UNDER THE BALKANS. NOTES OF A VISIT TO THE DISTRICT OF PHILIPPOPOLIS IN 1876. BY ROBERT JASPER MORE. WITH MAP OF THE COUNTRY ADJACENT TO PHILIPPOPOLIS AND ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS καὶ ἐπέπεσε πολλὰ καὶ χαλεπὰ κατὰ στάσιν ταῖς πόλεσι, γιγνόμενα PREFACE. WHEN I was about to return from Turkey at the beginning of this year, some of my acquaintances there were anxious I should give the independent testimony of my experience in what in England is called Bulgaria, but in Turkey and in foreign maps is known as Roumelia. Whether it would have been useful or not for me to have tried to add to the small amount of knowledge many people possessed of this part of Turkey, I cannot say. Illness prevented my attempting to do so. I have been since asked by friends interested in the subject to give what information I can even now. I went out with no prejudice, and without any intention of publishing. I was accompanied by Mr. Gledhill, who had just returned from inspecting mines in Servia. After being at Philippopolis, we a 3 visited, at the suggestion of some of those superintending relief to the Bulgarians, a district little known before. This brought us into constant contact with the inhabitants of a large tract of country. The following pages contain some of their statements. I am indebted to Mr. Gledhill for his trouble in taking them down, and for geological and other remarks on the district we went through. As importance is attached in the Blue-Book on Turkey to the knowledge of the Turkish language in Bulgaria, where two languages are spoken concurrently-the Turkish language, however, only giving access to one side of a story-it may not be unimportant to mention that we were fortunate in obtaining the services of a gentleman as interpreter who was well acquainted with both the Turkish and Bulgarian languages. The publication by the Government, since the last session, of despatches containing Mr. Layard's opinion of the massacres of last year, shows that all interest is not considered to have subsided in the historical truth of the statements of the autumn of 1876. Mr. Layard says that whilst two good authorities give him 3500 as the number massacred at Batak, Englishmen have convinced him that there were not more than 3900 Bulgarians killed in the country altogether. I, therefore, as one of the Englishmen who visited the district last year, hope I may be excused adverting to the |