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 422 BULGARIA and the Vitosh magnetic iron exists in the form of small grains in the syenite. These are wash- ed down by the winter torrents, and the iron, being reduced to powder, is left in the beds of the streams. Artificial basins are made into which the water is conducted by aqueducts, and the deposited iron is then collected. In the neighborhood of Samakov there are about 80 founderies in operation ; and there are other founderies on the Isker. Charcoal and hazel wood are used for smelting. Coal is found in the mountains, and in some places appears on the surface ; but no mines are worked. Manufac- tures are still in their infancy, the chief articles produced being coarse woollen and linen stutis, embroidery, and rifle barrels ; attar of roses is prepared in considerable quantities, and much of it exported to England. The agricultural products annually amount to 325,000,000 pi- astres, the industrial products to 80,000,000. The taxes and imposts collected by Turkey annually amount to 70,000,000 piastres. There are large tracts of uncultivated land belong- ing to the government, which may be occu- pied by any one on condition of paying one tenth of the produce as a tribute. There is a railway, the first constructed in the em- E're, 40 m. long, between Kustendji on the lack sea and Tchernavoda on the Danube. Another railway has been opened from Varna to Rustchuk, with a branch to Shumla. The Bulgarians, who now form the principal di- vision of the Slavs in Turkey, appear first in history not as a Slavic but as a Finnic tribe, then living on the western banks of the Volga. The more warlike part of this tribe, leaving that river, first settled on the Don, then went toward the Danube in the latter part of the 5th century. Here they continually harassed the Byzantine empire, and about 500 repeat- edly pitched their camp before the walls of Con- stantinople. The emperor Anastasins bribed them to depart, and in order to protect the capi- tal against future inroads he built a long wall in 507. They reappeared in the reign of Justin- ian, but Belisarius dispersed them. The Avars subdued the Bulgarians, who, however, soon re- gained their independence. Their khan, Kuvrat, made an alliance with Heraclius, who created him a patrician. On the death of Kuvrat his five sons separated ; one established himself on the banks of the Don, another in Pannonia, a third in Moldavia, a fourth went to Italy, and the fifth, Asparukh, crossed the Danube and about 680 settled in the country between that river and Mt. Hssmus (Balkan), then known by the Roman name of Moesia Inferior, ultimately changed into Bulgaria. Some historians reckon this separation as taking place at an earlier period, and from Sarmatia. Justinian II. at- tempted to destroy the Bulgarian khanate, but was compelled to acknowledge the indepen- dence of the successor of Asparukh. When Justinian was driven from Constantinople, the Bulgarians reinstated him on the throne. About 750 Kormes, one of the successors of Asparukh, invaded Thrace, but was slain by his own sol- diers, and the sovereignty, which had hitherto been hereditary in the family of Kuvrat, became elective. Constantino Copronymus invaded and ravaged Bulgaria, but without reducing it to subjection. Khan Krumn, after massacring the greater part of the Greek army and killing the emperor Nicephorus in 811, fought the empe- ror Michael at Adrianople in 813 and advanced as far as Constantinople. About 860, during the reign of Bogoris, who assumed the title of king, Christianity was introduced into Bulgaria. By constant intermixture with the surrounding Slavs, during their migrations as well as in Moasia, the Bulgarians had gradually lost their national Finnic characteristics, and about this time appear as a Slavic nation, speaking a richly developed Slavic dialect. Their struggles with the Byzantines continued. After a long series of successes and reverses, in which the most atrocious cruelties were perpetrated on both sides, the Bulgarians about 1018 submitted to the emperor Basil II. Bulgaria was thence- forth governed by dukes, and the emperor, to insure the peace of the country, transported a number of Bulgarians into Asia, and replaced them by Petchenegs. Peter and his brother Assan, descendants of the ancient Bulgarian khans, raised a revolt in 1186, and proclaimed themselves kings. Here commenced the dynasty of the Assanides, who were constantly engaged in war with the Greeks, Hungarians, and Tar- tars, till 1389. At this period the Turkish armies under Amurath I. invaded Bulgaria, and vanquished the Bulgarians and Servians at the battle of Kosovo. Since that date Bulgaria has been subject to the Turks, and the Bulgarians have borne the Turkish yoke with more resign- ed endurance than any other Christian popula- tion, the province, with its many fortresses, forming a principal stronghold of the Porte. In 1828-'9 Bulgaria was the theatre of the Russian war. After its close a large number of Bulgarians emigrated to Bessarabia. In 1841 the exactions of the pashas occasioned a rising in Bulgaria. During the Crimean war the Russians crossed the Danube and besieged Silistria, but were compelled to retreat. In 1856 the Bulgarians sent a petition to the sul- tan,' demanding the right of electing among themselves the chief dignitary of their church and of choosing their own governor ; an entire separation between Turks and Bulgarians, each to have their own authorities and judges; all differences between Turks and Bulgarians to be settled by mixed tribunals ; the right of having every crime judged in the place of commission ; and that the regiments recruited in Bulgaria should have Bulgarian officers, and use the Bulgarian language. The Porte accorded none of these claims. In 1859 the question was again agitated, the Bulgarians refusing to pay their dues to the Greek patriarch of Constanti- nople and driving away their bishops. These efforts were seconded by Russia. Two parties were formed, one declaring for a church inde-