“The insurgent villages made little or no resistance. In many instances they surrendered their arms upon the first demand. Nearly all the villages which were attacked by the _Bashi-bazouks_ (irregulars) were burned and pillaged, as were also all those which had been abandoned by the terrified inhabitants. The inhabitants of some villages were massacred after exhibitions of the most ferocious cruelty, and the violation not only of women and girls, but even of persons of the other sex. Those crimes were committed by the regular troops as well as by the bashi-bazouks. The number of villages which were burned in whole or in part in the districts of Philippopolis, Roptchus, and Tatar-Bazardjik is at least sixty-five. “Particular attention was given by the troops to the churches and schools, which in some cases were destroyed with petroleum and gunpowder. “It is difficult to estimate the number of Bulgarians who were killed during the few days that the disturbances lasted; but I am inclined to put fifteen thousand as the lowest for the districts I have named. “... This village after a promise of safety without firing a shot surrendered to the bashi-bazouks, under command of Ahmed Aga, a chief of rural police. Despite his promise, the arms once surrendered, Ahmed Aga ordered the destruction of the village and the indiscriminate slaughter of the inhabitants, about a hundred young girls being reserved to satisfy the lust of the conqueror before they too should be killed. Not a house is now standing in this lovely valley. Of the eight thousand inhabitants not two thousand are known to survive. “Ahmed Aga, who commanded the massacre, has since been decorated and promoted, to the rank of _yus bashi_ (centurion). * * * * * “I am, sir, yours very truly, “EUGENE SCHUYLER. “The Hon. Horace Maynard, etc.”[124] It was in the following year, 1877, that Armenia witnessed new horrors. The correspondent of the London _Times_ wrote of the massacre of the Armenians at Bayazid: “The scene that ensued [the massacre] was one of unparalleled horror. The town contained one hundred and sixty-five Christian families, and all the men, women and children were ruthlessly put to the sword. A Turkish officer, who visited the town a few days subsequently, states that there was not a single inhabitant left.... In every house he entered small groups of dead were lying shockingly mutilated, and in the most revolting, indecent positions. Captain McCalmont, who visited the place shortly after the Russian relief, states that it is entirely deserted and a mere heap of ruins; also that soldiers were employed for six days in burying the dead, the number of whom it was impossible to estimate.”[125]