SERVIA, AUSTRIA, TURKEY, AND RUSSIA. 1 47 



In this heroic struggle amid the rocky mountains of Montenegro, 

 the Servian refugees, uniting with the brave Montenegrins, displayed 

 in a wonderful manner great and unexampled instances of undaunted 

 heroism, and unflinching self-denial, such as the history of any 

 people cannot record. 



For centuries the heroes of Servia withstood successfully year after 

 year the Ottoman legions amongst the jagged rocks of Montenegro, 

 and in this tremendous struggle they cheerfully surrendered their 

 peaceful occupations, and the comforts of social life, to watch day 

 by day against attack from their common foes, shrinking from 

 no sacrifice, and suffering severely from constant exposure to the 

 frost and storms of winter, and the terrible pangs of hunger. 



Thus, for four centuries the patriotic Servians struggled like 

 martyrs upon the almost impregnable crags of the rocky mountains 

 of Montenegro on behalf of their country's independence, displaying 

 not only a marvellous courage before the overwhelming numbers of 

 their ancient Turkish foes, but also an unwavering endurance and 

 patience, amid the insuperable obstacles incident to the conflict 

 on a rock-bound soil. 



At the same period, the Servians of Austria, who had fled across 

 the Servian frontiers from the oppressive Ottoman domination, 

 struggled bravely to keep alive the holy fire of national freedom, 

 and under their heroic Chiefs they withstood heroically, and often 

 successfully, the barbarous Moslem invasions, and nobly defended 

 their soil and their freedom against the armies of Turkey. 



Leopold I., the enlightened Ruler and Emperor of Austria, cordially 

 welcomed the expatriated Servians into Austrian territory, and 

 guaranteed them, by proclamation, an asylum from oppression and 

 persecution, and also that their civil and religious liberties should be 

 fully secured by the special edicts of the Empire. 



Relying on these Imperial assurances, the Servians of Carinthia, 

 and Carniola, and of the valley of the Save, in 1689, abandoned- the 

 Ottoman rule for'the Austrian protectorate, and in 1691 it was esti- 

 mated that 40,000 patriotic Servians, accompanied by Arsenius, the 

 venerable High Priest of their National Church, crossed the frontiers 

 into Hungary and Slavonia, and passed under Austrian rule ; and in 

 return for the national liberties and the civil and religious freedom 

 granted and guaranteed by Treaties, they entered under the leader- 

 ship of their Voyvoda, Branskovics, the army of the Austrian 

 Empire, ready to withstand, shoulder to shoulder, with the soldiers of 

 Austria, any further aggressions of their Moslem conquerors. 



