Persecutions And Oppressions In Georgia And Mingrelia
The Georgians, are christians, and being very handsome people, the Turks
and Persians persecute them by the most cruel mode of taxation ever
invented, namely, in lieu of money, they compel them to deliver up their
children for the following purposes.
The females to increase the number of concubines in their seraglios, to
serve as maids of honour to sultanas, the ladies of bashaws, &c., and to
be sold to merchants of different nations, by whom the price is
proportioned to the beauty of the purchased fair one.
The males are used as mutes and eunuchs in the seraglio, as clerks in
the offices of state, and as soldiers in the army.
To the west of Georgia is Mingrelia, a country likewise inhabited by
christians, who are persecuted and oppressed in the same manner as the
Georgians by the Turks and Persians, their children being extorted from
them, or they murdered for refusing to consent to the sale.