A victim to the famine—Daili—A conversation with some
Turkomans—The massacre of the Teke Turkomans by the
Russians—Women violated—Little boys and girls abused and
murdered—The Muscovite is a beast—Should not you like to cut
the throats of all the Russians?—What is the best way to
get rid of a wasp's nest?—A war of extermination—Yuzgat—A
cavalcade of horsemen—Mr. Vankovitch—The telegram—Our
reception—Old friends of the Crimea—Some visitors—Things have
altered for the better—The Christians at Yuzgat—Armenians and
Turks dine together—Mr. Vankovitch's experiences—The Polish
insurrection—General Muravieff—Brutality to the women at
Vilna.
On the track once more; and now we came to a large stone, in the middle
of the path. This marked the resting-place of a victim to the recent
famine. The poor fellow had fallen down from exhaustion, and had died
on this spot. It was too much trouble for the survivors to move his
corpse, they had made a hole and buried him where he lay.
My grey horse, which Osman was riding, still went very lame; so I
limited our march to six hours, and stopped at the little village of
Daili. Here there were only fifteen houses. Many camels and herds of
cattle were grazing in the neighbourhood, and the ground appeared to
have been cultivated for a considerable distance. On this occasion
the fortune of travellers gave us better quarters. The house in which
we were lodged was clean. A raised dais of wood was set apart for the
servants. Mattresses with cushions were reserved for the proprietor and
his guests.
There were some Turkomans in the village, and when the news was spread
that an Englishman had arrived, several of them came to see me.
"We are so glad to see an Englishman," said an old man, the spokesman
for their party.
Osman now interrupted him.
"Effendi, they want to tell you that they hate the Muscovites, and that
they hope England will not allow the Tzar's soldiers to massacre them
like they (the Russians) massacred the Teke Turkomans."
"Were many women and children belonging to the Teke Turkomans killed by
the Russians?"
The old man shook his head.
"Many! many!" he replied. "The women were violated by the soldiers.
The little boys and girls were abused and then murdered. The men took
pleasure in these awful crimes. The Muscovite is a beast! He is worse
than a hyena; the hyena sucks the blood of his victim, but the Russian
satisfies his lust first, and then tears to pieces the object of his
pleasure."
"We hear," he continued, "you have as Padishah, a lady. What does she
think of this way of treating the Turkoman's little ones?"[13]
"And what do you think yourself?" he added. "Should not you like to cut
the throats of all the Russians?"
This was rather a strong way of dealing with the question. However,
if I had been a Turkoman, and my own sisters had been treated by the
Russians in the way the Turkoman women have been, I should have looked
upon the matter from a Turkoman point of view.
"They are not all equally guilty," I replied.
"Equally guilty! Yes they are. From the Tzar upon his throne to the
soldiers who do his bidding they are a nation of assassins! What is the
best way to get rid of a wasp's nest?" he now inquired.
"Smoke it, and destroy the young ones," I replied.
"Well, that," said the Turkoman, "is what we must do with the Russians.
We must kill them all. And Allah will be with us; for He knows who
began the butchery."
"Have many men gone from this village to the army?" I asked.
"Every able-bodied man is serving, and we are now, all of us, going
to the front; greybeards as well as boys. We feel that it is a war of
extermination. If we do not defend our homesteads, woe betide us!"
On leaving Daili the track was firm and good for the first three hours;
it then became very precipitous, and led down steep declivities, and
over a succession of boulders. At last we came to a large circular
plain; it was surrounded by hills; on one side of this vast natural
basin, and on a slope, lay Yuzgat.
As we were nearing the walls a cavalcade of horsemen appeared in
sight. One of them advancing saluted us by touching his fez, and then
addressed me in excellent French. He was a Pole, Vankovitch by name,
and was employed as chief engineer in the district. He had received a
telegram from the Italian doctor, M. Gasparini, of Angora, to say that
I was on the road, and had ridden out with some Armenian gentlemen to
welcome us to the town.
An Armenian now asked me to take up my quarters in his house. I had
been lodged beneath a Turkish roof at Angora, and was curious to see
the difference between the Christian and Mussulman mode of living. I
gladly accepted the offer.
Many more horsemen, Turks and Armenians, joined us ere we entered
the city. I now learnt that my kind friend, the Bey at Angora, had
telegraphed to some of his acquaintances, asking them to do what they
could to make my stay at Yuzgat pleasant.
The news of the approach of an Englishman had already been spread
through the town. The inhabitants had all turned out to have a look at
the stranger.
"An Englishman in Yuzgat is indeed a surprise for the inhabitants,"
said a young Turk who was riding by my side. "I do not believe that one
of your nation has been here for the last twenty years. We Turks are
not ungrateful," he continued, with a smile. "We have not forgotten our
old friends of the Crimea, and what you did for us then."
"Please God you will do as much now!" said another horseman. "Anyhow
your arrival has created an immense excitement; there was not so great
a crowd to see the Pasha of Angora, when he paid us a visit."
"Sir," observed Radford, who, surprised at the tremendous ovation I was
receiving from the crowd, had gradually sidled up to my horse, "this
reminds me of our riding after Don Carlos in Spain. Only in Spain, all
the people came to look at Don Carlos, and here they have come to look
at us. Just, sir, for all the world as if we were a Lord Mayor with his
men in harmour riding in state by the Horse Guards. There have been a
lot of dirty Turks kissing Osman already, so pleased they seem to see
him; and two or three men were slobbering over my boots as we rode up
the hill!"
We entered a courtyard: dismounting, I ascended some steps which led
to my host's house. The room placed at my disposal was furnished in
a similar fashion to the one which I had inhabited in Angora. Several
servants hastened to pull off my riding-boots, and the proprietor said
that some Armenians were waiting outside, they wished to speak to me.
"Would I see them?"
"By all means," I replied; "show them in."
Several men entered; they were dressed in various costumes, the
dressing-gown pattern being evidently a favourite amidst the
inhabitants of Yuzgat. The visitors ranged themselves against the wall
in order, according to their social positions, and then salaamed me.
On my returning the salute, the gentlemen squatted down upon the floor,
and the salaaming ceremony was repeated.
"They have come to ask whether you will honour them by inspecting the
Armenian school," said my host, who, of higher rank than the visitors,
had not squatted down on the floor, but was seated with his legs tucked
under him on the divan.
"We are all Christians," said an old, and very dirty Armenian, who
looked as if water and he had long been strangers to each other.
"It is a pleasure to see a Christian," he added. "It does me good."
"We are all delighted!" said the rest of the company. Whereupon we
salaamed again.
"How do you like the Turks?" I now inquired.
"They get on very well together," observed the Pole, who had
accompanied me home, "and the law is carried out very fairly for all
classes. I will give you an instance. The chief of the telegraphs
in Yuzgat is an Armenian. One day he saw a few Turkish boys teazing
some Armenian children, and calling them giaours. He beat the Turkish
children. Some Turks, coming up, took the part of the Mohammedan lads,
and struck the telegraph-man. The latter complained to the authorities;
the Turks who had beaten him were at once imprisoned."
"Twenty years ago this would not have happened," said another of the
visitors; "but here things have altered for the better."
"However, at Sivas," he continued, "you will find that the Christians
are horribly ill-treated by their Pacha. The prison is full of
Christians. There is no sort of justice in that city. The Pacha takes
away Christian little boys and girls from their parents, and shuts them
up in his seraglio."
"Is this true?" I inquired of Mr. Vankovitch.
"They say so. But you must remember that you are in the East," was the
Pole's reply.
"Personally," he added, "I make a rule to believe nothing except what
I see myself. You are going to Sivas?"
"Yes."
"Well, you will be able to judge for yourself. At all events, the
Christians in this town are not oppressed in any way. You see Armenians
and Turks dining together at the same table, and so far as justice
is concerned, the Christians obtain quite as much of it as the
Mohammedans."
The Armenians, who by this time had finished their coffee, now left
the room; and Mr. Vankovitch remaining behind, began to tell me of his
experiences in Asia Minor, and of the cause which had induced him to
leave his own country.
He had been educated in the Military College at St. Petersburg, and
had passed his examination for the engineers just before the Polish
insurrection. He had joined the rebels, and taking command of a large
band which had assembled near Vilna, had fought against the Russians
for more than two years. General Muravieff, known to history by his
brutality to the women of Vilna, published four proclamations offering
rewards for Vankovitch's head. Fortune favoured the young Pole, who
was able to escape his foes. When the rebellion was suppressed, he
succeeded in reaching Odessa, and made his way on board a Greek ship
bound for Constantinople. After being two days at sea, the vessel,
owing to bad weather, was obliged to put back into harbour. The captain
then said, that as some Russian officers would be certain to come
on board, it would be better for Vankovitch to remain concealed in a
friend's house, until the ship could sail. He took the advice; but left
all his clothes and other effects in the cabin.
The vessel started that night; he did not receive any warning, and the
captain, carrying off his luggage, robbed him of everything he had in
the world. The Polish committee in Odessa raised a little money for
their brother in misfortune: after paying for his passage in another
steamer, he arrived at Constantinople with barely five pounds in his
pocket. This was soon spent, and then in order to earn his bread, he
obtained employment as a road-maker. The engineer who superintended the
work discovered that the navvy knew as much about road-making as he did
himself. He promoted him to be assistant-engineer.
Vankovitch complained that he was unable to write to his father,
a gentleman who resided near Vilna. The engineer had sent two or
three letters; but on each occasion the envelopes were opened by the
Russian police, and the parent had been heavily fined, simply because
Vankovitch had dared to write to him.