THE LECTURE ON THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS
Captain Scott was ready to do anything the occasion might require.
Possibly he would not have been sorry to come into collision with
Captain Mazagan and his piratical craft, judging from what he had said
to Louis Belgrave, and he had pluck enough to precipitate a conflict
with the enemy; but sometimes it requires more courage to keep out of a
fight than to plunge into one.
As he had admitted himself, Louis was his model; and he felt that no
rashness, no braggadocio, no challenging, no casting down the gage of
battle to the pirate who had already outlawed himself, no holding out of
a temptation to cross swords with him, would be justified or palliated
when he came to render an account of his conduct in what was yet to
occur to the commander of the Guardian-Mother.
Whatever he did he was to do strictly in self-defence. The character of
Captain Ringgold and of Louis would permit nothing more than this. The
"Big Four" fully understood why the Fatimé was there. It was true that
the Maud had held out the temptation for her to follow her; but it was
as a man with a gold watch and plenty of money in his purse holds out a
temptation to the robber; but it does not follow that he should throw
away his valuables.
But the plan suggested by Scott and adopted by the commander had not
worked as had been expected. The Guardian-Mother ought to be there in
the bay, or somewhere in the vicinity; but nothing had been seen of her,
and no one knew what had become of her. According to the plan, the two
steamers were to find a way to escape from the pirate, and Scott had
marked out the manner in which it was to be done. The gale and the
non-appearance of the ship had upset the plan, though the Maud had
carried out her portion of the programme.
"What next, Captain Scott?" asked Louis.
"Wait," replied the captain.
"Wait for what?"
"I don't know," replied Scott, shaking his head. "Wait for whatever is
to come."
"But what is to come?" asked Louis, who still had a fear that the
captain would resort to some fool-hardy expedient.
"You know just as much about this affair as I do, Louis, and you may be
a better prophet than I am. It is not a question of navigation just now,
or I should be willing to take the entire responsibility. Of course the
handling of the Maud is an important element in getting out of the
scrape, whatever it may prove to be. I have somewhere seen a picture of
a good-looking gentleman playing chess with an individual provided with
horns, hoofs, and a caudal appendage. But in this game the mortal
appeared to have the best of it, and he says to the infernal power,
'Your next move.'"
"And that is what you say to the representative of the same infernal
majesty in Khrysoko Bay," interposed Louis, rather pleased with the
illustration, especially in its application to Captain Mazagan.
"Precisely so; it is the pirate's move, and I shall not do a thing till
he makes it," added Captain Scott. "What Mazagan will do, or how he will
do it, I have no more idea than you have, Louis. That is where we stand.
I am willing to listen to any advice that you wish to give me."
"I have no wish to give any advice," replied Louis; and by this time he
was entirely satisfied with the position Scott had taken, and he
approved everything he had done.
At this point Pitts announced that dinner was ready, and Scott led the
way to the cabin. The ledge of rocks appeared to cover at least half an
acre of the bottom of the bay. The Maud had anchored abreast of the
rock, in two fathoms of water. It was just about high tide when she came
in, as the captain had learned from his nautical almanac, and the ebb
placed the craft broadside to the Moorish steamer, so that the "Big
Four" could see her out the cabin windows.
The pirate made no demonstration of any kind, and the dinner was
disposed of in good order, and with hardly an allusion to the exciting
events that were expected. Pitts was instructed to give the engineers
their dinner as soon as possible; for all hands might be needed at any
moment.
"Heave the lead, Flix; it begins to look like shoal water around us,"
said the captain when they returned to the forecastle.
The great rock was of a light color, and could be distinctly seen from
the deck. A portion of it rose about six feet above the surface of the
water when the Maud anchored, and the receding tide now permitted two
feet more of the projecting cone to be seen.
"By the mark two," reported Felix, as he drew up the line.
"Twelve feet; we have not much to spare under the keel," added the
captain. "We had fourteen feet when we anchored, and the tide has been
ebbing five hours."
"Hold on, Captain Scott!" shouted Felix, as he carried the lead-line to
the other side of the vessel. "I have been measuring on the top of a
bulging rock. And a half two!"
"Fifteen feet; that looks more like it. There ought to be about three
feet ebb and flow here, and your sounding gave about double that, Flix."
"It was the fault of the rock on the bottom, Captain;" but the leadsman
heaved the line all around the steamer with the same result.
There was nothing to do except to observe the Fatimé; but she did
nothing, and there was no appearance of any movement on her deck.
"I think we had better attend to that lesson now, as we have nothing
else to do," said the captain after they had looked about them for a
time. "I don't care to have the pirate suppose we are on the anxious
seat."
"All right," replied Louis, as he seated himself on the rail by the bow
flag-pole. "I have studied my lesson, and I am all ready."
"Blaze away, then," replied the captain.
"If any of you have not yet found it out, I will begin by informing you
that the land on three sides of us belongs to the island of Cyprus, and
you are again on Turkish territory. The owners of the island call it
Kebris, written by them G'br's, if you can make anything of that
combination of consonants," Louis began, spelling out the strange names
he introduced. "The Greeks call it Kupros, and the French, Chypre. Venus
was the original goddess of spring among the Romans, but became the
goddess of love, the Aphrodite of the Greeks, and was worshipped as such
in this island by the Phoenicians and other ancients.
"One of this lady's names was Cypris, or Cypria; and that is why the
island happens to be called Cyprus. It is in about the same latitude as
South Carolina. It is about 35 to 50 miles from Asia Minor on the south
and Syria on the east. It is 140 miles long by 60 in breadth, containing
3,707 square miles, or larger than both Rhode Island and Delaware
united.
"It has two ranges of mountains extending east and west, the highest
peak being 6,352 feet. It has plenty of rivers, with no water in them
except after heavy rains, or when the snow melts on the mountains. There
is no room for lakes of any size, though there is a small one on the
east coast, which dries up completely in summer, like the rivers, but
has an abundance of fish in winter. This is rather remarkable, and the
fact is not doubted, though the phenomenon has not been explained."
"The fish must go down where the water goes," laughed Felix. "If there
are any volcanoes here, I suppose they come up in the winter all boiled
or broiled ready for the table."
"I don't know how that is, Flix, and we haven't time to investigate the
matter. The interior of the island is mostly composed of a great plain,
which was once famous for its crops of grain; but the system of
irrigation which prevailed has been discontinued, and its fertility no
longer exists. In a scarcity of rain five years ago there was almost a
famine in the island.
"As you have seen for yourselves, there is a deficiency of harbors, and
this bay is a fair specimen of them. It has two places they call
seaports, but they are not worthy of the name. They are on the south
side, and in such a blow as we had last night, they afford no shelter to
shipping from southerly storms; and Captain Scott was wise in coming
here instead of going to Limasol, which is just inside of Cape Gata.
The ports on this side of the island would be similarly exposed in a
northerly storm. Safe ports are necessary for the commerce of a country
or an island, and therefore to its prosperity.
"In ancient times there were ports at Salamis, Paphos, and Famagusta, in
the eastern part of the island, which was the portion celebrated in the
past. The capital is Leucosia, as I find it on my chart, though I find
it elsewhere put down as Nicosia; and even the cape we have in sight is
Pifanio in a standard atlas. The population is 186,000, of whom not
quite 50,000 are Mohammedans, and the rest are orthodox Greeks. The
great majority of the people speak the Greek language, but it is so much
corrupted that Flix would not understand it."
"You are right, my darling; I want the pure Greek of Kilkenny, or I
don't take it in," replied the Milesian.
"The island was colonized by the Phoenicians, who have a history too
long to be related now; but they occupied the northern part of Syria and
the country to the north of us. They were the New Yorkers of their day
and generation, and were largely engaged in commerce. They brought the
worship of Venus over here, and called the island Kupros after her. It
had at first nine independent kingdoms, and I should suppose that almost
anybody could afford to be a king in this locality. It was conquered by
the Egyptians about five hundred years before the time of Christ; then
by the Persians; and finally came into the possession of the Romans.
"It went with the Eastern Empire when Rome was divided. The people
embraced Christianity at an early date. It was said that a shepherd
discovered the body of St. Matthew and a part of his Gospel in the
island, which called many early saints to visit it. In 646 A.D., Cyprus
was taken by the Saracens, but was not long held by them. Richard
Coeur-de-Lion captured it on his way to Syria for the Third Crusade.
In 1570 the Turks obtained possession of it, and have practically held
it ever since.
"The ruins of Salamis may be seen at the other end of the island. In the
Book of Acts we read that Paul came over here. 'And when they were at
Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.'
Then the account informs us that they went 'through the isle' to Paphos;
and doubtless the place was near Point Papho, which I find on my chart.
Don't forget to tell Mrs. Blossom, Flix, that you have been to an island
visited by Paul and Barnabas in their missionary travels.
"The island has about the same productions as Egypt. Carobs, or locust
beans, figure up to about $300,000. But I fear you will not remember any
more figures if I should give them; and I see there is something like a
movement on board of the pirate."
"You must repeat that lecture on board of the ship when we get back to
her," added the captain. "It was telling us just what I wanted to
know."
"I could have done better if I had had the library of the
Guardian-Mother for reference," replied Louis, as all hands fixed their
attention on the Fatimé.
"They are getting out a boat, sir," said Don, who had gone to the
hurricane deck to obtain a better view.
"That means that they intend to pay us a visit; and as I intend to
retain the command of the Maud until I am relieved by Captain Ringgold,
I shall allow no one from the pirate to come on board," said Captain
Scott in his most decided tones. "All hands except Felipe will arm with
breech-loaders and revolvers, with a supply of ammunition, and form in
the port gangway."
This order was promptly executed, and the force collected at the place
designated. This gangway was concealed from the enemy by the house on
deck. Louis had two revolvers, and he loaned one to Don. Scott had
carried out a handsaw which was kept in the pilot-house in readiness for
any emergency, as well as an axe and a hatchet. The captain had used
this same saw with decided effect upon some smugglers who attempted to
obtain possession of the little steamer in the Bay of Gibraltar, and he
placed it where it was ready for use at any moment.
In addition to this novel weapon, he had sent for a small heave-line
with which he had done some lassoing on the same occasion, and also on
Captain Mazagan at a later period. The five hands in the port gangway
had loaded their weapons, and were ready to be called into the field.
The captain took a look at them, and all was satisfactory. He hastened
back to the forecastle, where he saw that the boat was already pulling
for the Maud.