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CLAUDE DELAVAL COBHAM
Exerpta Cypria
page 371

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CYPRIAXOS. 3C1 Suleiman efendi, an old and discreet man, to enquire into the doings of Hafuz efendi, and to take over the duties of muhassil, with other orders which we shall see presently. He then instructed the bishops to embark on the vessel by which Suleiman efeudi was sending his household and effects to Cyprus, while the new Governor travelled by land. Ibrahim Bey landed at Lemessos, found the revolt growing more serious, and by playing the fox managed to smooth tilings down. The bishops reached Larnax in February, 1706, learned that Khalil had invested the capital and was bombarding it, and remained on board until Ibrahim Bey had deceived him, by writing that he brought lvhahTs appointment as Governor : the rebel then raised the siege of Levkosia and withdrew to Kyrenia. The bishops sent him bakhshish from Larnaca, with assurances that they had praised his conduct to the Porte, iu that he had prevented Hafuz from exacting money unlawfully, aud that Suleiman efendi was coming to enquire into the whole matter. He was fool enough to believe them, and sent his khanjar as a token of their personal safety, to show, m fact, that they might safely return to Nicosia. A few days later Suleiman efendi arrived at Kyrenia. He told Khalil that he was come to enquire why, aud with whose leave, Hafuz demanded so much from the Turks and rayahs: he made the rebel a present of a furred coat, addressed him as his dear son, and hinted that he brought his commission as Governor. Having done so much to mislead the insurgents, he continue^! his journey aud arrived in Nicosia the week before Quinquagesima. There, after conferring with Ibrahim Bey aud the natives, he decided that it wonld be difficult to put down the nsing, and wrote at once to the Porte. Ordere were sent then to Kior Ahmed, a Pasha of two tails, to Kior Keloghln of Caramania, and to the Alay Bey of Attalia, Ja'fer Bey, to transport to Cyprus a sufficient force to reduce the rebel Khalil and his following. Before the news of their coming reached Khalil or the people generally Hafuz efendi's term had come to an end, and Suleiman efendi was proclaimed Governor. The rebel, seeing now he had been deceived by his "dear father/' marched against him and on June I again encamped at Mandia, full of wrath, and determined ntterly to destroy the capital, and slaughter its inhabitants, his "father" and all, in revenge for the trick. Suleiman began to tremble before his son Khalil, ordered the gates to be shut, and a watch of Turks and Greeks to be set round the citadel. Then, affecting to believe that the bishops were the cause of the trouble which was endangering his life, he ordered them to sleep in the Serai, and to remain there nntil they saw what would happen, and the order was obeyed. Khalil fired into the city day and night, and the citizens replied, but no sally was made. Ten or twelve days at the most elapsed before the Pasha and his companions arrived, with a force of two thousand men. Khalil immediately raised the siege, and returned to his castle, where he fortified himself and a large following. The Pasha readied Nicosia, and marched on to Kyrenia with Kior Keloghln and the Bey of Attalia. Ja'fer Bey and Ibrahim Bey came by sea, and snrrounded the castle with their galleys. Hemmed in on every side the silly rebel held out for forty days with his handful of adherents; pressed at last by famine, they were obliged to surrender. Khalil's head was cut off, and sent to Constantinople. The exploit won for Ahmed Pasha his third tail. Emir Ahmed, Khalil's Kiaya, who was the first to stir up trouble, was impaled. Other two hundred or more of the insurgents were hanged or impaled, and the country was relieved of the presence of a herd of miscreants. Khalil and his crew were exterminated about the beginning of September, and by order of the Porte Ahmed Paslia and the others left the island, which was glad to be lid of the Caramanians, a set of savages, thieves and murderers. I have mentioned that the island debt exceeded 1000 purses, while the wretched inhabitants who were trying to pay it hardly amonnted to 10,000 Greeks and 5000 or 0000 Turks. In 1767 about the beginning of

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