The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-08-09
PLUCKY MONTENEGRO.
Recent Record of the Brare Moantaineefa
Some of Their Prerioers Wars.


Some of Their Prerioets Wars.
[From the New York SUM-
While the forces of the Gar were
slowly massing along the Danube, his
diminutive but gallant ally was left to
bear the brunt of the war. To us it
looks as if the Prince of Montenegro
would have done better to accept the ces-
sion of territory offered by the Sultan.
than to sacrifice his hardy morntaineers
to the schemes of Muscovite ambition.
But, be that as it may, there is no doubt
that in the sanguinary drama now afoot,
between the Bosphorus and the Adriatic,
the most striking and anomalous role be-
longs to the people of the Black mount
ain.
It will not be said henceforth that the
name of Montenegro is less known to the
English-speaking public thar that of
Monaco or San Marine. This remark
able race has found of late an interpreter
in Tennyson, who celebrates their
CROUCH rock-throne of freedom" while
score of writer's less eloquent, among
whom Mr.. Gladstone and MI. Edward
Freeman may be cited, have furnished
commentaries to the poets text. While
these have blazoned before the eye of
the world the astonishing achievements
of this people during the year which has
just closed, they point out that the sail
ent feature of that record, namely, the
splendid monotony of victory, was no
anomaly in the history of what the
laureate calls "great Tsernagora, but
had marked the whole course of a
struggle maintained for 500 years.
Those who noted from day to day the
incidents OF the brief campaign from
July to October, 1876, as they were
chronicled in our telegraphic dispatches,
must have been equally impressed with
the unbroken uniformity of Turkish
victories over the Servian forces, and of
Turkish defeats in conflict with Monte
negro. CHANGING back over the bulle-
tins and citing only the most remarkable,
we find that on July % the men of
Tsernagora encountered Mukhtar Pasha,
and for once with superior force. What
was the result2 Osman Pasha was taken,
Selim was slain, ZOO Turks were killed,
but only seventy men of Montenegro.
1t follows, when we consider the almost
total want of artillery on the part of the
| victors, that FOR each slain mountaineer
more than fifty of his foes must h ave
been sacrificed. Again at MEDIUM, on
the 18th of August, 10000 Turks were
defeated and 4, 700 cut to pieces by 5000
| of these stalwart warriors. On the 9th
of September five battalions from the
Black mountain foiled Dervisch Pasha
in his movement upon Piperi, and slew
5000 of his men. On the 18th of Octo-
Der occurs slight reverse, which is al
most Instantly transformed into vic
tory. At that date we read that Mukh-
tar Pasha, with IS. 600 men, drove three
Montenegrin battalions back upon Miro
tinsko Dolove. Here, however, the re-
treating detachment was raised by a
junction with Vukotitch to a strength
of 5000. and being now che
to three they swept down upon
Mukhtar, and after an action of sixteen
hours hurled him back to Kioluk, leav-
ing 1 800 dead behind him. Three DAYS
later Dervisch Pasha effected an advance
from the south until he found himself
attacked simultaneously at various
points, and had to retreat with loss of
1900 soldiers. Finally, on the Goth of
October, MEDIUM was taken, and the OF
toman General fed to Scutari. At this
point the armistice cut short the tale of
disasters, when the southern army. un-
der Dervisch, had been reduced from
As, 900 to %, 900, and the northern, I'M
der Mulzhtar, from $4,000 to $4,000.
Montenegro brought into action, in all,
25, 200 men, of whom two-thirds were
her own. On the other hand, the Turk
ish force directed against Tsernagora is
stated at 10000 Now, when we bear
in mind that the Turkish nisaa7e is a
stout soldier, and at this very time was
proving himself quite competent to deal
with Servians, who are next of kin to
the Montenegrins, and remember, also,
that the invaders were supplied with all
the improved apparatus of modern war
fare, while the mountaineers had but
few breech-loaders, except such as they
could wrench from their enemies, we
must concede that the above record is
not paralleled in the annals of any other
people. 1t is familiar teaching of his
tory that courage dwells with freedom
on the heights F.; but none of the noun
taineers whom poets have made i'm
mortal-neither Samnite, Swiss nor
Scottish Highlander-ever made such a
dauntless and triumphant stand against
odds so overwhelming.
The nearest analogue 20 the present
prowess of the Montenegrins is to be
found in their own chronicles. When
Ivan, the Montenegro hero of the day,
Quilted, IN 1854, the sunny tracts be-
tween the mountain and the sea where
his people had basked some 700 years,
and sought on the rocks and amid the
preclplces e bulwark against the con-
queror of his kindred, the few fugitives
unanimously voted one fundamental
law. 1t was decreed that in time of war
no son OF Tsernagora could quit the field
without the order of his chief; that
whenever a wounded soldier could not
be moved to place of safety his COM
rades must perform for him the last of
flee of special friendship, and by hewing
off his head save him from the shame of