MONTENEGRO. 



105 



sritude. 1 This writer appears disposed, in regard 

 to tlie present sovereign, rather to play the part 

 of critic than of eulogist, but ascribes to him 

 great merit in his political conduct, and in the 

 prosecution of social reforms. Soon after his 

 accession, Montenegro was worsted, after a long 

 resistance, in a war with Turkey. She had been 

 driven to her crags, when diplomatic mediation 

 brought about a settlement. It was then proved 

 that an empire of 35,000,000 could gain the ad- 

 vantage against a tribe under 200,000. Only, 

 however, when she could concentrate against it 

 all, or nearly all, her forces ; when she had a 

 general, not a Turk, of the ability of Omar 

 Pasha ; when she had reformed her whole arma- 

 ment by means of European loans ; and when 

 Montenegro had but her old muskets and old 

 ways. Since then a great change has taken 

 phee. The army has been organized in thirty 

 battalions, 800 strong ; and now for the first 

 time we hear of an endeavor to establish a cer- 

 tain strength of cavalry. The fighting-men are 

 reckoned at 35,000 ; but the military age begins 

 at twelve. The obligation for offensive service 

 runs only from seventeen ; but it appears that the 

 zeal of patriotism carries the people while yet 

 boys into the ranks. The force available for 

 general operations, between seventeen and fifty, 

 amounts to 24,000. The arms have been greatly 

 improved, two thirds having breech-loaders, all 

 (as is stated) revolvers, and most of them carry- 

 ing the haiukchar. During the war from July to 

 October, 1876, we heard much of the Turkish 

 victories over a Servian army composed princi- 

 pally of peasants put suddenly into the ranks, 

 with a salting of real soldiers ; but very little, in 

 comparison, of their failures and defeats in the 

 conflict with Montenegro. Goptchevitch has sup- 

 plied 2 a detailed account of the operations. I 

 shall refer only to the most remarkable. On the 

 2Sth of July the men of Tsernagora encountered 

 Muktar Pasha, and for once with superior force. 

 Four thousand Turks were killed, but only sev- 

 enty men of Montenegro. Osman Pasha was 

 taken ; Selim was among the slain. At Medun, 

 on the 14th of August, 20,000 Turks were de- 

 feated by 5,000 of these heroic warriors, and 

 4,700 slain. On the 6th of September five bat- 

 talions of Montenegro defeated Dervisch Pasha 

 in his movement upon Piperi, and slew 3,000 of 

 his men. On the 7th of October Muktar Pasha, 

 with 18,000 men, drove three Montenegrin bat- 

 talions back upon Mirotinsko Dolove. Here they 

 were raised, by a junction with Vukotitch, to a 

 1 G., p. 40. 2 Pp. 1S8-193. 



strength of C,000 men. Thus reenforced, they 

 swept down upon Muktar, and, alter an action 

 of sixteen hours, drove him back to Kloluk, leav- 

 ing 1,500 dead behind him. On the 10th of Oc- 

 tober Dervisch Pasha effected an advance from the 

 south, until he found himself attacked simultane- 

 ously at various points, and had to retreat with 

 a loss of 2,000 men. On the 20th of October 

 Medun was taken, and the Ottoman general fled 

 to Scutari, leaving garrisons in Spuz and Podgo- 

 ritza. The armistice arrested this course of dis- 

 asters, when the southern army (Dervisch) had 

 been reduced from 45,000 to 22,000, and the 

 northern (Muktar) from 35,000 to 18,000. 



So much for that " indomitable pluck " of the 

 Turks, which has since moved the enthusiastic 

 admiration of a British minister. 



Goptchevitch reckons the slain on the Turkish 

 side at 26,000 ; on the side of Montenegro, at 1,000. 

 And there is no wonder if we find the Montene- 

 grins now aspire to breech-loaders and to caval- 

 ry ; they captured from their enemies (with much 

 besides) 12,000 breech-loaders and 1,500 horses. 



Montenegro brought into action in all 25,000 

 men : 17,000 of her own, 2,000 allies, and 6,000 

 insurgents from the Turkish provinces — a fact, 

 this last, highly indigestible for those who con- 

 tend that rebellions in Turkey are not sustained 

 by natives, but by foreigners. The entire Turk- 

 ish force directed against Tsernagora is stated at 

 the enormous total of 130,000. It was, of course, 

 chiefly Asiatic. 



It will be observed that the whole of these fig- 

 ures are taken from a work on the Slavonic side. 

 The author has had the best means of informa- 

 tion, and the statements are written not for our 

 information, but for that of the sober and studi- 

 ous Germans. They are such as might at first 

 sight well provoke a smile of incredulity. Yet, 

 strange to say, they are in pretty close conform- 

 ity with the general, the nearly unbroken, tenor 

 of a series of wars reaching over four centuries. 

 This is the race which, when asked for tribute, 

 offered stones ; whose privations were such that, 

 on one occasion, having taken some hundreds of 

 Turkish prisoners, they gladly accepted in ex- 

 change the same number of pigs ; who clothe the 

 coward in the garb of woman, but whose women 

 freely grasp the rifle in the hour of need ; yet 

 whose men of war weep like women for the dead 

 prince they love ; and whose fathers in 1484 car- 

 ried the printing-press with them to the moun- 

 tains. 



What became of that printing-press ? Prob- 

 ably when, not long after the removal to the hills, 



