History of Armenia, by Father Michael Chamich; from B. C. 2247 to ...

202 HISTORY OF ARMENIA.
season, and the ship had not proceeded far when
a violent storm arose, which cast them away on
a desert island. Although the vessel went to
pieces on her striking the land, yet the holy
Nierses and the crew succeeded in oetting
safe
ashore. They found the island extremely barren,
affording no nourishment fit for man. They
were obliged from hunger, at first to eat the roots
of the trees which grew there; but by the providence
of God, in a short time, the sea threw her
•fishes upon the dry land in such abundance that
for eight months, during which they resided
there, they never were in want.
When the intelli2:ence
of the banishment of Nierses reached
Armenia, the king being then free from his
enemies, broke the covenant he had so solemnly
made with his chiefs in the moment of his
distress; and sought to revenge on them the
mortifications their former opposition had occasioned
him. Some he succeeded in killing by
stratagem ; the race of the Camsaracans was
almost annihilated by his
treacherous conduct.
He invited the whole of this tribe to the city
of Armavir, whither they repaired
without the
least suspicion of the fate that awaited them.
When they arrived, the ruthless Arsaces caused
every individual of them to be butchered, man,
woman, and child !
It happened, however, that
one member of the Camsaracans escaped the