[130] The Independent, June 15, 1893, New York.

[131] The following explains itself: The private advices from Constantinople give the Press information of a tragic discovery. The harbor of that city has no wharves. Vessels, after discharging their cargoes at the custom-house, anchor in the harbor and receive their cargoes. On September 30, 1893, a Russian merchantman anchored off Seraglio Point, and, having received her cargo, would raise her anchor to sail for home. The anchor seemed to be caught in something heavy. After long efforts it was raised. It brought up with it fifteen large haircloth sacks, such as are used by Turkish merchants in packing goods for shipment.

“At first the Russian captain thought he had disclosed a smuggling scheme. Upon investigation he discovered that the sacks were filled with human bodies, each sack containing from fifteen to twenty. Further investigation disclosed that they were the bodies of Armenian political prisoners.

“Foreign ambassadors to Turkey had recently complained that the prisons were overcrowded with Armenian prisoners, and the government decided to remove the cause of complaint. Accordingly about three hundred prisoners were taken on board of a Turkish man-of-war, ostensibly for transportation to Africa. In the night, however, the fellows were murdered, their bodies placed in sacks, which were tied one to the other, and thrown into the harbor. This is in keeping with the Grand Vizier’s declaration a short time ago, that he would settle the Armenian question by annihilating the Armenians as a race. A discovery similar to this was made in the harbor of Salonica a year ago.”

XIV
THE MASSACRE AT SASSOUN

Sassoun is the name of a district south of the Plain of Moosh. It is a mountainous country, containing about one hundred and fourteen villages and hamlets. The inhabitants, about seventy thousand persons, were mostly Armenians, under a resident Turkish governor, called Kaimakam.

The inhabitants of this region, like the rest of the people in Armenia, were agricultural and pastoral in their occupation, and they were also surrounded by their tormentors, the Kurds. It is not improbable that the inaccessibility of the district and the number and hardiness of the people, may have impressed the Turkish authorities with the desirability of reducing them into a complete docility. So when the “Hamidieh” cavalry regiments were formed a few years before they were entrusted with this work.

The Kurdish chiefs, in some districts in Armenia, were in the habit of demanding, and extorting from the people some kind of tribute. The raids of the Kurds and Circassians were not infrequent. The taxes of the government were ever increasing, and were always in demand. This vexatious condition of affairs was sufficient to drive any peaceful people to desperation.

In one instance, when the Kurds had raided an Armenian village, and carried away the cattle, the villagers armed themselves as best as they could and pursued the raiders, like Abraham,[132] to recover their herds. In the encounter several Kurds were killed. It is probable that some Armenians also were killed, but that is of no consequence. Those unfortunate Kurds who suffered for their crime were the members of the “Hamidieh” cavalry. Then false reports were sent to Constantinople that the Armenians were in arms, and had rebelled against the authority of the government and had killed some of the soldiers of the sultan.

The sultan, who had been planning ever since the signing of the Treaty of Berlin to exterminate the Armenians, seized upon this opportunity, which was of his own making, and at once sent orders to Mushir at Erzinghian to exterminate them, root and branch. “The order as read before the army, collected in haste from all the chief cities of Eastern Turkey, was: ‘Whoever spares man, woman, or child, is disloyal.’”