“The Armenians are still found in goodly numbers, aggregating nearly one-third of some eighteen thousand inhabitants in the city (Moosh), constituting more than half in the region, if we include the 155 villages of this large plain. But so lamentably have they been subdued by the _long oppression_ and _misrule_, that none of their old-time spirit remains. “We might point to a village of more than 300 houses and 2,000 inhabitants, who live in constant terror from a little Kurdish village of desperadoes not one-tenth as large!” It is no wonder that these poor and oppressed Armenians “live in constant terror.” The Turkish government, the author of all injustice and cruelty in Armenia, had decreed even the mere possession of arms a serious crime in the case of Christians, while the Kurds, the worst enemies of law and order were well equipped with all sorts of modern weapons, and were enlisted into His Majesty the Sultan’s army. They were, therefore, authorized to rob, steal, and kill the Armenians. FOOTNOTES: [120] Comstock, “Greek Revolution,” p. 222. [121] Greene, “The Armenian Crisis in Turkey,” p. 98. [122] Layard, “Nineveh,” Vol. I, pp. 165-6. [123] Van Lennep, “The Bible Lands,” pp. 745-6. [124] Greene, “The Armenian Crisis in Turkey,” pp. 101-2. [125] Norman, “Armenia and the Campaign of 1877,” p. 273. [126] Norman, “Armenia and the Campaign of 1877,” pp. 234-5. [127] _The Westminster Gazette_, Dec. 12, 1894, reprinted in the _Armenia_, London, Jan., 1895. [128] Norman, “Armenia and the Campaign of 1877,” pp. 158-9. [129] _The 19th Century_, July, 1909. [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.