No. 46.
Mr. Kasson
to Mr. Evarts.
Vienna, August 4, 1880. (Received August 23.)
Sir: During the brief sojourn which you were pleased to allow me outside of Vienna, in the month of March last, I found myself in that part of Austrian territory bordering on Montenegro.
The limited knowledge of that mountainous country which is accessible in books, as well as its remarkable history and its recent admission into the family of nations, induced me to make the difficult but not long journey into the interior, where its capital is situated, in order to acquaint myself personally with its features, its character, and its resources.
A young American, voluntarily attached to this legation, and who had rendered me aid in my official work, accompanied me.
The arrival of a stranger in that mountain-defended country is an unusual event. So after my return to Vienna there appeared in the columns of the city journals a communication respecting my visit there, of which the following is a translation:
Cettinje, April 6.
During these days our little city has harbored an interesting guest. The American minister at the court of Vienna, accompanied by one of his secretaries, has passed two days here, and was received by the Prince with great distinction, and very sympathetically by the people. The diplomat from beyond the great ocean caused himself to be accurately informed in respect to our conditions, especially touching the present differences with the Porte, and gave special attention to Antivari, our harbor on the Adriatic.
News of my coming had preceded me from Cattaro, and I found myself expected. I called on the minister for foreign affairs, Mr. Stanko Radonics, with whom I had an interesting conversation.
The Prince invited me to pass an evening and to take tea with him, having also asked the diplomatic representatives residing near him. With his highness, also, I had a long conversation. None of the officials whom I met spoke English. Several of them spoke French well, and that language is the one employed in conversation with strangers.
At the hour of my departure, I found the Prince’s carriage and horses (presented to him by the Emperor of Austria) at the door to take us across the valley to the mountain road. At that point his own saddle-horse awaited me for the ascent, with two soldiers of the guard on foot [Page 61] to escort us over the mountain. At the frontier I dismissed them with presents, and descended the formidable mountain by the precipitous foot-path used by the natives, many of whom, both men and women, were met conveying heavy burdens on their backs.
population and organization.
The minister of foreign affairs estimated the population of Montenegro at about 200,000; but added that’ there had been no accurate census taken. The organization is tribal, and the elected tribal chief acts as magistrate in peace and commander in war. The assemblage of these tribal chiefs forms the skuptschina, whom the prince consults on important occasions. There is also a senate, more frequently consulted, composed of sixteen members. To this body any Montenegrin is eligible; but, in fact, the members are chiefly taken from the most distinguished and best-known families—a sort of untitled aristocracy. Practically, the government is patriarchal, and the power of the Prince nearly absolute.
religion and education.
The established church to which the mass of the people firmly adheres is the “Orthodox,” and is affiliated with the Russian Church. The number of adherents of the Roman Church and of the Moslem faith, originally small, has been increased by some thousands since the additions of territory and population resulting from the treaty of Berlin. The ecclesiastical and temporal power were formerly united in a prince-bishop (vladiha). From that one—Petrovic Njegos—who liberated the Mon-tenegrines in 1697 from the dominion of the Turks, the present prince is descended. His successors continued to be heads of church and state until 1851, when Danilo I renounced the ecclesiastical jurisdiction with its title of vladika, and assumed that of hospodar, or Prince. The center of the priesthood and seat of the church is at Cettinje, where a large monastery and diocesan residence exists.
The two forms of social life which most interest the people are the fetes and ceremonies of the church on the one hand, and on the other the operations of war against the Turks. Schools are now, however, introduced into the country, and better instruction appears to be the object of increasing interest.
Up to this time a good soldier has been more important for the safety of the principality than a good school-master. With the adjustment of its new frontiers there is hope for a change in the direction of governmental action toward the internal and peaceful development of the country.
character of the country, its products, and commerce.
The mountain range fronting the Adriatic Sea presents a bold and most forbidding aspect, which justifies its name of “Black Mountain.”
It is lofty, precipitous, rugged, and without foliage or verdure. The Austrian Government has built up the mountain face, a little to the south of Cattaro, a fine zigzag road intended to be practicable for wagons, and probably, I ought to add, for artillery also. It cost much labor and money to build it, and would have been useless without an extension into Montenegrin territory.
The poverty of the principality being a good reason to excuse the [Page 62] Prince from undertaking it, the Austrians gave him an annual subsidy to continue the road to Cettinje. This has nominally been done. On my return I passed over the whole extent of this route in Montenegro, and found it often nearly impracticable for wagons, and at strategical points suspiciously imperfect and easily destroyed.
A justifiable suspicion exists that the Montenegrins were quite willing to receive the money for the work, but took good and wise care that a nominally commercial road could on short notice be made impracticable for the military movements of a powerful neighbor. Their savage mountain walls form their best lines of defense, and the agility and courage of their mountaineers, rifle in hand, make them more than a match for mountain howitzers or heavier artillery along a difficult and obstructed road. The inhabitants continue, however, to take the old and steep paths of their fathers, utterly neglecting the longer and smoother road constructed in aid of foreign interests, which they leave to the waste of time and the elements.
The valleys between the rough mountain summits have no appearance of fertility, but rather that of being forced to yield a cold and stingy product for the support of man. Often were seen old pool basins among the rocks, in the bottom of which the disintegration of stone and other waste had formed something like a soil mixed with small rocks. These were laboriously removed, in order to provide a little spot where some vegetable product could be raised. The valley of Cettinje itself, which is four or five miles long and belongs to the Black Mountain, has great spaces which cannot be made productive. It is also a basin without a stream or water outlet through its surrounding ledges of wild rock. From one of the summits on the way I had a distant view of a better country to the northeast and eastward, where there are streams and good ground for cultivation, and forests and game.
The region about Podgoritza, newly acquired from the Turks, and the Lake of Scutari were more distinctly visible. For the last two years the crops were bad and the people have suffered for necessary food; and I met numbers of them carrying sacks of grain up the steep road. Two-cargoes of grain had arrived on the orders of the Prince from Odessa, one at the port of Cattaro and one at Bagusa, and these were portioned out to the poor Montenegrins. They have some herding of sheep and goats, and further eastward than Cettinje cattle are raised with advantage. As principal exports the minister mentioned skins, wool, sheep, cheese, wax, fish, sumac, and fruit. There are a few other articles exported, but the total value of exports is probably less than $800,000 per annum, and most of it not passing beyond the neighboring countries.
They have little money to expend for imports—some arms and hardware, a little clothing, some house furniture, and supplies for the wealthier families, and food in a season of bad crops.
The Prince has established a small arsenal with foreign workmen at his capital, with a view to make and repair small-arms, and to teach the art to his own people.
The commerce of the principality can never be large, by reason of the hard conditions of its industry. But it will be essentially increased when a peaceful frontier shall be secured and border wars shall cease.
the ports for their exterior trade.
Before I had seen the country, believing that the port of Antivari, which was ceded to Montenegro in the Berlin adjustment, remained substantially as it had been, I ventured the recommendation that the United States should have a consul there. I must revoke that recommendation. [Page 63] The town was almost utterly destroyed and depopulated, as the result of the military operations immediately preceding the treaty of San Stefano, and hardly any use is now made of its port. The old port of Ragusa (Austrian) is used for northern and the Bocche de Cattaro (Austrian) for Central Montenegro.
Nothing will probably be done for Antivari till a complete settlement of frontier shall be effected on the Albanian side. If Dulcigno shall be acquired (as now in negotiation), that also will effect the value of Antivari as a national port, and will be its rival.
foreign representation in montenegro.
Turkey and Austria have legations at Cettinje, the former an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, the latter a minister resident, both of whom were obliging enough to lend every aid to the objects of my visit. England has appointed her consul-general for Albania, who still resides at Scutari, as the British chargé d’affaires for Montenegro. France and Italy have also appointed chargés d’affaires near the government of the Prince; but they reside outside the principality, at Ragusa, for the greater comfort and convenience of living. Russia has a minister resident, who also resides at Ragusa.
The expense for strangers of living at Cettinje with any degree of comfort is very considerable, for all articles classed as comforts and conveniences must be brought chiefly on the shoulders of women up the mountain from Cattaro, and many of these articles must come from a distance by sea to that port.
I have only to add that His Highness Prince Nicolas appeared to be gratified with this first visit of an American representative at his capital, and spoke with interest of the small colony of his people who had settled themselves at San Francisco. He was himself educated at Paris, and is interested in the movements of civilization outside of his principality. His people are devoted to him, and he to their welfare. No one can know him or his people, and the difficult conditions under which they are seeking to develop a national existence, without a warm and friendly sympathy for both.
I have, &c.,