MOXTEXEGEO. 



101 



3,500 houses and 8,000 fighting-men in Monte- 

 negro. The military age is from twelve to fifty ; 

 and these numbers indicate a population not 

 much, if at all, over 30,000. This population 

 was liable to be thinned by renegadism and 

 constant war ; but, since the early siftings, the 

 operation of the baser cause appears to have 

 been slight. On the other hand, freedom attracts 

 the free, and tribes, or handfuls, of Turkish sub- 

 jects near Montenegro have had a tendency to 

 join it. Until a few years back it never had a 

 defined frontier ; it is only in recent times that 

 its eastern triangle, that of Berda, has been add- 

 ed to Tscrnagora proper. About 1800 the popu- 

 lation had risen to 55,000 ; in 1825, to 75,000. 

 In 1835 the official calendar of Cettinje placed 

 it at 100,000, and in 1865 at 196,000. This in- 

 cluded the districts of Grabovo, Rudine, and 

 Joupa, conquered under Prince Danilo. For the 

 mere handful of mountaineers has been strong 

 enough, on the whole, not only to hold, but to 

 increase, its land. Yet, on the establishment of 

 free Servia, a tendency to emigrate from the 

 sterile rocks into that well-conditioned country 

 was naturally exhibited ; and two battalions, 

 composed of the children of Montenegrins, helped 

 to make up that small portion of the army of 

 General Tchernaieff, on which alone, in the opera- 

 tions of the recent war, he could confidently rely. 

 While the gross population of Montenegro in 

 men, women, and children, was slowly growing 

 through three centuries from 30,000 to 50,000, 

 we must inquire with curiosity what amount of 

 Turkish force has been deemed by the Porte 

 equal to the enterprise of attacking the moun- 

 tain. And here, strange as it may seem, history 

 proves it to have been the general rule not to 

 attack Montenegro except with armies equaling 

 or exceeding, sometimes doubling or more, in 

 numbers, all the men, women, and children, that 

 it contained. In 1712, under the Vladika Danilo, 

 50,000 men crossed the Zeta between Podgoritza 

 and Spuz. Some accounts raise this force be- 

 yond 100,000.' Danilo assailed their camp be- 

 fore dawn on the 29th of July, with an army, in 

 three divisions, which could hardly have reached 

 12,000 men. With a loss of 318 men he slew, 

 at the lowest estimate, 20,000. And in these 

 alone, so far as I know, of all modern wars, it 

 seems not uncommon to find the slain among the 

 Turks exceeding the gross number of the high- 

 land heroes arrayed against them. Great is the 

 glory of the Swiss in their Burgundian wars for 

 freedom ; but can it be matched with the exploits 

 i F. and "W., p. 23. G., p. 10. 



of the bishops of Montenegro and their martial 

 flocks ? Once more the heart of the little nation 

 relieves itself in song : 



"The seraskier wrote to Danilo: 'Send me 

 your paltry tribute, and three of your best war- 

 riors for hostages. Refuse, and I will lay waste 

 the land from the Morea to the salt-sea x with fire 

 and sword, and will seize you alive, 2 and put you 

 to death by torture.' As he read this letter the 

 Vladika wept bitterly. He summoned the heads of 

 communities to Cettinje. Some said, ' Give them 

 the tax ; ' but others, ' Give them our stones.' . 

 . . . They determined that they would fight to 

 the last man. They swore with one accord that 

 all they would give the Turk shoud be the bullet- 

 rain of their muskets." 



And thus continues the tale. Three Monte- 

 negrins went down to the Turkish encampment 

 by night, and traversed the slumbering masses ; 

 just as, in the tenth Iliad, Odysseus and Diomed 

 moved amid the sleeping allies of Troy. Vuko, 

 one of the three, said to his comrades: "Go 

 you back ; I abide here to serve the cause." 

 They returned to Cettinje, and said: "So many 

 are the Turks, that, had we three all been 

 pounded into salt, we should not be enough to 

 salt a supper for them." How this recalls the 

 oldest census in the world, the census of Homer, 

 who says : 3 " Were the Achaians divided into 

 parties of ten, and every Trojan employed in 

 serving them with wine, one for each party, 

 many a ten would lack a wine-server." But, not 

 to terrify their friends, they added that this vast 

 host was but a host of cripples. So the people 

 heard mass, received the benediction of their 

 Vladika, and then set out upon the errand of 

 victory or death. Vuko had induced the enemy 

 to rest by the Vladinia, on the plea that they 

 would not find water between that stream and 

 Cettinje. Here, before dawn, came down on 

 them the bullet-rain. They were slaughtered 

 through three days of fight; and the bard con- 

 cludes : " O my Servian brothers, and all ye in 

 whose breast beats the heart of liberty, be glad ; 

 for never will the ancient freedom perish, so 

 long as we still hold our little Tsernagora ! " 



The very next year, the Turks assembled 

 120,000 of their best troops for the purpose of 

 crushing the mountaineers, whose numbers fell 

 within the satirical description applied by Ti- 

 granes to the Romans : " Too many for an em- 



i G., p. 10. The Morea was not then Turkish. Does 

 the "salt-sea" mean the White Sea? 



2 As opposed to the ordinary practice in these wars, of 

 death on the field without quarter. 



^ Horn., "II," ii., 128. 



