HISTORY ETHNOGRAPHY NATURE WINE-MAKING SITE MAP
Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
uses Google technology and indexes only and selectively internet - libraries having books with free public access
 
  Previous Next  

SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 25

View PDF version of this page

denoted the arrival of a long string of camels, laden with immense bales of unpressed cotton on their way to the port of Larnaca. Each animal carried two bales, and I observed that the saddles and pads were in excellent order, the camels well fed, and strongly contrasting with the cruel carelessness of the camel owners of Egypt, whose beasts are galled into terrible sores from the want of padding in their packs. Th e cotton had been cleaned upon the plantation, but it would-be subjected to hydraulic pressure and packed in the usual iron-bound bales for shipment, upon arrival in the stores of Larnaca. It was impossible to resist a feeling of depression upon strolling around the environs of the town and regarding the barren aspect of the distant country. Every inch of this fertile plain should be cultivated, and numerous villages should be dotted upon the extensive surface. " Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth " was a curse that, appeared to have adhered to Cyprus. It was unnecessary to seek for the chief cause of unhealthiness ; this was at once apparent in the low swamps on the immediate outskirts of the town. In ancient days the shallow harbour of Cittium existed on the east side of modern Larnaca ; whether from a silting of the port, or from the gradual alteration in the level of the Mediterranean, the old harbour no longer exists, but is converted into a miserable swamp, bordered by a raised beach of shingles upon the seaboard. The earth has been swept down by the rains, and the sand driven in by the sea, while man stood idly by, allowing Nature to destroy a former industry. All the original harbours of the country have suffered from the same neglect.

View PDF version of this page


  Previous First Next