me person is intended, Glavash,) and George Petrovich,
surnamed _Kara_ or _Czerni_, (black,) the son of a peasant in the
district of Kragejewatz, who afterwards migrated to Topola, which has
therefore been held by the Servians as the place whence sprung their
liberator,[5] and where an annual festival is held in his honour. He was
in his youth a _Hayduk_ or klepht; and having been forced to fly from
Servia for taking part in an unsuccessful insurrection, had served
several years in the Austrian army. His successes were at first viewed
with satisfaction by the Porte; and the obnoxious chiefs, driven to take
refuge in Belgrade, were there seized and put to death by the Pasha; but
it soon became evident that the Servians, once in arms and victorious,
would not be satisfied without complete independence. Semendria and
other fortresses fell into their hands; and Kara George, by the
unanimous voice of his countrymen, was declared _hospodar_ or prince.
The Porte now directed an invasion of Servia by a mingled force of forty
thousand Turks and Bosniaks; but the Moslem army was totally overthrown
near Shabatz, Aug. 8, 1806, by seven thousand foot and two thousand
horse under Kara George, and driven across the Drina with the loss of
their commander and many other chiefs. It was now apparent that Servia
was not to be reduced by force of arms; and conferences were opened, by
which the Sultan engaged to grant them a local and national government,
with free exercise of their religion. But the negotiation failed, from
the demands of the Porte that they should surrender their arms, and
leave the fortresses in the hands of the Turks; and while it was yet
pending, Kara George carried Belgrade with great slaughter, by a
_coup-de-main_, on the night of Dec. 13, 1806, thus completing the
expulsion of the Turks from Servia, with the exception of Szoko, (Mr
Paton's Sokol,) and a few other strongholds which still remained in
their hands.

The war which broke out in the following year between Russia and the
Porte, secured Servia against any further attacks from the Turks; and
Kara George, thus freed from apprehensions of invasion, endeavoured to
introduce some degree of order and civil organization into the country.
A sort of federal senate, to which each of the twelve districts into
which the principality was then divided sent a member, met annually at
Belgrade to regulate the finances and internal affairs of the country;
and though the freedo