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Show 1916 The Port Said Refugees 13 that he would clear the mountain in one day. But the Turks suffered casualties and were driven back to the base. When they advanced for a more general attack, they dragged up two field guns which, after some experimentation, secured the range and wrought havoc in our camp. One of our sharpshooters, a lion-hearted young fellow, crept down through the brushwood and among the rocks until he was in very close range of the field guns, which were mounted on a flat rock. Having made himself an ambush of branches, he watched for a good opportunity. He was so near that he could hear the Turks talking to one another as they loaded the guns. Then as one gunner stepped out into view, the young man picked him off with the first shot. With five bullets he killed four gunners! The captain thereupon threw up his hands in dismay, and not being able to discern our sharp-shooter, he ordered the guns to be dragged to a place of shelter. After a good deal of fighting and some heroic deeds of defense on the part of the Armenians, the Turks gathered a horde of 8,000 Mohammedans (some soldiers, some the Moslem population for miles around) and laid siege to the mountain on its landward side. On the seaward side there was no harbor or port, the mountain sloping directly into the water. Their first week on the mountain had exhausted the supply of flour or cereals the people had been able to bring. For a month they lived on meat, slaughtering a certain number of sheep and goats each day, while the children had goats' milk in a small quantity. At length they found that even with reduced rations they had not food for more than two weeks more. The story goes on: - "From the first we had been thinking of escape by sea. It occurred to us that possibly a battleship of the Allies might be in Alexandretta harbor, thirty-five miles to the north. So one of our young men who was a strong swimmer volunteered to creep through the Turkish lines and take a message in English strapped inside his belt. He succeeded in reaching the hills overlooking the harbor, but saw that there was no battleship and returned. . . . We then prepared triplicate copies of the appeal and appointed three swimmers to be constantly on the watch for any passing ship, to strike through the surf and swim out at an angle, so as to meet the vessel. . . . "But days passed and not even a sail was seen. The war had reduced the coastwise shipping to a minimum. BLANKET DISTRIBUTION BY THE AMERICAN RED CROSS AT THE PORT SAID C/MP |