Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle | Page 8

as many as fifteen men were shot in a feud; and
his great uncle had commanded a pirate ship which plied between the
Adriatic and the Aegean.
There is nothing new under the sun. In 1788, as in the twentieth century,
we find the rival Powers trying to buy partisans. "We never could
satisfy them," says the Austrian Envoy. "When we thought we had won
him with one gift, we found next day he had joined the opposition party
or demanded a new gift as if he had not had one. Even the Bishop,
though he tried by all means to win our favour, could not hide from us
his false intriguing heart."
The struggle was brief. Russia was victorious. Vladika Plamenatz
disappeared suddenly, and the Petrovitches came again to the fore.
Vladika Petar's name headed all official documents, the Gubernator fell
to second rank, and the blood-feud between the Plamenatzes and the
Petrovitches compelled some of the former to seek shelter with the
Turks. Russia has never permitted a pro-Austrian to rule long in Slav
lands. Witness the-fate of the Obrenovitches, in Serbia. Vladika Petar
was a strong man, which is probably why he obtained Russian support.
He drove his unruly team with much success and won its respect.
Russia and Austria came to one of their many "understandings" and in

1788 declared war together on the Turk with the expressed intention of
ending the Sultan's rule. Both encouraged the Montenegrins to harry
the Turkish borders. The Austrian Envoy, however, distrusted the
Montenegrins and wrote: "Very much more can we rely on the faith
and courage of the Catholic Albanians of the Brda, the very numerous
Bijelopavlitchi, Piperi, Kuchi, Vasojevitchi, Klementi, Hoti, etc., who
could muster 20,000 very outrageous fighters whom the Sultan fears
more than he does the Montenegrins." A passage of great interest, for
to-day many of these Albanian tribes, having fallen under Montenegrin
rule, have been completely Slavized and have 'joined the Orthodox
Church.
Some of these tribes did support Austria, were left in the lurch by her
when she made peace in 1791, and were punished by the Turks. Part of
the Klementi dared not return home and settled in Hungary, where their
descendants still live.
Montenegro was mentioned in the Treaty of Sistova merely as a
rebellious Turkish province, but Vladika Petar had gained much power,
for the Brda tribes now definitely accepted him as their head and the
Tsutsi and Bijelitch tribes emigrated into Montenegro from the
Herzegovina and were given land.
The Turks forcibly opposed the union of the Brda with Montenegro,
but could not prevent it, and in the fight the Pasha of Scutari was killed.
His head, on a stake, for long adorned the tower at Cetinje.
A hard blow was now struck at Montenegro. The Venetians in 1797
ceded the Bocche di Cattaro to Austria. Till then the frontier had been
vague. The Vladika was spiritual head of the Bocchese and the
Montenegrins considered them as part of themselves. The new frontier
caused much wrath. Russia hurried to support the Vladika. Austria
strove in vain for influence. Her Envoy wrote in 1798, "The Gubernator
sees his authority daily weakening while that of the Vladika increases."
He says the frontier must be fixed "so as to force this horde of brigands
to remain within the frontiers which they cross only to molest his
Majesty's subjects and make them victims of brigandage. The
Metropolitan and the Gubernator have given no satisfaction to the

complaints daily addressed to them."
No. They did not. For they had a strong backing. Up hurried a special
Envoy of the Tsar with rich gifts for the Vladika, who received him
with a salute of guns, and further insulted Austria by hoisting the
Russian flag over the Monastery. "Devil and Baker" had both pulled.
Which won? I leave that to the reader.
Russia was now ruling power in Montenegro. When Napoleon's troops
appeared in the Near East the Montenegrins joined the Russian forces
and attacked the French at Ragusa where their ferocity horrified even
the hardened soldiers of Napoleon. A Ragusan gave me her
grandfather's account of the yelling horde of savage mountaineers who
rushed into battle with the decapitated heads of their foes dangling
from their necks and belts, sparing no one, pillaging and destroying,
and enraging the Russian officers by rushing home so soon as they had
secured booty worth carrying off. In considering the Near East of
to-day it should never be forgotten that but a century ago much of the
population was as wild as the Red Indians of the same date.
The French held the Bocche di Cattaro some years during which the
Vladika, as Russia's ally, flatly refused to come to terms with them.
And in 1813, so soon as Napoleon's defeat became