GENERAL SIE EDWARD BEUCE HAMLEY K.C.B., K.C.M.G. staptme, ? " " Comment ? " said the Pasha again, more gravely than before, I then recollected that I was as much out of time with my hearer as Portia when she talks to Shylock of the Lord's Prayer, and at length elicited by a question more aptly framed what his first name was Mehmet. The Pasha was attended by several officers for topographical purposes, and by a handsome and highly accomplished Armenian gentleman, who spoke French like the most refined Parisians, and was in the habit of thinking in that lan- guage. There were long and wearisome pre- liminary discussions as to how far the frontier might be settled, previous to actual inspection of the ground. Finally, unanimous assent was given to the resolution proposed by the Austrian delegate, that the general tracing of the boun- daries should be discussed, in order to deter- mine what the disputed points might be, so that 260 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. these might be referred to their several Gov- ernments by the Commissioners who had only restricted powers. On Hamley's proposition, communicated to Lord Salisbury by a despatch of 18th April, and concerted in an informal conference with his Turkish, Austrian, German, and Italian colleagues, general principles of the delimitation were agreed to. Briefly the partage, des eaux, or watershed, was to be followed : the questions in dispute were likely to arise in including on the northern side of the southern boundary certain salient positions effective for defence. Although snow still lay deep upon the hills, on the 29th April the English topographical party was despatched to complete the survey of the Balkans to the west of Samakow. Major Ardagh was in charge, and Hamley had found an invalu- able interpreter in Mr Cullen, son of an English physician in Constantinople, who already knew the country well, and had been an eye-witness of some of the worst of " the Bulgarian atrocities." " I had purchased horses in Pera small and strong for the whole party, and I sold them at the end of the business at no great loss." Before leaving Constantinople himself, he found time to visit Baker Pasha, who was then engaged with nearly 40,000 Turkish troops on the lines of LETTER TO THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. 261 Tchatchaldja, intended to protect the capital from invading forces passing the Balkans. That visit is described at length in a letter to the Duke of Cambridge, who had expressed a desire to receive occasional communications. It is unnecessary to give the letter in full, and I shall merely select some extracts as to the strategical and political importance of the lines, and the qualities of the men employed in constructing them : MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD B. HAMLEY to H.R.H. the DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. CONSTANTINOPLE, 12th May. SIR, At Tchatchaldja the position is viewed from the side of the enemy, who, having reached from Adrianople a long line of high and steep heights, crossed by very few roads and very difficult of passage, would then see it before him, across a flat valley from three to four miles wide. As the heights on each side recede considerably from the valley, the defensive line is for the most part, in this portion of it, quite beyond extreme cannon-range from the heights reached by the enemy. The road from Tchat- chaldja to the position runs across the valley through a marsh, which, according to the season, is from half a mile to a mile in extent, and is impassable. The position, which, as the crow flies, is at an average distance of 35 miles from Constantinople, traverses a peninsula, which from the Sea of Marmora to the Black Sea is at this point about 26 miles wide. But as the flanks of the position rest on two lakes, each separated 262 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. from one of those seas only by a sandbank, its actual fortified extent is thereby narrowed to about 16 miles. . . . From the main ridge parallel to the valley, a number of spurs run out into the valley : the position lies along the crests of the spurs, the lower parts of which form each an uncommonly perfect glacis. The general principle of the defence is to place a work on the crest of each spur, sweeping the glacis and the valley, and another farther back, where it can command the part of the valley which runs up between the spurs. Describing the positions and armaments in detail, he pronounces the lines virtually impreg- nable, the points which nature had left compara- tively assailable being strongly defended by triple works. As to the troops : These works have been constructed by the troops under the direction of Baker Pasha, who planned and traced them. The battalions are chiefly 'mustafiz,' or men of the last reserve, who, taken from their homes for the war, have been detained to labour on the defences. Nothing could have been more deplorable than the condition of these men during the winter, in miserable tents on those bleak hills, the country everywhere deep in mire, rations and clothing very scanty, firewood fetched by the men from a great distance through the mud, and no hospital ; and nothing could have been more admirable than the cheerfulness with which they continued their labours in these circum- stances. In fact, their patience, energy, discipline, and uncomplaining spirit surpass what would have been dis- played under such conditions by any other troops. Nor is their physical inferior to their moral excellence : although shabbily clad, they are now well fed, and a finer LETTER TO THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. 263 body of men it would be impossible to find, immensely broad and deep in shoulder and chest, far above average stature, manly of bearing, and intelligent of aspect. It would appear that beyond the mere military result, the existence of such a line of defences must exercise an immense influence on the affairs of Europe. An impreg- nable line of defence at that distance from Constantinople assures the existence of Turkey as a European Power. It may also be expected to produce a beneficial effect on in- ternal affairs by affording that guarantee for national existence which is a necessary condition of national development. 264 CHAPTER XIV. THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION continued. TRAVEL IN THE BALKANS PICTURESQUE SCENERY VICTIMS OP THE WAR FEELINGS OF THE POPULATION ENMITY BETWEEN CHRISTIANS AND MOHAMMEDANS ARRIVAL AT VARNA DIFFICULTIES WITH THE RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES, AND EMBAR- KATION OF THE HORSES. THE Commission set out on the 13th of May. With the attendants, equipments, and train of baggage animals, it made a formidable party. O^5 ^J i V In one of his lively letters to his niece he de- scribes an amusing incident de voyage: We slept at Adrianople not in the city, however, but in the train. I saw somebody in red-striped trousers extend himself on the opposite sofa of the carriage, and, being half asleep, concluded it was Captain Jones. I thought his legs very short, and could not account for his head in relation to them. I also came to the conclu- sion that nobody ever snored so loud, and wondered how Mrs Jones could stand it. In the morning light, however, I discovered that my companion was the Pasha. The second night was passed at Philippopolis, TALE OF TURKISH ATROCITIES. 265 the capital of the new province of Eastern Rou- melia. " The singularity of this town is that it is built round the sides of a high steep rock, which crops up abruptly through the wide flat valley of the Maritza." Hamley had his lodging on the summit of the rock, in comfortable quarters placed at his disposal by Sir Henry Drummond Wolff. He looked down on the Maritza, which reminded him of the Thames, though storks in place of swans and the herds of shaggy buffaloes tended to dispel the fond illusion. This city had been in the preceding year the scene of great cruelties practised by the Turkish governor. My interpreter, Mr Cullen, told me he had seen a procession of Bulgarians marched along the street under Turkish escort, and on arriving at a sign, lamp-post, or other con- venient projection, a halt was made, a prisoner hung on the extemporised gibbet, and the march resumed to the next one. He described the Bulgarians as submitting absolutely without complaint or resistance, and had re- marked that each was run up motionless like a stuffed figure, a grey shade which presently came over the un- covered face showing when life was extinct. A hundred and five had been thus dealt with at once. He had remonstrated with the Pasha, representing that all these men could not have been guilty of offences worthy of death, to which the Pasha simply replied that to be a Bulgarian was a sufficient crime. The strong cavalry escort was furnished by the Russians, and the real start was made on the 266 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 18th May for Tatar Bazardjik, where there was a large Russian camp. In fact, the Russians in- sisted on taking excessive care of the delegates, considerably to Hamley's annoyance. There was a guard of a dozen men in the courtyard of the house he occupied ; sentries were posted before and behind, and he could not saunter out into the street without having an armed party at his heels. As the Russians supplied the escort, so a Bulgarian official was charged by the Russian authorities with providing transport. His zeal in our service was so great as quite to extin- guish any sympathy he might have had for his Bulgarian brethren, whom he impressed most ruthlessly, along with their oxen and ardbas, carrying them off from their labours in the fields, sometimes for days, while their families were left in ignorance of what had become of them. These arabas were often drawn by black and hideous buffaloes, with enormous flat curled horns and colossal limbs, and the picturesque procession moved slowly onwards to the melodious screeching of innumerable wheels. A squadron of Eussian dragoons, headed by the band with trumpets and kettle-drums, led the ad- vance, and the rear of the cumbrous baggage-train was brought up by mounted Bulgarians. Now that Eastern Roumelia has been annexed to Bulgaria, it is superfluous to follow closely the military itinerary, or to dwell on the defen- AN EXCITED POPULACE. 267 sive positions in detail. Nothing is less likely than that the Russians in our time will again march on Constantinople by the overland route, though it is certain that the Shipka Pass may still be of importance should there be trouble between Turkey and the liberated populations ; so I shall chiefly confine myself to those in- cidents in the military promenade which have some personal reference to the subject of the memoir. It may be mentioned that the mem- bers of his staff often found their duties suffi- ciently arduous. On one occasion, for example, Captains Everett and Elles rode fifty miles over the roughest country, making a variety of topographical sketches in course of the ride. In some of the towns where the Commission was expected, though the escort held them in awe, the people were very menacing, and at Ichtiman, " a most filthy place," there was imminent danger of an emeute. For once, and as it happened when he needed them most, none of the escort was bil- leted in Hamley's quarters. He and his aide-de- camp dined with pistols on the table, listening to the uproar below the windows. The population were anxious to be included in Bulgarian territory, and believed that the English Commissioner, in especial, was opposed to their wishes. As for the peasants, they had no reason to like the Russians, 268 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. who continued to carry matters with a high hand. One evening arrangements had been made for an early start, but in the morning all the enforced waggoners were missing, and had taken their arabas with them. Forthwith the dragoons were sent out to scour the country, and they impressed a sufficient number of unfortunates, who were put under stricter guard. We rode over breezy downs, along the watershed to- wards a village bordering a stream. Here Major Ardagh and I, with one servant, pitched our tents in a meadow, procured some meat, and late at night supped upon it as cooked by the servant. Towards morning I was awoke by a young bull stumbling over the tent-ropes. The re- mainder of my party had encamped four miles from me. A waggon, loaded with baggage of the Italian officers, had rolled in the dark down a ravine, and Colonel Orero ex- pressed to me much gratitude for the aid my officers had afforded in rescuing the articles and setting the araba again on the road. Next day the road led up a deep gorge ; the broken path kept crossing from side to side, and some twenty times they forded the Topolnitza, which flowed swiftly in the bottom. Emerging on the broad plain, they had left the lesser range beyond the Rhodope behind, and were in presence of the principal chain of the Balkans. At the foot of the Great Balkans we were met by a deputation of Bulgarian notables, bringing a petition for A CHARITABLE GIFT. 269 respecting the boundaries of some village lands. They invited us to halt in a grove, where they had spread rugs and cushions for us, had cooked fine trout netted in a neighbouring stream, and roasted a lamb whole, by en- closing it in the hollow trunk of a tree. The animal looked somewhat grisly, but nevertheless tasted excellent ; so did the trout. Taking leave of our entertainers we passed on, and pausing beside a small mountain-stream to await our train, I got out my fly-rod, and caught a few brook-trout. My colleagues testified great interest in this small sport, espec- ially the Pasha, who, usually apathetic, bustled officiously round me, and several times put me in terror for my tackle by assisting the landing of the fish. Next morning we ascended the Trojan Pass by a path zigzagged up the steep mountain - side, slippery with stones, and far too narrow for wheels, or for anything but a single horse. Then he records an incident strikingly signifi- cant of his kindly generosity. He also alludes to it in a letter to his niece, characteristically saying nothing of his charitable gift. Every- where he was painfully impressed by the pitiable condition of the victims of the war. For there was little to choose between Turkish and Bul- garian atrocities, and whether the Christian or Mohammedan Bulgarians had the upper hand, they ruthlessly avenged long - cherished griev- ances against the neighbours of a different creed. When the Commission marched for Karlovo, I stayed with my Russian orderly and my interpreter to ride 270 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. round the village of Teke. Being altogether Turkish, it was entirely deserted and completely ruined. When the Eussian armies were approaching the Balkans, the Turkish inhabitants, expecting no mercy, took to flight. Their property, left unprotected, was immediately pillaged by their Bulgarian neighbours. Their flocks were driven off, their crops plundered, their houses pulled down and the woodwork carried off. These proceedings were not altogether inspired by hatred or cupidity, but partly from a desire to prevent the Turks in any case from returning to their homes by leaving them no homes to return to. Mr Cullen, making a foray, as usual, in search of lambs, fowls, and bread, which the owners might be willing to sell, had found in this place some starving Turkish women, still haunting their ruined houses and fields, because they had no other refuge, and endeavouring to subsist on what they could glean in their devastated lands and gardens. Some of these veiled and black-robed forms were flitting furtively between the walls, and Mr Cullen learned that they could possibly subsist if they had a cow, which could be fed on the pastures round. I therefore left with them the few pounds necessary and rode onward. Our way now lay through immense tracts of roses, at this time in full bloom. Everywhere women were gathering them, and cart-loads were conveyed to the distilleries, established on the banks of suitable streams for the manu- facture of the attar. Here enormous earthen jars in rows stood each over a charcoal furnace, and were connected by pipes with lesser jars, and these, sheltered by rough sheds in which lay vast heaps of gathered roses, with groups of peasants tending the furnaces, while ardbas with fresh freights came in from the fields and forded the streams, lent singular interest and picturesqueness to the solitary valleys of the Balkans. TROUT-FISHING IN THE BALKANS. 271 At a village beyond Kalofer, examination of the map showed a stream flowing from the moun- tain, and Hamley rode forth to reconnoitre. Its aspect was most promising, and Mr Cullen awaited my return with a native, whose occupation was to scoop out trout with a hand-net. This functionary said there was an excellent spot about two miles up the stream, to which he would take me in the morning, proposing' to bring his net, which he imagined to be indispensable. The interpreter assured him that if he disappointed us, and above all, if he brought his net, the Pasha (myself) would certainly hang him. Events had lent too much reality to a threat of that kind, and the fisherman, net- less, wondering, and possibly somewhat frightened, punc- tually awaited me next morning. In three hours he had caught upwards of five dozen trout, many above a pound weight. Many were killed in a deep gorge, where he was sur- prised by the bursting of a terrific thunder-storm, which brought down the river suddenly in a flood, much in the manner of the Morayshire Findhorn. Before the interruption of his sport, in wending round a corner, I surprised a swarm of frogs sunning themselves on the stony margin, brilliantly attired, as Turkish frogs are, in green and gold and rose colour. Alarmed at my appearance between them and the stream, they threw themselves off, taking headers like schoolboys bathing, hands joined in front, heels in the air, so hurriedly that many struck against me before lighting in the water. ... I sent all my largest trout to my 272 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. colleagues for dinner, who, in return, bestowed upon me some bottles of beer which they had somehow become possessed of. That stream had its source in a spur of the Shipka, and next day they ascended the famous pass, where Suleiman Pasha had sulked on the defensive, and which he very probably sold to the General of the Tsar. The pass goes up from the village, and was traversed by a good road, twenty feet wide, made by the Kussians, and now being improved by Bulgarian labourers. The summit of San Nicholas, the high point of the pass, is visible from the plains. We reached it in two hours and a half, and, from the summit of the peak, saw the road going steeply down along narrow crests till it vanished round a hill a mile off. Around were other craggy peaks, parted from us by deep and steep ravines ; and all their rugged sides had been thickly strewn with Eussian and Turkish dead in the long struggle for the pass. Below us was the Eussian cemetery, so completely enclosed and commanded, that we made no difficulty of acceding to Colonel BogulabofFs request that this graveyard should be left in Bulgarian territory, so strong a frontier being here assigned to Turkey as would, if suitably occupied, secure the pass. In the altered political circumstances, the capa- bilities of the Balkans as a defensive line may be briefly dismissed in an extract from a letter to the Duke of Cambridge reporting generally on the A GENEROUS COMMISSARIAT. 2*73 work of the Commission. It was written from Buyukdere on the 7th July : The only passes where preparations for defence need be made are those of the Shipka, Hankivi, and Kotel. That these should be defended would appear a very proper measure, because the Balkans, being so difficult of passage, everywhere form a real and strong line of defence. But no expensive fortifications are needed. Earthworks would amply suffice both for infantry and artillery. Beyond the Balkans the Commissioners were in a rich and fruitful country, with vineyards, rose- gardens, and fields of waving corn. Now there was no difficulty as to the commissariat, and supplies of all kinds poured in. Dr Exham went out with his gun, and with Don, the pointer, who had become an esteemed member of the Commissioner's staff, and he came back with bags of partridges and hares. The English mem- bers of the expedition stuck to their national habits, making a solid breakfast and a frugal lunch. But our colleagues preferred their usual practice of beginning the day with coffee or bread and fruit, and at the mid-day halt a Bulgarian cook or steward, said to have been a captain in the army, would arrive on a horse, bear- ing all the materials for a substantial ddjedner cold meat, cold fowls, salads, potted fish, and wines ; and while we despatched the trifling matters which our saddle-bags con- tained, the foreigners, spreading a huge tablecloth in a VOL. I. s 274 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. woody glade or on a grassy meadow, would make a meal which was followed by hot coffee, and liqueur, and by some period of repose. The rest in the hot time of the day was welcome, for the sun now poured his rays as from a furnace. . . . There was one mitigating feature in the sultry rides namely, the fountains which were so frequently to be found by the roadsides, generally the grateful offering, as the inscription on a tablet mostly records, of some pious hadji or other devout Mussulman. Out of these always gushes cold, pure water, falling into a trough for beasts. These structures are of some size, and often very pictur- esque, the votive inscription in white or gold on a green tablet. We had now left the rose-fields, and were journeying at the foot of slopes clothed in vines. A good well-flavoured red wine is produced, but the manufacture is rough and ready. Baron Ripp, who seemed to understand the sub- ject practically and from a proprietor's point of view, observed to me that the conditions of soil and climate were excellent, and that by planting suitable vines and exercising the same care as in France or Germany, wines surpassing even the famous growths of these countries might be produced. A few days afterwards they rode into a village, after a forced march of twenty-five miles. At nine o'clock, after weary waiting, they heard the screeching of the wheels of the belated baggage train, when it was too late to encamp, and when arrangements for supper were impossible. Next morning, and notwithstanding their fatigue, all the disgusted peasants had again disappeared, BULGARIAN VILLAGERS. 275 taking cattle and carriages along with them. So Hamley appears to have disposed of the time by noting down his general impressions of Bulgarian villages : A Bulgarian village differs from ordinary European villages in this, that it appears to be composed altogether of one class of persons, the tillers of the soil. There is nothing to be called a street, no small shopkeepers, no inns, no shoemakers or tailors, nor anything to distinguish some of the agricultural population as superior to the rest. Of course there must be diversities in degrees of opulence, but these do not make themselves apparent in greater comfort, better houses, or better living. Every- body lives in squalor: washing is, I should think, quite unpractised, and I concluded that men and women kept on their clothes day and night, for some indefinite period. Both men and women are destitute of good looks. Their houses are separated by spaces of ground not for gardens, for I never saw the slightest attempt at cultiva- tion : the wild weeds, generally tall camomile, grow up to the doors, and must in the decay of autumn be very un- wholesome. The wide tiled eaves of the houses are sup- ported on posts enclosing a balcony which is reached by a broad ladder. The ground-floor is reserved for horses, cows, pigs, and stores. In the room I used as a temporary habitation there was a large hole in the floor, through which the sweepings were cast into the regions below. All fare alike on the bread and cheese of the country, both, to our taste, disgusting the bread clammy, the cheese soft, discoloured, and of horrible odour. Where each family makes its own food and drink, there is no opening for the shopkeeper. 276 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. The camomile spreads over the whole country, and our tents were often pitched on ground covered by it, so that my recollections of the expedition are always associated with the odour of the plant. The special product of Bulgarian industry is embroidery. They have all the gift of colour and of fanciful design with which the people of the East are endowed, and the towels and coverings which the women adorn with their needle-work are now well known in England, owing to the distress of the Turkish population, who, crowding into Constantinople after abandoning their property, were driven to sell whatever they still possessed, in order to keep body and soul together. The Government lodged them, so far as possible, in great empty houses, such as are always to be found on the Bosphorus. The Turks who remained, unwilling to abandon houses or lands, held their lives, like their pro- perty, on a most precarious tenure. One day, after camping near a lonely cemetery, and pitch- ing the tents close to a new-made grave covered with thorns to keep off the jackals and hyenas, the Commission crossed a desolated tract of country to Verbitza. I was lodged in the detached villa of a young Bey, about eighteen or twenty years old, whose father, a Pasha, was lately dead. Here was a lively illustration of the condition of Turkish proprietors who remained in the new Principality. The Bey's steward, an old servant of the family, told us that a fortnight before, as he was journey- ing with his master from a town at some distance, they were waylaid by a party of brigands, among whom they SCENERY OF THE BALKANS. 277 recognised many of their own neighbours and townsmen and were thrown to the ground. The Bey, with a knife at his throat, was compelled to pay a heavy ransom. They had been menaced by notice with fresh violence, the Russians afforded no protection, and they quite ex- pected to be murdered after our departure. I saw in the streets many loungers who looked quite capable of that or any other crime. In the Verbitza pass the Commission separated, to meet again in Constantinople. A part of the delegates turned westward, to complete the de- limitation in that direction, each Commissioner sending his adjutant to represent him where he was not personally present. The division of duty was matter of friendly arrangement, and Hamley preferred to join the eastern party, as the eastern frontier embraced the issues directly leading from the north to Constantinople. The marches led through singularly romantic scenery : Tor days we had seen the chain of the Balkans, clothed in immense forests of beech, oak, chestnut, and pine, through the shady parts of which our road for the most part lay, emerging now and then into an open space whence we could survey the undulating woods as they covered hill and dale, pierced at the highest points by pinnacles of crag. From Dobral we again crossed the Balkans, at the pass of that name, halting at the Bairam dere. (Dere signifies valley of a stream, and may be the same termination as that of Scamander, Mseander, and 278 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. other classical streams.) While our baggage next day took the road by the valley, we plunged into the woods, riding in deep shade, sometimes stooping under the boughs. At the next camping-place Hamley invited the captain of the Russian escort to dinner on the following day. He desired the cook to make hospitable preparation, and accordingly a lamb and a goose were purchased, and hung up in the alfresco larder. That night there was tremendous excitement among the village dogs, which had made a battle-ground of our green, with savage snarling and growling. One animal made himself specially obnoxious by sitting apart and plain- tively howling. In the morning we discovered that the nocturnal engagement had been waged over lamb and goose, only a foot of the one and the bill of the other remaining to explain it. The dog that had howled was a stranger, debarred from a share in the feast. Two days afterwards, from Petreo on the heights, they saw the Euxine shimmering in the sunshine beneath them, and following the ridge of downs bordering the water, after a ride of about 620 miles, drew bridle at last in the streets of Varna, sadly familiar to Hamley in the cholera time before the Crimean campaign. Two charac- teristic incidents marked the brief stay there. Prince Dondakoff Korsakoff, subsequently of Trans- AN UNGRACIOUS RECEPTION. 279 Caucasian celebrity, was directing affairs in Bul- garia, and had his residence in Varna. The Com- missioners thought it but courteous to call : their Russian colleague, who must otherwise have pre- sented them to the Prince, had gone with the other party. The courtesy was indifferently re- ciprocated. The Commissioners duly announced their names and functions. The reply of the officers in the antechamber was that the Prince was sitting down to breakfast, and they had better call again. Hamley was the last man to put up with a slight of the kind, especially when he was representing the British Government. He spoke for the rest, and sharply told the aide-de- camp that their purpose of calling on the Prince was fulfilled, and for himself, he would be unable to pay a second visit. The officer turned on his heel, and left the room without any form of leave-taking. The foreign envoys were loud in their indignation at what they styled the inso- lence of master and man. However, the Prince so far made the amende that in the course of the day Hamley found his card on the table. Had he shown himself more friendly, some trouble and embarrassment might have been saved. Hamley, who wished to get rid of his horses, had hoped to sell some of them in Varna, embarking the rest. He learned rather late that 280 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. no horses could be shipped without a special per- mission from the Russian Government. This the shrewd Bulgarian horse-dealers knew, and as the steamer was to start at a given time, they thought they had the Englishman and his animals at their mercy. He had successfully shipped the horses on lighters, but the lighters were intercepted by a revenue boat and compelled to put back. He hurriedly despatched messengers to obtain the requisite permission. The dealers were triumph- ant, and made a modest bid for the lot of much less than the value of a single horse. Hamley was not to be victimised if he could in any way help it. It was dusk, and close to the hour of departure, when the permission came. I had requested the captain to send the steamer's boats, which he did ; but the shallow water would not permit them to approach within some forty yards of the shore, and they would only hold half the number. The joy of the horse-dealers was great : they saw me in extremity, and expected me to capitulate on their own terms. I selected at once the horses I intended to take, had them led into the water to the boats' sides, when our grooms and servants, eight or ten in number, seized each horse, two or three to each leg, and by main strength lifted and tumbled them in. The interpreter's pony they carried the whole way, and pitched him in so abruptly that he got his legs scarred in a way which he still bears the marks of, if he still exists. DREAD OF THE SEA. 281 The remaining animals were brought on in another steamer in charge of Captain Jones, and so the grasping dealers were effectually baffled. Retributory justice overtook another Bulgarian, whose sufferings were more acute, and Hamley, in very charity for his fellow - creatures, re- garded and narrates them with a grim sense of humour : The sea was nearly motionless there was an almost imperceptible heave in it. But this was too much for Tchitchagoff, who had never before seen the sea. He retired at once, in extreme distress, to his cabin, where he lamented, screamed, and even wept all night. The Bulgarian peasantry could hardly have desired a com- pleter vengeance on their persecutor. Next day he stag- gered across the deck to the doctor, to whom he announced that he was dying, and then disappeared. Shortly after- wards, he returned with the information that he was not dying but actually dead and, in fact, he fell below the binnacle in a motionless heap, and so remained till we landed. But the poor man was really so ill that I heard he never got out of his bed at the hotel, except to go straight back to his home in Bulgaria. The story of the labours of the Commission may appropriately conclude with the last of the letters to the Duke of Cambridge. The first part is omitted, as its substance has been antici- pated in the extracts from the diary. The rest is curious and interesting, as evidence of how 282 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. the subtle Muscovite policy overreached itself, and of how entirely the Russians had deceived themselves as to their future relations with the co-religionists whose affections they had done much to alienate by arbitrary proceedings and an overbearing demeanour. The writer was more clear-sighted : MAJOR-GENERAL E. B. HAMLEY to His Royal Highness the DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. BUTXJKDERE, lith July 1879. SIR, I have the honour to offer to your Royal High- ness some observations on the condition of the provinces through which the route of the Commission has lain. [After remarking that in his opinion the pastoral wealth and fertility of the country, even previous to the war, must have been greatly exaggerated in official reports, he goes on : ] At the same time, the country has all the elements of riches in its soil and climate, and wants nothing but a period of tranquillity to develop them. Whether such a period will be granted to it is now the problem. The Russians have done a good deal to prevent it by the political ideas they have been inspiring, by organising and drilling a kind of national army, and by large presents of arms. In every town armed bodies were being drilled, and in every cottage a breech-loader and bayonet might be seen. Numbers of men were sometimes to be met with on the roads thus armed, and wearing a badge to show that they belonged to the militia. These arms were left by the Russian troops, who were to receive others of a newer pattern on getting home. Large quanti- CONCLUSIONS ARRIVED AT. 283 ties of ammunition have also been distributed, we met a long train of waggons near Sliven which had been im- pressed at Bourgas, all loaded with ammunition -boxes. The Eussians, I believe, justify this by saying that the Turks in Eoumelia and Bulgaria have quantities of arms hidden away, which they only wait the withdrawal of the Eussians to use. However that may be, there evidently exist in this armed and organised population sufficient elements of disturbance. I think, however, there is fair ground for hoping that quietness may prevail. Much of the excitement may cease with the withdrawal of the Eussians, whose treatment of the Bulgarians has not been of a kind to make them popular. The population are naturally industrious and not naturally warlike, and may quickly come to see that they have everything to lose and nothing to gain in further troubles. Instead of instilling political ideas, the people should be taught to cultivate the conveniences and decencies of civilised life. . . . The best government will be that which takes the best way to raise the country to the present European level and to develop its natural advan- tages. I hear from various sources that the new Governor of Eoumelia is not likely to take the lead in any policy requiring vigour or capacity. I have been emboldened to offer so many remarks by the kind encouragement of your Eoyal Highness; and trusting that the length of my letter may find excuse, I have the honour to be, &c., E. B. HAMLEY. CHAPTER XV. ON THE BOSPHORUS. LIFE AT BUYUKDBRB DELAYS IN THE COMPLETION OP THE TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEY DIFFICULTIES SUCCESSFULLY SUR- MOUNTED APPROVAL OF THE FOREIGN OFFICE IS MADE A KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF ST MICHAEL AND ST GEORGE. NOTHING can be more enchanting than the banks of the Bosphorus in the spring and early summer, and Hamley passed the time very agreeably while awaiting the arrival of the other section of the Commission. Following the example of the Em- bassies and the wealthy residents, he preferred the country or rather the suburbs to the city, and took up his quarters with his aide-de-camp in the hotel at Buyukdere. There he was glad to rest from his active labours, and found pleasant occupation in boating expeditions to visit the palaces and romantically situated villages that fringe the shores of the Straits ; in rides, or long excursions on foot over the bordering hills, when A MEETING WITH LAURENCE OLIPHANT, 285 the sketch-book was never left behind; and in joining picnic - parties which were got up im- promptu. Within doors and on wet days he was busied in methodically embodying the results of his late observations in memoranda which were duly transmitted to the War Office. He and Captain Jones happened to be the only Eng- lishmen in their hotel, the rest of the company consisting of Eussians and Americans ; but the delightful residence of the British Ambassador at Therapia was within easy reach, and there he had always a warm welcome. As he writes to his niece, he met his old acquaintance Laurence Oliphant, who, although he had only arrived a few days before, was already as much at home in the house as if he had been the oldest member of the family. With regard to that meeting, Hamley would sometimes speak rather enviously of Oli- phant's extraordinary faculty of ingratiating him- self with all and sundry. Though he himself possessed it in a wonderful degree in the case of bright and clever women, when his manner would soften insensibly and his face would light up with smiles. But if Oliphant carried all before him in society, he was less successful elsewhere and in his immediate objects. Like Hamley, he had also come on a mission; but he was not clothed with official authority, nor did he 286 ON THE BOSPHORUS. represent the dignity of the English War Office. He had come to obtain certain concessions with regard to colonisation and land sales in the o Jordan valley. He used to give most ludicrous accounts of incidents more amusing in the retro- spect than in the reality, of his dancing attend- ance in the Turkish antechambers ; of his being bandied about from one minister to another ; of free-handed distributions of backsheesh, by which he was never to benefit. He would ruefully confide to Hamley how his suave diplomacy was powerless against the apathetic courtesies of the Pashas, and how his patience was only sustained by his being prepared for the worst, and conse- quently fortified against delays and disappoint- ments. Hamley soon had somewhat similar ex- perience of his own. In respect to the Turks, as he was doing his best to help them, he naturally found them complacent enough and willing to assist him in their dilatory fashion. But he had to play out the parti with his subtle Russian antagonist, who fancied he had a card in reserve that should win the final trick. Hamley played the game in his own manner, with firmness, promptitude, and no little astuteness, and had good reason to pride himself on the result. His purpose all along had been to push the A HITCH IN THE SURVEY. 287 arrangements through ; the Russian's desire had been delay, and, if possible, to settle nothing definitely. The incident, important as it was, had only passing interest ; but it illustrates Hamley's indomitable energy, and his readiness to accept responsibility. In brief, an extent of thirty-five miles still remained to be surveyed on the Macedonian frontier. Colonel Bogulaboff had undertaken that his topographers should do the work. On the reassembling of the Commis- sion he calmly announced that the promised work was still undone, owing to the failure of the Turkish authorities to facilitate it, and he fixed two months as the time indispensable for the completion of the plans. His colleagues were in consternation at the unexpected delay, and the discussion became stormy. They came to Hamley after the debate, in which he had taken a lead, expressing unani- mously their indignation and despondency. Thus he was assured of their support in any steps he might take. As he says : "I had been sent out expressly to oppose the arrogant pretensions which the Russian Commissioner too often dis- played. . . . The present blow, long delayed, had been resorted to as a safe and certain compensa- tion for the many concessions which the Russian 288 ON THE BOSPHORUS. had been compelled to make. There seemed no possible way of averting it." For his own staff had been detached on a different piece of duty, and in particular he had to regret the loss of Captain Everett, who had been summoned away to his vice-consulate at Erzeroum. Moreover, the Russian added insult to injury, by pleasantly recommending Hamley to go on a two months' tour, when he might return to see how matters were progressing. Had anything been necessary to stimulate the sense of duty, it would have been a sneer of the kind. Hamley resolved on moving heaven and earth to make an effective practical retort, and Fortune favoured him in an unexpected fashion. Just then he heard that Captain Everett, on his way from England to Trebizond, was actually in the hotel. He asked Everett if he would stop and do some work for him. " Certainly, sir," was the answer, " if you will get me author- ity." He immediately started to walk to the Embassy, and saw Sir Henry Layard going out for his ride. He had begun to run when the Ambassador heard himself accosted, and drew bridle. He preferred his request, but Sir Henry hesitated. He declared there was urgent neces- sity for Everett going to his post. " I observed DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME. 289 that the occasion was an important and urgent one, and that on my getting Captain Everett depended whether I should or should not defeat the Eussian plan for stopping the business of the Commission. It was certain that any step tending to defeat Russian designs against Turkey would have a charm for Sir Henry." Sir Henry asked if he would undertake to answer any further com- plaints from Everett's chief at Trebizond. The answer was unhesitatingly in the affirmative, and O / Sir Henry telegraphed to Lord Salisbury that the Vice-Consul was detained. Simultaneously came a second stroke of good fortune, which gave him the services of Lieutenant de Wolski, R.E., a skilled topographer. Major Ardagh was put in charge of the party ; Cap- tain Jones, R.A., was to accompany it to arrange for the camps, commissariat, &c. ; a Turkish officer was attached at the request of the Turkish authorities ; and a suitable interpreter was found. All this was the work of a day or so. The next step was to obtain the formal assent of the Com- mission, and though greatly disappointed and annoyed, even Bogulaboff could not decently re- fuse. He expressed his vexation in no measured terms, but was suavely answered by Hamley that he was surprised at the spirit in which his offer VOL. i. T 290 ON THE BOSPHORUS. had been received, being persuaded that the sole desire of the Russian was to facilitate the labours of the Commission. Then came the consideration of how the topo- graphers were to get to their ground. The Russian control of the country was so complete, that neither escort nor transport could be reckoned upon for the land route. The alter- native was to send the Englishmen to Salonica by sea ; but there seemed to be no possibility of starting for a week, and then by a slow coasting steamer. He hurried back to the Embassy to ask for one of the three English gunboats lying in the Bosphorus. The upshot was that he obtained the Bittern, on the understanding that he should again relieve the Ambassador of responsibility and bear Captain Pusey out with the Admiral. At the stance of the 2d August the window of the room in which we sat overlooking the Bosphorus was darkened by a passing ship. This was the Bittern returning from her mission. I observed that this was the vessel which had taken the topographers of the Commission to Salonica, and the fact that she had been so employed evidently made a deep impression. In my despatch on the subject I observed, " The Commission cannot fail to contrast the manner in which the English Government endeavour to facilitate their work with the attitude taken towards them by the Eussian." Consistent in his official attitude of HAMLEY MADE K.C.M.G. 291 obstruction to the last, Bogulaboff made a final attempt to have the work of his own topographers, when completed, substituted on the map for that of the Englishmen. But the other Commissioners unanimously refused to consent to what could only be regarded as a gratuitous affront. The following is the letter from the Foreign Office expressing approval of the work of the Commissioner and his subordinates : FOREIGN OFFICE, October 23, 1879. SIR, I have to acknowledge receipt of your despatch No. 91 of the llth instant, announcing your return to this country upon the completion of the operations of the In- ternational Commission formed under article 11 of the Treaty of Berlin for the delimitation of the frontiers of Bulgaria; and in so doing I gladly avail myself of the opportunity to convey to you the cordial thanks of her Majesty's Government for the valuable services you have rendered to the Commission, and their high appreciation of the tact and judgment which have characterised your proceedings. At the same time I request that you will convey to the members of your staff my acknowledgments of the zeal and efficiency with which they have severally discharged the duties intrusted to them. I am, sir, your most obedient humble servant, SALISBURY. By way of recompense he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. In private interviews he had the oppor- tunity of reporting to his Lordship on the condi- 292 ON THE BOSPHORUS. tion of the districts he had visited, the capabilities for defence, and the feelings of the population. Moreover, he was cordially thanked in less con- ventional terms ; but the most satisfactory evi- dence of the appreciation of his work, as has been already remarked, was in his being selected on two future occasions for the discharge of sim- ilar duties. END OF THE FIEST VOLUME. PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACK\VOOD AND SONS.