APRIL 79 



the heart of the mountains, founded Cettinje, which 

 remains the seat of government to this day. 



In 1516 it seemed as if the end had come, when the 

 Vovoide or Prince, last of the Czernoviches, despairing 

 of the patriot cause, fled to Venice, and left his realm 

 to be overrun by the Turks. For nearly one hundred 

 years thereafter the Pasha of Skodra exacted tribute 

 from the Tzerna Gora, not only in money, whereof 

 there was little, but in young men, of whom there was 

 no stint in quantity or quality, and who were forced 

 to serve in the Sultan's army. In 1604 the tide was on 

 the turn : league by league the Mussulman was ceding 

 territory; tribute was withheld by the Montenegrins, 

 and a vast army sent to exact it was cut to pieces in 

 the mountains. The sternest part of the struggle now 

 set in. A second invasion in 1623 shared the fate 

 of the first, but not before Cettinje was laid in 



At this time the supreme power became vested in 

 the Vladika or Metropolitan of the Greek Church in 

 Montenegro, who, in addition to discharging the func- 

 tions of spiritual head, undertook those of secular 

 autocrat and military commander-in-chief. A notable 

 step was taken in 1703. During the Turkish occupa- 

 tion many families in Montenegro had accepted the 

 Mohammedan faith. The Vladika decreed that the 

 land should be purged of it. The choice between 

 baptism, exile, and death was offered to every Mussul- 

 man, and the alternatives were accepted, it seems, in 

 about equal proportions. A punitive invasion by the 

 Turks failed in 1706 ; three years later the Montene- 



