TURKEY. 



729 



that Hobart Pasha's approach was discovered, 

 and apprised the Muscovite gunners. On his 

 coming abreast of the batteries, the heavy guns 

 began to tire, but the Kethymo, Hobart Pasha's 

 vessel, was run so close inshore that the gun- 

 ners were unable to depress their pieces fast 

 enough to get good aim. The admiral only 

 fired one shot, and the Rethymo passed to the 

 Black Sea safely. After the first dash of the 

 Russians from the Pruth to the Danube, by 

 which they managed to secure Galatz and 

 Braila, both sides seemed to relapse into inac- 

 tivity. Although large numbers of Russians 

 crossed the Pruth, so that on May 1st there were 

 120,000 in Rouinania, they advanced slowly. 

 The movements of the Turks appeared to have 

 been supine, and prompted more by unreason- 

 able panic than by any strategical principle or 

 accurate conception of a plan of campaign. 

 On the outbreak of hostilities the Turkish 

 army held considerable force at Widin, and the 

 remainder of the troops were scattered along 

 the Danube and in the rear of the stream as 

 far as Varna when the Russian advance took 

 place. The Turkish staff appeared to have at 



once rushed to the conclusion that the narrow 

 neck of land between Galatz and the mouth of 

 the Danube, which forms the northern portion 

 of the Dobrudja, was the menaced point ; and 

 the troops hurried in that direction, and suf- 

 fered considerably from sickness contracted in 

 the unhealthy marsh-land upon which they 

 were thrown without proper stores of supplies, 

 food, or medicines. They were, however, after- 

 ward massed toward Silistria and Rustchuk. 

 The Turkish monitors had early in May thrown 

 several shells into Reni, Galatz, and Braila, 

 and the inhabitants of these towns were, in 

 consequence, ordered to leave. On April 29th 

 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Roumania 

 communicated to the Chamber of Deputies a 

 convention with Russia, dated April 16, 1877, in 

 which the Prince of Roumania assured to the 

 Russians a free passage and the treatment due 

 a friendly army, and the Czar bound himself 

 to respect the rights of Roumania. The minis- 

 ter said the convention was to secure respect 

 for Roumania's position as an individual state 

 in accordance with the Treaty of Paris. Thifl 

 convention was adopted by both Chambers. 



BOSPORUS, SHOWING CASTLES OF EUROPE AND ASIA. 



The Turkish Government then informed the 

 Roumanian agent that, in view of the conven- 

 tion made with Russia and the entrance of the 

 Russian troops into Roumania, the Porte could 

 no longer look upon the Prince and the local 

 authorities as free agents, but as being in the 

 power of the enemy ; and could, therefore, 

 hold no more official communication with them. 

 The Porte likewise addressed a circular on the 

 subject to the Powers, which, after referring 

 to the breach of neutrality implied by such a 

 convention as that made by Roumania, and to 

 the violation of the Treaty of Paris of which 



Russia had been guilty by occupying that coun- 

 try, accused the Government of the Prince of 

 having betrayed the interests of his country 

 and the confidence of his suzerain, besides 

 disappointing the hopes cherished by Europe 

 when it established the united principalities. 

 Such faithlessness could not, according to the 

 note, be too strongly condemned. 



In the first week of May an action occurred 

 between the Turkish gunboats and the Russian 

 batteries on the Danube, but without any very 

 important result. The Roumanian troops again 

 occupied Kalafat, and the Turks, regarding 



