ing what they could, they hired carts and carriages for the
transport of their goods and themselves and started--as they
thought--for their destination. On their arrival at a very rugged and
barren place, far distant from any villages, the drivers, in conformity
with their instructions, broke up the conveyances and left the people in
the waste, returning in the night to plunder them. Many died there of
hunger and terror; a great part were killed on the road; and only a few
reached Syria or El-Deir.

CHILDREN PERISHING OF HUNGER AND THIRST.--An Arab of El-Jezira, who
accompanied me on my flight from Diarbekir, told me that he had gone
with a Sheikh of his tribe, men and camels, to buy grain from the sons
of Ibrahim Pasha El-Mellili. On their way they saw 17 children, the
eldest not more than 13 years old, dying of hunger and thirst. The Arab
said: "We had with us a small water-skin and a little food. When the
Sheikh saw them he wept with pity, and gave them food and water with his
own hands; but what good could this small supply do to them? We
reflected that if we took them with us to the Pasha, they would be
killed, as the Kurds were killing all Armenians by order of the
authorities; and our Arabs were at five days' distance from the place.
So we had no choice but to leave them to the mercy of God, and on our
return, a week later, we found them all dead."

NARRATIVE OF A PROVINCIAL GOVERNOR.--We were talking of the courage and
good qualities of the Armenians, and the Governor of the place, who was
with us, told us a singular story. He said: "According to orders, I
collected all the remaining Armenians, consisting of 17 women and some
children, amongst whom was a child of 3 years old, diseased, who had
never been able to walk. When the butchers began slaughtering the women
and the turn of the child's mother came, he rose up on his feet and ran
for a space, then falling down. We were astonished at this, and at his
understanding that his mother was to be killed. A gendarme went and took
hold of him, and laid him dead on his dead mother." He also said that
he had seen one of these women eating a piece of bread as she went up to
the butcher, another smoking a cigarette, and that it was as though they
cared nothing for death.

NARRATIVE OF SHEVKET BEY.--Shevket Bey, one of the officials charged
with the extermination of the Armenians, told me, in company with
others, the following story: "I was proceeding with a party, and