EASTERN ROUMELIA.
The Army of Eastern Roumelia is a species of Militia, which would in war-time amount to 64,000 men. The Standing Army numbers only 3,400 men, and their efficiency is not very great.
MONTENEGRO.
Montenegro. In the western portion of the Balkan Peninsula, between the Dinaric Mountains and the Adriatic, though not touching the latter, lies a wild and craggy mountain land. According to the inhabitants, “When the Creator was walking over the earth, distributing rocks and plains, the bag in which the rocks were split, and those which remained fell on to Montenegro.”
Montenegro: Soldier.
There can certainly not have been many rocks in the bag, for the land of the Black Mountains (Montenegro or Tzernagora) is a tiny country of only about 2,300 square miles. The inhabitants are as wild as their country. They are a small, liberty-loving nation, of great physical beauty, and born warriors. When the Czar, the other day, called the Prince of Montenegro the best friend he had on earth, his speech probably referred less to the Prince himself than to the people whose merit and determined bravery he so much admired.
This nation has for centuries known how to preserve its independence. Turkey, who tried to exercise a sovereignty, over the people, came to grief when met by their determined opposition. In 1862 the inhabitants of Herzegovina rebelled against the sovereignty of the Crescent, and were supported in their revolt by the Montenegrins. The Turkish Government thereupon recalled their best general, Omar Pasha, from exile, and gave him the chief command of the forces sent against Herzegovina and her ally.