734 



TURKEY. 



is separated on the north from Austrian Slavo- 

 nia by the Save ; on the east from the princi- 

 pality of Servia by the rivers Drina, Uvac, and 

 Lim; on the vrest from Dalmatia by a chain 

 of Alps and the Unna ; and on the south 

 bounded by the last-named country, Monte- 

 negro, and Albania. It has an extent of 

 23,400 square miles, and a population of 1,357,- 

 984 inhabitants. The political division of Bos- 

 nia is into seven governments. The centres of 

 population are Seraievo, Travnick, Bihac, Ban- 

 jaluka, Svornick, Novi-Bazar, Mostar, Tre- 

 bigne, and Plevelji. The people belong, in 

 great part, to the Slavic race. A small minor- 

 ity is composed of Jews, Bohemians, and un- 

 naturalized foreigners. The regular Turkish 

 troops stationed in the country under ordinary 

 conditions number about 9,000 men. The Ser- 

 vian language is the only one used, excepting 

 among officials and soldiers. In a religious 

 point of view the inhabitants are divided into 

 Christians (Catholics and Orthodox Greeks) 

 and Mohammedans. The latter about 493,- 

 000 belong to the same race as the rest of the 

 population. They are Servians who have em- 

 braced Islamism in order to preserve their 

 property. These renegades, who form, under 

 the name of Begs, a kind of aristocracy, possess 

 the whole of the soil, and treat the Rayahs, 

 or common people, who live exclusively by the 

 cultivation of the ground, with the greatest 

 barbarity. A very few proprietors are also 

 to be found of Turkish origin, termed Agas 

 SpJiaios, whose titles of possession date back 

 to the conquest. The Slavi of Bosnia and the 

 Herzegovina are tall and strong ; their features 

 are swarthy, and stamped with a manly energy. 

 The Turkish occupation, although it has been 

 established for so long a time, has not modified 

 the character or the habits of the inhabitants 

 of those countries. The food of the Slavic 

 peasantry is of the most simple description, 

 consisting chiefly of milk products and onions ; 

 he who can provide bread made from buck- 

 wheat is counted a man in easy circumstances. 

 The whole of the territory of the province is 

 mountainous. The most important river of 

 Bosnia is the Save, which forms a part of the 

 frontier toward Austria. Some steamboats 

 ply upon it from Sissek, in Slavonia, to near 

 Belgrade, where it joins the Danube. The 

 Herzegovina, forming the southwestern part 

 of Bosnia, has an area of 6,420 square miles, 

 and about 290,000 inhabitants, of whom 62,000 

 are Mohammedans. 



The insurrection arose from an opposition 

 of the people to the tax-gatherers. It ex- 

 tended in the beginning to five villages, the in- 

 habitants of which left their homes and went 

 to the mountains, after having sent their wives 

 and children to Dalmatia. The Porte imme- 

 diately sent a commission to inquire into the 

 grievances of the people, and to redress them, 

 if well founded. The commission, however, 

 was unsuccessful, and the rising spread rapidly 

 throughout the whole district between Mostar 



and the Austrian frontier toward Ragusa. Af- 

 ter a skirmish, near Nevesigne, the Turkish 

 authorities made an unsuccessful attempt to 

 induce the Christian villages to lay down their 

 arms. On August 16th two detachments ot 

 Turkish troops entered Mostar, while at tho 

 same time the Governor of Bosnia was ordered 

 to dispatch troops against the insurgents. 



The insurrection met at once with great 

 sympathy in Servia and Montenegro, as the in- 

 habitants of the Herzegovina are of the same 

 race as those of the above countries, and large 

 numbers of volunteers crossed over to the in- 

 surgents from these countries, and subscrip- 

 tions in aid of the insurrection were opened 

 by the Servians. 



In the beginning of August the insurgents 

 succeeded after several engagements with the 

 Turks in surrounding Trebigne. In the middle 

 of the month an insurrection broke out in Turk- 

 ish Croatia, in the district between Kostainic- 

 za and Dubicza, along the Austrian frontier. 

 Turkish Croatia is, like that part of Croatia 

 which is under Austrian rule, inhabited by a 

 people of Slavonian descent, who mostly belong 

 to the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches. 

 The section held by Turkey forms the north 

 part of the vilayet of Bosnia ; it is small in ex- 

 tent, but is inhabited by a hardy, brave people, 

 who are in sympathy with the insurgents in 

 Herzegovina. In the mean while the great 

 powers of Europe took a considerable interest 

 in the insurrection. On August 19th the Rus- 

 sian, Austrian, and German embassadors had 

 a protracted conference with the Grand- Vizier. 

 They advised a suspension of hostilities, with 

 the view of affording an opportunity for ascer- 

 taining the grievances of the insurgents, but 

 the Porte declined to accede to this proposition. 

 Shortly after, however, the Porte, upon the rec- 

 ommendation of the six great powers, Ger- 

 many, Austria, Russia, France, England, and 

 Italy, appointed Server Pasha a special com- 

 missioner to hear and redress the grievances 

 of the insurgents. The foreign consuls at the 

 same time were ordered to inform the insur- 

 gents that they could count on no foreign as- 

 sistance. 



In August 2,500 troops arrived at Klek from 

 Constantinople, and marching into the interior 

 effected a junction with a force that had come 

 overland. On August 30th they arrived at 

 Mostar without having met with any opposi- 

 tion. 



In the latter part of August the Turks re- 

 lieved Trebigne, driving the insurgents into 

 the mountains. On September 6th the Turk- 

 ish commander of TrSbigne sent a detachment 

 to Biletj, fifteen miles to the northeast. Though 

 the detachment consisted of fully 1,200 men, 

 commanded by Nedjib Pasha, they were lured 

 into an ambush, and set upon with so much 

 fury by an inferior force that several hundred 

 were killed or captured, the rest reaching Tre- 

 bigne in a very dilapidated condition. On the 

 llth another Turkish detachment was defeated 



