626 



PERSIA. 



PERU. 



district. In the middle of July, according to 

 special dispatches from Constantinople, the 

 deaths in the province of Khorassan averaged 

 300 daily, and so great was the distress that the 

 dead bodies of the victims were devoured by 

 the survivors ; and men, women, and children, 

 were in some cases killed to render the supply 

 of food more abundant. The plague also ap- 

 peared among the Persians, and the Turkish 

 Government was compelled, by the exigency 

 of the situation, to draw a sanitary cordon 

 along the border of its dominions. Among 

 the classes which most severely suffered from 

 the famine were the Parsees. A letter from 

 Mr. Maneckjee Limgee Attaria, agent of the 

 managing committee of the East Indian Society, 

 after ameliorating the condition of poor Zoro- 

 astrians in Persia, gives a dreadful account of 

 their sufferings. Among the statements he 

 makes are the following : 



In Ispahan public shops are opened for selling 

 camel's, ass's, dog's, and cat's flesh, and yet from 

 70 to 80 persons die daily. ^ People go about selling 

 their children. The Armenian population only live 

 free from privation, they being supported by their 

 wealthy brethren in Calcutta and Batavia. In Kas- 

 san and Kome, cities where corn formerly abounded, 

 people have been caught " cutting down children for 

 food." In Khorassan 18,000 men had been swept 

 off through hunger and disease, and those who sur- 

 vived did not hesitate "to use raked-up corpses for 

 food." In Yezd twelve Zoroastrians were dying 

 daily for want of food, yet only one benevolent Par- 

 see gentleman, Mr. Nusserwanjee Maneckjee Petit, 

 had, up to the date of the letter, sent 300 rupees in 

 1866, and 1,700 rupees on the 10th of January, 

 1870, through the managing committee, and again 

 200 rupees by telegraph on the 14th of March, 1871. 

 No other contribution, the Parsee agent adds, had 

 been received, and corn distributed among the Zoro- 

 astrians at Yezd had been taken from them by the 

 Mohammedans. 



The Persian minister in London explicitly 

 denied the truth of the report concerning the 

 ravages committed by famine and pestilence. 

 According to his statement, there was un- 

 doubtedly a lamentable scarcity of food among 

 the poorer classes, and they were fed at the 

 expense of the Government, in the cemeteries, 

 because there was in them alone sufficient 

 room to accommodate the great crowds of 

 people who appeal to the authorities fors ub- 

 sistence. Order was preserved in the ceme- 

 teries by the police, and from this fact arose 

 the story that force had to be employed for 

 the prevention of the disinterment of the dead 

 for use as food. The minister expressed the 

 opinion that the horrible statements emana- 

 ting from his country were the work of com- 

 mercial agents. 



To put an end to doubt on the subject, Sir 

 R. Macdonald Stephenson sent a telegram to 

 Mr. Allison, the British charge d'affaires at 

 Teheran, to ask if the accounts published were 

 true, and, if the population were still suffering, 

 what would be the quickest means of afford- 

 ing relief. Mr. Allison's reply, partly con- 

 firming the statement of the Persian minis- 

 ter, was as follows: "Teheran, July 31st. 



The famine is over, but provisions are very 

 dear." 



Later accounts from Persia corroborated, 

 however, the accounts formerly received, not 

 only of the great suffering of the population, 

 but of the continuance of the famine. Accord- 

 ing to a letter from Teheran, August 7th, to 

 the Gazette of Cologne, the situation in Persia 

 was becoming more horrible from day to day. 



Of the 120,000 inhabitants of Meshed, the capital 

 of Khorassan, two-thirds perished from hunger and 

 disease in the course of July, while the remaining 

 third fled, and were mostly captured by roving 

 troops of Toorkomans and Afghans, and led into sla- 

 very. At Shiraz and Tabreez insurrections have 

 broken out. The cholera declared itself at the latter 

 place which suffered also terribly from an inunda- 

 tion and on the Turkish frontier at Solimanich 

 cases of pestilence have occurred. The inhabitants 

 of the capital, knowing that a petition to the Shah 

 would remain without answer, addressed themselves 

 to the foreign representatives, who declined to inter- 

 vene. When, at the beginning of August, the Shah 

 returned to his capital, he was received before the 

 gates by thousands of howling women, who were af- 

 terward dispersed by the police. The Shah took up 

 his residence in a neighboring castle, and issued a 

 decree ordering the sale of bread at a nominal price. 

 No bread came forth, and the Shah_then ordered, as 

 remedial measures, to put into chains the vizier of 

 the town, to slit open the belly of the chief baker, 

 and to put several others bakers into their ovens. 

 The entente was thereby put down, but not the pre- 

 vailing misery, and a terrible catastrophe is expected. 



The Levant Herald of Constantinople, at the 

 close of August, declared that the famine and 

 pestilence were worse than ever ; that there 

 were 27,000 victims at Ispahan alone ; that the 

 crops had been destroyed, and that one-third 

 of the population had been annihilated. On 

 September 9th an Englishman, Savil Dickin- 

 son, writes from Teheran, on the condition of 

 affairs : " The country is disturbed by frequent 

 insurrections; the pestilence still rages and its 

 horrors are increased by destructive inunda- 

 tions; and, notwithstanding the fearful situ- 

 ation of the country and people, the Per- 

 sian Government refuses to avail itself of the 

 aid proffered by the Governments of Great 

 Britain and Russia." 



The Shah, in consequence of the issue of the 

 Franco-German War, engaged a Prussian colo- 

 nel to reorganize the Persian army. 



PERU, a republic in South America. Pres- 

 ident for the term from 1868 to 1872, Colonel 

 J. F. Balta; first Vice-President, Colonel M. H. 

 Cevallos; second Vice-President, G. F. Can- 

 seco. The Senate consists of 18, and the Cham- 

 ber of Deputies of about 100 members. Area, 

 5 10, 107 square miles. The population of Peru, 

 according to official statistics published in 

 Lima, in 1871, was as follows : 



Departments. Population. 



Piura 172,000 



Cajamarca 273,000 



Amazonas 44,000 



Loreto 58,000 



Libertad 5(i.OOO 



Ancacho 317,000 



Lima 350,000 



Callao 40,000 



Junin 282,000 



Huancavelua .... 160,000 



Departments. Population. 



Huanuco 90,000 



lea 68,000 



Ayacucho 210,000 



Cuzco 464,000 



Puno 305,000 



Arequipa 200,000 



Moquegna 85.000 



Jarapaca 25,000 



Total. 



3,11)9,000 



