SLAVE GIRLS IN ARMENIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5299, 20 March 1878, Page 3

SLAVE GIRLS IN ARMENIA.

(Prom the London Standard.) In a former letter I spoke of a visit to the Adshara district, and an unexpected circumstance induced me to go there, in spite of the rain. Some officers, in an unguarded moment of hilarity, forgot that I was a Giaour, and spoke in my presence of pretty Christian girls being for sale at the low price of 1000 to 2000 piastres, in the neighborhood of the camp. They soon repented their communicativeness, and all my endeavors to find out the place were in vain. I could learn no more than that the unhappy girls were Greeks, eleven in number, who had been carried off a few days before by the Adshares, as they were at work in the gardens of their village. Probably most of the readers of the Standard are like your correspondent ; I had no idea that in the north-east of Asiatic Turkey the robbery of human beings to be sold into slavery still flourished. I thought I might by chance learn more in the land of the robbers on the subject, and therefore set out the day before yesterday before sunrise. It was impossible to ride on the slippery clayey soil, so we bought light Lazian shoes and leather gaiters. Our first attempts at walking were not very successful, but after a few hours we managed to keep up with our two Lazian guides. We passed the chain of sentinels, which extends from the head-quar-ters to the Adshara Valley, and in parts is very weak, in others altogether wanting. The twenty battalions of irregulars which would have to prevent an attack coming from the east had returned to their villages on account of the bad weather, and left only a small number behind them. Probably they will not return till there is some prospect of a battle. As far as the frontier mountains we did not see a single habitation, and only some miles from the river we met with several forsaken wooden houses in which we took up our quarters for the night. Early yesterday we continued our way to the river, and a few miles up it to Ghitta, where Ismael Bey, the chief of the tribe, which can place 6000 to 8000 armed men in the field, lives. We were led to the house of the Bey who received us with true Oriental grandezza. He would not allow us to cleanse our mudcolored clothes until we had squatted down on a divan, covered with red woollen stuff, and partaken of coffee and chibouque. Then we were led into an elegant room, according to Oriental ideas, and here allowed to get rid of as much dirt as possible, and have a sleep. Ismael Bey, at the present moment the most powerful robber-chief in the world, is one of the most remarkable-looking men I have met in the East. His face is almost white, and its fine profile is not spoilt by any whiskers or beard. The effect of the hooked nose is softened by a coquettish little moustache, and with his slight figure he is a striking contrast to the corpulent, apathetic, Turkish dignitaries; but his restless eyes have something very disquieting about them. While overwhelming us with marks of hospitality he kept assusing us that he hated the English to death, and could not bear the Turks. I learned here that he receives a considerable Bussian pension. I fear the St. Petersburg Government, by paying a large sum to this strange vassal of the Porte, might purchase a free passage for their troops through the Adshara Valley. In that case Batoum would be hopelessly lost if Paskiewitch was able to purchase peace from the Lazian Beys with money. We were roused from our slumbers to go to the house of the Hodsoha (ecclesiastic), who demanded surgical aid of us. My dragoman being successful in a light operation he performed, there were great rejoicings. A dinner was hastily prepared, and one of the guests turned out to be a sort of troubadour wandering from village to village, and improvising his songs. After dinner the son of the Hodscha showed us the house and its treasures, consisting chiefly of costly carpets and ornaments of Caucasian silver filagree work, scarcely to be excelled by the Genoese, The art of the once so famous Circassian gold and silversmiths has not quite perished during the wars. In one room the young man opened a doulah, one of those large closets such as aie to bo found in almost all Oriental houses. What a sight presented itself ! A pale girl with red eyes and light hair, dressed_ in European fashion, was crouched in it. At first she took no notice of our presence, but suddenly some thought may have passed through her brain that we were Europeans. In a husky voice she said a few unintelligible words—perhaps Bussian—and then called out' in French, Sarvez moi 1 Immediately the young man drew his handjar; she was silent, and the doulah was closed. The Hodsoha’s son told us that a fortnight before a troop of Lazes had attacked a Bussian village, murdered the old men, women, and children, and carried off the young girls and boys into slavery. The young Lazier had received the Bussian maiden as his share of the booty. During the first three days of her imprisonment she had done nothing but weep, then a knife was held to her throat, and she was

threatened with death if she made a sound. Since then she had been quiet till our arrival. She had been sold the day before for £2O0 — an enormous sura now—to go to Dierbekir. On the journey they are dressed as Turkish women, and put on board the boat at Batoum. It would be unjust to make the Turkish Government a swerable for the continuance of the robbery of human beings. The leal guilt lies with the St. Petersburg Cabinet, which pursues the same perfidious policy towards the Lazes as towards tho Kurds. After the picture I had seen in the doulab my one wish was to return to Batoum. Ismail Bey had offered me a horse for the journey, and after he had tried in vain to induce me to stay the night the horse was brought out. We took a short frrewell, and, refusing the escort of any servants, we rode out in the dark of the evening. The rain abated, and sometimes the moon threw her pale light on the ravine at our feet. At the large Turkish village of Yadjal, near the Tachoronk-Su, we made a halt. The road is narrow, though in good . condition, and leads, differently from what is marked on our maps, along the right side of the Adahara Valley to the Tschoronk, and then down the right bank of the river. After a rest of three hours we continued our ride, and reached Batoum at noon, to take the boat at once or Trabizonde.