THE TRAIL OF THE MISSIONARIES
From Rilo it is a day’s track to Samakov, a primitive, dreamy town,
full of frontier colour and character. A mosque and a Turkish fountain
still do duty in the market place, and many times a day Turks come to
the fountain to wash before entering the mosque to prayer--just as they
do across the border. But over there the Christian drawing drinking
water makes way for the Moslem to wash his feet, while here the Turk is
made to wait his turn like any other man. Samakov is much like other
border towns, built largely of mud bricks, roofed with red tiles,
crowned with storks’ nests. It possesses, however, one distinctive
feature.
The largest American college in South-Eastern Europe, outside of
Constantinople, is here. It is conducted by the American missionaries,
and educates most of the Bulgarian teachers employed in the Protestant
schools throughout Bulgaria and Macedonia. It is something more than a
theological institute; it is also an industrial school, patterned after
those most successful in the United States, where boys learning trades
may earn part or all of their tuition. The carpentering department and
the printing press are both conducted at a profit, which is credited
proportionately to the boys who do the work. In the girls’ school the
duties of home and life are taught, as well as book knowledge, and some
of the young women are trained for the positions of teachers in the
smaller mission schools.
The Bulgarians owe much to the American missionaries, both directly
and indirectly. For one thing, the Americans have excited, without
intention, the jealousy of the Orthodox Church, which has undoubtedly
assisted in keeping the priests active in developing their own
educational institutions. It was not until the American missionaries
opened a school for girls in their land that the Bulgarians began to
educate their women. But that was many years ago, before Bulgaria
became a quasi-independent State; now the State schools afford every
advantage the Americans can offer--except the American language.
The Bulgarian Government attempts to administer justice to all
denominations and to maintain religious equality before the law, and
the Government comes fairly near to this aim. The Greeks complain that
Greek schools are not subsidised, but Turkish schools are maintained
by the State. It is due to the freedom of religious opinion existing
in Bulgaria that the missionaries have become so closely allied with
the Bulgarians, for in no other Balkan country, except perhaps Rumania,
is there the same liberty of thought. The Servian Government prohibits
by law all proselytising to Protestantism. The Greeks--though they
welcomed the aid and sympathy of the missionaries in the Greek war
of independence--have since enacted laws which make the teaching of
‘sacred lessons’ in the schools compulsory, lessons of a character
which the missionaries refuse to disseminate. The Sultan would not
tolerate the missionaries in his dominions if they attempted to convert
Mohamedans, while the few Turks who have deserted Mohamedanism have
mysteriously disappeared. And it has been found almost impossible to
convert Jews. So the missionaries are left only the Bulgarians on whom
to work. Their schools and churches are open to other nationalities in
both Bulgaria and Macedonia; but, for the double reason that they are
institutions of Protestants and of Bulgarians, very few of the other
races ever seek admission.
But the Bulgarians do not appreciate the work of the Americans; indeed,
those who are not converted distinctly rebel against what they term
the ‘Christianising of Christians.’ I have said that the Government
was just in religious matters; the members of the Government, however,
are not. Government officials (adherents of the Orthodox Church, or
they would not be elected) make it difficult for the missionaries to
extend their work, by delaying necessary permits and privileges as
long as possible; and they favour members of the Orthodox Church in
making appointments to public service. The unfortunate missionaries
are, therefore, between the devil and the deep sea; for while the
Bulgarians resent being the subject of missions, the Turks accuse the
Americans of propagating a revolutionary spirit amongst the Bulgars. Of
the latter, however, they are not directly guilty, though the education
of a peasant naturally tends to fire his spirit.
[Illustration: BULGARIAN PEASANTS, SAMAKOV.]
But there was one occasion when the American missionaries came to be
important instruments of the Macedonian revolutionary cause. This was
in the notorious capture of Miss Ellen M. Stone, a certain feature of
which, not correctly chronicled at the time, makes a most interesting
narrative.
Early in July 1901, a party of Protestant missionaries and
teachers--among whom Miss Stone was the only foreigner--left the
American school at Samakov and crossed the Turkish frontier to
Djuma-bala. From Djuma they proceeded into Macedonia, without an
escort, considering that the party, numbering fifteen, was too large
to be molested. Towards nightfall of the first day out the travellers,
growing weary, allowed their ponies to straggle, as the Macedonian
pony is wont to do. At dark the cavalcade began to ascend a rugged
mountain in this disorder, and rode directly into an ambush laid for
the Americans. It was an easy matter for the brigands to ‘round-up’ the
whole number without firing a single shot. The brigands had no need for
the other members of the company, being Bulgarians, and sent all of
them on their way except Mrs. Tsilka, whom they detained as a companion
for Miss Stone.
The sum demanded for Miss Stone’s ransom was twenty-five thousand
Turkish liras, slightly less in value than so many English pounds. The
American Government took no effective measures to secure the release of
its subject, and it was left to the American people to subscribe the
ransom money. In a few months the sum of sixty-eight thousand dollars
(fourteen thousand five hundred pounds Turkish) was collected, and the
American Consul-General at Constantinople went to Sofia to negotiate
the ransom. But in Bulgaria he was annoyed by the people and the press,
and hampered by the Government, and he soon found it impracticable
to pay the money to the brigands from that side of the border. The
Orthodox churchmen had no sympathy for the American evangelist and
treated the affair as a grand joke, while the Government sought to
prevent payment of the ransom on Bulgarian soil, lest it should be
called upon by the United States at a later date to refund the amount.
At the end of five months from the time of the capture, the
Consul-General (Mr. Dickenson) had accomplished only an agreement
with the brigands that Miss Stone should be set at liberty on payment
of the sum collected in lieu of the one demanded, and he returned to
Constantinople and transferred the work to a committee appointed by the
American Minister on instructions from Washington.
According to accounts sent to the newspapers at the time by
correspondents who, with many Turkish soldiers, dogged the footsteps
of the three men who formed the ransom committee, these gentlemen,
Messrs. Peet, House, and Garguilo, after travelling over hundreds
of miles of wild mountain roads, doubling on their tracks sometimes
daily in their search for the brigands, finally despaired of paying
the ransom in gold, sent the gold back to Constantinople, secured
bank-notes in its stead, and paid two agents of the insurgents in
paper money at a cross road when they (the committee) managed to
escape the vigilance of the Turkish soldiers for a few minutes. But
the correspondents were sadly duped, for necessity and the committajis
demanded that they should be placed in the same category as the Turks,
and regarded as dangerous characters.
If a member of the committee could tell this tale it would make a
most readable volume, but the committee is bound by a promise to the
insurgents to keep secret certain details, and I am able to give only a
bare outline of the adventure.
I first learned that the original accounts of the ransoming were
erroneous from Mr. Garguilo, whom I met one day at the American
Legation at Constantinople, of which he is the dragoman. He was proud
of having defeated some worthy men among my colleagues and the Turkish
police at the same time. He told me bits of the story which whetted my
curiosity, and I resolved to run it to earth.
Before I left Constantinople I called on Mr. Peet at his office, the
headquarters of the American Mission Board, and, in the course of a
conversation about the Stone affair, added a few more facts to those
Mr. Garguilo had given me. It was my good fortune, not long after, to
meet Dr. House at the American mission at Salonica, and I took the
opportunity of discussing the affair with him. And as I proceeded
through Macedonia I encountered many others of the principal actors
in the little drama. I came upon Mr. and Mrs. Tsilka at Monastir;
then the Turkish officer who had been detached to follow the fourteen
thousand five hundred pounds of gold; and later, in Bulgaria, I found a
member of Sandansky’s band, the band which had captured Miss Stone. The
brigand was the most communicative of all these principals, and I got
from him some details which the ransom committee had been sworn not to
divulge, for fear lest punishment should be meted out by the Turks to
the town which played the important part in the delivery of the ransom.
On Mr. Dickenson’s return from Sofia the ransom committee left at once
for the Raslog district. The brigands at this juncture had become
indignant at the long delay in the payment of the money and had
broken off negotiations with the Americans. The first work of the new
committee, then, was to re-establish communication with the insurgents,
and, in order to let the brigands learn that they were on their trail,
the news of the fact was disseminated broadcast throughout Bulgaria and
Macedonia, and also sent to the European press, which the revolutionary
organisation follows closely. This eventually accomplished the desired
effect, but also caused an increase of the number of correspondents on
the trail of the committee.
For nearly a month the committee moved from town to town through the
snow--for it was now winter--faring on the coarsest of food, sleeping
in comfortless khans and undergoing many hardships, but meeting with
no success. Trail after trail drew blank. On one occasion word came
that two frontier smugglers, captured by the Turks, had professed to
having seen Miss Stone and Mrs. Tsilka’s baby strangled, and could
take the committee to the graves! There had been several other reports
that the brigands had wearied of waiting for the ransom and had killed
their captives, but none so detailed as this. The Turkish authorities
at the point from which this evidence came were anxiously petitioned
for further facts. Another examination of the smugglers was made, and
the following day a telegram announced that they were altering their
testimony. ‘The alterations’ completely denied the first statement,
without even an excuse on the part of the smugglers for having
concocted it. It seems the Turks had asked them for information of
Miss Stone, and the frightened smugglers had replied in the Macedonian
manner, according to what they thought their questioners desired to
hear.
After a while the committee broke up, Messrs. Peet and Garguilo
establishing themselves at Djuma-bala and Dr. House going to Bansko,
the most rebellious town of a most rebellious district, ‘to conduct
a series of missionary meetings.’ Dr. House was the only member of
the committee who could speak Bulgarian and converse direct with the
brigands, and his action was severely criticised by the correspondents.
As the journalists saw the case, here was a member of the committee,
the most valuable man because of his knowledge of the brigands’
language, wasting valuable time preaching Christianity to Christians,
just when his every effort should be devoted to the task of freeing
the two unfortunate women and a new-born babe, who were suffering
untold tortures in some sheepfold high in the snow-covered mountains.
But the correspondents were not aware that Dr. House had escaped
their vigilance and that of the Turks, and, under the guidance of an
insurgent disguised as an ordinary peasant, had visited a delegation of
the brigands; nor did they know that further negotiations for paying
the ransom were proceeding along with the revival meetings at Bansko.
After Dr. House had got into touch with the brigands the money was
sent for. Mr. Smyth-Lyte, of the American Consulate, conveyed it from
Constantinople. Two cases, containing fourteen thousand five hundred
gold pieces and weighing four hundred pounds, were delivered to him
from the Ottoman Bank, where the ransom fund had been deposited. The
bullion was sent under proper guard to the railway station, where a
special car was awaiting it. Two kavasses were sent with Mr. Smyth-Lyte
from the bank, and these bodyguards always slept on the money. At
Demir-Hissar, where the train journey ended, Mr. Smyth-Lyte was met
by a Turkish officer, who informed him, in polished French, that he
(the officer) was the humble servant of Monsieur the Consul, for whom
the Padisha had the greatest concern. Monsieur’s commands, he added,
would be fulfilled even to the death of the officer and twenty trusty
troopers who were under his command. The Turk was suave and smartly
dressed, and the trusty troopers non-communicative and very ragged.
A rickety brougham was ready to take the American and the money to
Djuma-bala, a two days’ journey. The two packages of gold were loaded
into the doubtful conveyance, the troopers formed a cordon about it,
and the journey was begun. But the party had hardly got fairly upon the
road when the severe pounding of the gold as the carriage bumped over
the rocks, carried away the floor, and down went the boxes. There was
a halt and an attempt to patch up the vehicle, but it was useless. One
of the pack-horses accompanying the soldiers was unloaded and the gold
strapped on its back; but the packages were of unequal sizes, and would
persist in finding their way under the stomach of the hapless brute. At
last the two kavasses, who were well mounted, were each called upon to
carry a box, and in this way the money was got over the mountains.
More troops fell in as the way became more dangerous, until the number
of the escort reached a hundred. Some of the cavalry men went far
ahead to scout, especially through the great Kresna Pass, where a
handful of men could ambush an army; and others dropped back far behind
the cavalcade to cover the rear. But the journey was made without
mishap, and late at night of the second day, Mr. Smyth-Lyte arrived at
Djuma-bala, met there Messrs. Peet and Garguilo, and delivered over his
precious charge. Early next morning he set off on the return trip with
his kavasses and a guard of half a dozen men.[1]
On the arrival of the money at Djuma there was a general concentration
of correspondents, Turkish soldiers, and spies about it. The committee
was no longer the subject of attention; the money was now the thing.
If they kept close to the money, reasoned the correspondents and the
soldiers, they were bound to be in at the ransom. The correspondents
had no other interest than to get the news, but the soldiers were bent
on getting the brigands. The Turkish Government had no idea of allowing
the bandits to reap their golden harvest.
So it came to be the task of the ransoming committee to separate the
gold from the correspondents and the soldiers, apparently a hopeless
one. Every correspondent present was a man of sharp wits and almost
untiring energy. Each of them had a dragoman always watching the Turks
who surrounded the gold. The Turkish spies kept their eyes on the
soldiers, the committee, and the correspondents alike.
The committee would decide at a moment’s notice to leave a town for a
visit to some mountain village, telling no one; but the soldiers were
always with them, ostensibly guarding them from other brigands, and the
tireless correspondents were on their track before the dust had settled
behind their horses.
After a while Messrs. Peet and Garguilo, bringing the money, came to
Bansko and there settled down with Dr. House, who was still preaching
to the Bulgarians. The committee secured a private house to live in,
and in one room stored the gold. Here a long rest took place. The
correspondents railed against the committee, accusing it of laziness
and love of comfort; but they, too, grew indolent and took their
ease at their khan. At first they, with the Turks, dogged the very
footsteps of the three men of the committee, but after a week of this
they grew weary, for the ransoming committee were wont to walk far
daily ‘for exercise,’ and loiter aimlessly on cold and unattractive
mountain roads about the town. It was not probable that the brigands
would venture very near to a village so heavily garrisoned and
patrolled as was Bansko, and to watch the gold soon became sufficient
for the correspondents. Had any of them put himself to the trouble of
ascertaining what Mr. Garguilo’s habits were when comfortably ensconced
at the Embassy at Constantinople, he would have discovered that any
exertion whatever is distinctly foreign to that gentleman’s daily
routine.
At the end of a month, to the intense surprise of everybody, a
messenger came from Constantinople, travelling in all the state
which had dignified Mr. Smyth-Lyte’s journey. With great ceremony the
two boxes of gold were delivered to him. There was no mistake about
them; they were the same two boxes. They were still bound tight with
iron bands and they still weighed four hundred pounds. One hundred
soldiers escorted them back to Demir-Hissar. There they were carefully
placed aboard another special car, and two kavasses ate and slept on
them until they were safely delivered back to the Ottoman Bank at
Constantinople.
A few days later the committee started on its return to the railway,
with a small escort and only one correspondent. The others considered
that for the present the affair was over.
At one place on the route Mr. Garguilo and Dr. House managed to leave
their escort and the correspondent a little behind. The soldiers and
the correspondents had lost interest now. At a cross-road they stopped
and waited for their trackers. When the correspondent came up Mr.
Garguilo told him that ‘the deed was done.’
On the ground there were several torn envelopes, such as a bank would
use to cover notes. A few days later Miss Stone, Mrs. Tsilka, and the
baby were ‘discovered,’ in a village near Seres. Two of the committee
met and escorted them to Salonica.
It is obvious how the story that the money was paid in paper came to
appear in the English and American press; but the money was not paid in
paper.
When Messrs. Garguilo, Peet, and House took their daily walks about
Bansko they went out with heavy packages of gold concealed under
their coats, and they returned with a like weight--but not of gold!
Each night they removed a certain amount of the money, and on their
return would place the lead in the bullion boxes--the vigilant guards
about the house all unconscious that the gold was going. Finally,
the fourteen thousand five hundred pieces had been delivered to the
brigands, whom the committee-men met on their walks, and four hundred
pounds of lead filled the boxes.
The return of the boxes to Constantinople with all the pomp and
ceremony attendant upon the transport of treasure was not without an
object. It was necessary to keep the fact that the ransom had been
handed over a complete secret until the captives were released, in
order that the Turks should not get on the track of the brigands. A
promise that every effort should be made to throw the Turks off the
trail was demanded by the brigands, as was an injunction of absolute
secrecy concerning also the place and manner in which the money was
paid.
But the time is past when the secret need be kept, and the brigands,
now off duty between revolutions, are spinning this yarn, along with
accounts of other adventures, to admiring friends in Sofia.
The money which the revolutionary organisation secured by this capture
went a long way, I am told, in preparing the uprising of 1903. The
insurgents say that they expected the Government of the United States
to exact from the Sultan the price of this ransom, thereby making the
Padisha pay for the arms used against himself. But this has not been
done.
* * * * *
We went to prayer meeting at Samakov at the invitation of the American
missionaries, and took with us several officers of the garrison.
The missionaries prayed fervently and at length that the Macedonian
insurgents might be turned from their wicked ways. The prayer annoyed
one of the officers, and, to my embarrassment, he rose and stalked
out of the chapel. The others agreed with the missionaries--to a very
limited extent--that the measures of the committajis were ‘often too
drastic.’
The entire Bulgarian army is in sympathy with the work of the
insurgents, and not the least enthusiastic with ‘the cause’ is the
little mountain battery at Samakov. It is proud of the short cannon,
carried in three parts on the backs of pack-ponies, and it is proud
of its proficiency at handling them. The entire battery got out one
morning and took us up into the mountains to show us how the guns
worked. The Bulgarian army has been preparing for many years to fight
the Turks.
[Illustration: BULGARIAN INFANTRY.]