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.



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