The Offering; The Priest Was Obdurate, And He Placed The Bottle
Against The Entrance Of The Tent, Which, If Any One Should Have
Unexpectedly Arrived, Would Have Presented A Most Convivial Appearance.
Upon questioning the good monk respecting the destruction of forests
upon his domain, he informed me that "during the
Turkish administration
he had been annually pillaged by hundreds of vessels which arrived from
the neighbouring coasts of Asia Minor and of Egypt for the express
purpose of cutting timber to be sold by weight as fire-wood at their
various ports. He had protested in vain, there were no police, nor any
means of resistance at Cape St. Andrea, therefore the numerous crews had
defied him; and small presents from the owners of the vessels to the
Pacha at headquarters were sufficient to ensure immunity." I asked him
"why they wasted so much excellent fire-wood, and left the boughs to
hamper the surface?" He replied, "that as the wood was sold by weight,
the dealers preferred to cut the thick stems, as they packed closely on
board the vessels, and, being green, they weighed heavy; therefore they
rejected the smaller wood and left it to rot upon the ground." He
declared "that on several occasions the crews had quarrelled, and that
from pure spite they had set fire to the thick mass of dried boughs and
lighter wood which had spread over the surface, and destroyed immense
numbers of young trees." I had observed that large tracts had been burnt
during the preceding year. He was delighted at the English occupation,
as his property would now be protected, and in a few years the trees
would attain a considerable size.
Having passed an interesting afternoon with the new ecclesiastical
acquaintance, and tasted, immediately after his departure, the contents
of his enormous bottle (which was as instantly presented, as a "great
treat," to the servants), we lighted our big bonfires, and enjoyed the
blaze like children, although the showers of red sparks threatened the
destruction of the tent in the absence of Captain Shaw and the London
Fire Brigade. After this temporary excitement in this
utter-lack-of-incident-and-everyday-monotonous-island, the fires
gradually subsided, and we all went to sleep. There is no necessity in
Cyprus for sentries or night-watchers, the people are painfully good,
and you are a great deal too secure when travelling. As to "revolvers!"
I felt inclined to bury my pistols upon my first arrival, and to
inscribe "Rest in peace" upon the tombstone. It would be just as absurd
to attend church in London with revolvers in your belt as to appear with
such a weapon in any part of Cyprus. Mine were carefully concealed in
some mysterious corner of the gipsy-van; where they now lie hidden.
We had been two days at Cape St. Andrea, and it was necessary to
right-about-face, as we could go no farther. The monk proposed to guide
us to Rizo-Carpas, the capital of the Carpas district; therefore on 14th
March we started.
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