The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-02-26

was broken Most of the Christian
dead were dragged to the outskirts OF
| the city with every Imaginable IN
! dignity and either burned or cast into
/ the old quarries that abound upon the
| edge of the city, and left for the dogs
/ and vultures to eat. Some of them,
after being thrown into these pits,
were covered out of sight by casting
| stones upon them. The best estimate
obtainaule puts the NUN Der of the
| killed at between 800 and 400 for the
! Christians and ten TO Twelve from the
Moslems. The mass ere began in the
market without the slightest warn
ing, aud the poor unarmed Christians
were easily overcome being Outnum-
bered, three u one. The carnage
soon spTea from the Bazaar and
markets to the outlying Christian
quarters All the Christian shops
were pluudered, and four outlying
Christian quarters mostly occupied
by the poorer classes. A number of
wealthy Christian houses were looted
and several burned. The two main
Christian wards have many gates
which were closed and some of them
were defended. So he progress of the
mob was checked, uutii zig hit came
down and put an end to the scene. SO
far as L can learn, there was no at
| tempt made by either the government
or the Moslem Bays and EffindiS dur
ing the whole of that terrible Satur-
day to stop the killing and lOoting,
except that they buried large force
of soldiers out for the defense of the
| foreign residents. The sOldiery took
part in the pillage, and did nothing to
prevent the butchery, though not
doing a large part of the latter
themselves. The following day they
began to repress the populace, and
up to the present have succeeded in
preventing any further general out
break: but the poor Christians are
terror stricken, and all of them await
their death in their houses or the
churches. Yesterday there was de-
termined attempt upon the part of
large mob to attack the Christian part
OF the city, but the military quelled
it without much difficulty. This took
place upon the southern side, and,
while the sOldiery were mostly with
drawn to that side, TWO or three large
houses were looted upon the northern
side in one district. A letter comes
from Marash telling of another ter
rible massacre there and three Chris
tian quarters burned. This is the
third one that has occurred there dur
Ing the last month, and this time was
perpetrated by the sOldiery, with the
apparent approval of the government.
The theological seminary and stu
dents boarding house were plumber
ed, the former burned, and two of the
students shot, one fatally. Our mis-
sonaries there have SO far escaped,
but we feel very anxious about them,
and, in fact, the whole situation is
very grave one. There seems to be a
well laid plan upon the part of the
so thoroughly that it will not hink of
anything but how to get it's daily
bread for many long year to come.
The distress throughout our mission IL
going to be terrible before spring.
Here is the winter upon these thou
sands who have been driven out of
their homes and had them plundered
or burned.
December 8th.-The time drags on
with no great change in the situation.
There has been no further outbreak
since my last writing aud the strain
seems somewhat relaxed, but the
Christians dare not stir out of their
houses vet aud all business is at
standstill. Reports of similar or worse
butchery come to US from HarpOOt,
Diabekir, Iwalatia, Leverek and
Givum, besides many other places.
The best information L can get leads
me to place the killed here at not less
than 400. The attack was wholly un
provoked, and the fact that not more
| than ten to twelve Moslems were kill
ed shows for itself that it was mere
| butchery. Women and girls were not
molested except in few cases where
they attempted to defend their bus
| bands or sons, but boys were killed as
ruthlessly as the men. 1t has been a
| terrible time, and have not written
the horrible details that you must
| have before you TO realize the fiendish
brutality of the affair. We cannot
| feel any sense of security until there
has been a radical change in the poll
tics of the empire, though the settle
| ment of the Zeiloon rebellion would
remove one great menace TO our
safety. One thing which has made it
particularly hard to bear has been the
| i'm possibility of communication with
the outside world, either to learn what
| is going on there or to acquaint others
with the state of things here. Our
letters have been intercepted, papers
not allowed to reach us, kilograms not
sent us, and when we have attempted
to send special messengers they have
been arrested and treated as spies,
imprisoned and. we think, in two
cases, killed. We have felt that the
everlasting arms were underne. e b us
through it all, and it has been L .sreat
pleasure to me personally to be able
| to help the sick and wounded. What
is to become of the thousands of home
less widows and orphans during the
coming winter? Anitab has escaped
with little loss as compared with
many places, and still in Anitab there
are at least 1000 people who must be
wholly supported by charity during
the coming winter. At Marash the
number must be more than five times
as large, and L estimate the number
of homeless and starving Christians
in the empire as over 100000 today.
Do what you can to help raise funds
for these poor people.
! To be of much use, funds must be in
hand to be distributed during Janu-
ary. Actual starvation cannot be de-
layed beyond that time by the efforts
of the people themselves, although
they share all they have with each
other. Thank the Lord anew that