logy, that the Bulgars are the most direct
descendants of the Aryans, that their language is the nearest to
Sanskrit, and that the other European languages, including Greek and
Latin, are derived from it. Rakovski next appears in Belgrade, where
he leads a life of splendour; he had carriages and wonderful horses,
he was arrayed in a princely kind of uniform and was surrounded by a
kind of guard. The source of his revenues, which always seemed to
fluctuate, was never fathomed; but they may at this period have
accrued from his literary labours, which--although the present
generation smile--produced among the Bulgars a vast, patriotic pride.
At Belgrade the visionary historian and whimsical philologist becomes
a most sagacious politician. He is the first Bulgarian publicist to
talk of a free press, and he refuses, unlike many others, to seek help
from Russia only. "We must help ourselves," he cries. "As we are
Orthodox, Russia will desire to keep us under the authority of the
Greek Church; as we are Slavs, she will try to make the Western Powers
suspicious of us." When there was a wave of emigration to Russia he
frantically tried to stop it. "For you it will be suicide," he
exclaimed, "for your children assassination and for Bulgaria ruin!" He
painted Russia in appalling colours, and the would-be emigrants
repented. His personal affairs oppressed him for a time in 1862, when
he left Belgrade to the imprecations of his creditors. The Serbian
statesmen, while appreciating his exalted patriotism, would have
sooner had amongst them a more typical and stable Bulgar. Yet they
declined the Porte's request for extradition. At the beginning of 1863
Rakovski is in Athens, magnificent once more and now accompanied by an
aide-de-camp, a Montenegrin captain, whom he introduces as related to
Nikita. He is forming an alliance of the Balkan States, which,
according to his calculations, will exterminate the Turk in Europe. He
promises himself to furnish 20,000 volunteers--to start with. In the
previous year when he had planned to liberate Bulgaria with 12,000
volunteers, of whom a hundred were to be cavalry and another hundred
gunners, he could gather only 500. And now again he is disillusioned
and leaves Athens.

It was during his stay there that he met the well-known Balkan
travellers, Miss Irby and Miss Muir Mackenzie. They had been up and
down the Peninsula in 1862 and 1863, making very exhaustive inquiries
that were the basis of thei