The Red Cloud chief., 1878-02-21
The Turkish Hegira.

II /. lust about FIVE hundred wears
since the terrible Turkish invasion
poured into Europe in the very districts
where the wa il now carried on. In
| eleven wears IL will be precisely five
hundred years since Amursih l. over
threw. on the borders Of Seryia, the
whole power Of the then mighty
Kingdom If Scrvia, IN n Of the world
battIe,r-thac Of kosspya-a bloody
| struggle which so impressed itself on
the imaginations Of men. and WAS
followed with such immense conse-
quence 10 that portion Of Europe. that
the Seryian and Bulgarian peasants still
refer to IL a. an event which affects even
now their desiinies. And they do not
exaggerate it, consequences. After
Amuraih followed Bajazet, surnamed
the Lightning" and in his track was
d~esolation and hills Of human heads.
The Turk was then no "sick man, but
a barbarian Of unsurpassed vaior, with.
il must be allowed, a certain talent for
command. He swept over all Eastern
Europe, and but for the long and hero
ic defence of Hungary. would no doubt
have conquered and held Southern Ger
MANY, as he afterwaTd conquered and
held Thrace and the Danubian u
tries. II was more than half a century
from the battle of Cossova before the
Turk wrested from the decayed Greek
Empire the city of the Golden Horn.
which he has held eve since. In the
long empire Of lust and blood by the
Osmanli, whether in Europe or Asia. it
will be difficult for the most ardent
admirer Of the race to ind a single
blessing or benefit which il has conferred
on humanity. In Thrace, Epiras. Mac
edonia, the Bosnia provinces. Bulea-
ria, Servia, and the Wallacho-Mol-
davian districts, the rule OF the Otto
mans has been nothing but depression
or plumber and violence. Liberty, of
course, has never flourished under them,
nor science, o agriculture, nor com
merce, nor trade. Where they have
been there has been the slightest pro-
gress in all material things. Genera
ton after generation Of misery and sub
mission TO grinding tyranny has passed
away. The Christians have been
pressed TO the earth, while the Moham-
medans have not advanced. One OF the
faircst portions of Eastern Europe has
been rendered poor and half barbarous
by this!.ong enduring tyranny. Intact,
even, in the ncighboring districts now
under Christian sway. the sears and rel
les of the former Turkish domination
may be seen. in barren fields. poor
roads, miserable villages, a degraded
peasantry, and a want of all the best
appliances of civilization.
Turkey itself. in Asia, seems outside
of all modern progress; and unnatural
vices. such as consumed the Pagan En-
pire of Rome, have eaten away the Wig
or of the people. Nor does this cor
ruption and degradation seem an effect
of religion alone. though, that, no doubt,
has had much influence in causing II;
it belongs alone to the race. For one Mo
hammedan people. the Arabs, encamped
for some one hundred miles in Europe
-as the Turks have doue-but when
they were driven forth, they left schools,
colleges and places of learning. palaces,
and an architecture which still delights
the eye, and permanent traces on the
arts, science, and learning OF Europe.
When the Turk departs from Eastern
Europe. as soon he must, there will b"
no monument of his five hundred years
of residence, but smoking villages. piles
of human bones, a peasantry imbrutcd
by his Government, and 4 fair country
made almost 4 desert.
The latest telegram from the seat of
war was that the Turks were burning
Phillippopolis and other Christian
towns i'm their retreat. The exodus is
characteristic and consistent. The
great ancestor of the Sultan's family
entered Europe over burning towns.
and marked his way with pyramids of
human heads. The degenerate descend
ant departs amid the smoke of peaceful
hamlets, and with his line of retreat
covered with the manned and defaced
corpses of prisoners and of the unfor-
nate peasantry. No sentimental SYM
pathv will follow the Ottoman, as has
attended the Moor in his defeat. Even
England will soon forget him. The his
torical scholar will rejoice at the just
the legislator will look for
advances in that miserable region;
and the curses and hate of populations
whom the Turk for centuries has plum
dered and oppressed will 90 with the
last battalion as it carries the Crescent
back from the hills of the Balkan pc
ninsula to the Sea of Marmora and the
Golden Horn.-NeW York Times.