It was in
vain that I explained to these afflicted people that spleen-disease
required a long course of medicine, and could not be cured in a day. It
was equally in vain that I assured them that raw vegetables were
unwholesome for children, and that sea-bathing was invigorating to the
system: they hated bathing; so did the children; and they liked raw
vegetables. I was obliged to give them some trifle which could neither
do harm nor good; and they went away contented.
I now discovered from the head-men of the village the cause of the wreck
which was lying in the bay. An Austrian steamer was conveying 1200
Circassians from Constantinople to some port on the coast of Asia Minor,
when the wild horde of emigrants mutinied and threatened to murder the
chief officers. The captain accordingly ran the vessel ashore upon this
coast, having ordered the engineer to blow up the boilers.
A great number of the mutineers perished in the attempt to land, but the
captain and officers were hospitably received by the people of
Volokalida and forwarded to Famagousta. The vessel was pierced amidships
by a rock that had completely impaled her, otherwise she might have been
saved and repaired.
We left this village on March 4th, a heavy but welcome shower on the
preceding day having laid the dust and freshened the vegetation. The
route lay through a hilly and rocky country covered with the usual
evergreens.
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