Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1876-09-23

1t is very difficult to estimate the
number Of Bulgarians who were killed
during the few days that the disturb
ances lasted, but I am inclined to put
$4,000 as the lowest for the districts
have named.
Perustitsa, town of four hundred
houses, and between 5000 and 4, 900 in
habitants, took no active part in the in
surrection. When the Bashi- Bazouks
appeared before the town they therefore
refused to surrender, intrenched them
selves in church, retreating finally to
another, md held out for five days, until
they saw the regular troops, when the
remainder gave themselves up. The
g: eanniH III we.sHs exss bombarded. end ahQnt r9eQ
and children.
Klissura was nearly twice the size of
Perustitsa and proportionately richer,
as many of the inhabitants were engaged
in the manufacture of altar of roses, and
many were merchants travelling through
the country. The insurrectionary move
ment begun here on the second of May,
but it was not until the twelfth that the
Bashi- Bazouks, under the command of
Tussum Bey, of Karlovo, attacked the
place. More than $50 Bulgarians were
killed, chiefly women and children. The
Turks claim that fourteen Mussulmans
Gin part gypsies) were killed before and
during the fight. As soon as the Bashi
Bazouks entered the town they pillaged
it and burned it. Subsequent parties
carried off all that was left, even to the
nails from the doors and the tiles from
the roofs. Tussum Bey for this exploit
was decorated with the .Meiidie.
. Panagurishta (Otluk-kuD wasattacked
by force of regular troops, together
with Bashi- Bazouks, on the eleventh of
May. Apparently no message to sur
render was sent. After slight opposi-
tion on the part of the insurgents the
town was taken. Many of the inhabit-
ants fed, but about 5000 were massa-
cred, the most of them being women
and children. Both churches we're com
pletely destroyed, and almost leveled to
the ground. In one an old man was
burned alive. Two of the schools were
burned, the third-looking like pri-
vate ehouse-cscaped. From the numer-
GUS statements made to me, hardly a
woman in the town escaped brutal treat
ment. Old men had their eyes torn out
and their limbs cut off, and were then
left to die, unless some more charitably
disposed man gave them the final thrust.
Pregnant women we're ripped open and
the unborn babes carried triumphantly
on the points of bayonets and sabers,
while little children were made to bear
the dripping heads of their comrades.
This scene was continued for three days,
when the survivors were made to bury
the bodies of the dead.
While pillage reigned supreme at
and lust at Panagurishta.
at Batak the Turks seemed to have no
stronger passion than the thirst for
blood. This village surrendered with
out firing shot after the promise of
safety to the Bashi- -Bazouks, under the
of Ahmed Aga of Burutina, a
chief of the rural police. Despite his
promise, the few arms once sur
Ahmed Aga ordered the
destruction of the village and the
slaughter of the in
about a hundred young
girls being reserved to the conqueror
before they too should be killed. saw
their bones in the hollow ON the hillside,
where the dogs we're gnawing them.
Not a house is now standing in the
midst of this lovely valley. OF the
!, 900 inhat itants not 1000 are known to
survive. Fully 5000 persons, a very
arge portion of them women and chill
lren, perished here, and their bones
vhiten the ruins. The sight of Batak
IS enough to verify all that has been said
lbout the acts of the Turks in repressing
;he Bulgarian insurrection. And yet
,aw it three months after the massacre.
On every side were human bones, skulls,
lbs, and even complete skeletons, heads
If girls still adorned with braids Of long
lair, bones of children, skeletons still
ncased in clothing. Here was house
he floor of which was white with the
Ishes and charred bones of thirty persons
burned alive there. Here was the spot
where tho village notable Trandafil was
pitted on spike and then roasted, and
vhere he is now buried there was foul
lole full of decomposing bodies, here
mill filled with swollen corpses; here
he schoolhouse, where two hundred
women and children who had taken
efuge there were burned alive, and
lere the church and churchyard, where
ully thousand balf-decayed forms
vere still to be seen, filing the ipclosure
n heap several feet high, arms, feet,