CHAPTER XXXI.
THE BULGARIANS OF EUROPEAN TURKEY.
1857-1862.
The geographical position of European Turkey brings it directly in contact with European civilization.

Its interior may easily be reached from the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmora, the Dardanelles, the Grecian Archipelago, the Adriatic Sea, and from the Danube flowing down from the heart of Europe.

The Mohammedan population is estimated at four millions, and three fourths of these are supposed to be of Christian origin, and less firmly wedded to the Moslem faith than the remaining million of Osmanly Turks.

And even these, born and educated on the borders of Europe, in the midst of divers Christian races, must form a character different from that of the Asiatic Turks in other parts of the empire.
Of the various races in European Turkey, the Bulgarians, properly so called, who are estimated at four millions, speaking the Bulgarian language, claim our first attention.

They inhabit not only Bulgaria proper, extending from the Danube to the Balkan Mountains, but also an extensive region south of these mountains, reaching to the Bosphorus, the Marmora, and Albania; and embracing a good part of ancient Thrace, Albania, and Macedonia.[1] [1] On the map, this country is called _Bulgaria_, _Roumelia_, and _Macedonia_.