The leading part in the Crusades

As France had taken, as she continued to take, the leading part in the Crusades, it was natural that the French should desire one whose influence would commend itself to the French people, rather than an Italian whose influence would only be among a section of a people which had not played a prominent part in these attempts to resist the Moslem. There was yet another consideration in favor of the election of Baldwin rather than Boniface. The marquis from the first had played the principal part in the intrigues for the diversion of the enterprise from its lawful purpose. Baldwin had indeed acquiesced in what Boniface and Dandolo had arranged, but the less active opposition of the Count of Flanders was likely to make his election much more agreeable to the pope than that of the leader who had been the conspicuous opponent of the orders emanating from Borne.

His election would gratify that portion of the army which had been opposed to the expedition to Constantinople, while even among those who had willingly followed the lead of Boniface there would be a considerable number ready to abandon him in order, now that the plunder had been procured, to obtain the absolution of the pope. There arc reasons also for supposing that, after young Alexis had been restored, Baldwin had placed himself at the head of the party which urged that the Crusaders should leave for the Holy Land, and, if this were so, not only must he have had the support of those who had wished to make their pilgrimage, but of all those who now desired to be reconciled with the Church.

Venetians and the Crusaders

A fortnight was spent before the Venetians and the Crusaders could agree upon the choice of the electors, of twelve Feeling ran high. No declaration appears during that time to have been made by Dandolo as to whether he would consent to be named or not. It appears to have been understood that the contest would be between

Boniface and Baldwin

Boniface and Baldwin. As the Venetians were to elect the same number of representatives as the Crusaders, as Boniface evidently distrusted Dandolo, as the followers of Baldwin were sure to succeed in carrying a certain number of representatives out of the six to be chosen by the host, it had become evident to Boniface that his election was by no means safe. Accordingly, during the fortnight before the electors were chosen, negotiations went on with the object of securing something to Boniface in case he should fail in being elected.

The fleet was drawn up in line three crossbow

The fleet was drawn up in line three crossbow shots long opposite the walls. The order was given to advance as near the shore as they could get. This was done under a tremendous discharge of stones from mangonels placed on the towers. In spite of this opposition the ships pushed boldly ashore. Their stems were moored to the land, and anchors were thrown out from their sterns. Each hisser had a mangoes. The stones thrown in immense quantities by the Romans were returned by the Venetians, and the return shots were better aimed. The Venetians succeeded during the attack in destroying the outer wall of the palace with a battering-ram. The bolts came in abundance from the crossbows. The scaling- ladders thrown out from the ships’ tops were so close to the walls that the contending soldiers fought together with lance and sword. A fierce hand-to-hand fight went on for some hours without interruption. The galleys had at first not ventured to run their bows on to the land, but had remained astern of the transports.

Dandolo determined that everything

Dandolo determined that everything should be dared. He commanded his own crew to put him on shore on the narrow strip of land, a few feet broad, between the walls and the water, and threatened his followers with death when they hesitated to obey. The old man and those with him leaped on shore. When the men in the other galleys saw the gonfalon of St. Mark carried on shore over the head of their fearless leader, they rushed to defend him. The enthusiasm spread through the fleet.

Numbers of men from the transports and the barges leaped into their boats or into the water and landed. The order was given that a general attack of all the Venetians should be concentrated upon a short distance of the walls. A battering-ram was brought to bear against one of the towers. Those who worked it were defended by a crowd of crossbowmen. While this thundered at the walls below, hundreds of men were fighting from the scaling-ladders, and trying to win or to hold a position on the walls. Presently the gonfalon of St. Mark was seen flying from one of the towers. For a while the defenders were panic-stricken and fled. Immediate advantage was taken of this success.

The meeting was long and stormy

We know also that the meeting was long and stormy. “ Only parlay asset, an event at an arriver,” says the marshal. The result arrived at confirms the natural presumption that there were two, and probably even three, parties. The interest of the Crusaders was opposed to that of the Venetians. But the Crusaders were still, as they had always been, divided. The malcontents who had been opposed to the expedition to Constantinople distrusted and were disgusted with Boniface, and, though they were not able to have their own way, were sufficiently powerful at least to thwart his plans. It was decided

Committee to mercaptan emperor

Decision as to six Venetians and six division «f Crusaders should be elected to form a committee to mercaptan emperor. A proviso was, however, added, that all the twelve delegates should solemnly swear on holy relics that they would elect the candidate whom they believed to be the best in the interest of the world. The other provisions show that the parties were pretty equally balanced. It was agreed that if a Frank should be elected emperor the patriarch should be chosen by the Venetians, and vice versa. The emperor was to receive one fourth of all that should be captured within the city and throughout the empire, together with the two imperial palaces of Elachern and the Lion’s Mouth. The remaining three fourths were to be divided equally between the Venetians and the Crusaders.

Together for the sake of a fair division

The gold and silver, the cloth, the silk, and all the rest of the booty captured were to be abandoned to the host, and to be collected together for the sake of a fair division. When this should have been accomplished a new committee of twenty- four, chosen by the Venetians and the Crusaders, was to be named to divide the empire into fiefs, and to define the feudal service which the holders should render to the new emperor. It was further resolved that no one should lay hands on priest or monk nor plunder the churches or monasteries. The division of the spoils of the empire, including the carving out of the fiefs, was to be finished within a year, and therefore to be completed before the end of March, 1205. After the capture of the city all were to be free to leave it who wished to do so up to that date. After it, however, all who remained were to be bound to accept the suzerainty of the emperor.

Cardinal Peter Capuano

During a part at least of this time he was at Rome, where also was Cardinal Peter Capuano. Thus, while the crusading army was leaving Venice, its two chiefs, one in temporal and the other in spiritual things, were absent.

Boniface appears to have won over the cardinal entirely to his views. In spite of the way in which Peter Capuano had been treated by the Venetians, lie appears on this visit to Innocent to have made light of the expedition to Zara; to have spoken of it as a merely temporary incident, the punishment of a half-heretical people by* the occupation of their city, and as a punishment which would not entail the shedding of Christian blood. What is perhaps more remarkable is that in this visit to the pope the cardinal rather than Boniface seems to have been the chief advocate in favor of the proposal to help Alexis.1 It is easy to see what would be the arguments used. The Crusaders were short of money: had spent what they had, had been unable to borrow more, and had been compelled to agree to the Zara arrangement in order to get rid of their obligations to the Venetians.

Arrangement with Venice

Boniface would be careful to point out that the arrangement with Venice expired in June, and to urge that an expedition to Constantinople, with the object merely of restoring young Alexis, would be the only means of supplying money for the expedition ; the only means of buying over the aid of the Venetians, without whom it could never reach either Egypt or Syria, and, in short, the only means of preventing the crusade from absolute failure.

Innocent remained firm; refused to give any approval to the Zaran expedition, disavowed the legate’s approbation, and sent to the army an injunction to restrain them from accomplishing their unrighteous purpose. In reference, however, to the project for giving aid to young Alexis the arguments of Cardinal Peter and of Boniface made more impression. The pope, indeed, formally refused to sanction the proposal. lie did more.

The forward movement of the Turks in Asia Minor

The troubles which were crowding upon the empire by the forward movement of the Turks in Asia Minor, and especially by the conquest of Salonica and the subsequent advance of the Sicilians, enraged the emperor. He called a meeting of the judges, and, taking care that Hagiochristophorides was present to intimidate them by the roar of his voice, he submitted to them the question whether—in presence of the facts that there were various pretenders to the throne, that there were many rebels who had been banished or had escaped, that there were conspirators in prison who were not only hostile to the state, but gave encouragement to its enemies, and that so long as it was known that they did not meet with the most severe punishment there would be no safety — all political prisoners had not forfeited their lives, and whether death was not the sole remedy against traitors thus incurably hostile? They had taken the sword and ought to perish by the sword. He had taken care that the decision should be as lie wished. The sentence was not carried out, in consequence of the interference of the emperor’s son Manuel, who took the legal objections that the authority of the judges was not sufficient, that the death-warrant ought to be signed by the emperor himself, and that the condemnation was too general and included far too many persons — an answer imbued with the spirit of Justinian law.

Hagiochristophorides

The old tyrant became daily more anxious for his own Attack upon safety, and for this purpose sent Hagiochristophorides to learn from a soothsayer, who during the reign of Manuel had been imprisoned and blinded for the practice of witchcraft, the name of his successor to the throne. The soothsayer produced in the dregs of a cup a sigma and an iota, which were taken to indicate Isaac. The emperor judged this indication to point to Isaac, the Isaurian, whom he had for some time distrusted as a claimant to the throne. Hagiochristophorides determined to obtain possession of another Isaac to whom he believed the prediction to refer, and, in order to prevent its fulfilment, went with a sufficient following to his house to arrest him. This was Isaac Angelos, who appears to have been regarded by the emperor as a man not worth troubling about.

The army had been weakened by repeated contests

The leaders wished to avoid this long and fatal route, and desired to be landed at some place where they could strike at the enemy before the army had been weakened by repeated contests, and wearied and demoralized by long marches through an unhealthy country. Ho place offered so many advantages from this point of view as Egypt. A short sail over a pleasant sea and the Cru-saders could be landed fresh and vigorous and prepared for battle. The cost of transporting an army to Alexandria would be far less than that of taking it to any other part of payniinrie.

The sea was the safest and most easily guarded road to keep open between the invading army and Europe. Alexandria was a base of operations which might be kept with surety against the enemy, while its port would always be open to supplies of men and means of warfare from the West. A footing once obtained, Egypt could better support the army of Christendom than any other country. Its perennial wealth had been the mainstay of the Arabs in their marvellous conquests over Syria and Horthern Africa. Moreover, while the renown of Egypt was spread throughout Islam and Christendom alike, the enemy could be more advantageously fought in the densely populated delta than in the wide and thinly peopled regions of Syria. Probably, too, it was known in Europe that the Egyptian Arabs had lost their early vigor, that the climate had told upon them, and that they were already becoming an unwarlike race. The occasion, however, in 1201 was peculiarly favorable for an attack on that country.

Egyptian caliphate in 1171

Saladin bad conquered it, had abolished the Egyptian caliphate in 1171, and had done all that he could to exhaust its resources. On his death, in 1193 Visit Bulgaria, his two sons had quarrelled about the division of his empire. The one ruling in Egypt asked the aid of the Christians in Syria against his brother. The civil war which followed had still further weakened Egypt. But an exceptional and remarkable circumstance rendered an attack upon Egypt still more opportune. During five successive years the Nile had ceased to fertilize the country.

The result of this unprecedented calamity had been famine and distress. The population had been largely reduced. The wealth and strength of the country had been greatly diminished. To these considerations have to be added the fact that if Egypt were once in the hands of a crusading army it could be held against all invaders, and its wealth turned against Islam. Every Mahometan country would feel the loss of Egypt. A wedge would have been driven into the long stretch of Moslem territory between the Atlantic and India. Islam would have been cut in two and its wealth used to reconquer and hold Syria.

Godfrey by a succession of warriors

The desirability of striking at Islam through Egypt, the very centre and fulcrum of Moslem power, had been recognized from the time of Godfrey by a succession of warriors and statesmen. Innocent the Third was especially impressed with the necessity of making the attack through Egypt. He called particular attention to the exceptional opportunity which the time presented from the accidental or, as he believed it, the providential impoverishment of the richest country in Islam, from the failure of the Nile to overflow, and from the division of its rulers. Even without these accidental advantages, no other spot offered so many opportunities for the attack. To other country, if conquered, would be so great a loss to Islam. These considerations, in fact, seem to have been so generally recognized that it is doubtful whether any other plan was seriously considered. It was to Babylon, as the Crusaders generally called Egypt, that the expedition was to go, because, says Villehardouin, “one could more easily destroy the Turks there than in any other country.”

Expedition prepared with great care

The choice having been made, it will become necessary to ask why the original plan was abandoned. How did it happen that an expedition prepared with great care, and proposing under such favorable circumstances to strike at the heart of Moslem power, turned away from its object and attacked the capital of Eastern Christendom ? The question is one which was asked by all Europe at the time and has never been altogether satisfactorily answered, although in our own time the laborious industry of German and French scholars has succeeded in bringing to light a mass of evidence hitherto unknown, bearing on the question. The conclusion to which this evidence appears to me to point will, I hope, become clear in subsequent pages.

Offer to God cross for cross

The Crusader affixed the cross to his shoulder in order that he might “ offer to God cross for cross, passion for passion, and that by mortifying his desires and making himself like unto Christ he might share with him in the resurrection.” To us Jerusalem is an ancient city with more or less sacred or archaeological associations, to be reached easily by steam from Marseilles, and shortly by rail from Jaffa. To the Christian of the twelfth century it was very far distant, the marvel of the earth, and so filled with relics and other memorials of the Divine Life, that it was readily confounded with the heavenly Jerusalem. The crusades, in their practical effect, helped the young nations of the West to shake off their provinciality, to

absorb a part of the civilization of the East, and to think of something better than family or feudal quarrels.

Over by the King of Righteousness

They prevented the civilization of the West from becoming crystallized. They kept alive the great ideal of a kingdom presided over by the King of Righteousness, the Prince of Peace, under whose rule the continual state of warfare, the bloodshed, the treachery, the cruelty, that the Crusaders found among their own people, as among all half-civilized races, should cease. They breathed throughout the Western nations the breath of a common life, furnished them with a high ideal, and gave a great impetus to poetry in Western literature.

As we reach the end of the twelfth century we come to the end of this noble dream. The nations of the West were preparing to reap the harvest of results which had sprung from their efforts, by themselves developing national life, national art, and national literature. The crusading spirit, though it still existed, had lost much of its freshness; and each successive effort made by the forces of Christendom upon the Saracens was made with less fervor, less religions spirit, and less spontaneity than the effort which had preceded it.

During the crusades the men of the West were continually Thecrn«ad brought into contact with the inhabitants of the errs and the New Rome, and with other subjects of the Bvzantine emperor.

Bosphorus and the Dardanelles is one of The most important in the world

Commerce, however, had contributed still more largely to from com- the wealth of the capital. The highway of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles is one of The most important in the world. No city which exists, or has ever existed, lias so completely commanded an open road leading to, and having on each side of it, so many fruitful countries. Prom Batoum, which is the most direct outlet from Central Asia, the best available route to Europe was by the Bosphorus. This channel, varying from half a mile to a mile wide, could be easily defended. After a passage of eighteen miles these noble straits lead to Constantinople, which commands on one side of it the Marmora, a beautiful and convenient lake under the entire control of Constantinople. Its outlet is at the Dardanelles, where the facilities for its defence are equal to those on the Bosphorus.

Thence through the Aegean

Thence, through the Aegean, all Europe, Africa, and Asia Minor was open to the trading vessels of the capital. The imports for the supply of the wants of Constantinople and the export of her own products were themselves considerable. We have seen that the rulers of Constantinople had conceded many privileges in favor of trade to foreign subjects. But while these concessions doubtless increased her wealth, she had reserved to her own merchants the exclusive privilege of the Black Sea trade and of the import of provisions.

But she was then, as she has continued to be till quite recently, and will be again under a good government, a great mart for the collection and distribution of goods. A large amount of the trade between Asia and Europe passed through the Bosphorus. Persian and Armenian merchants brought their merchandise to Constantinople, to be distributed from thence throughout Western Europe. The city had occupied the first rank among the great marts of commerce for so long a period that, at the end of the twelfth century, she had supplied not only the empire of which she was the capital, but also Western Europe, Central Asia, and even India, with gold coin.

Roman was unwilling to give the privilege

But they gentium applied mainly to matters in dispute between Romans and foreigners, and not to questions between foreigners themselves. The Roman was unwilling to give the privilege of his law to a foreigner except where it was to the interest of the Roman so to do. The law of the New Rome, however, which is what jurists usually think of when the term Roman law is used, had, from the time of Justinian, two centuries after Constantine, merged the two systems of law into one in much the same way that our own Judicature Acts have merged the systems of common law and equity. There was no time, however, either in the history of Rome or Constantinople, when foreigners had the full rights possessed by Roman citizens.

Privileges were conceded to them for the purpose of trade. Commercial treaties were made with the nations to which they belonged. Strangers were invited and inducements held out to them to settle in the country. In every case, however, they were to be under their own government, and they were never permitted to have all or most of the benefits conferred on subjects of the empire. They might come to the country and trade with its inhabitants, and would be protected in so doing, but they must govern themselves and expect nothing but protection and the right to trade on certain conditions imposed by the state.

Widely different customs

This condition of things existed only to a modified extent Rule as to *n the case of nations which had been brought into subject races. subjection to the empire. The emperors had to take in hand the administration of law to people of widely different customs, religions, races, and countries. Ultimately the rights and obligations imposed by a portion of Roman law were conferred and imposed upon all subjects of the empire, though, of course, not upon resident foreigners. Caracal La, for the sake of increasing the revenues, had made all subjects of the empire into Roman citizens. But the most convenient way of administering Roman law even to Roman citizens was, in the words of Cassiodorus, the secretary of Theodorie the Great, to allow the Roman to be a judge for the Roman, the Goth for the Goth, and thus under a diversity of judges to have equal justice administered to all.

Half-civilized state on the Volga

A new detachment of Bulgarians in the seventh century sec a appeared and took possession of the delta of the tin of Buiga- Danube, pushing on as far as Varna. They came from Black Bulgaria, a half-civilized state on the Volga, which disappeared in the thirteenth century during the Mongol invasion. They were probably a Uralian people allied to the Finns.

On their re-entry into the peninsula they had to contend with the Slav population between the Danube and the Balkans, and soon became firmly established in the country they have ever since inhabited. The country north of the Danube, now called Eoumania, and formed out of Wallachia and Moldavia, was often called Bulgaria by the Byzantine writers. There is, however, no reason to believe that the Bulgarians ever, in any considerable numbers, occupied it. Their extension was rather southward and westward at the expense of the Slavs, the Greeks, and other inhabitants of the empire. At the opening of the ninth century military colonies had been established along the -whole length of the Balkans on the Bulgarian frontier.

Continual struggle against the Bulgarians

During that century the empire was engaged in a continual struggle against the Bulgarians, but, while any great advance southward was prevented, they pushed across the peninsula as far as Durazzo. When they had thus won their position they had not yet become Slavicized, though Slavic names begin to appear at a very early period, and ultimately their own language was entirely forgotten. During the tenth century they were attacked on all sides, but held their own. In the eleventh century the Byzantine emperors tried something like a policy of extermination, and Basil the Bulgaroctone, or Bulgarian slayer, commenced the execution of this policy by making a broad belt of waste country across the peninsula to Durazzo. In the twelfth century we find the Bulgarians settled in isolated colonies in the neighborhood of the capital itself, just as they are to-day.

In like manner there were Slav colonies in various parts of the southern portion of the peninsula holidays bulgaria. In the neighborhood of Mount Olympus, which is now principally occupied by Wallachians, there was also a Slav people. Indeed, the peninsula was dotted over with small settlements of the races which had invaded the empire. At one time the interior of the Balkan peninsula was constantly spoken of as Slavinia. The Bulgarians, however, were a numerous and powerful people, the boundaries of whose territory, though continually shift-ing, -were always wide; and, up to the moment of the Latin conquest, were always a source of weakness to the empire.

North of the Black Sea

Another stream of people which had passed into the empire The Patching the broad tract to the north of the Black Sea naive. were the Patchinaks. Like the Huns, they, too, were of Turkish origin. They had occupied Wallachia and Moldavia, which for centuries was the battle-ground of the races coming from Asia, of those who had already arrived, and of the empire.

They had on one side of them the Huns or Magyars from whom they had conquered their territory, while on the other they were pressed by a new division of Turkish origin, namely, the Uzes. The latter came in such numbers that, in the eleventh century, the Patchinaks were defeated, and had to seek refuge in the empire. Protection was afforded them, but they were always unruly subjects. Some of them had embraced Mahometanism, while others were pagans; all were barbarian nomads.

Towards the end of the same century the Uzes swept over Moldavia and Wallachia, crossed the Danube, and devastated the country as far south as Macedonia. The imperial troops, with the aid of the Bulgarians and the newly protected Patchinaks, succeeded in driving them across the Danube. Even in this ease, however, permission was given to some of them to establish settlements in Macedonia.

As we approach 1200 we find the Patchinaks a constant source of trouble. In 1148 a division of them crossed the Danube and invaded the empire. Under the vigorous rule of Manuel they were driven back, but they returned again and again, and in 1186 and 1187 united themselves with the Bulgarians to pillage Thrace. Their hostilities were encouraged during the last years of the empire, when the dynastic struggles helped to weaken it. In 1200 they laid waste Macedonia. Their race, however, was almost run.

The faithful subjects of kingdom of the Protestant faith

And since the good and useful effects of these measures are at all times plainly manifest, it is my Imperial desire that no improper or disorderly thing, of whatever kind, be thoughtlessly occasioned to the faithful subjects of my kingdom of the Protestant faith, and that the special privileges granted by my Imperial government, concerning religion and matters pertaining to it, be in all respects perpetually preserved from all detriment.

And as it is my Imperial will that no injury, of whatever kind, or in whatever manner, come upon them, therefore, this most righteous Imperial edict has been written, that those who act against it may know that, exposing themselves to my Royal indignation, they shall be punished. Notice has been given to the proper authorities, so that” there may not be the least ground of excuse, if there should happen in any way a neglect of this ordinance.

And this, my firm decree, has been issued from my Royal divan, to make known and establish it as my Imperial purpose, that this thing shall be carried into full and complete execution. Wherefore, you, who are the above- mentioned Vakeel, on learning this, will always move and act in accordance with the demands of this, my High Firman, and carefully abstain from any thing at variance with these things; and if any thing shall occur contrary to this, my decisive order, you will forthwith make it known to the Sublime Porte. Know this to be so, and give credence to my Imperial cypher.

Written in the last of the month Shaban, 1269.

Celebrated Hatti Humayoun

The following is the celebrated Hatti Humayoun of 1856, issued by the Sultan, Abdul Medjid, in compliance with a demand from the European Powers that the death-penalty for a change of religion should be abolished. See page 385.

HATTI HUMAYOCJN OF 1856.

Addressing a Sabbath school in one of the churches of New York City

An incident somewhat in contrast with the above occurred about the same time, as he was addressing a Sabbath school in one of the churches of New York City. With his venerable form and snow-white beard, and with his kindly beaming face, he seemed the very impersonation of good-will to the children to whom he was speaking words of loving instruction. A little girl in the school was so much struck with his appearance that she turned and whispered eagerly to her teacher, “ Is that Santa Claus? ” the resemblance perhaps being heightened in her estimation by the black velvet cap, with the Arabic inscription, which he always wore in public.

At various places in Western New York he preached and addressed congregations on the Sabbath and during the week.

He spent several days most delightfully at Palmyra, with the liev. Dr. Eaton and family, whose church was a school and a home for missionaries, several of its members having been trained up for service in the East. At this place he spent an afternoon with the family of Mr. Beckwith, with whom he had sojourned forty-six years before, when he visited Canandaigua as an agent for the Board, just after leaving the Theological Seminary.

Into New England

From New York he went into New England, to comply with numerous invitations he had received. He was several days with missionary friends at Sturbridge, Mass., where he preached on Sabbath morning, and made an address on missions in the evening. Early on Monday morning he left Sturbridge to attend the Commencement exercises at Andover Theological Seminary.

He enjoyed a festival in meeting with beloved friends at Andover, a place made sacred by the scenes of his early life and of his consecration to the service of Christ. Of this, and many similar occasions in his summer’s journeyings and so-journings, he remarked that he met with so many good people, and had with them so much sweet communion, it seemed to him like a foretaste of the society of heaven. He made one more pilgrimage to his native town, and sought out once more “ the old place where my father prayed and gave us all to God; ” and after visiting Amherst, where he addressed the students of the college, he was privileged to attend another meeting of the American Board at Pittsfield, the last that was held while he was an inhabitant of earth.

The charge of publicly reviling the prophet

In regard to the actual responsibility for the disturbance which arose, and especially with respect to the charge of publicly reviling the prophet, Dr. Goodell wrote at the time to one of his brethren in Turkey: —

“ The American missionaries have not changed their policy, but it ought to be known that other missionaries have come in, who from the first have pursued a very different policy. The Rev. Dr. Pfander, of the Church Missionary Society, a very worthy and excellent man, came and opened his batteries against Islamism. We earnestly advised him not to publish those books; we entreated him not to do it; we solemnly protested against Ms doing it. But tiles good brother having what the great Dr. Edwards attempted to prove nobody can have, viz., a self-determining power of the will, went on and did it; and the effect has been to bring all our missionary and Bible operations into great danger, — the very thing of which we had repeatedly warned him.

“Then there is a Mr. O’Flaherty, an Irishman, who, from being a sergeant in the Crimean war, felt called upon at the close of it to convert all the Mussulmans for whom he had fought so bravely. Some good people in England furnished the funds, and requested us to direct his labors. This we soon found to be impracticable, and we wrote, saying we could no longer assume any responsibility in regard to him. He was then shifted over to some English or Scotch society, and has continued his responsible or irresponsible labors to the present time, holding lectures or meetings up and down the Bosphorus, at all suitable or unsuitable places, talking long and loud, on steamboats or elsewhere, with any one who would ask or answer a question or give him a hearing, and, it may be (though I know not if there be any proof), saying hard things against the Koran and the prophet. Perhaps it will appear at last that he and Dr. Pfander have done more good than any of us; but even this will be no evidence that they acted with Christian prudence and discretion; for the Lord in Ilis wisdom and great mercy sometimes makes use of our imprudences and our indiscretions. But we greatly need here at the present time for British ambassador a man like Lord Kedcliffe, whose moral worth and weight of character would be felt, whose sympathies would be with the Bible and not with the Koran, with Christianity and not with Islamism, and who would represent the English and not the Turkish government.”

The advancement of the kingdom of Christ in the world

This was followed about a month later by a communication “ To the Churches of Christ in the United States of America,” in which he urges them to come up to a higher standard of living for God, and with themselves to devote their property to the advancement of the kingdom of Christ in the world. The following is a brief extract: —

“ In the great increase that is to be made to the church in the latter days, the Prophet Isaiah sees them coming in crowds, and bringing ‘ their silver and their gold with them; ’ that is, devoting their wealth to the name and worship of Jehovah, to be employed in Ilis blessed service. And had any of those left their ‘ gold and frankincense ’ behind; or had they left ‘ the flocks of Kedar,’ with ‘ the multitude of camels’ and ‘the dromedaries from Midian,’ behind them, in the dark regions of idolatry, where they could themselves go back every day to enjoy them, — would they have been received and incorporated among the true Israel? Certaiuly not. They would have been rejected, as still devoted to idolatry, and possessing substantially the same character as before.

“ Now, beloved friends, the present are those latter days of glory foretold by the prophet. And have you looked to see whether the crowds that now come up to join themselves to the Lord are brumum ‘ their silver and their role with them? ’ Have you made any inquiry? Have you gone into any examination of the subject? If you have not, we in Constantinople have; and we have been amazed beyond measure to lilid that while there has been such a great increase of names to the records of the church, there has been comparatively little addition to the ‘ whole burut offerings and sacrifices ’ made to the Lord.”

To the widowed wife of a former missionary to Constantinople, then residing in this country, he sent the following playful invitation to attend the marriage of his daughter, which was to take place a few days later: —

CONSTANTINOPLE, June 2G, 18G0.

MY DEAR SISTER, — Our daughter Mary expects to change her name on the Gtli of July. Will you and Samuel and Frances and Charley grace the occasion by your presence? Do try and come. You will meet many of your old friends, and we will try and arrange every thing pertaining to the ceremony so that you shall get home before dark.

Nazareth have just declared themselves Protestants

MY VERY DEAR BROTHER IN TIIE LORD, — Your two letters of Nov. 20 and Dec. 19 have both safely reached this, nearly at the same time, and have, indeed, as you say. made my heart glad, not only on account of the remittances, which I see you understand are very welcome for the carrying on of divers works in this country, but, I assure you, it is always a source of joy to hear of you, and especially to receive your kind letters. The Lord bless you abundantly for your kindness. I should be very glad, before you proceed, as you intend, to America, to see you and your dear wife in Jerusalem, and I think you would find some change for the better in the disposition of the people of this country since you left it. But whether you come or not, I pray that God may bless you abundantly on your visit to America.

Since I saw you at Beyrout in 1827, I have never been so long in one country as I have now been in Jerusalem, now above four years. Many sweet and many bitter blessings have we received at the hand of the Lord in our wandering life, and all is intended for our good.

You will hear with much pleasure that thirteen families, with sixty-one souls, at Nazareth have just declared themselves Protestants, several of whom, I hope, are under the influence of the Spirit of grace. Here among the Jews we see just fruits enough to keep up our courage, but certainly 1 do not yet perceive any important change among the Jews at large. Oh that the Spirit of life might be breathed upon these dry bones!

Please remember us kindly to your dear wife.

Ever faithfully yours,

S. ANGL. IIIEROSOL.

He left Constantinople May 3,1831, and reached Boston just in time to go to the dying bed of his life-long friend and fellow- laborer, Rev. Daniel Temple, and to preach his funeral sermon at Reading, Mass. The sermon, which was published in pamphlet, besides being a striking comment upon the text, “ There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God,” was a warm-hearted tribute to the exalted character of one whose conversation had long been in heaven.

Soon after reaching this country, he made his way to his native town, which he had left nearly forty years before, and had seen only in vacations while a student. lie arrived at Templeton late on a Saturday evening. The next day, on going into the pulpit and looking round upon the congregation, he could not recognize a single countenance, not even among the hoary heads. The church itself, an orthodox society, had been organized and built up since he had left the place. His first call was at the burying-ground, of which he said, “ I thought I should find there more whom I knew than anywhere else.” But even the graves of many of his friends were obliterated. He wrote at the time, “ The changes everywhere are very great, ‘ one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh.’ All the former elders of the land, the deacons, the selectmen, the school committeemen, the town-clerks, the lawyers, the representatives, — all, all are gone!

‘ The world passed away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abided for ever.’ Oh how blessed are all those who are connected with that which is eternal! ”

lie visited the home of his childhood in a distant part of the town, where he had left his aged father when he went at the call of God, as did Abraham, into a far distant country. But that too was gone. The site only remained. Near by he found living an aged aunt totally blind, of whom he wrote: “ She said that sometimes when she lies awake in the night the whole room seems as bright as day, and she thinks she sees every thing, but when she puts out her hand and waves it, she finds she ‘ can see nothing but the love of God.’ Blessed eyes that can see that! ”

As extensively as possible he visited his relatives, especially his brothers and sisters, who were scattered over the country tour packages bulgaria, from Massachusetts to Wisconsin, and many were the sacred and joyful, and sometimes amusing, scenes that occurred as he made himself known to them in his own humorous way. In every case they failed at first to recognize the family likeness in the aged man who called at their doors and asked in the name of a disciple for a shelter, or a cup of cold water. He had kept the fire of love for his kindred burning bright on the hearthstone of his heart, during the many years that had separated him from all to whom he was bound by natural ties, and as he joined them in their family circles, and bowed with them at their family altars, he felt as if he had not been absent a day. The account which he gave of a visit to a brother in the far West, when they laughed and wept by turns, but all for joy, is too domestic to be here transcribed, although strikingly expressive of his genial, loving character.

District of Columbia

The two years that he spent in this country were devoted almost exclusively to hard work in the same blessed cause for which he had gone forth to the Eastern world so long before. lie was constantly going from place to place, from one part of the country to another, preaching and advocating the cause of missions, on the Sabbath, during the week, and on all occasions. During these two years, lacking five days, he travelled about twenty-one thousand miles, visited eighteen States of the Union, and the District of Columbia; he occupied two hundred and thirty-five different pulpits, preaching or addressing more than four hundred congregations, speaking on an average about an hour each time, and addressing, in addition, the students of colleges and theological seminaries, Sabbath schools, select schools, Ac., all over the country. As he was leaving for the scene of his labors in the East he wrote: “ Instead of being worn down by this service, I feel all the fresher and the better for it. AVhat thanks are due to Him‘who giveth power unto the faint,* and what thanks shall we render to Him for all that cordiality, that truly Christian hospitality, with which lie inspired the ten thousands of Ilis dear people to receive us.”

Brother Simon to Christ

And these may now be seen every day walking abroad in the streets of this great city, living, breathing men; men who, like all those that have been quickened and made alive, and that will live for ever, are calling on every side to their neighbors and kindred, “ Awake, thou that slecpest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” There is certainly a great deal of life and activity among them. Look abroad in almost any direction, and you will see some Andrew bringing his brother Simon to Christ; or some Philip persuading his friend Nathanael to come; or, peradventure, over the very house-tops, and “ through the tiling,” and greatest difficulties, you will see “ one sick of the palsy,” who is “ borne of four.” Blessed sight! who would not be a missionary to see such “ visions bright”? But truly “this is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous In our eyes.”

I close this communication with a remark, which I recently made to our native brethren, whom, as you know,. I am accustomed to meet alone by themselves every Tuesday morning, “ If this work of God go forward in the same proportion for ten years to come, as it has gone for ten years past, there will be no further occasion for any of us to remain here, unless it be to assist you in bringing to a knowledge of these same precious saving doctrines of the Gospel the Greeks and Jews and others around you.”

But, dear brother, reverses are to be expected. And may you and we, and the churches at home, and all concerned, be prepared for them.

Yours most truly,

AY. GOODELL.

Anderson to the East

In the spring of 184-1 Mr. Goodell experienced a great trial in the recall of his beloved friend and brother, Rev. Daniel Temple, with whom he had been on terms of intimate fellowship almost from boyhood. They had occupied the same room in the academy, in college, and in the Theo-logical Seminary for the space of nine years, and although separated in their missionary life in the East, Mr. Temple being stationed at Smyrna, they had exchanged letters and interchanged their most sacred sentiments every week since coming to the Orient. The trial was the more severe because the giving up of the missionary work was so painful to Mr. Temple. One of the results of the visit of Dr. Anderson to the East was the discontinuance of the mission to the Greeks, for whom Mr. Temple had been exclusively laboring; and as the Board concurred with him in the opinion that he was too far advanced in years to commence the acquisition of a new language and enter upon an entirely new mission, he reluctantly decided to return to the United States. Before he left, Mr. Goodell wrote to him: —

At least two languages already

But it is preparing the Scriptures for those who are comparatively enlightened; who as a nation have access to them in at least two languages already, though neither of them generally understood, and the learned and influential of whom have in many cases become great pedants in criticism, and captious beyond endurance,— being much more inclined to compare for the sake of finding discrepancies than to read with a prayerful desire to understand the meaning, and be guided into all truth.

But as nearly all can read the Armeno-Turkish, and very many thousands among them can read nothing else, the translation of the Bible into this language is imperiously demanded. It was strongly urged upon me eighteen years ago by the Rev. Pliny Fisk, one of the first missionaries of the Board to Palestine. I have had my eye upon it ever since; Providence has furnished me with the means by raising up instruments, and I have spared no pains or labor to have it as perfect as possible, otherwise I might have completed it long ago.

Tasted this Bread of Heaven

In some instances I have spent more time on the examination of a single passage than I should have felt justified in employing on a whole chapter, had I been throwing it out upon a starving population, who had never yet tasted this Bread of Heaven. It is not a version, or a revision of a former translation, for no such ever existed. The whole has been taken fresh from the Hebrew. And may it in some humble way prove to be like the “pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” May hundreds of thousands of the perishing come and recline on its banks, and drink, and live for ever!

One adventitious advantage which may be hoped from this translation is, that it will render it less difficult at some future time to bring back their ancient Armenian Scriptures to the original Hebrew, from which they have more or less widely departed. It is preparing the way for this, inasmuch as it makes them familiar with a translation professedly of this character.

Imperilled condition of the Turkish empire

Another gleam of light broke in upon the darkness which was overspreading the mission work in Turkey. It came from above, for while in the imperilled condition of the Turkish empire there were state reasons which led to the action of the Sultan, we are compelled to refer directly to the leading hand of God this first decisive act, in a series of remarkable documentary concessions by the Ottoman Porte.

In opposition to all the traditions of Mohammedanism and of Turkish rule, Selim III., who came to the throne in 1789, had commenced the work of reform, but the power of the Janizaries was too strong, and he fell a victim to their hostility. Mahmoud II., almost single-handed, took up the work, and, finding that either he or the Janizaries must perish, just at the moment when they were counting on success he gave the order that they should be put to the sword, and they were literally exterminated. Still the whole army of officials, with very few exceptions, were in favor of sustaining the ancient abuses, and the death of Mahmoud was the occasion of scarcely concealed joy on the part of the bigoted Mohammedans.

He was succeeded by his son Abdul Medjid, a youth of only sixteen years, who, on the 3d of November, 1839, four months after his accession to the throne, assembled the nobles of the empire, not only the Mussulmans, but the deputies of the Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, together with the ambassadors of foreign powers, and ordered his grand vizier to read to the august assemblage the first formal Bill of Rights, the Magna Charta of Turkey, and himself set the example to his olficials, by taking the oath of fidelity to the new instrument.

Hatti Sherif of Gill Ilane

This charter is known as the Hatti Sherif of Gill Ilane, so named from the garden of the Seraglio, in which it was promulgated. It did not touch the question of religious liberty which was considered in later firmans, nor, indeed, the subject of religion in any form, being confined to these three points:

1. Guaranteeing to all the subjects of the Porte security of life,.honor, and property;

2. A regular system of levying and collecting the taxes; and 3. An established system of recruiting the army and defining the period of service. But this was the first step in a series of constitutional guarantees, which afterward took the form of charters of religious freedom, culminating in the celebrated Hatti Ilumayoun of 1856.

Imperfections of mortality.

Our dear sister. We are waiting with impatience the return of the courier; but we suppose we have also offered our last prayers for her, and that she is now free from all the imperfections of mortality. In addition to the exposure of all the others, my own family are also compromised, as I received several letters from brother Dwight without fumigating them, not having any suspicion at first of its being the plague. The Farmans were also down on a visit to San Stephano after Mrs. Dwight and John were attacked. So there is not a missionary here, not even the travellers, who may not be considered as compromised fully. How many of us, or who of us, may be alive after another week no man can tell! But you will lift up your heart in prayer to God for the remnant that may be left.

Your Brother,

W. GOODELL.

Some extracts from his journal, written during the preva-lence of the disease, show that he was walking in the midst of death: —

“ May 20, 1837. Heard to-day of the death of an interesting young man, Tchelebi Diamond, from Broosa. He was a friend of our missionary brethren and sisters there. They had conversed with him, read the Scriptures with him, prayed with him, wept over him, and sometimes thought him not far from the kingdom of God. He brought from Broosa a parcel and a letter for me, which, on his arrival here, he sent to me, with the message that he was too ill to call himself.

Thousand exposures which never come to our knowledge

The next day he died. It was the plague. As I took the parcel and the letter without fumigating them, I was of course compromised. Indeed, in one way and another we are often much exposed. This is the second with me within a few days, to say nothing of the thousand exposures which never come to our knowledge. Thus by an unseen hand we are preserved from dangers seen and unseen. Some risks seem unavoidable, if we would not shut ourselves up entirely. Our Greek girls’ school is now stopped on account of the whole school having been most fully compromised by a case of plague in the adjoining house, where several of the girls of the school were lodging.

“July 21. I read the burial-service at the grave of the only son of Sir P. Malcolm, who died of the plague at Mr. Cartwright’s, the English consul-general. He was on his way from India to England, and arrived sick from Trebizond on the 16th inst. Mr. Cartwright’s house adjoins my own, and the unfortunate gentleman occupied a room which corners on our own bedchamber. We have placed chlorine in all the rooms that were particularly exposed; but we are certainly ‘ in deaths oft,’ and are made to feel that, i except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.’

Patronized by the Russian and Spanish ambassadors

“ Near two years since one of our own little schools in this place was broken up. And although it had been visited and was patronized by the Russian and Spanish ambassadors, and more particularly so by the American minister, yet no one of them interfered. In the first place, they could not interfere lawfully, and of course had no right to do it.

And in the second place, I did not wish them to do it. Such interference, had it succeeded, would have done more hurt than good. It would have alarmed the fears and awakened the prejudices of the whole community; their worst passions would have been excited; the misrepresentations would have been endless; and, instead of there being numerous Lancasterian schools in this neighborhood, as at present, there would probably have been but that one, and that one sustained only by civil authority and force, and thus, by shutting up other doors of usefulness, proving a curse rather than a blessing.”

In such a world as this, however, and especially in such a part of it as the Turkish empire, and more especially among the adherents of the corrupt Oriental churches, “ it must needs be that offences come.” The breaking out of opposition could not long be stayed. Accordingly, he writes: —

September 9, 1834. During the Greek Lent, a monk, who formerly lived in one of the Ionian Islands, and who, it is said, was banished thence by the English government for his officious meddling, or seditious conduct, preached in the principal church of Constantinople, and before the patriarch, a most furious sermon against the schools, the books, and the new translations of the Scriptures into Greek, accusing the priests, the bishops, and even the patriarch himself, of being polluted with heresy, and of conniving at a monstrous evil, which was bringing ruin upon their church and nation.

Many of the people left the church, and the patriarch sent a man into the pulpit three times to pull the skirt of the preacher’s cloak; but he paid no attention to these hints, and continued to rave like a madman. The same sermon he preached also in Galata and in other places. And his influence was the greater, as he was almost the only individual at the capital at all capable of making a sermon, and as he could at least pretend to speak from his own experience of the tendency of this system of missionary and Bible means, and also from his personal knowledge of the motives and designs of those engaged in the work.

“ In consequence of all this, there was an immediate interference in all the schools: every thing had to undergo the strictest scrutiny; the books were subjected to the most rigid examination; and, though they had the patriarch’s own seal in their favor From Alican and Dilucu border gates to Karakale, though nothing appeared against them, yet it was resolved that poison must be concealed somewhere in them, and that therefore they must cease to be used as school-books, and the old church prayers and Psalters must be introduced in their stead. The teachers, one and all, resisted these measures for some time; but they were finally compelled to make at least a show of submission, either in whole or in part.

“ Blessed be God, whether His beloved Son shall see of the travail of His soul, and whether He shall come and reign over the hearts of men or not, does not depend on princes or patriarchs. And as we endeavored to publish the laws of Ilis kingdom, and to prepare the way for His coming to take possession of it under the former patriarch, so do we resolve in the strength of the Lord to labor still more abundantly to do this under the latter.”

At the opening of another year there were evidences that the truth was taking effect, and that the good Spirit was moving upon the hearts of the people. He writes in his journal: —

Peshtimaljian with questions

“ February 28, 1835. The state of things among the Armenians continues interesting. Almost every day, for a long time, there have been little assemblies in Constantinople for reading the Bible, God’s own blessed word; almost every day some go to Peshtimaljian with questions; and very frequently some one comes to us for a solution of such as Peshtimaljian cannot satisfactorily answer. A short time since they sent over to us to know what they were to do for a church. We replied, Be in no hurry at present.

Offley and Iloboli

“ About this time M r. Church hill came in, and insisted that Mrs. Goodell and the children should immediately go to his house, quite in the lower part of Pera, towards Galata, and there remain till we should come, as he was sure my house could not stand long. They left in company with Messrs. Offley and Iloboli, clerks in Mr. Church- hill’s counting-house. Soon after, Mr. Cunningham came to tell me that his house, with every thing in it, was gone, and that mine could not resist much longer. Every house back of mine was in ashes, or nearly so; every house on the left hand was all on fire, and the house next to mine on the right had just caught. In front, and separated from me by a narrow street, was the large garden of the English palace, surrounded by a very high wall. Assisted by Mr. Churchhill and Panayotes, a friendly Greek, who came over from Constantinople and stayed by me during all that day, and several of the succeeding ones, we threw from the projections or balconies of our chambers into this garden whatever came to hand, till my strength was exhausted, and Mr. Churchhilf declared that we could not remain in the house another minute in safety.

The fire had passed through the adjoining house to the very front, and was sweeping the front part of mine, which was not defended by iron shutters. He started, and bade me follow. I called to my servant Giovanni, and then passed through a shower of tiles, windows, and fire brands, that were falling into the street from the adjoining house. My hat caught fire, but, praised be God, I passed unhurt. The servant, who was not a quarter of a minute behind, was not able to follow, and had to return into the house, and was somehow saved by the firemen through the ashes and fire at the back part of the house.

Impossible to make a near approach

“ We hastened to the garden, and towards the spot where we had thrown so many things, and where I expected to find them all secure. We found it impossible to make a near approach; the fire had passed the garden wall; not a single article of all we had thrown from the windows could be seen; and the whole front part of my house was wrapt in one entire sheet of blaze. We afterwards found in another part of the garden a very few of our things, some of them broken, and others partly burnt, which had been rescued from the fire by the exertions of Messrs. Oflley and Roboli and other friends; but almost all of them were consumed before they could be taken from the spot where they were thrown. Withthe spoiling of our goods’ we removed from place to place in the garden, till the palace itself took fire, and no place of safety could any longer be found there. We then proceeded to Mr. Churchhill’s, a large and very strong stone house.

Autumn gathers in the fruits of the earth

With some the year begins in March, with the advent of spring; with others it commences in September, when autumn gathers in the fruits of the earth; others make January, in midwinter, their starting point The difference between the “Old Style” and the “New Style” involves two celebrations, as a rule, of Easter, two observances of New Year’s Day, while Christmas is celebrated three times, the Armenian Church having combined the commemoration of that festival with the more ancient festival of the Epiphany. For one section of the community, moreover, the day of rest is Sunday, for another Saturday, for yet another the day of special religious services is Friday. All these differences are not matters seen at a remote distance of place or time; they are not curious items of archaeological lore. On the contrary, they enter into the practical experience of your workaday life, compelling you to see things from various points of view, and to conform with the ways of humanity in manifold directions.

Mohammedanism and Christianity

Then what a diversified scene is spread before the mind by the variety of religious faiths professed here. A native of Constantinople put the case before the Parliament of Religions, held at the Chicago Exposition, thus: “We have a Parliament of Religions every day in Constantinople. ” The faith of Israel, Mohammedanism, and Christianity, are here matched against each other in great organised communities, with the marks of the controversies and wars which form so large a part of the history of this Eastern world fresh and clear upon them.

Here are the sects and schools of thought which divide Islam; the Sunnites who maintain the legitimacy of all the Caliphs, the Shiites who hold that Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, was his first lawful successor, and who gather annually in the court of the Valid& Khan in Stamboul, to cut and gash themselves, like their brethren in Persia, as they mourn the murder of Ali’s sons, Hussein and Hassan; the Howling and the Dancing Dervishes who hope to apprehend the Divine in their ecstasy, the Bektashs Dervishes, more rationalistic, more tolerant, more latitudinarian.

The Silver Water

Resorts of this description abound on the shores and in the valleys of the Upper Bosporus, under such names as “ The Water of Life,” “ The Silver Water,” “The Water under the Chestnut Trees,” “The Water beside the Hazels.” The spectacle of the great gatherings there, on Fridays, arrayed in bright colours, seated tier above tier on the terraced platforms built against the green slope of a hill, the women above, the men below, all in the deep shade of branches meeting overhead, forms a picture beyond a painter s power to reproduce.

In this connection may be mentioned also the attractive little scenes upon which one comes frequently in walking through the city—quiet nooks, a little off the great thoroughfares, with a vine or westeria spread on a trellis across the street for an awning, and a group of humble workmen, seated on low stools at the door of a cafeneh, sipping tiny cups of coffee, drinking water, smoking the naighileh, too happy to speak much. Occasionally, the court of a small khan, or a portion of a large court, is thus canopied by a trellised vine, making an oasis in the desert of lowly toil.

RELIGIOUS COLOURING

Another striking feature in the life of Constantinople is the extent to which life here has a religious colouring. The Turkish State is a theocracy. Its supreme law is a code reputed to be Divine. Citizenship is secured by the profession of a particular religion. Obedience to the law of the land is obedience to the will of God. The defence of the State is the defence of a faith. Patriotism is piety. To die in battle is to belong to the noble army of martyrs. The cemetery on the hill above Roumeli Hissar is known as “ The Field of the Witnesses” (Martyrs), because the resting-place of soldiers who died while Mehemet the Conqueror was building, in 1452, the castle which should command the passage of the straits, and cut the communications of the city with the lands around the Black Sea during the forthcoming siege, “when the bud would open into flower.”

Venetian fleet

Of the historical events of which the Golden Horn has been the theatre, the most important are: first, the attack upon the walls along this side of the city, in 1203, and again in 1204, by the Venetian fleet which accompanied the Fourth Crusade; second, the transportation by Sultan Mehemet into its waters in 1458, of warships over the hill that separates the harbour from the Bosporus. The movements of the Venetian fleet and of the army which accompanied it can be followed step by step, so minute is the description of Ville – Hardouin and so unaltered the topography of the country. Upon approaching the city the invaders put in at San Stefano, now a favourite suburban resort upon the Sea of Marmora.

A south wind carried them next to Scutari. From that point they crossed to the bay now occupied by the Palace of Dolma Bagtchd, near Beshiktash. There the army landed, and advancing along the shore attacked the tower to which the northern end of the chain across the harbour’s mouth was fastened. Upon the capture of the tower after a feeble resistance, the chain was cut, and the fleet of Venice under the command of Dandolo, flying the ensign of S. Mark, rode into the Golden Horn and made for the head of the harbour.

Cassim Pasha and Haskeui

At the same time, the troops marched towards the same point, along the northern shore, where Cassim Pasha and Haskeui are now situated. At the latter suburb they crossed the stone bridge that led to Eyoub on the southern bank. Then turning eastwards, they seized the hill facing the portion of the city walls above which the windows and domes of the Palace of Blachernse looked towards the west. While the army prepared to attack that point, the ships of Dandolo stood before the harbour walls, in a long line from Aivan Serai to the Phanar and the neighbourhood of the present Inner Bridge.

A desperate assault followed, in which twenty-five towers were carried by the Venetians, and the day would have been won, but for the repulse of the land forces and the necessity to hasten to their relief. Soon a revolution within the city against the usurper whom the Crusaders had come to depose, and in favour of the restoration of Isaac Angelus, whose claim to the throne they supported, seemed to bring the struggle to an end. As a sign that amicable relations had been established, and to avoid the danger of angry collisions with the citizens, the invaders removed their forces to the northern side of the Golden Horn.

Boat sprawled upon the deck

I noticed three Italian masons, who were going to Bourgas to look out for work on the breakwater; a German clerk, who was being sent to Bourgas to learn Bulgarian in a German firm which does business there; and a Russian Jew, who was apparently in the old-clothes line, and who carried that part of his stock-in-trade, for which he could not find a purchaser at any price, upon his own person. But I should think that of the some hundred passengers stowed away in our little cockle-shell of a steamer, fully ninety were Bulgarians. We had half a dozen or so native soldiers in uniform. Even when under drill and at attention, the Bulgarian soldier, brave as he undoubtedly is, has not much of a military air.

When he is off duty and out of sight of his officers, he looks just like what he is in reality, a sturdy, clumsily built ploughboy, stuck into an ill-fitting uniform, which he has never yet acquired the art of wearing. The soldiers on our boat sprawled upon the deck—their huge, high-booted legs seemed to stretch in every direction ; they were eating apples and onions all day long, but they were quite sober, very quiet, and extremely good-natured. There were any number of Bulgarian peasants clad in sheepskins, and a good many clerks and shopmen and their wives and children, all of them untidy, all shabby, and all looking as if they had not of late been addicted to washing.

The passengers lay in layers on the wet deck; the women bare-headed, except for a soiled handkerchief tied round their foreheads, and most of them with bonnet-boxes under their arms. Men, women, and children alike were all victims to sea-sickness. Basins were unknown—when the sufferers could manage it, they staggered to the ship’s side ; when their strength was not equal to the task of moving, they were simply sick on the ground where they lay. But what struck me most was the perfect quiet and good nature of the crowd, even amidst their personal discomfort.

Ethnically belonged to the Turkic tribes

The policy of assimilation adopted by the Byzantine Emperors with regard to the immigrants in-fluenced the regions where the Slavs were not the predominant power (Central and Southern Greece, Asia Minor), but in Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia the Slavs were the masters of the situation. Too weak to oppose on their own the powerful pressure of Byzantium, the Slav tribes began to unite into tribal unions (the beginning of a state) and courageously to defend their independence. In their struggle against the Byzantine Empire during the last decades of the 7th century, they suddenly acquired a peerless ally in the Proto-Bulgarians.

The Proto-Bulgarians ethnically belonged to the Turkic tribes which inhabited the steppes of Central Asia. Their origin and name have to this day not been positively established. It is known that early in our era they had settled in the northern part of the foot of the Caucasus. Those lands had been populated from time immemorial by the Sabiri and Alani. It is probable that the Alani gave the Proto-Bulgarians their name, for in the language of that tribe ‘bulgaron’ meant ‘people living at the fpot of the mountain’.

At the end of the 4th and the first half of the 5th century A. D. the Proto-Bulgarians became members of the motley conglomerate of peoples called ‘Hunnish tribal union’ and took part in the horror-sowing Hunnish raids in Central and Western Europe. After the Union disintegrated, part of the Proto-Bulgarians settled in Italy, others went back to their former places – along the northern Black Sea coast. For several decades they formed part of the powerful Avar Khaganate and numerous Proto-Bulgarian contingents again went as far as Pan- nonia and, after the internecine wars within the Khaganate during the middle of the 7th century, part of them went to settle in Italy, and another part, a more numerous one, led by Kouber, penetrated deep into the Balkan Peninsula and settled in the Bitola Plain in Macedonia.

Serbo-Bosnian alliance

When the Asian conquerors reached the centre of the Balkans, the rulers of Serbia and Bosnia were frightened and concluded an alliance for joint action against Murad. The united Serbian and Bosnian troops dealt a crushing blow to the Turks in the big battle near the town of Plochnik in 1387. The Bulgarian Tsar joined the Serbo-Bosnian alliance which provoked an immediate wrathful reaction on the part of the Sultan. In 1388 a numerous Turkish army crossed the Balkan Range and conquered almost the whole of Northeastern Bulgaria without the city of Varna. Tsar Shishman was forced to reaffirm his vassal dependence from the Sultan and the terrible Ottoman hordes again set out for Serbia. In a battle which broke out at Kossovo Pole Murad I found his death but the Serbian troops, which had been joined by several Bulgarian feudal lords, were routed. Serbia also fell under vassal dependence from Turkey. .

The existence of the Bulgarian state became an obstacle on the way to the Ottomans’ further penetration into Central Europe. In spite of its weakness and dependence, it presented a constant threat to the right flank of the Turkish troops which had penetrated deep into the west. That is why Murad’s heir Bayazid I, The Light-ning, decided to put an end to the Turnovo Kingdom. In 1393 he invaded Moesia at the head of a numerous army and after a siege which Lasted three months, succeeded in capturing Turnovo.

One hundred and twenty boyars were massacred in the main church, thousands of Turnovo citizens were taken slaves and Patriarch Evtimi, who had headed the defence of Turnovo until the last moment, was sent into exile to the Rhodopes. Ivan Shishman hid himself in the Danubian stronghold of Nikopol, expecting help from the Hungarian King. The latter, however, never came to his assistance and Nikopol was captured and Ivan Shishman was killed. Only the Vidin Kingdom remained, but a Turkish garrison was also stationed in Vidin.

The Ottomans reached the frontiers of the then powerful Hungarian Kingdom, which forced the Hungarian King Sigismund to prepare in 1396 a big crusade against the Turks. The Ruler of Vidin Ivan Stratsimir opened the gates of his town to the crusaders and joined them with his troops, but the army of the crusaders suffered utter defeat. That was the end also of the Vidin Kingdom.

Serbo-Bosnian alliance

When the Asian conquerors reached the centre of the Balkans, the rulers of Serbia and Bosnia were frightened and concluded an alliance for joint action against Murad. The united Serbian and Bosnian troops dealt a crushing blow to the Turks in the big battle near the town of Plochnik in 1387. The Bulgarian Tsar joined the Serbo-Bosnian alliance which provoked an immediate wrathful reaction on the part of the Sultan. In 1388 a numerous Turkish army crossed the Balkan Range and conquered almost the whole of Northeastern Bulgaria without the city of Varna. Tsar Shishman was forced to reaffirm his vassal dependence from the Sultan and the terrible Ottoman hordes again set out for Serbia. In a battle which broke out at Kossovo Pole Murad I found his death but the Serbian troops, which had been joined by several Bulgarian feudal lords, were routed. Serbia also fell under vassal dependence from Turkey. .

The existence of the Bulgarian state became an obstacle on the way to the Ottomans’ further penetration into Central Europe. In spite of its weakness and dependence, it presented a constant threat to the right flank of the Turkish troops which had penetrated deep into the west. That is why Murad’s heir Bayazid I, The Light-ning, decided to put an end to the Turnovo Kingdom. In 1393 he invaded Moesia at the head of a numerous army and after a siege which Lasted three months, succeeded in capturing Turnovo.

One hundred and twenty boyars were massacred in the main church, thousands of Turnovo citizens were taken slaves and Patriarch Evtimi, who had headed the defence of Turnovo until the last moment, was sent into exile to the Rhodopes. Ivan Shishman hid himself in the Danubian stronghold of Nikopol, expecting help from the Hungarian King. The latter, however, never came to his assistance and Nikopol was captured and Ivan Shishman was killed. Only the Vidin Kingdom remained, but a Turkish garrison was also stationed in Vidin.

The Ottomans reached the frontiers of the then powerful Hungarian Kingdom, which forced the Hungarian King Sigismund to prepare in 1396 a big crusade against the Turks. The Ruler of Vidin Ivan Stratsimir opened the gates of his town to the crusaders and joined them with his troops, but the army of the crusaders suffered utter defeat. That was the end also of the Vidin Kingdom.

THE NATIONAL CATASTROPHES

The Turkish government threw a 350,000-strong regular army against the insurgents and tens of thousands of bashibozouks. The insurgents fought courageously for a long time in spite of the numerical superiority and modern armament of the enemy. It took the Turks a month to suppress the uprising in the Strandja district, the closest to the Ottoman capital, while the insurgents in Macedonia, who had been joined by thousands of volunteers from the Principality, withstood the Turkish troops in incessant bloody battles for more than three months. The revenge of the Ottoman Turks was dreadful: over 250 inhabited places were razed to the ground, thousands of insurgents and civilians were killed, over 10,000 people were left homeless and 50,000 sought refuge in the Principality.

THE NATIONAL CATASTROPHES

After the defeat of the Ilinden and Preobrazhenie Uprisings the ruling Bulgarian circLes finally oriented themselves towards the preparation for a war, in order to settle the Bulgarian national question. Taking advantage of the developments in Turkey, where the Young Turks’ revolution had broken out on September 22, 1908 the Bulgarian government proclaimed the country’s in-dependence, which until then had been vassal to the Em-pire. In 1912, under Russian auspices, the Balkan Alliance was set up, consisting of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro, which waged a successful war against Turkey.

Immediately after the victory, however, sharp contradictions broke out among the allies. It turned out that the Bulgarian ruling circles had paid little attention to the diplomatic preparations for the war — the treaty with Greece had not treated territorial questions at all, while the one with Serbia had given grounds to the Serbian govern-ment to have claims for additional Bulgarian lands. The treaty had specified the northwestern part of Macedonia as a ‘debatable zone’ whose destiny was to be decided according to the concrete contribution of the two sides to the war against Turkey and depending upon whether Serbia would receive an outlet on the Adriatic. The Russian King had been named arbitrator.

Joined a society of Durweshes

Perhaps my horse was without barley and my saddle-cloth in pawn; and the Prince, who through avarice withholds the pay of his soldiers, does not deserve that they should expose their lives in his service. Give money to the gallant soldier that he may expose his head, for if you do not pay him, he will seek his fortune elsewhere. The strong man, if his belly is full, will fight valiantly, but when hungry, he will run away stoutly.”

Society of Durweshes

A certain Vizier, being dismissed from his office, joined a society of Durweshes, the blessing of whose company made such an impression as bestowed comfort on his mind. The King was again favourably disposed towards him, and ordered that he ‘should be reinstated; to which the Vizier would not consent, saying, that degradation was preferable to employment. “They who are seated in the corner of retirement close the dog’s teeth and men’s mouths; they tear their papers and break their pens, and are delivered from the hands and tongues of slanderers.” The King said, “Of a truth, we stand in need of a man of such sufficiency for the administration of our government.” The Vizier observed, that the proof of a man’s being sufficiently wise, was his not engaging in such matters. The Homai is honoured above all other birds, because it feeds on bones, and injures not any living creature.

Parable.—They asked a Syagoosh, “Why do you choose the servile society of the lion?” He replied, “Because I eat the i*emains of his hunting, and live guarded from the machinations of my enemies, under the protection of his valour.” They asked, “Now that you are under the shadow of his protection, and gratefully acknowledge his beneficence, why do you not approach, nearer, so as to be brought into the circle of his principal servants, and to be numbered amongst his favourite ministers? ” He replied, “I am not so confident of my safety from his severity. If the Gueber lights the fire an hundred years, yet should he fall into it for an instant, he ‘would be burnt.

It may happen that a King’s minister obtains money; or he may chance to lose his head. The sages have said, “Beware of the inconstant disposition ot princes, who sometimes are dissatisfied at a salutation; and sometimes, in return for rudeness, will bestow a dress of honor.” And they have also observed, ‘ Wit is an accomplishment in a courtier, but a blemish in the character of a wise man. Preserve the dignity of your own character, and leave sport and buffoonery to courtiers.”

Sacrificed forty camels

TALE XV

They asked Hatim Tai, If he had ever seen or heard of any person in the world more noble-minded than himself? He replied, “One day after having sacrificed forty camels, I went along with an Arab chief to the skirt of a desert, where I saw a labourer, who had made up a bundle of thorns;

whom I asked, Why he did not go to the feast of Hatim Tai, to whose table people were repairing in crowds? He answered, £ Whosoever eateth bread from his own labour will not submit to be under obligation to Hatim Tai.’ I considered this man as my superior in generosity and liberality.”

TALE XVI

Moses the prophet (upon whom be peace!) saw a Durwesh, who, for want of clothes, had hidden himself in the sand. He said, “() Moses, implore God to bestow on me subsistence, for I am perishing in distress.” Moses prayed, and God granted him assistance. Some days after, when Moses was returning from performing his devotions he saw the Durwesh apprehended, and a crowd of people gathered round him. On inquiring, What had happened to him? They replied, “Having drank wine, he made a disturbance and killed a man; now they are going to exact retaliation.”

If the poor cat had wings she would not leave a sparrow’s egg in the world; and if a mean Wretch should happen to get into power, he would become insolent, and twist the hands of the weak. Moses acknowledged the wisdom of the Creator of the Universe, and asked pardon for his boldness, repeating the following verse of the Koran: 1 If God were to open his stores of subsistence for His servants, of a truth they would rebel on the earth.’ O vain man, what hast thou done to precipitate thyself into destruction? Would that the ant had not been able to fly!

When a mean wretch obtains promotion and wealth, of a truth he requires a thump on the head. Is not this the adage of a sage?

It were better for the ant not to have wings.’ Our Heavenly Father hath honey in abundance, but his son is affected with a feverish complaint. He who doth not make you rich, knoweth what is good for you better than you do yourself.

TALE XVII

I saw an Arab sitting in a circle of jewellers of Basrah and relating as follows: “Once on a time, having missed my way in the desert Gregorian calendar, and having no provisions left, I gave myself up for lost, when I happened to find a bag full of pearls. I shall never forget the relish and delight.that I felt on supposing it to be fried wheat; nor the bitterness and despair which I suffered, on discovering that the

bag contained pearls. In tKe parched desert of quicksands, pearls of shells, in the mouth of the thirsty traveller, are alike unavailing. When a man destitute of provisions is fatigued, it is the same thing to have in his girdle gold or potsherds.”

TALE XVIII

An Arab labouring under excessive thirst exclaimed, “I wish that for one day before my death this my desire may be gratified: that a river dashing its waves against my knees, I may fill my leather sack with water.”

In like manner a traveller, who had lost his way in the great desert, had neither strength nor provisions remaining, but a few direms in his girdle. He had wandered about a long time without finding the road, and perished for want. A company of men arrived, saw the direms lying before his face, and the following words written on the ground: “If the man destitute of food were possessed of pure gold, it would avail him nothing. To a poor wretch in the desert parched with the heat of the sun, a boiled turnip is of more value than virgin silver.”

Durwesh accompanied

I asking why he did not frequent the city to relieve his mind? He replied, ‘ There dwell many of exquisite beauty: and where there is much clay, the elephants lose their footing.’ ” After making this speech, we mutually kissed and bid each other adieu. What benefit is there in kissing the cheek of a friend at the instant that you are bidding him adieu? It is like an apple with one cheek red and the other yellow. If I die not of grief on the day that I bid adieu, you will not consider me faithful in friendship.

A Durwesh accompanied me in the caravan to Mecca, on whom one of the nobles of Arabia had bestowed a hundred dinars for the support of his family. Suddenly a band of robbers of the tribe of Ivhufacheh attacked the caravan, and plundered it of every thing. The merchants began to cry and lament, and uttered useless complaints. Whether you supplicate, or whether you complain, the thief will not restore the money.

The Durwesh was the only exception; he remaining unshaken, and not at all affected by the adventure. I said to him, “Perhaps, they had not taken your money? ” He answered, “Yes, they carried it off, but I was not so fond of it as to be distressed at losing it. A man ought not to fix his heart on any thing or person, because it is a difficult matter to remove the heart therefrom.” I replied, “Your words suit my circumstance exactly; for in my youth I contracted a friendship for a young man, with so warm an attachment, that his beauty was the Keblah of my eyes, and his society the chief comfort of my life. No mortal on earth ever possessed so beautiful a form; perhaps he was an angel from heaven.

Religion obtains perfection from the virtuous

RULE V.

A learned man without temperance, is a blind man carrying a link: he showed the road to others, but doth not guide himself, lie who through inadvertency trifled with life, threw away his money without purchasing any thing.

RULE VI.

A kingdom gains credit from wise men, and religion obtains perfection from the virtuous. Kings stand in more need of wise men, than wise men do of appointments at court. Listen, 0 king, to my advice; for you have not more valuable maxim in all your archives than this: “Entrust not your affairs to any but wise men, although public business is not the occupation of the wise.”

Three things are not permanent without three things:—Wealth, without commerce; science, without argument; a kingdom, without government.

RULE VIII.

Showing mercy to the wicked is doing injury to the good; and pardoning oppressors is injuring the oppressed. When you connect yourself with base men and show them favour, they commit crimes with your power, whereby you participate in their guilt.

RULE IX.

You cannot rely on the friendship of kings, nor confide in the sweet voices of boys: for those change on the slightest suspicion, and these alter in the course of a night. Give not your heart to her who has a thousand lovers; but if you should bestow it on her, be prepared for a separation.

RULE X.

Reveal not to a friend every secret that you possess, for how can you tell but what he may some time or other become your enemy. Likewise inflict not on an enemy every injury in your power, for lie may afterwards become your friend. The matter wlucli you wish to preserve as a secret, impart it not to any one, although he may be worthy of confidence, for no one will be so true to your secret as yourself.

It is safer to be silent than to reveal one’s secret to any one, and telling him not to mention it. 0 good man! stop the water at the spring-head, for when it is in full stream you cannot arrest it. You should never speak a word in secret, which may not be related in every company.

Opportunity of a brilliant exploit

Set out this banquet for them in our camp, leave the refuse of the army there, and retreat with the body of your troops upon the river. If I am not mistaken, the Scythians will address themselves to all this good cheer, as soon as they fall in with it, and then we shall have the opportunity of a brilliant exploit”. I need not pursue the history further than to state the issue. In spite of the immediate success of his ruse de guerre, Cyrus was eventually defeated, and lost both his army and his life.

The Scythian Queen, Tomyris, in revenge for the lives which he had sacrificed to his ambition, is related to have cut off his head, and plunged it into a vessel filled with blood, saying, “ Cyrus, drink your fill”. Such is the account given us by Herodotus; and, even if it is to be rejected, it serves to illustrate the difficulties of an invasion of Scythia; for legends must be framed according to the circumstances of the case, and grow out of probabilities, if they are to gain credit, and if they have actually succeeded in gaining it.

Our knowledge of the expedition of Darius in the next generation, is more certain. This fortunate monarch, after many successes, even on the European side of the Bosphorus, impelled by that ambition, which holy Daniel had already seen in prophecy, to threaten West and North as well as South, towards the end of his life, directed his arms against the Scythians who inhabited the country now called the Ukraine. His pretext for this expedition was an incursion which the same barbarians had made into Asia, shortly before the time of Cyrus.

They had crossed the Don, just above the sea of Azoff, had entered the country now called Circassia, had threaded the defiles of the Caucasus, and had defeated the Median King Cyaxares, the grand-father of Cyrus. Then they overran Armenia, Cappadocia, Pontus, and part of Lydia, that is, a great portion of Anatolia or Asia Minor; and managed to establish themselves in the country for twenty-eight years, living by plunder and exaction. In the course of this period, they descended into Syria, as far as to the very borders of Egypt.

Rufinus and Eutropius successively chief Ministers

At his instance, Rufinus and Eutropius, successively chief Ministers of the Government of Arcadius, were put to death. He incited the Ostrogoths settled in Asia Minor to rebel, and brought them over to Europe to support his ambitious plans. He filled Constantinople with Gothic soldiers, and twice attempted to burn down the palace. And when, in view of the precautions taken against him, he found it prudent to quit the city, it was with the idea of returning with a larger force to make himself the master of the place. His plan failed, as such schemes often fail, through an accident of an accident.

A Gothic soldier treated a poor beggar woman roughly; a citizen took her part and struck the assailant dead. In the condition of the public mind, this proved the spark which produces a tremendous explosion. The city gates were immediately closed and the ramparts manned, while an infuriated mob went through the city hunting for Goths, and did not cease from the mad pursuit until the blood of 7000 victims had stained the streets of the city. Gain as was pursued and defeated, and eventually his head was sent to Constantinople by the Huns among whom he had sought refuge.

Column of Claudius Gothicus

This, indeed, did not put all further trouble at the hands of Goths to an end, but it was the knell of German domination in Constantinople and the East. The reign of Arcadius is the watershed upon which streams, which might have flowed together, separated to run in opposite directions and through widely diverse scenes of human affairs. The inscription, “ob deuictos Gothos” upon the column of Claudius Gothicus now acquired a deeper meaning.

But one cannot think of the reign of Arcadius without recalling the fact that for six years of that reign Constantinople was adorned by the virtues, and thrilled by the eloquence, of John Chrysostom. Although popular with the masses, he provoked the bitter hostility of the Court and of a powerful section of the clergy, by his scathing rebukes of the frivolous and luxurious habits of fashionable society, and by the strictness of his ecclesiastical rule.

Development of the Bulgarian electrical industry

Thanks to its own policy and the development of the Bulgarian electrical industry, a few years after its establishment the company began to offer engineering services, as well. At that time they consisted mainly in the organization of complete projects performed by specialized Bulgarian subcontractors. During that period, in parallel with the projects performed, Electroimpex acquired the potential, experience and reputation of a company famous in the field of engineering activities.

In 1990 Electroimpex was transformed into a public limited company the founders of which included Bulgarian manufacturers of major electrical equipment, research and design institutes, banks, etc. In 1999 the company was privatized through Sofia Stock Exchange.

Today Electro impex, with its 210 employees in the head office, independently performs engineering activities in the field of electric power projects: design, supply, installation, adjusting tests, commissioning, supervision, guarantee and post-guarantee services. On the basis of its own potential of engineers, economists and other highly qualified specialists, equipment and facilities, the company provides, by its own efforts, up to 35°/o of the complete engineering product of the carried out projects for electric power generation, transmission and distribution. It is in projects of that type only that the facilities are offered by Bulgarian and foreign subcontractors in strict conformity with the customers’ requirements and the respective tender documents. Some of the best known manufacturers such as ABB, Alstom, General Electric, Schneider Electric, Siemens, etc. appear in Electroimpex List of Approved Suppliers.

Electroimpex is awarded a Certificate of Approval by Bureau Veritas Quality International in compliance with Quality Standards BS EN ISO 9001:1994 in the field of engineering services for complete turnkey electric power projects, including: HV substations, HV overhead transmission lines, distribution overhead and cable networks, rural and urban electrification, hydro power plants, irrigation and water supply pump stations, package potable water treatment stations, technological lines and factories for electrical goods manufacturing.

The company is also included in the DG1A Central Consultancy Register of the European Community.

Electroimpex is well known in more than 85 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and South America and in some of them, such as Germany, UK, France, Italy, Greece, Albania, Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Pakistan, Nicaragua, Cuba, Peru, etc., it has established business contacts with firms with a wide range of activities on the basis of joint- ventures, agencies or traditionally maintained cooperation contacts.

The company has implemented contracts with 18 countries in the world for about 100 projects worth more than 500 million USD and has become a well-known and welcome partner on the international markets.

Electroimpex is a successful company

The analysis of the financial condition of the company performed in conformity with the international auditing standards by the auditor firm KPMG show that Electroimpex is a successful company with stable economic indices, typical of which is 60 min. USD annual turnover for the period 1992-1998.

All these facts and figures show that Bulgaria has significant achievements and experience obtained in the process of construction of a number of turnkey power projects abroad which is a warrant for stable and reliable partnership with foreign companies.

After that-round the clock

For economic reasons, until 1921 the plant operated only at nighttime, and after that-round the clock.

Table 2 presents a summary of the electrification enterprises for public power supply in Bulgaria by 1918.

Until the end of World War I (1918), although the Bulgarians were convinced of the usefulness of electrification and that without it no significant progress in the country was possible, most of the towns except for the above- mentioned five ones, continued to use oil lamps for indoor and street lighting (street lanterns).

Electricity Demand Level

During the period of local electrification electricity demand level could be considered only in relation to several electrified towns and villages, where, except in Sofia, electricity was mainly used for lighting purposes. Sofia had the highest specific electricity consumption per capita, as shown below:

Before the end of World War I the average specific electricity consumption in Kazanlak for all purposes did not exceed 45 kWh per capita, and in Varna it ranged between 5 and 8 kWh per capita. This low figure was due to the irregular operation of its diesel power plant.

Electricity generation in the country

The overall electricity generation in the country by 1913 (at the time of the Balkan wars) was estimated at about 110 million kWh and 2.2 kWh per capita on the average for the country. At the same time the electricity consumption per capita in the USA was 156 kWh, in Germany-41 kWh, and in Russia-14 kWh.

That low electricity consumption corresponded to the low specific installed capacity in the power plants- 50-^60 W per capita, equal to the wattage of an electric lamp. Correspondingly, the annual utilization ratio of installed capacities in the power plants was low, although increasing with time. For Sofia it was 670 h in 1901 and 1074 h in 1917, and for Kazanlak-830-1000 h, respectively.

Morava-Maritza trench

The full significance of the Morava-Maritza trench can be appreciated only in case we recall the important role it has always played in the history of the Nearer East. From all parts of Europe highways of travel converge southeastward toward the points where Occident and Orient touch hands at the Bosporus. Whether coming from the plains of the Po over the Pear Tree Pass, from western and central Europe along the upper Danube, or from farther north through the Moravian and other gaps to the Vienna gateway, travelers find the mass of the Balkans blocking the path to Constantinople and the Bast; just as in other days the hosts which invaded Europe from the lands of Asia Minor found in this same barrier an impediment to progress toward the northwest. Under these conditions it was inevitable that a continuous river trench cutting clear through the barrier from the plains of Hungary to the shores of the Bosporus should become a topographic feature of commanding historical importance.

Morava-Maritza valley

Long before the time of the Romans the Morava-Maritza valley had become a highway for peoples migrating east or west through the mountainous Balkan lands. In a later day one of the principal Roman military roads led from Belgrade through the trench to Constantinople. The great Slavonic flood which issued from the plains of northeastern Europe through the Moravian and Vienna gateways entered the Morava valley and, in the seventh century of our era, was flowing through the trench to surge about the walls of Adrianople. A few centuries more, and the mountain sides were echoiug the shouts of the Crusaders who toiled along the same pathway to fight for the Holy Sepulcher. Back through the same defile came those hordes of conquering Turks who pushed the limits of their misrule to the very gates of Vienna.

In our day a double line of steel rails has succeeded trail and military road, and the smoke of the Orient Express hangs low in the very valley where, centuries ago, dust clouds were raised by the passing of Roman legions, Crusading knights, or Turkish infantry. Here is the vital link in the great Berlin-to-Bagdad railway route, the channel through which German ambition hopes to reach the Far East, and the path by which the Teutonic powers must send men and munitions to the hard-pressed Turks and bring back food to their own hungry people.