New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-09-13
ORLEANS WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER l3 1876

fBER l3. 1876.
HAFIZ PAsHA's ATROCITIES.
Murders and Hideous Outrases In Bnl.
sarian Tewn.
The Turkish commander. Hafz Pssha,
in marching through Bulgaria, arrived be-
fore the little town of Panigurishti with
regiment of regular troops, two or three
pieces Of artillery, and q great number OF
Bashi-Bazouks. 1t would seem that the
insurgents had only about $50 men armed
with muskets or rifles. The rest had only
knives or pistols, that before these troubles
and fifty Of the best armed had gone out on
one road toward Tatar- Bazardjik to dis
pute the way, and 100 on the other road;
for it seems they did not have spies out to
see by which way the army would come.
When HATH Pashs arrived he found only
100 men to oppose him, and these, fright
ened at the great superiority of the force
brought against them. ran away at the
first fire. It does not even appear that they
fred off their guns. for there was not sin
gle Turk killed or wounded. The inhabi-
tants, panic stricken, had in the mean
time attempted to fly, but the
town had already been surrounded, and
they were either driven back or cut down
in the fields. At the approach of the Bashi-
Bazouks the inhabitants of eight or nine
neighbOring Villages, fear stricken, had
abandoned their homes and taken refuge
here to the number of 5000 or 5000, and
they now filled the streets, crying and
screaming with fright. As all resistance
had now ceased, or rather as none had
really been offered, Hafiz Pasha had moth
ing to do but march into the town, arrest
the leaders of the insurrection, and restore
order. Instead of this, however, he brought
up his artillery, and without summOning
the place to surrender, commenced .
bombardment, ruthlessly throwing the
bursting shells into these crowds of
night the din of the bOmbardment resound-
ed through the streets. Ha6z Pasha was
offering himself concert. The hoarse roar
OF his cannon, the screaming of shells, the
ear splitting explosions, mingled with the
feeble vail of women and children, made
sweet music to his ears, and he prolonged
the entertainment. He wished TO see it by
night, lit up by the fires of burning houses
and the globes of fame which lesped from
the mouths of his cannon. 1t was q safe
and harmless kind of amusement. There
we're no stern-eyed men there to give him
back ball tor ball and shell for shell, but
only women and children who answered
with shrieks and grOane; and he continued
the Joyous concert until midnight. Then
the loud.mouthed dogs of war ceased their
clamOr; they had done their work; it was
now the turn of the sabre.
During the night and tho next morning
the troops and the Bashi- -Bazouks entered
the place, and then began q scene of pill
lage, violence and massacre only equaled
by that Of Bstak. Neither age nor sex was
spared. The town was pillaged, then fired;
about One-fourth Of the houses were burned;
people were cut down in the streets, on
their own d0Orsteps, slaughtered on their
own hesrthstones. Old men and women,
begging for mercy, and children and in
fants, screaming in terror, perished alike
beneath the swift and certain sabre. 1t is
thought that 5000 people were killed in this
place alone, of whom about 400 were in
habitants OF the town, and the rest from
the neighbOring villages who had taken
refuge here. But We were not greeted here
with the scenes of horror that awaited us
at Batak. Hafz Pashs, unlike Achmet
Agha, had sense enough to have the bodies
buried within the following three days, and
thus to cover up his tracks.
1t has been repeated again and again that
these acts were perpetrated by the Bashi-
Bazouks only, and not bv the regular
troops, and deal is made Of the statement
as showing the massacres were committed
without the consent Of the authorities. If
the statement was worth anything the con-
verse ought to be true that if the massacres
were committed bv the regular troops, then
the authorities are responsible. Now, as it
happens, wherever there were any regular
troops to commit massacres, they rivaled
the Bashi- i-BazOuks in atrOcity. Here, as Mr.
Schuyler will show in his report, regular
and irregular troops were equally cruel,
pitilees, and ferociOus, and Hafiz Pasha is
NO less guilty than Achmet Agha.
These massacree were committed by the
order of the authorities, and that il why
the men who committed them have been
rewarded with decorations and promotions.
In Panigurishti We were shown in the
ruins Of the church, before whore had stood
the altar, black spot specked with cal
clned bones, on which lay . bouquet of
flowers. This was the remains of priest.
Theodor Peof, eighty five yeas OF age, who
had been seized and tortured in the hopes
OF obtaining money, mutilsted and NAL
treated in ways which only the foul imag-
ination of . Turk could invent, then killed
and burned here before the altar. In another
place We were shown black spot where an
beaten half to death, and then thrown
senseless on Q heap of wood and burned
alive.
There was an old man here, Zwatko Boy
adjien by name, public benetactor. Q lib.
eral contributor to the school fund, who in
winter supported half the widows and Or
phans of the place, who was renowned for
his charities to Christian and Turk alike.
He was likewise seized. tortured and mall
treated. His eyes were put out, and. after
undergoing the most fearful torments, he
was thrown on q heap Of wood fainting or
dead, the people do not know which, and
burned. They seized the priest NestOr and
cut off his fingers one by one to extOrt
money, and, as the poor man had none to
give them, they continued by cutting Of
his hands, and finally his head. We were
shown in the yard of q neat little cottage
embOwered in trees, grave beside which a
woman was kneeling as we passed. 1t was
| the grave of young man of eighteen, who
had just returned home from school when
the troubles began, after an absence Of two
years, and who had taken no part in the
outbreak.
They had seized him, and in mere sport
cut off his hands one by one in the presence
of his mother, then killed him. What made
these acts more terrible was that many O1
them were committed in the presence OF
the weeping relatives-wife, mother, broth
ers, sisters of victims. And they we're re
peated by the hundred. But it was not only
old and young men who suffered; women
young girls, children, infants, were ruth
lessly Slaughtered. These Turks, these
strong, bearded men, picked infants up out
of their cradles with their bsyonets, tossed
them in the air, caught them again and
flung them at the heads of the shriekine
mothers. They carried little babes about
the streets ON the points of their bayonets
with their poor little heads and arms dY0op
ing around the barrels Of their guns, and
| the blood streaming down over their hands
Tnev cut off the heads of children and
! compelled other children to carry the still
hnads ahonf in THAR erna