Smyrna

Constantinople.

Cyprus.

Jaffa

10,000

20,000

10,000

34,000

500 2,000

10, 500

ADANA-A. DEBBAS, Consular Agent.

The commerce for this province during the last few years has been greatly improving. About fifteen years ago not a single cargo was shipped wholly from Europe, nor scarcely a European ship visited any of its ports. Since the Cri mean war this country has been better known to merchants and commissioners, who came from different parts of Turkey and settled here; thus producing agricultural prosperity on a large scale. Added to these advantages, two steamers of the French and Russian steamboat companies touch regularly every week at the port of Messene. There are other French and British steamers that visit us irregularly, and ship large cargoes of goods for Marseilles and Liverpool. Our commercial development has arrived to such a point that yearly about thirty French, fifteen English, and thirty merchantmen of other nations are chartered abroad and sent directly to Messene to load full cargoes for Europe, and about one hundred and fifty ships, either Turkish or Greek, freighted on the spot for Turkey. Enclosed are two tables showing the imports and exports of 1862. Transportation is effected by means of camels or carts drawn by buffaloes. Freight varies, and depends on the number of camels at hand and the abundance of crops. In winter the roads are often impassable from mud in the plains and snow on the mountains, (Taurus,) from which frequently results great loss to merchants, whose ships are compelled often to wait many days for cargoes in the open bay of Messene. The native merchants of this province have petitioned the Sublime Porte with the view of constructing a railway between Messene, Tarsus, and Adana. No answer has yet been received, but it is reported that the Porte is about to send an engineer to make the necessary survey and estimates. A cotton agricultural company was about to be formed in England for draining and cultivating an extensive marsh which lies between Tarsus and Messene, covering about 40,000 acres of land, which it was supposed would be granted to the company; but the Turkish government refused to make any cession of land to foreigners, and decided to drain the land on its own account. Owing to the advanced prices of cotton, caused by the American war, the cultivation of that staple has been greatly stimulated here, to the great advantage of this province.

Statement showing the description of exports from the port of Tyre during the

CYPRUS-J. JUDSON BARCLAY, Consul.

SEPTEMBER 20, 1863.

I have the honor to transmit to you the accompanying general report upon the island of Cyprus.

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POPULATION.

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In ancient times the population of Cyprus is said to have been two millions, and the number does not seem to have been exaggerated. At the time of the Turkish conquest it had about 400,000. In the time of the Lusignant it was probably much greater. Under Turkish rule it continued to decrease. Marite, writing in 1791, states it to be then only 40,000. Sorrenne, ten years later, estimates it at 60,000. Clarke places it at the same number in his time. In 1840 the population numbered only 100,000. Between that year and the present it has about doubled itself.

Various causes may be assigned for this sudden and rapid increase; the most evident are the disappearance of the plague, which was always a cause of great mortality in Cyprus, the introduction of vaccine, and consequent comparative freedom from small-pox, and the justice and more equitable system which has replaced the rapacious and arbitrary system pursued previous to this period.

NICOSIA.

In the midst of the plain which bears its name, and nearly in the centre of the island, is the town of Nicosia, called also Lefkoria, which, from the time of the Lusignant, has been the capital of Cyprus. It is walled, and presents a very picturesque appearance from the exterior, containing within its walls an assemblage of gardens, amidst which churches, mosques, and minarets are seen alternating with palaces, orange and lemon trees. It contrasts agreeably with the flat and sterile country around it. The walls of Nicosia were constructed by the Venetians in 1567, about four years before its capture by the Turks. For greater facility of defence they destroyed a considerable part of the suburbs, reducing the circuit of the town from nine to three miles. The population at present is about 18,000, the majority of which are Mussulmans.

FAMAGUSTA.

Famagusta is a strongly fortified seaport town on the eastern shore of the island, five miles south of the ruins of Salamis, and forty miles distant from Nicosia. The town itself is almost in a state of utter ruin. The inhabitants at present do not exceed 300 souls, all of whom are Mussulmans. Under the Venetians it was one of the most populous towns of the Levant.

LARNICA.

Larnica is situated on the sea-coast of the island.

ancient Citirun.

LIMASAL.

It occupies the site of

Limasal is, after Larnica, the most important commercial town of Cyprus.

MINES.

Cyprus was in old times, perhaps, more famous for its minerals than for its productions. The copper mines were especially rich, and the quality of the copper which they yielded, as Cyprium, was considered superior to any other. At the present time no mines of any description are worked.

SALT LAKES.

If the mineral wealth of Cyprus is at present neglected, such is not the case with its salt lakes, from which much and increasing profit is derived. There are two lagoons from which salt is obtained in Cyprus-the one near Laraca and Limasal, the other near Larnica. Salt was an important source of revenue in the time of the Lusignan princes. The Venetians, still later, are said to have freighted seventy large vessels with salt. The Turkish government, until within the present year, has been accustomed to farm out the salt lakes for sums varying from 200,000 to 300,000 piasters (of four cents each) per annum-that is, from £1,800 to £2,700; but this system has now been abandoned, and it has been found that the quantity of salt yielded this year is 20,000 arobas of 1,000 okes each, or one and one-fourth ton. Allowing twenty per cent. loss, this represents 20,000 tons, which, at 500 piasters the aroba, the price at which it is sold by government, gives 8,000,000 piasters-£72,700. This quantity cannot, however, always be sold in one year. The salt is heaped up in large mounds by the side of the lakes, and the produce of the former year must be sold before that of the new year can be touched.

PRODUCTS.

The chief products of the island of Cyprus are wheat, barley, sesame, vetches, cotton, silk, madder-root, wine, olives, raisins, carobs, tobacco, and colocynth. The wheat of Cyprus is hard and small-grained; that grown in the district of Baffo is considered the best. The sowing season for wheat commences in October, and the sowing is continued, as the weather permits, until the beginning of January. The harvest commences at the end of May or beginning of June. The average yearly product of wheat is about 80,000 quarters, or 640,000 bushels. Last year's harvest was unusually good, it was supposed; and is supposed to have yielded as much as 120,000 quarters, or 960,000 bushels.

The barley of Cyprus is of a fair quality, and superior to the ordinary Egyptian barley. It is sown in the months of September, October, and November, and is reaped at the close of April and beginning of May; thus preceding the wheat harvest by about six weeks. The average yearly product of barley is about 120,000 quarters; the harvest last year, which was unusually abundant, yielded about 180,000 quarters. The average yearly value of wheat and barley exported from 1857 to 1861 was £33,000.

COTTON.

The native cotton is of an inferior quality; it is of the short staple variety. But American cotton-seed has of late years been largely introduced by the efforts of the Manchester Cotton-supply Association, and the cultivation has proved eminently successful, and it is gradually supplanting the native cotton. The quantity of cotton produced is very small, considering the great capabilities which the island possesses for the cultivation of this most important plant. It is anticipated that the crop this year will yield 10,000 bales, should it not sustain any serious damage from the north wind. Last year's crop amounted to 7,000 bales, (1,820,000 pounds,) and this is, perhaps, only a twentieth part of the quantity the island is capable of producing. Under Venitian rule, Cyprus, according to Marite, exported annually as much as 30,000 bales, or 6,600,000 pounds of cotton. A greater part of that now exported goes to France, by Marseilles.

The best time for sowing cotton is the month of May. Of late years, however, the sowing has been always deferred till the end of June, and even till July, to avoid the ravages of the locust. Much loss is caused by deferring the

planting to so late a season. The ground in May is still soft, and is better fitted for receiving the seed than in June, when it has already become hard and dry. The cotton, too, which is sown early, arrives at maturity and is ready for picking before the October rains, which are injurious to it. It likewise arrives at a more perfect state of maturity than that planted later, the autumnal heat not being sufficiently great to open the pods, and to impart to the cotton the white, soft, and silky appearance which it acquires from exposure to a greater degree of heat.

MADDER-ROOTS.

Madder is a very important and increasing product of Cyprus. The plain of Maphon, the villages of Agia, of Aghia, Treve, and Famagusta, are the locations where it is produced in the largest quantities. The culture requires the greatest care, but the profit is very great. It is planted in December, January, and February, and the roots are gathered in June and in December. That picked in December is the best. Those of Maphon and Famagusta are not of so rich a color or fine a quality as those of Treve; they are picked from 18 months to 2 years after planting.

SILK.

The best silk is produced in the district of Baffo. It is also produced at Vanocia, near Famagusta, in the district of Carpas; at Sythrea, northeast of Nicosia, and at Maratassa, in the Zoodos region. The silk of Baffo is chiefly yellow; that of Vanocia and Carpas, white. The cocoons of Maratassa are remarkable for their brilliancy of color.

The quantity of silk produced in Cyprus averages about 56,000 pounds, onehalf of which is raised in the district of Baffo; but within the last two or three years there has been a falling off in this produce. About one-seventh of it is consumed in native manufactures. The greater part of that exported goes to France.

WINES.

The wines of Cyprus form one of its principal articles of export. They are of two kinds the ordinary wine, which is coarse and hardy, with a strong taste, and smells of tar, which it acquires from the jars in which it is kept and the skins in which it is transported, which are always coated inside with tar to preserve them from leaking. This wine is largely exported to Egypt, Syria, and Trieste. The other quality, and that best known in Europe, is the Commandacca, which derives its name from a commandery formerly possessed by the knights templars at Colossi, near Limasol. It is a sweet, delicious dessert wine, and keeps remarkably well, and improves with age; when new it is of a dark color, like brown sherry; after it has been kept two or three years it becomes much paler, but with age it again becomes dark-colored-the very old Commandacca being almost black. Large quantities of it are sent to Trieste and Constantinople, and some of the older and better qualities are shipped to France and Italy, and a small quantity to the United States. Mr. Femcade, a famous French consul, in a report made in 1844 to the French government, stated that 19,000 acres were used for the cultivation of the grapes, which produced annually about 140,000 hectolitres, or upwards of three millions of gallons of wine. It may be estimated that the same amount is now annually made.

An American company is about being organized for manufacturing wines.

CAROBS OR LOCUST PODS.

The sale of carobs was until within thirty-six years a government monopoly.