Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/825

* CYPRUS. 713 CYPKTJS. on the rains and tlic melted snow from the niouii- tains. Duiinj; llie hot season they present only dried-up uatercourses. The formal ion of the coast-line is unfavorable to commercial develop- ment, as there are praeticallj' no good harbors. The chief places of trade, Larnaka and Limasol, have only roadsteads; and Salamis, which was the chief port of antiquity, and Famagosta, which held that position under the Venetians, are only artificial harbors on an open sandy coast. The English early selected Famagosta as the most favorable place to construct a good harbor. Tlic towns in Cyprus worthy of notice are: Lefkosia, commonly called Nicosia, which since the time of the Lusignan kings has been the capital of the island, and which has a popu- lation of over 1"2,500; Famagosta, on the ea.stern coast near the ruins of Salamis, important under the Venetians, but now having only a few hun- dred inhabitants ; Lanarka, on the southeast coast on the site of the ancient Citium, now the chief place of trade, with 7000 or 8000 inhabi- tants; Limasol, on the southern coast, some dis- tance west of the site of Amathus, the chief point for the export of wines; and Baffo, or Papho, on the site of the ancient Paphos, in the southwest. In 1871 Nicosia was brought into telegraphic communication with the rest of the world by means of a submarine cable to Latakia on the Sj-rian coast, and this line was subsequently extended to Larnaka ; there is also communication by cable with Alexan- dria in Egypt. There are several hundred miles of telegiaph lines and good roads. The com- merce of Cyprus is comparatively unimportant, the average annual value of 1895-99 reaching but $2,735,000, the imports generally exceeding the exports. Among the chief exports are raisins, cocoons, wines, w'hcat and barley, wool, carobs and flour; the chief imports are cotton and woolen manufactures, tobacco, groceries, rice, alcohol, iron, leather, petroleum, timber, sugar, soap, and cotton manufactures. The sponge- fisheries yield products valued at between $100,000 and .$150,000 per annum. By treaty between the British Government and the Ottoman Empire, .Tunc 4, 1878, Asiatic Turkey was placed under British protection, and permission was given to England to occupy Cy- prus. Sir Garnet Wolseley was appointed Gover- nor, and was installed as administrator, July 23. The head of the administration is the High Commissioner, who is assisted by an execu- tive council consisting of three office-holders, and a legislative council of eighteen members,. one-third of whom are office-holders; the rest are elected on a property qualification, three by the Mohammedan and nine by the non-Moham- medan population. The municipalities are ad- ministered by elected councils. Education is to some extent controlled by the Government, and is chiefly of an elementary character. The total number of schools in 1899 was 408, of which 339 were in receipt of some aid from the Government, wliile the rest were maintained by endowments or private contributions. The total enrollment in all the schools was a little over 19.000. of which number 4300 were Jloslems. Justice is admin- istered by a supreme court, assize, district magis- trate, and village courts, all of them with the exception of the first having natives for judges. For administrative purposes Cj'prus is divided into the six districts of Nicosia, Larnaka, Lima- sol, Famagosta, Papho, and Kyrenia. The chief sources of revenue are tithes, which are paid in kind, taxes on iiro|)erty, salt monopoly, and customs. The revenue shows an increase from fl7,777 ($838,885) in 1895-9(!. to £200,638 ($1,003,190) in 1899-1900, while the annual grant from Great Britain shows a decrease from $230,000 in 189ti-U7 to $05,000 in 1899-1900. The currency consists of English, Turkish, French, and native coins. The weights and measures are Turkish. The population, in 1891. was 209.280, of whom three-fourtlis were (Jreeks. 47.928 being Moham- medans; in 1901 it was 237,022, including 51.309 Mohammedans. The early civilization of the island is known only from the excavations of recent years, which have thrown little light on the ethnic allinities of the primitive inhabitants. (See Cypriotes.) There are but scanty traces of the Stone Age, but the Bronze Age. both in the earlier period when i)ure copi>er is used and in the later- period after the introduction of tin, is char- acterized by a well-developed and clearly marked civilization, presenting close analogies to that represented in the lower strata at Troy. The people seem to have been pastoral, and to have avoided the mountains and forests. They early learned to work the rich copper-mines of the island, and seem to have been somewhat in advance of their neighbors in Syria and on the islands of the .-Egean. From its situation, Cyprus was exposed to foreign influ- ences, and seems to have served as intermediary between Egj'pt and Syria and the Mycen.Tan civilization of the West. The Myccna'an civiliza- tion seems to have reached the island about B.C. ItiOO and to have continued for about 800 years. Whether it was introduced by Greek colonists is uncertain, but these colonists certainly came to the island before the Dorians had occupied Peloponnesus, and before the introduction of the later Greek alphabet; for they spoke a dialect closely akin to that of the Arcadians, and used a clumsy syllabic mode of writing, which seems akin to that of southern Asia Minor and pos- sibly of Crete. The Greek and Phoenician set- tlements belong to the Iron Age; the latter are found chiefly- along the southern coast, where they remained predominant in Citium, Amathus, and Marion even in later times. The Greeks at first settled along the northern shores and at the eastern and western extremities of the great plain which crosses the island at Amathus, Sala- mis, Soli, and later predominated in Paphos, Ciirium, and Lapathus. Whether the worship of Aphrodite, which flourished greatly in Cyprus, developed from that of a nude nature-goddess of the original inhabitants or from that of the Phoenician Astarte is iincertain, but it reached the greatest splendor and sensuality among the Greeks, who regarded Cyprus as the favored spot where the goddess was born from the sea-foam. The island was invaded by Thothmes HI. of Eg>T)t, and in the eighth century before Christ was tributary, to the Assyrians. In the sixth century it was conquered by Amasis of Egypt, and on the conquest of that kingdom by Camby- ses. passed under Persian rule. The Greeks of Cvprus joined in the Ionic revolt, but were con- quered, and Cypriote vessels were in the licet of Xerxes. The attempt of Cimon to join Cyprus to the Athenian League was unsuccessful, and