MONTENEGRO. 



MORAVIANS. 



587 



ranci; and in Albania the districts of Spuz, 

 Podgoritza, Zablyak, Plava and Gusigne, Ariti- 

 vari, and Krayina. 



The Albanians of the ceded districts at once 

 manifested their opposition to being transferred 

 to the sovereignty of Montenegro. As soon 

 as the decision of the Congress was known, 

 they came together, and, publicly declaring the 

 Sultan incapable of guarding their rights, took 

 an oath of fraternity for the defense of their 

 country against all aggression or change. 

 Among the signers to the oath were three 

 leading chieftains, one of whom alone, it was 

 said, could command the services of 5,000 armed 

 adherents. Mehemet Ali Pasha was dispatched 

 to the district in August, on a mission of paci- 

 fication, which, as he made known to Prince 

 Nicholas, included the removal of the difficul- 

 ties which had arisen in regulating the fron- 

 tiers. Having perceived the extent of the pre- 

 vailing disaffection, he obtained an increased 

 force of troops, by the show of which he was 

 able to convince the three leading chiefs of the 

 nselessness of resistance, and gained their sub- 

 mission. The Albanians, when they learned 

 of the defection of the three chiefs, declared 

 them to be traitors, and rose to take vengeance 

 on them and upon Mehemet Ali. The outbreak 

 resulted in the murder of Mehemet Ali, early 

 in September. This assassination produced the 

 belief in Montenegro that any convention with 

 the Porte would be useless, because it had shown 

 the utter incapacity of the authorities to in- 

 fluence the insurgents to obedience. Prince 

 Nicholas, finding that the Albanians had de- 

 termined to resist by force of arms his occupa- 

 tion of the ceded districts, prepared for a new 

 campaign. A circular note, issued by the 

 Porte in September to explain that it was ex- 

 erting itself to secure the submission of the 

 Mussulmans in Bosnia and Herzegovina to the 

 Austrian occupation, declared also that it had 

 used its utmost endeavors in Albania to dimin- 

 ish the obstacles in the way of the execution 

 of the treaty of Berlin, and would strive to 

 reestablish its full authority in that province. 

 The Turkish authorities in the disturbed dis- 

 trict were, however, dejected and demoralized 

 by the determination of the National League 

 of Albanians. The garrison at Podgoritza was 

 threatened with an attack when the comman- 

 dant announced that he was ordered to sur- 

 render the town to the Montenegrins. Fresh 

 complications arose between Montenegro and 

 the Porte in October, when the Prince was 

 reported to have refused to give up the Turkish 

 prisoners of war until the treaty of Berlin as 

 regards Montenegro had been thoroughly car- 

 ried out. A letter from Oettigne, of the 28th 

 of October, stated the existence of great ob- 

 stacles to the execution of the cession of terri- 

 tories. Prince Nicholas, it said, had been in- 

 formed that there was an agreement between 

 the Porte and the Albanian League not to allow 

 the territories in question to be separated from 

 Albania, and that the Albanians had engaged 



to supply, on the requisition of the Porte, a 

 contingent of at least 40,000 auxiliary troops. 

 This story received a measure of confirmation 

 from the official instructions sent by Prince 

 Labanoff to Baron Kaulbars, the Russian mem- 

 ber of the Turco-Montenegrin frontier com- 

 mission, in which the Prince expressed his 

 conviction that the Porte would not volun- 

 tarily give up the possession of Podgoritza. 

 In consequence of this communication, Prince 

 Nicholas consulted the Senate, and the majori- 

 ty of the Senators were in favor of going to 

 war. News, however, had arrived from Plov, 

 Gusigne, Berani, Podgoritza, Spuz, and Zab- 

 lyak, from which it appeared that the inhab- 

 itants of those districts had decided, in order 

 to avoid further bloodshed, to give themselves 

 up. The evacuation of Kolashin was said to 

 have taken place under pressure from the in- 

 habitants, rather than by the voluntary act of 

 the garrison, and when the Prince had proposed 

 to appoint a native Albanian to be the prefect 

 of the town, the inhabitants had expressed their 

 preference for a Montenegrin ; whereupon Dju- 

 ro Petrovitch, a cousin of the Prince, was ap- 

 pointed. In November the Albanians made a 

 show of fortifying Podgoritza, and the belief 

 prevailed that the place would not be peace- 

 fully given up. The Albanian League shortly 

 afterward set up a demand for the incorpora- 

 tion of all the districts of that nationality into 

 a single Albanian province. During December 

 the Turkish authorities began making prepara- 

 tions for the surrender of Podgoritza. In the 

 mean time the Montenegrins had become im- 

 patient, and had posted a force to cut off Pod- 

 goritza from Scutari. When, in the beginning 

 of January, 1879, the Vali received orders to 

 give up Podgoritza, Spuz, and Gusigne at once, 

 the Mohammedans began to arm, but, failing 

 to gain the cooperation of the chiefs in the 

 mountains and of the Turkish soldiery, were 

 not able to excite a disturbance; and, as the 

 preparations for effecting the surrender were 

 carried on through January, the violence of 

 opposition died away, and it became evident 

 that the change of jurisdiction would be made 

 quietly. The Turkish inhabitants of the ceded 

 towns were said, however, to be emigrating in 

 great numbers, and taking refuge in Scutari. 



MORAVIANS. The following is a sum- 

 mary of the statistics of the American Prov- 

 ince of the Moravian Church for 1877, as pub- 

 lished in March, 1878 : Northern District. 

 Number of churches, 66 ; total number of per- 

 sons connected with the Church, 14,321 ; num- 

 ber -of communicants, 8,196. Southern Dis- 

 trict. Number of churches, 11 ; total number 

 of persons connected, 1,942 ; number of com- 

 municants, 1,175. Whole number for the two 

 districts of churches, 77 ; of persons connect- 

 ed, 16,263; of communicants, 9,371 ; of officers 

 and teachers in Sunday schools, 1,003 ; of Sun- 

 day-school scholars, 8,107. An increase was 

 shown for the year of 171 communicants, 3 

 churches, and 876 Sunday-school scholars. 



