TURKEY. 



751 



to Nicsic the provisions which had been left 



at I'resveka, the men took with thorn only the 

 supplies tln-v would need on the inarch. On 

 tin- -*th tin- Turku encountered a force of 

 15,000 Her/egovinians, under Sotchitza, Paulo- 

 vitch, and Pope >iiuoniteh. A fierce engage- 

 ment ensued, in which the Turks prevailed, 

 and succeeded iii penetrating to Presyeka. A 

 part <>t' the garrison of Nicsic had opened a 

 way around to this place, and by this way the 

 pro\i>ions were finally conveyed to that fort, 

 April -J'.itli. On the 80th of April Mukhtar 

 returned to Gatchko, harassed by the enemy, 

 having in the four days of fighting lost 8,000 

 men. The Herzegovinians claimed to have 

 lost only 120 men. The insurgents also at- 

 tempted to blockade Trebigne, the fort Drieno, 

 west of Trebigne, and Govanitchka. The Turks, 

 however, succeeded in introducing supplies 

 into these places without encountering serious 

 obstacles. The fortress at Nicsic was again 

 provisioned in June without fighting. As the 

 spring advanced, new reports were circulated 

 of the spread of the insurrection through Bos- 

 nia. The public mind had been excited by ac- 



counts of outrages which had been committed 

 upon Christians by the Mussulman population. 

 In several villages the Turks had risen against 

 the Christians, killed numbers of them, and 

 driven others away or subjected them to abuse. 

 At the beginning of April the inhabitants of 

 the Bilhacs district were reported to be in re- 

 volt, and that they were joined by several hun- 

 dred Mohammedans. Five thousand insur- 

 gents were active in this district and in that of 

 Travnik, and in a few days the insurrection 

 was said to be under full headway along the 

 Drin and the North Bosnian frontier. The 

 Turkish commander, Ali Pasha, had here a 

 force of about 10,000 men. The Vali, Ihrahim 

 Pasha, reported to his Government that the in- 

 surrectionary movement had already become 

 stronger than it had been at any time in the 

 course of the year 1876. During the month 

 of April there were twenty-seven bands of in- 

 surgents, spread over a wide extent of coun- 

 try, which were estimated to embrace not 

 less than 15,000 men. These bands acted 

 without any common plan, their most ordinary 

 method of operation being to fall upon the 



BUC1IAKE8T. 



isolated estates of the Mohammedan land- 

 owners or upon the small towns, or to lie in 

 wait near the larger towns, watching their 

 communications with the neighborhood, and 

 occasionally seizing messengers or convoys of 

 provisions. An important part in these move- 

 ments was played at Orahiviza by the pretend- 

 er to the (Servian throne. Peter Karageorge- 

 vitch. He kept himself close by the Austri- 

 an boundary, so as to be able to cross over 

 and put himself out of the way upon the sign 

 of danger, while detachments from his camp 

 scoured the country for several miles around. 

 On the 7th of May occurred the massacre of the 

 the consuls at Salonica. Emin Effendi, a Turk 

 in high position, in whose family the office of 

 state procurator of Salonica was hereditary, 

 had abducted for his harem a handsome young 

 Bulgarian girl, who was brought by railway to 

 Salonica on the 6th of May. In the same 

 train was her mother, who had followed in 

 search of her. The two women did not know 

 that they were upon the same train, but 

 recognized each other at the station, and 



rushed weeping into one another's arms. The 

 cry was raised among the populace that the 

 young woman was a Christian, who had been 

 compelled to abjure her religion and become 

 a Mohammedan. The Christians took the girl 

 from the guards, and, seizing a vacant carriage 

 belonging to the American consul, which stood 

 near by awaiting the arrival of its owner, put 

 her into it and carried her to the house of a 

 Greek merchant, where she was hid. The 

 next day the streets were filled with bands of 

 excited Mussulmans demanding the return of 

 the girl, and threatening a massacre of the 

 Christians. Hearing of the tumult, the French 

 consul, and the German consul, who was his 

 brother-in-law, proceeded to the palace of the 

 governor to demand that he cause order to 

 be restored. The governor was found at the 

 mosque, where a large mob was gathered, filled 

 with rage at the affront that had been offered 

 to the Mohammedan religion. The consuls 

 were set upon by the mob with clubs, knives, 

 and yataghans, and were murdered and man- 

 gled in the most horrible manner. This out- 



