Should you proceed farther into the mountains, on foot, of course, you will come upon one of the enormous monasteries which were the heart and soul of the movement for Bulgarian liberation, and around which most of the fighting against the Turks took place.
A BULGARIAN VILLAGE CHURCH.
CHAPTER IX
BULGARIA AND HER PAST
Progress of Bulgaria—Origin of her Peoples—The Bulgari—First Russian Invasion of Bulgaria—The Assenide Dynasty—Turkish Tyrannies—Emancipation of Bulgaria—Russia’s Intrigues against Prince Alexander—The Late Balkan Disturbances.
But now, for a moment, let us look at the serious side of this little warlike principality which has only recently wiggled from under the vassalage of Turkey, at the same time proclaiming her absolute independence, and which, to my mind, is the Bulwark of the Balkans.
Although having enjoyed but a short thirty-one years of partial independent existence, for it is the youngest of the Balkan States, the progress of Bulgaria during that thirty-one years has been little short of remarkable. A visitor to the country is at once impressed with the look of indomitable determination that characterizes the features of the Bulgars. That indomitable determination has convinced the outside world of their worthiness of the freedom as a state conferred upon them in 1877; it will continue in the future to convince the outside world of their worthiness of the indefinite prolongation of this freedom.