102 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



bassy, too few for an army." But even this was 

 not enough of precaution. Thirty-seven head- 

 men of Montenegro, who had proceeded to the 

 Turkish camp to negotiate with the commander, 

 were basely seized and put to death. The Turks 

 now ventured to assail a force one-tenth of its 

 own numbers and deprived of its leaders. They 

 burned the monastery, they carried thousands 

 of women and children into slavery, and then, 

 without attempting to hold the country, they 

 marched off to the Morea, while the men of 

 Tsernagora descended from their rocky fastness- 

 es and rebuilt their villages. 1 They powerfully 

 befriended Austria and Venice in the war they 

 were then waging, and, as was too commonly the 

 case, were left in the lurch by their allies at the 

 Peace of Passarowitz in 1719. The Turks ac- 

 cordingly made bold to attack them in 1722 with 

 20,000 men under Hussein Pasha. One thou- 

 sand Montenegrins took this general prisoner, 

 and utterly discomfited his army. 2 In 1727 an- 

 other Turkish invasion was similarly defeated. 

 In 1782 Topal Osman Pasha marched against 

 the Piperi, who had joined them, with 30,000 

 men, but had to fly, with the loss of his camp 

 and baggage. In 1735 the heroic Danilo passed 

 into his rest, after half a century of toil and 

 glory. 



These may be taken as specimens of the 

 military history of Montenegro. Time does not 

 permit me to dwell on what is perhaps the most 

 curious case of personation in all history, that 

 of Stiepan Mali, who for many years together 

 passed himself off upon the mountaineers as be- 

 ing Peter III. of Russia, the unfortunate hus- 

 band of Catherine, and, in that character, par- 

 tially obtained their obedience. But the pres- 

 ence of a prince reputed to be Russian natu- 

 rally stimulated the Porte. Again Montenegro 

 was invaded in 1768 by an army variously es- 

 timated at 67,000, 100,000, and even 180,000 

 men. Their force of 10,000 to 12,000 was, as 

 ever, ready for the fight ; but the Venetians, 

 timorously obeying the Porte, prohibited the 

 entry of munitions of war. Utter ruin seemed 

 row at length to overhang them. A cartridge 

 was worth a ducat, such was their necessity; 

 when 500 of their men attacked a Turkish divis- 

 ion, and had for their invaluable reward a prize 

 of powder. And now all fear had vanished. 

 They assailed before dawn the united forces of 

 the Pashas of Roumelia from the south and Bos- 

 nia from the north. Again they effected the 

 scarcely credible slaughter of 20,000 Turks with 



i G., p. 12. 2 G„ p. 13. F. and W., p. 25. 



3,000 horses, and won an incredible booty of 

 colors, arms, munitions, and baggage. So it was 

 that the flood of war gathered round this for- 

 tress of faith and freedom, and so it was that 

 flood was beaten back. Affiavit Dominus, ac 

 dissipantur. 



In 17S2 came Peter ' to the throne, justly re- 

 corded, by the fond veneration of his country- 

 men, as Peter the Saint. Marmont, all whose in- 

 ducements and threats he alike repelled, has given 

 this striking description of him : " Ce Vladika, 

 homme superbe, de cinquante ans environ, d'un 

 esprit remarquable, avait beaucoup de noblesse 

 et de dignite dans ses manieres. Son autorite 

 positive et legale dans son pays etait peu de 

 chose, mais son influence etait sans bornes." s 

 As bishop, statesman, legislator, and warrior, he 

 brought his country safely through eight-and- 

 forty years of scarcely intermitted struggle. 

 Down to, and perhaps after, his time, the govern- 

 ment was carried on as in the Greece of the he- 

 roic age. The sovereign was priest, judge, and 

 general ; and was likewise the head of the As- 

 sembly, not representative, but composed of the 

 body of the people, in which were taken the de- 

 cisions that were to bind the people as laws. 

 This was called the Sbor; it was held in the open 

 air; and, when it became unruly, the method of 

 restoring order was to ring the bell of the neigh- 

 boring church. Here was promulgated, for the 

 first time, in the year 1796, by his authority, a 

 code of laws for Montenegro, which had hitherto 

 been governed, like the Homeric communities, 

 by oral authority and tradition. In 1798 he ap- 

 pointed a body of judges, and in 1803 he added 

 to the code a supplement. With the nineteenth 

 century, in round numbers, commenced the hu- 

 manizing process, which could not but be needed 

 among a race whose existence, for ten genera- 

 tions of men, had been a constant struggle of 

 life and death with the ferocious Turk. From 

 this time the haradsch was no more heard of. 3 

 Here is the touching and simple account of the 

 calm evening that closed his stormy day : 



" On the 18th of October, 1830, Peter I., who 

 was then in his eighty-first year, was sitting, after 

 the manner of his country, by the fireside of his 

 great kitchen, and was giving to his chiefs, assem- 

 bled round him, instructions for the settlement of 

 some local 4 differences which had arisen. The 



i F. and W., pp. 35-50. 



2 I quote from F. and W., p. 495. 



3G.,p. 21 n. 



4 Among the Plemenas, which may he called parishes : 

 subdivisions of the eight Nahias, say hundreds. All Mon- 

 tenegro is but a moderate county. 



