THE KING’S BUSINESS
31
... O n , Friday, July 30, -General Nicolieff ordered all the Armenians and .other foreigners to flee .from Van for their lives. By Saturday night nearly all the Armenians had left the city: There was little doubt in our minds as to our own flight. Our experiences during the siege had shown us that the fact of our being Americans would not protect us from the Turks. Our two men were helpless, so we could not stay there in a deserted city. We were fifteen Americans and had ten Armenian depend ents (women and children) to provide for. We begged the general to give us ambu lances. He had none to spare. Some what reassured by the coming of another general in a day or two, we made no effort to leave that day. The next day we heard that the volunteers who had kept the road open could not do so much longer, and there was no time to lose. One of our teachers, who had not succeeded in getting away earlier, kindly took a . small bag of our clothing on his ox cart for each of us. We spread the blankets on the bottom of the delivery wagons, intending to take three sick. Mrs. Raynolds would drive one horse hitched to the small wagon, and take what food was possible for the babies, as no provisions could be bought on the way. The rest of us must walk, though some had just risen from a sick bed, and the children are all under twelve. A TOUGH OF HUMOR We put- loads on thé cows we must take with us, for the sake of the babies and the patients. But the cows were refractory; they kicked off the loads and ran about the yard, tails üp and heads down. Whereupon the single horse broke loose and “also ran,” smashing the cart. At this “psycho logical moment” two doctors of the Russian Red Cross rode into our yard. Seeing our plight, they rode out again. They re turned a little latet; and on their own responsibility promised to take us with the Red Cross caravan. Thank the Lord. We now put our loads on the delivery wagon, put the wheels of the smashed cart on the body of a wheelless cart and put
some things, on it to take with us. What we left behind we would never see again. Our houses were looted and burned by the Russian government. The Red Cross provided us with two ambulances, horses and drivers, and a stretcher between two horses for Dr. Ussher. He was usually taken into one of the sick tents when we camped at night ; most of the rest slept on the ground in the open. We left August 3. The Russians appeared to have received news that made them very uneasy,, and General Trokin left Van that very afternoon, as we learned later. The next day at sundown we heard the firing. It sounded startlingly near. We traveled till late that night in order to reach Perigree, where we would be safe beyond the line along which the Turks would try to intercept travelers. A TERRIBLE JOURNEY That afternoon we forded a deep and wide river, entered a narrow valley, from the mountains commanding which, Kurds suddenly began to fire down on the Red Cross caravan and the thousand of foot- travelers. One man in the ambulance was killed and others wounded. The sight of those terror-stricken thousands is one_never to be forgotten. The drivers. of ambu lances and litters whipped up their horses to a mad gallop. It was a race for life. The teacher who had taken our bags of clothing threw everything off his ox cart in order to escape with his life. The Armenians threw off much of our luggage, and we lost most of what we had brought with us. Mrs. Raynolds, who had been riding in the small cart, fell and broke her leg below the knee. The Red Cross physicians set it and she had some comfort over the rough roads, lying full length in the ambulance. Friday all but the four helpless ones walked over Mount Taparez. Saturday we climbed on foot another high mountain from sun down till 3 the next morning. The caravan rested Sunday at a Red Cross camp, near the top of ChingH Mountain, at the foot of
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