ALONG THE LANDWARD WALLS

In the third chapter, occupied with the story of the making of Constantinople, some account has been given of the portion of the landward walls erected in the earlier half of the fifth century, when the city was enlarged under Theodosius II., viz. the portion extending from the Sea of Marmora, on the south, to the ruins of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus (Tekfour Serai) on the north. That seemed the most appropriate place to speak of the origin and character of fortifications which were built as much for the growth and convenience of the city in its civic relations, as for its security as the citadel of the Empire. To that chapter the reader who desires to recall the information given on the subject, is referred. Here, after a brief account of the additions made to the Theodosian walls, in subsequent times, we shall consider the historical importance of the landward walls as a whole, and glance at some of the scenes enacted before them.

The post-Theodosian portions of the walls that guarded Constantinople on the side of the land extend from the courtyard of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus to the shore of the Golden Horn at Aivan Serai. They replaced an older line of fortifications which ran, at a short distance to the rear, between the same points, and were constructed to strengthen the weak places which time revealed in this part of the city’s armour. First in the order of position, though not in the order of time, comes the wall erected by Manuel Comnenus (1142-1180), for the greater security of the Palace of Blachernse, his favourite residence, which stood within the old bulwarks, just mentioned.

It terminates at the foot of the steep hill on which the quarter of Egri Kapou is situated. With its nine noble towers it presents a striking likeness to the fortifications of a feudal baronial castle, and its solid masonry defied the Turkish cannon in 1453. Then follow walls, the original date of whose construction cannot be precisely determined, as they evidently underwent frequent repairs and alterations tour packages balkan. Here is found the Tower of Isaac Angelus, and, in the body of the wall to the north of the tower, are three stories of large chambers, very much ruined, which some authorities regard as the cells of the State Prison of Anemas.

More probably, they were either barracks or store-rooms attached to the imperial residence, and at the same time buttresses for the support of the terraced hill on which the palace was built. Beyond this chambered wall there is a double line of fortifications. The inner wall was erected in 627, under Heraclius, after the siege of the city by the Avars, to protect the quarter of Blachernae and its celebrated Church of S. Mary of Blachernse more effectively in the future than when assailed by that enemy.

The outer wall was built as an additional defence in 818, by Leo the Armenian (818-820), in view of an expected attack upon the city by the Bulgarians under Crum.

Splendid natural scenery

The territory outside the landward walls has indeed a charm of its own, in its quiet rural aspect, and in the glimpses it affords of distant blue water seen through dark groves of cypresses. But it cannot pretend to the splendid natural scenery which confronts the shores of the Sea of Marmora or of the Golden Horn, and makes the beauty of Constantinople famous throughout the world. This, however, is not altogether a disadvantage, for it allows the visitor to view without distraction the imposing line of bulwarks ranged across the promontory from sea to sea, and to appreciate calmly all their significance.

On the other sides of the city, the fortifications which guarded the Queen of Cities are comparatively unimportant, and are easily lost sight of in the beauty of their surroundings. Here the walls and towers are everything. Here they attained their greatest strength; here they rendered their greatest service; here, like troops bearing the wounds and scars of a great campaign, they force the beholder to realise the immense debt which the civilised world owes to Constantinople for the strength, the valour, and the sacrifices devoted through long centuries to the defence of the highest life of mankind against terrible foes.

Golden Horn from the Sea of Marmora

He also constructed another harbour on the southern side of the city, placing it in the hollow ground below the heights on which the Hippodrome stands, and thus provided for the convenience and safety of ships that found it difficult to make the Golden Horn from the Sea of Marmora, in the face of the northern winds that prevail in the Bosporus. The harbour was first known as the New Harbour and the Harbour of Julian, but, in the sixth century, it was also named the Harbour of Sophia or the Sophias, in view of extensive repairs made at the instance of the Empress Sophia, the consort of Justin II. The basin of the harbour can still be traced in the configuration of the ground it once occupied, where its memory is preserved by the present name of the locality—Kadriga Limani, the Port of the Galley.

At the head of the harbour Julian built a portico, a crescent in shape, and therefore spoken of as the Sigma, from its resemblance to the curved form of that letter in the Greek alphabet. Very appropriately the portico became a favourite lounge of the philosophers in Constantinople, and the scene of their discussions. But what Julian doubtless considered his richest and most filial gift to the city of his birth, was the presentation to its public library of his collection of books.

Surmounted respectively

Valens, the next Emperor concerned with the growth of the city, gave special attention to the water-supply of Constantinople—always a serious question owing to the comparative scarcity of water in the immediate neighbourhood. The picturesque aqueduct which, with its double tier of arches gar-landed with ivy, still transports water across the valley between the hills surmounted respectively by the Mosque of Sultan Mehemet and the War Office, was built in this reign. It was an addition to the system of water-supply provided by Constantine; a system which, probably, had previously served the town of Byzantium, and which he only extended and improved. Near the eastern end of the aqueduct a splendid public fountain was placed.

Dospat Vacha Hydro Power Cascade

Dospat-Vacha Hydro-Power Cascade commissioned between 1958 and 1965

During this period the Kozloduy nuclear power plant was constructed and commissioned on the Danube (1974). Its initial capacity consisted of 2×440 MW VVER-440 reactors. Later on it was extended by another 2×440 MW reactors of the same type. In 1987 Unit 5, VVER-1000 with a capacity of 1000 MW was commissioned, and in 1991-Unit 6 of the same type. Thus the total capacity of Kozloduy amounted to 1760+2000 = 3760 MW. Its annual output is presented in Table 14.

During the period reviewed here, the electric power generated by Kozloduy NPP reached 35.6% of the total power generated in the country (1989), and in the recent years its share has exceeded 40%.

The construction of a second nuclear power plant also was begun on the Danube-Belene NPP. However, after considerable progress of the construction, it was stopped and has not been continued.

The 220 kV overhead transmission line ring: Aleko-Maritsa East-Dobrudja-Gorna Oryahovitsa-Aleko was completed in 1971.

Transmission network

During that period a 400 kV transmission network was constructed-comparatively big for the scale of Bulgaria. It was developed according to the “closed loop” pattern, like the 220 kV and 110 kV networks, and was completed in 1984. At the same time, interconnection lines for such voltages were also built with the countries listed below:

Varna TPP, commissioned in 1969-overall view Varna Substation 750/400 kV, commissioned in 1987 Varna Substation 750/400 kV -transformer area Varna Substation 750/400 kV- 750 kV switchyard 750 kV overhead transmission line to Varna Substation

The related power supply substations for 220, 400 and 750 kV were also constructed, as well as a considerable number of substations for 110/10-20 kV (Table 15).Substations ft transformers diagram of the 400 kV and 220 kV transmission system in Bulgaria, 1980

Mountainous region bordering the Western Morava

It was supposed that when the Austro-German forces reached the higher mountainous region bordering the Western Morava valley and it became difficult if not impossible to bring up their heavy guns, the rate of advance would become even slower than before. The fact that the advance was actually accelerated has been interpreted to mean that the failure of Serbian supplies weakened the defense more than the unfavorable local topography injured the plans of the offensive. The Teutons moved rapidly across the Western Morava, and the Serbian army took np a position running eastward along the mountain crests south of the valley, then southward along the ridge west of the Morava-Vardar trench, and southwestward across the Katchanik gorge.

It will immediately appear that the Katchanik position was the strategic key to this entire battle front. In the rear of the Serbian armies facing north and east, runs the straight subsidiary trench formed by the Lepenatz valley, Kosovo Polye, and the Ibar valley. The gateway to this trench is the narrow Katchanik gorge. A railway from Uskiib runs through the gorge to Mitrovitza at the north end of the Kosovo Polye, thereby more than doubling the strategic value of the depression. If the Bulgarian forces already in possession of tiskiib should succeed in breaking through the Katchanik gorge into the plain of Kosovo, they could strike north and east against the rear of the Serbian armies and convert retreat into disaster. Little wonder, then, that the “Katchanik Pass” figured so prominently in the war despatches during this period!

Key to the Serbian position

But if Katchanik was the key to the Serbian position, Yeles was the key to Katchanik. Should the Anglo-French troops coming up the Yardar from Saloniki capture Yeles and debouch into the triangular lowland to the north, they would take in the rear the Bulgarian army trying to break through the Katchanik position. It would not be necessary for the Anglo- French force to enter the Lepenatz valley; the mere threat of enclosing the Bulgarians in the valley between the Serbs up at Katchanik and their allies down at the valley mouth would be sufficient to bring the Bulgars out of the trap in order to fight on the lowland, where, if defeated, they could retire northeastward into a region fully under their control. The threat would become imminent the moment Yeles fell to the Allies. Such were the topographic relations responsible for the rather striking fact that an Anglo-French attack upon Yeles relieved the pressure upon Serbian forces in the mountains far to the north.

Impelled by his vigorous arm

Impelled by his vigorous arm, the geritex flew with unerring precision and double velocity. He uses his pistols and sabre with superior skill: but his pre-eminence was most conspicuous at the public spectacles of the Grand Signior in the circus, where the young men opposed themselves in fierce combat to the lion, or other ferocious animals and where the meed of victory constantly adorned Hassan’s brow.

Courageous, generous, benevolent and, except when under the immediate influence of passion, most humane; impartial in his official distribution of rewards and punishments; warm and sincere in his attachments ; affable and courteous to his inferiors; ever ready to alleviate distress ; but implacable in his enmity to oppressor; it is only to be lamented that a character rendered brilliant by so many excellent qualities was not destined to shine under the more happy influence of a Christian Government, where the prejudices inseparable from a Turkish education, which have been productive of the only blemish that tarnishes so bright a character, could never have existed.

In the high post he enjoys as Lord High Admiral, his privileges are very nearly as great as those of the most despotic prince, and the lives of all his inferiors are at his disposal.

At all the conflagrations in the city or suburbs or Constantinople, which are pretty frequent, the Grand Signior, Grand Vizier, and Capitan Pasha are obliged to assist, in order to animate by their presence and persuasion those [who] are employed in putting out the flames. The last of these great personages who arrives forfeits a certain sum of money, one thousand Venetian sequins, in favour of the first. The Capitan Pasha is constantly the first, though he is by many years the eldest of the three.

Capitan Pasha

On the night of the twenty-first, when a fire broke out in the palace of the Grand Vizier, who was with the army, the Capitan Pasha was at his beautiful villa, situated about four miles from Constantinople. He was immediately informed of it, and in a moment set off on horseback, with forty attendants, and reached town in less than twenty minutes, though the road was scarcely passable, being covered with snow some feet deep, and the night unusually dark ; so that out of his forty attendants, one only was able to keep up with him, all the rest having been thrown from their horses, and unable or unwilling to follow him.

PARTRIDGES AND WILD BOARS

Though the Rock of Gibralter is surrounded by the sea, well water is to be found all over it, pretty good, and fit to drink, though heavy and often brackish ; but the rain water from the mountain, which is filtered through the sands without the south port, is exceedingly good and wholesome, and remains uncorrupt a long time. It is collected into a reservoir, and from thence conducted to the town. This aqueduct was first begun by the Moors, and carried by earthen pipes : in their time it reached the city, supplying the Atarasana1 and the Castle : that now existing was planned by a Spanish Jesuit, and only reaches to the grand parade. The hill universally abounds with cavities and receptacles for rain, which mostly centre in the Reservoir, affording an inexhaustible stock of excellent water, greatly con-tributing to the health of the inhabitants.

PARTRIDGES AND WILD BOARS

I was much surprised, in one ot my excursions, to spring a covey of partridges of about twelve brace. I saw nothing for them to feed on, but was informed that they eat the seed of the Palmetto, which grows in great abundance on every part of the Rock. I met with numbers of them afterwards : nor was I astonished at it, when I knew that there was a strict rule observed forbidding any person of whatever rank or condition to fire a shot on any account, unless at an enemy, and they have had sufficient sport in this way to satisfy any reasonable people for some time.

At the southern end of the Rock, some way up, above St. Michael’s Cave, there are many wild boars, which are sometimes seen a dozen in number. I should willingly have paid those gentlemen a visit, had shooting been permitted. On the Sugarloaf there are monkeys in hundreds ; and though the soldiers often complain medicine and art, when on guard, of being pelted by them with stones, they are not permitted to defend themselves by shooting at them.

There is very little society at Gibralter, but a perfect harmony subsists between the Garrison and the few inhabitants ; and with apparent wishes to promote conviviality, they spend their time in a very pleasant manner. I felt so much comfort and satisfaction among them that it was with much regret I left this celebrated Rock ; not less endeared to me by the hospitality I experienced there than it is known to the rest of the world for its memorable defence.

November the sixths we re-embarked on board the London. Nothing remarkable occurred to us on the first days of our navigation ; nor shall I attempt to describe the various scenes and trifling occurrences which do not fail to attract the attention of the inexperienced navigator. It was not till the thirteenth that we discovered land, which proved to be the island of Sardinia.

On the same morning I was very much entertained with the appearance of a vast number of pilot fish. This fish is known to live in perfect amity with the shark, whose caterer he is said to be, in the same manner as the iackal is the lion’s. We endeavoured to catch some of them with lines ; but did not succeed. We tried to strike them with the harpoon, but being rather too small to be killed in this manner we only got two of them after labouring for three hours. We had them dressed for dinner and found them eat tolerably well.

Having unfortunately stood too much to the northward, we perceived that most likely we should not be able to weather the island, which would be one hundred miles out of our course, and to my great mortification, our apprehensions were but too well founded.

Observant and intelligent traveller

Considering the early age at which Whaley was removed from school, he seems to have acquired no inconsiderable amount of education. He was certainly an observant and intelligent traveller, and in spite of many distractions, must have spent much of his time in noting down such descriptive details as he has preserved of his visits to Gibraltar, Constantinople, Asia Minor, Jerusalem, and other places of interest. At Rome, he tells us that he spent eight hours a day for two months “ in viewing whatever was worthy the notice of a traveller.”

The sketches he made during his wanderings, which were, however, unfortunately lost,* point to the possession of some artistic ability ; and his allusions to ancient history and mythology, his occasional quotations from the Latin poets, together with some evidence of a knowledge of Greek, all go to show that he retained something more than a mere schoolboy smattering of the classics. Where he chiefly fails as a writer is in the spelling of foreign names of places, some of which, as he gives them, are quite impossible to identify. The Memoirs were, however, compiled from notes made here and there through his travels, often, no doubt, in a hurried manner, and from casual information gathered by the way, and when after the lapse of some years he came to transcribe his disjointed memoranda, he had probably forgotten the less-known names, and may have been out of the reach of such books as would have enabled him to show more correctness in this branch of orthography.

Tombstones in Jerusalem

Not unconnected with the subject of his general attainments in the way of education, there is one feature of the Memoirs which is deserving of more than a passing notice. He gives in his pages exact copies of several inscriptions, which he took from the original slabs or tombstones in Jerusalem as they then appeared, although saying nothing as to what led him into this branch of archaeology, one seldom touched on by any but those who have devoted some serious study to matters of the kind.

It might be suggested, and with plausibility, that his reproductions of these ancient writings were intended to be used as further proofs of his having been in the Holy City, and with a view to convincing the friends who had wagered against his getting there. But the honesty of his confession of the purpose for which he obtained the certificates given to him by the Superiors of the conventual establishments at Jerusalem and Nazareth1 show that such suggestions are unnecessary.

General skepticism

It seems likely then, at no very remote day, to fare ill with the old enemy of the Cross. However, we must not undervalue what is still the strength of his position. First, no well-authenticated tokens come to us of the decay of the Mahometan faith. It is true, that in one or two cities, in Constantinople perhaps, or in the marts of commerce, laxity of opinion, and general skepticism, may to a certain extent prevail, as also in the highest class of all, and in those who have most to do with Europeans; but I confess nothing has been brought home to me to show that this superstition is not still a living, energetic principle in the Turkish population, sufficient to bind them together in one, and to lead to bold and persevering action. It must be recollected that a national and local faith, like the Mahometan, is most closely connected with the sentiments of patriotism, family honour, loyalty towards the past, and party spirit; and this the more in the case of a religion which has no articles of faith at all, except those of the Divine Unity and the mission of Mahomet.

To these must be added more general considerations; that they have ever prospered under their religion, that they are habituated to it, that it suits them, that it is their badge of a standing antagonism to nations they abhor, and that it places them, in their own imagination, in a spiritual position relatively to those nations, which they would simply forfeit if they abandoned it. It would require clear proof of the fact, to credit in their instance the report of a change of mind, which antecedently is so improbable.

Raw material of the Turkish nation

And next it must be borne in mind, that, few as may be the Osmanlis, yet the raw material of the Turkish nation, represented principally by the Turcomans, extends over half Asia; and, if it is what it ever has been, might under circumstances be combined or concentrated into a formidable power. It extends at this day from Asia Minor, in a continuous tract, to the Lena, towards Kamtchatka, and from Siberia down to Khorasan, the Hindu Cush, and China.

Thornton and Volney

Observe, they were in the eighth century of their political existence, when Thornton and Volney lived among them, and these authors then report of them as follows: Their religion forbids them every sort of painting, sculpture, or engraving; thus the fine arts cannot exist among them. “ Their buildings”, says Thornton, “ are heavy in their proportions, bad in detail, both in taste and execution, fantastic in decoration, and destitute of genius. Their cities are not decorated with public monuments, whose object is to enliven or to embellish”. They have no music but vocal; and

know of no accompaniment except a bass of one note like that of the bagpipe. Their singing is in a great measure recitative, with little variation of note. They have scarcely any notion of medicine or surgery; and they do not allow of anatomy. As to science, the telescope, the microscrope, the electric battery, are unknown, except as play things. The compass is not universally employed in their navy, nor are its common purposes thoroughly understood. Navigation, astronomy, geography, chemistry, are either not known, or practised only on antiquated and exploded principles. As to their civil and criminal codes of law, these are unalterably fixed in the Koran.

Their habits require very little furniture ; “ the whole inventory of a wealthy family”, says Volney, “ consists in a carpet, mats, cushions, mattresses, some small cotton clothes, copper and wooden platters for the table, a mortar, a portable mill, a little porcelain, and some plates of copper tinned. All our apparatus of tapestry, wooden bead- steads, chairs, stools, glasses, desks, bureaus, closets, buffets with their plate and table services, all our cabinet and upholstery work are unknown”.

Powers of Christendom

They have no clocks, though they have watches. In short, they are hardly more than dismounted Tartars still; and, if pressed by the powers of Christendom, would be able, at very short warning, to pack up and turn their faces northward to their paternal deserts. You find in their cities barbers and mercers; saddlers and gunsmiths; bakers and confectioners; sometimes butchers ; whitesmiths and ironmongers; these are pretty nearly all their trades. Their inheritance is their all; their own acquisition is nought. Their stuffs are from the classical Greeks; their dyes are the old Tyrian; their cement is of the age of the Romans; and their locks may be traced back to Solomon. They do not commonly engage in agriculture or in commerce; of the cultivators of the soil I have said quite enough in a foregoing Lecture, and their commerce seems to be generally in the hands of Franks, Greeks, or Armenians, as formerly in the hands of the Jews.

Malek Shah attracted

It was their one instinctive notion of the religion of the West; and the Turks in their own history have often had cause to lament over its truth. Togrul Beg first looked towards the West in the year 1048; twenty years later, between the years 1068 and 1074,f his successor Malek Shah attracted the attention of the great St. Gregory the Seventh. Time went on; they were thrown back by the impetuosity of the Crusaders; they returned to the attack. Fresh and fresh multitudes poured down from Turkistan; the furious deluge of the Tartars under Zingis spread itself and disappeared ; the Turks sunk in it, but emerged; the race seemed indestructible; then Othman began a new career of victory, as if there had never been an old one, and founded an empire, more stable, more coherent than any Turkish rule before it.

Pontiffs of learning

Then followed Sultan after Sultan, each greater than his predecessor, while the line of Popes had indeed many bright names to show, Pontiffs of learning, and of piety, and of genius, and of zeal and energy; but still where was the destined champion of Christendom, the holy, the inflexible, the lion-hearted, the successor of St. Gregory, who in a luxurious and a self-willed age, among his other high duties and achievements, had the mission, by his prayers and by his efforts, of stopping the enemy in his full career, and of rescuing Catholicism from the pollution of the blasphemer ? The five hundred years were not yet completed, t Gibbon says twenty years; Sharon Turner, 1074.

But the five hundred years at length were run out; the long-expected champion was at hand. Pie appeared at the very time when the Ottoman crescent had passed its zenith and was beginning to descend the sky. The Turkish successes began in the middle of the eleventh century; they ended in the middle of the sixteenth; in the middle of the sixteenth century, just five hundred years after St. Gregory and Malek Shah, Selim the Sot came to the throne of Othman, and St. Pius the Fifth to the throne of the Apostle; Pius became Pope in 1568, and Selim became Sultan in that very same year.

Fulness of apostolic charity

Especially was there one, the divinely appointed shepherd of the poor of Christ, the anxious steward of. His Church, who from his high and ancient watch tower, in the fulness of apostolic charity, surveyed narrowly what was going on at thousands of miles from him, and who with prophetic eye looked into the future age; and scarcely had that enemy showed himself, who was in the event so heavily to smite the Christian world, but he gave warning of the danger, and prepared himself with measures to avert it. Scarcely had the Turk touched the shores of the Mediterranean and the Archipelago, when the Pope detected and denounced him before all Europe.

The heroic Pontiff, St. Gregory the Seventh, was then upon the throne of the Apostle; and though he was engaged in one of the severest conflicts which Pope has ever sustained, not only against the secular power, but against bad bishops and priests, yet at a time when his very life was not his own, and present responsibilities so urged him, that one would fancy he had time for no other thought, Gregory was able to turn his mind to the consideration of a contingent danger in the almost fabulous East. In a letter written during the reign of Malek Shah, he suggested the idea of a crusade against the misbeliever, which later popes carried out. He assures the Emperor of Germany, whom he was addressing, that he had 50,000 troops ready for the holy war, whom he would fain have led in person. In truth the most melancholy accounts were brought to Europe of the state of things in the Holy Land.

A rude Turcoman ruled in Jerusalem; his people insulted there the clergy of every profession ; they dragged the patriarch by the hair along the pavement, and cast him into a dungeon, in hopes of a ransom; and disturbed from time to time the Latin Mass and office in the Church of the Resurrection. As to the pilgrims, Asia Minor, the country through which they had to travel in an age when the sea was not yet safe to the voyager, was a scene of foreign incursion and internal dis-traction. They arrived at Jerusalem exhausted by their sufferings, and sometimes terminated them by death, before they were permitted to kiss the Holy Sepulchre.

Such calamities were of frequent occurrence, and one was very like another. I think it worth while, however, to set before you the circumstances of one of them, that you may be able to form some ideas of the state both of Asia Minor and of a Christian pilgrimage, under the dominion of the Turks. You may recollect, then, that Alp Arslan, the second Seljukian Sultan, invaded Asia Minor, and made prisoner the Greek Emperor.

Warlike operations immediately

This Sultan came to the throne in 1062, and appears to have begun his warlike operations immediately. The next year, or the year following, a body of pilgrims, to the number of 7,000, were pursuing their peaceful way to Jerusalem, by a route which at that time lay entirely through countries professing Christianity broad beans. The pious company was headed by the Archbishop of Mentz, the Bishops of Utrecht, Bamberg, and Ratisbon, and, among others, by a party of Norman soldiers and clerks, belonging to the household of William Duke of Normandy, who made himself, very soon afterwards, our William the Conqueror.

Among these clerks was the celebrated Benedictine Monk Ingulphus, William’s secretary, afterwards Abbot of Croyland in Lincolnshire, being at that time a little more than thirty years of age. They passed through Germany and Hungary to Constantinople, and thence by the southern coast of Asia Minor or Anatolia, to Syria and Palestine. When they got on the confines of Asia Minor towards Cilicia, they fell in with the savage Turcomans, who were attracted by the treasure, which these noble persons and wealthy churchmen had brought with them for pious purposes and imprudently displayed. Ingulphus’s words are few, but so graphic that I require an apology for using them. He says then, they were “ gutted of the immense sums of money they carried with them, together with the loss of many lives”.

Took place on their return to Venice

They were to be flayed alive; their shins filled with hay, and so sent back to the Pope; or they were to be put in the first rank in the next battle with the Franks, and to die by the weapons of their own countrymen. Eventually one of the Khan’s wives begged them off. They were kept in a sort of captivity for three years, and at length thought themselves happy to be sent away with their lives. So much for the Friars; how different was the lot of the merchants, may be understood by the scene which took place on their return to Venice. It is said that, on their appearance in their own city, after the absence of a quarter of a century, their change of appearance was such that even their nearest friends did not know them.

Appearance at Venice

Having with difficulty effected an entrance into their own house, they set about giving a splendid entertainment to the principal persons of the city. The banquet over, following the Oriental custom, they successively put on and then put off again, and distributed to their attendants, a series of magnificent dresses; and at length they entered the room in the same weather-stained and shabby dresses, in which, as travellers, they had made their first appearance at Venice. The assembled company eyed them with wonder; which you may be sure was not diminished, when they began to unrip the linings and the patches of those old clothes, and as the seams were opened, poured out before them a prodigious quantity of jewels. This had been their expedient for conveying their gains to Europe, and the effect of the discovery upon the world may be anticipated. Persons of all ranks and ages crowded to them, as the report spread, and they were the wonder of their day.

Necessarily confine the wandering

The valleys which lie between them necessarily confine the wandering savage to an eastward or westward course, and the slope of the land westward invites him to that direction rather than to the east. And further, at a certain point in these westward passages, as he approaches the meridian of the Sea of Aral, he finds the mountain-ranges cease, and he has the permission, if he will, to stretch away to the north or to the south. Moreover, his course is naturally to the west, from the nature of the case, if he moves at all, for the East is his native home.

There, in the most northerly of these ranges is a lofty mountain, which some geographers have identified with the classical Imaus; it is called by the Saracens Caf, by the Turks Altai; sometimes too it has the name of the Girdle of the Earth, from the huge appearance of the chain to which it belongs, sometimes of the Golden Mountain, from the gold, as well as other metals, with which its sides abound. It is said to be at an equal distance of 2,000 miles from the Caspian, the Frozen Sea, the North Pacific Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal ; and, being in situation the furthest withdrawn from West and South, it is in fact the high metropolis of the vast Tartar country, which it overlooks, and has sent forth, in the course of ages, innumerable populations into the illimitable and mysterious regions around it, regions protected by their inland character both from the observation and the civilizing influence of foreign nations.

To eat bread in the sweat of his brow is the original punishment of mankind; the indolence of the savage shrinks from the obligation, and looks out for methods of escaping it. Com, wine, and oil have no charms for him at such a price; he Gibbon.

turns to the brute animals which are his aboriginal companions, the horse, the cow, and the sheep; he prefers fd’be a grazier than to till the ground. He feeds his horses, flocks, and herds on its spontaneous vegetation, and then in turn he feeds himself on their flesh. He remains on one spot while the natural crop yields them sustenance; when it is exhausted, he migrates to another. He adopts, what is called, the life of a nomad.

The martial drum had never reached

TALE XVII

On a certain year, I was travelling from Balk with some people of Damascus, and the road was infested with robbers. There was a young man of our party, are expert handler of the shield, a mighty archer, a brandisher of all weapons, so strong that ten men could not draw his bowstring, and the most powerful wrestler on the face of the earth had never brought his back to the ground; but he was rich, and had been nursed in the shade, was inexperienced in the world, and no traveler.

The thundering sound of the martial drum had never reached his ear, neither had his eyes seen the lightning of the horseman’s sword; he had never been made prisoner by the enemy, nor had the arrows fallen in showers around him. It happened that I and this young man were running together; every wall that came in his way he pulled down, and every large tree that he saw, by the force of his arm he tore up by the roots.

He was boasting, saying, “Where is the elephant, that you may behold the shoulders of the hero? Where is the lion that you may see the fingers and palm of the brave man? ” We were in this situation, when two Indians lifted up their heads from behind a rock with the intention to kill us; one had a stick in his hand, and the other a sling under his arm. I said to the young man, “Why do you stop? Show your strength and velour, for here is the enemy within a foot of Ins grave.” I saw tile bow and arrows drop from the hand of the young man, and a trembling seized all his joints. Not every one who can split a hair with an arrow that will pierce a coat of mail, is able to stand against the warrior in the day of battle.

We saw no other remedy for ourselves, but to leave our accoutrements, surrender our arms, and escape with our lives. On an affair of importance employ a man of experience, who will bring the devouring lion into his trammels. A young man, though he has strength of arm and is powerful as an elephant, will feel his joints quaking with fear in the day of battle. A man of experience is as well qualified to act in war as the learned man is to expound a case of law.

Suffered reproach and uneasiness

TALE III

I saw a religions man so captivated by the beauty of a youth, that his secret became public, insomuch that he suffered reproach and uneasiness. However lie did not relinquish his attachment; and said, “I will not quit the skirt of your garment, although yourself should smite me with a sharp sword; besides thee I have neither asylum nor defence: to you alone can I flee tor refuge.” Once I reproved him, and said, “What has happened, to your excellent understanding, that mean inclinations should have been able to overpower it? After reflecting a short time, he replied, “Wherever

the King of love cometh, the arm of. piety hath not power to resist him. How can that poor wretch be clean, who has fallen up to his neck in a quagmire? ”

TALE IV

A certain person having lost his heart, abandoned himself to despair. The object of his affection being a place of danger, a whirlpool; not a morsel with which you could hope to gratifty the palate; not a bird that would fall into the net. When your sweetheart will not look at your gold, that metal and earth appear alike in your sight.

His friends besought him to relinquish this vain imagination, many besides himself being seized with this hopeless idea, and held in captivity by it. He lamenting said, “Desire my friends not to admonish me, since my destiny depends on the will of another. Warriors kill their enemies by the strength of their hands and shoulders; but those who are beautiful, destroy their friends. It is not consistent with the laws of love, through fear of death, to relinquish our attachment to our mistress.

You who seek your own ease, eannot be true in the game of love. If you cannot obtain access to the object of your affection, friendship demands that you should die in the pursuit. I persist, be- cause no other course remains, even though my adversary covers me with wounds from a sword or an arrow. If I should be able, I will seize her sleeve, otherwise I will go and expire at her threshold.”

The government of the kingdom

TALE XXVIII

A certain King, when arrived at the end of his days, having no heir, directed in his will that, in the morning after his death, the first person who entered the gate of the city, they should place on his head the crown of royalty, and commit to his charge the government of the kingdom. It happened that the first person who entered the city gate was a beggar, who all his life had collected scraps of victuals and sewed patch upon patch.

The ministers of state and the nobles of the court carried into execution the King’s will bestowing on him the kingdom and the treasure. For some time the I hinvesli governed the kingdom, until part of the nobility swerved their necks from his obedience, and all the surrounding monarehs, engaging in hostile confederacies, attacked him with their armies. In short, the troops and peasantry were thrown into confusion, and he lost the possession of some territories.

The Durwesh was distressed at these events, when an old friend, who had been his companion in the days of poverty, returned from a journey, and finding him in such exalted state, said, “Praised be the God of excellence and glory, that your high fortune lias aided you and prosperity been your guide, so that a rose has issued from the briar, and the thorn has been extracted from your foot, and you have arrived at this dignity participants independently optimize. Of a truth, joy succeeds sorrow: the bud sometimes blossoms and sometimes withers: the tree is sometimes naked and sometimes clothed.”

He replied, “0 brother, condole with me, for this is not a time for congratulation. When you saw me last, I was only anxious how to obtain bread; but now I have all the cares of the world to encounter. If the times are adverse, I am in pain; and if they are prosperous, I am captivated with worldly enjoyments. There is no calamity greater than worldly affairs, because they distress the heart in prosperity as well as in adversity

If you want riches, seek only for contentment, which is inestimable wealth, if the rich man should throw money into your lap, consider not yourself obliged to him; for I have often heard it said by pious men, that the patience of the poor is preferable to the liberality of the rich. If Bahrain should roast an onager (wild ass) to be distributed amongst the people, it would not be equal to the leg of a locust to an ant.”

TALE XXIX

A certain person had a friend employed hi the office of Dewan, with whom he had not chanced to meet for some time. Somebody said to him, 11 It is a long time since you saw such an one.” He answered, “Neither do I wish to see him.” It happened that one of the Dewan’s people was present, who asked what fault his friend had been guilty of, that he was not inclined to see him. He replied, “There is no fault; but the time for see ng a De- wan is when he is dismissed from his office. In greatness and authority of office, they neglect their friends in the day of adversity and degradation, they impart to their friends the disquietude to their hearts.”

Fighteth the battle staketh

I heard that at that time a powerful enemy appeared against the King, and when the two armies met, the first person who impelled his horse into the action was this young Prince, calling out, “I am not him, whose back you shall see in the day of battle, but my head may be found in dust and blood; for whosoever fighteth the battle staketh his own life; and he who flieth, sporteth with the blood of his troops.” Having thus said, he attacked the troops of the enemy, and overthrew several men of renown. When he came to his father, he bowed down to the earth and said, “0 ye, to whom my form appeared contemptible without considering the force of my valour, in the day of battle the slender steed is useful, and not the fattened ox.”

It is reported, that the enemy having many troops, and this side but few, a body of the latter were giving way, upon which the Prince vociferated, “Exert yourselves like men, that ye may not wear the dress of women.” The troopers, animated by this speech, joined in the general attack, and are reported to have gained the victory over the adversary on that day. The King kissed his head and eyes, and folded him in his arms, and his affection towards him increased daily, till at length he appointed him his successor. The brothers became envious, and put poison into his food. His sister seeing this from a window, flapped to the shutters; and he understanding the signal, withdrew his hand from the dish, and exclaimed, “If the wise should be deprived of life, it would be impossible for the unskilful to supply their place.

No one would go under the shade of the owl, if the Homai was annihilated from the earth.” They informed the father of the circumstances, who sent for the brothers, and after rebuking them properly, he gave to each of them a suitable portion of his kingdom, that all cause of strife and bickering might subside. It has been observed, that ten Durweshes may sleep upon one blanket, but that one kingdom cannot contain two Kings. If a pious man eatetli half a loaf of bread, he bestoweth the other half on the poor. If a king possesseth the dominion of a whole climate, he longeth to have the same enjoyment of another.

Fighteth the battle staketh

I heard that at that time a powerful enemy appeared against the King, and when the two armies met, the first person who impelled his horse into the action was this young Prince, calling out, “I am not him, whose back you shall see in the day of battle, but my head may be found in dust and blood; for whosoever fighteth the battle staketh his own life; and he who flieth, sporteth with the blood of his troops.” Having thus said, he attacked the troops of the enemy, and overthrew several men of renown. When he came to his father, he bowed down to the earth and said, “0 ye, to whom my form appeared contemptible without considering the force of my valour, in the day of battle the slender steed is useful, and not the fattened ox.”

It is reported, that the enemy having many troops, and this side but few, a body of the latter were giving way, upon which the Prince vociferated, “Exert yourselves like men, that ye may not wear the dress of women.” The troopers, animated by this speech, joined in the general attack, and are reported to have gained the victory over the adversary on that day. The King kissed his head and eyes, and folded him in his arms, and his affection towards him increased daily, till at length he appointed him his successor. The brothers became envious, and put poison into his food. His sister seeing this from a window, flapped to the shutters; and he understanding the signal, withdrew his hand from the dish, and exclaimed, “If the wise should be deprived of life, it would be impossible for the unskilful to supply their place.

No one would go under the shade of the owl, if the Homai was annihilated from the earth.” They informed the father of the circumstances, who sent for the brothers, and after rebuking them properly, he gave to each of them a suitable portion of his kingdom, that all cause of strife and bickering might subside. It has been observed, that ten Durweshes may sleep upon one blanket, but that one kingdom cannot contain two Kings. If a pious man eatetli half a loaf of bread, he bestoweth the other half on the poor. If a king possesseth the dominion of a whole climate, he longeth to have the same enjoyment of another.

BULGARIAN LIBERATION

The glorious April 1876 Uprising of the Bulgarian people ended in defeat, but it became a prelude to the people’s liberation. In the summer and early autumn of 1876 the Bulgarian question became the central issue in the long drawn-out Eastern Question — that about the destiny of the Balkan peoples enslaved by Turkey and about the fate of the Ottoman Empire itself. In spite of their close proximity to the Ottoman capital and the fact that they lived on the crossroads of the Empire’s vital arteries among compact masses of Turkish colonists, the Bulgarians had had the courage to rise in a desperate, resolute struggle to overthrow the unbearable foreign rule. This earned them the sympathy and admiration of the other European nations.

The Turkish authorities did their best to obliterate all traces of their inhuman atrocities in crushing the uprising, but the traces were so numerous and so horrible that even the little which was seen by foreign diplomats and jour-nalists was sufficient to arouse the profound indignation of world democratic public opinion. Knyaz Tseretelev, Russia’s vice-consul in Plovdiv, Eugene Schuyler, secretary of the United States embassy in Constantinople, and J. MacGahan, special correspondent of the British paper Daily News, undertook in early July, i. e. two months after the uprising, an investigation in the regions of Southern Bulgaria, which had risen.

Hasty glance

“What we saw there (Batak)”. MacGahan wrote.“was too frightful for more than a hasty glance… It was a fearful sight — a sight to haunt one through life. There were little curly heads there in that festering mass, crushed down by heavy stones… little baby hands stretched out as if for help; babies that had died wondering at the bright gleam of sabres and the red hands of the fierce-eyed men who wielded them; children who had died shrinking with fright and terror; young girls who had died weeping and sobbing and begging for mercy; mothers who died trying to shield their little ones with their own weak bodies, all lying there together, festering in one horrid mass.”

Byzantine Empire during the 1180s

Internecine struggles broke out in the Byzantine Empire during the 1180s and the Empire’s enemies abroad took advantage of this. A wave of Seldjuk Turks attacked from the east, the Magyars – from the north. In 1183 the Magyars reached as far as Sofia and established their rule over the Empire’s northwesternmost parts. Two years later the Normans, living in Italy, started their invasion and oc-cupied the second largest city of the Empire – Salonika. Numerous Bulgarian detachments joined the Normans and fought courageously against the oppressors.

The boyars Assen and Peter made an adroit use of the Empire’s difficulties. Their domains were in the region of the town of Turnovo. In the autumn of 1185 they raised an uprising against Byzantine rule, which spread quickly all over Northern Bulgaria. After long preparations, in the autumn of 1186 Emperor Isaac Angel started with his numerous troops for Turnovo. Peter and Assen avoided the decisive battle with the adversary, whose numbers were many times greater and retreated with their elite troops to the other side of the Danube where their allies, the Rumanians lived.

Soon after that the two brothers again crossed the Danube at the head of a numerous army composed of Bulgarians and Rumanians. They pushed the Byzantine army to the other side of the Balkan Range and the military actions were transferred to other Bulgarian regions. Isaac Angel again set out with his whole army against the Bulgarians, but suffered a serious defeat in 1187 at the Tryavna Pass and was forced to sign a peace treaty with Peter and Assen. This peace marked the rebirth of the Bulgarian state after nearly 170 years of foreign domination. This time Turnovo was proclaimed capital of Bulgaria.

Certain differences of accent and pronunciation

Between Servia and Bulgaria the outward differences are far less striking than those which distinguish Bulgaria from Romania. Indeed, the physical and moral conditions of the two first-named countries are very much the same. They are both Sclav States, speaking the same language. There are certain differences of accent and pronunciation between the two, certain words which are peculiar to each country. But these differences are not greater, I fancy, than those which exist between the dialects of Yorkshire and Somersetshire, and are certainly not great enough to hinder the inhabitants of either State from understanding the speech of the other.

Anybody who knows Russian can make out what is said to him, alike in Servian and Bulgarian, though I am told that Slavs and Bulgars find it more difficult to understand Russian when spoken to them. This may probably be explained by the fact of their comparative want of education. The written language of the three countries is almost identical Again, Servia and Bulgaria are adjacent lands, divided, not by broad rivers or by mountain ranges, but, in the main, by a purely geographical frontier.

Were it not for the Custom-houses between the two States, a stranger would hardly know when he had passed from one into the other. Their religion is identical, and they are both in theory, whatever they may be in practice, devout adherents of the Eastern Church. The two Sclav States of the Balkan Peninsula have also this in common, that for centuries they remained subject to Turkish rule, that they both achieved their independence recently, and that they both owe their final emancipation to the power of Russia.

Noticeable even by a passing stranger

Their economical conditions are also of much the same order. Servia, equally with Bulgaria, is a peasant State in which there are neither millionaires nor paupers, no privileged classes, and no important industry other than that of agriculture. But in spite of all these resemblances the two countries present many points of difference, noticeable even by a passing stranger. In Bulgaria, one sees everywhere signs of progress ; and in Servia one sees signs of decay. The Serb peasants have not the cheerful look of the Bulgarians; the Serb villages have not the same air of plain, rough comfort The thrift and the stolid soberness of the Bulgarian are not qualities which characterize the western Slavs.

Derived from the old Turkish times

The peasants herd together in the villages, and the villages are for the most part situated in the hollows, partly from the desire to find shelter from the winds in winter and shade from the sun in summer, partly from the hereditary instinct, derived from the old Turkish times, which leads the Bulgarian peasant to keep his home as much out of sight as possible. I have no doubt, therefore, that the population of this northern plateau of the Balkans, which forms one of the richest agricultural districts of the Principality, must be far larger than one would guess from the glimpses one gets of it out of the windows of a railway carriage. I hear on every side that the increasing exodus of the Mussulman population from this part of Bulgaria is a matter of serious anxiety. The Tomaks make no complaint as to their treatment by the Government.

Christian neighbors

As against the Administration they have no grievances; they are offered exemption from military service on easy terms; but, notwithstanding all this, they object to dwelling in a country where the faith of Islam is not dominant In many instances they are selling off their lands to their Christian neighbors; and if the present emigration goes on, the mosques one sees in every village hereabouts will in a few years* time be left without worshippers. As yet, however, the Mahommedan element remains supreme in the districts of Bulgaria which lie between Rustschuk and Varna.

At the roadside stations, porters, passengers, and loafers, with scarcely an exception, wore the turban, and had the look, as well as the garb, of a race distinct from that of the Bulgarians south of the Balkan Mountains. I was assured at Sofia that the Tomaks were Bulgarians by birth and descent and nationality, whose sole difference from their Christian fellow-countrymen lay in the accident that their forefathers had embraced Mahommedanism during the Turkish era. This may be so, but I find it very hard to believe that it is.

Macedonian Bulgarians

For reasons I have already dwelt upon, they have no wish to enforce their claims prematurely, and are quite content to wait till such time as the decease of “ the Sick Man of Europe ” is brought about by natural causes. They resent, however, most bitterly any action which could possibly impair their ultimate title to the reversion of Macedonia. There is undoubtedly an active agitation in Macedonia in favour of annexation to Bulgaria; and equally undoubtedly this agitation has the sympathy, if not the support, of the Bulgarian people. In Macedonia, as elsewhere in Eastern Europe, questions of race and creed are indissolubly connected with each other; and every national movement is associated with religious sympathies and religious prejudices.

From the date when Bulgaria practically recovered her independence, the Macedonian Bulgarians have been endeavoring to stimulate national sentiment by the aid of the Bulgarian schools, which are under the control of the native clergy. This attempt, if I may use the word, to Bulgarize Macedonia had created very great irritation amidst the Greeks, and their influence at Constantinople has of late been hostile to any aggrandizement of Bulgaria. Greek influence, I may add, is very powerful with the Sultan and the Porte, partly on account of their personal relations with the Phanar, and still more from the fact that Russia has always taken the side of the Greeks.

At the instance of the Greeks, the Sultan was induced to issue a decree declaring that henceforth all Bulgarian schools in Macedonia must be registered in the name of some specified individual, directly responsible to the Ottoman Government, and could no longer be allowed to be the property of the communes, which in respect of all theological and educational matters are entirely under the control of the clergy. By this decree, too, the schools were placed under the direct supervision of the local Turkish authorities, who, in Macedonia, so long as Russian influence is predominant at Constantinople, are certain to act as partisans of Greece. It is not easy for an outsider to fully understand the merits or demerits of the decree in question.

Large number of quartzite reefs

It is not so easy to form a judgment as to the alleged mineral wealth of Bulgaria. I am assured that the Balkan Mountains contain a large number of quartzite reefs; alluvial gold is also found in some of the mountain streams. There is ample evidence of the existence of gold, silver, copper, and other minerals in the country. But as the regions in which these minerals are supposed to be located have never been really prospected, it is impossible to say whether the metals in question are to be found in paying quantities or could be extracted at a price which would leave a profit.

It is certain, however, that both iron and coal are to be found in large quantities throughout the country. If these minerals could not be obtained else-where, Bulgaria could provide a more than sufficient supply of coal and iron for her own use out of her own soil. There are a few coal and iron mines already at work, which do fairly well, and would do much better with larger capital, better machinery, and improved facilities of transport. The coal from the State colliery of Pemik is sold in Sofia at about ten francs a ton.

Like slag than English coal

It is of inferior quality, and is more like slag than English coal; still it throws out great heat, and has completely driven out the use of wood fires in the Capital In those parts of the country, however, which are not close to a railway, the cost of coal, owing to the difficulty of transport, is so great that it is very little used. As the country is opened up by the various railroads now in course of construction, the freight for coal from the seaports must obviously become materially cheaper; and I am not quite certain whether the coal of Bulgaria is of sufficiently good quality to stand competition with English coals, which might easily be brought into the country if the rates of inland freight from the sea-coast did not virtually prohibit their importation.