Ottoman system

The twenty thousand Servian and Bulgarian

warriors who fell, fighting heroically on the plain of Nissa, were worthy of a

better mausoleum. The Turks point to it proudly to this moment of their own

erecting as a memorial of their prowess.

The Servians, now independent, point to it

with equal pride as proof of the cost of liberty, and an eloquent incentive to

its preservation. Bulgaria will likewise one day be free, and her rude children

will chant the songs of liberty, around this monument of cruelty.” 

Noyes not only condemned the Ottoman

system but he believed that the Bulgarian people would, one

day, be free and independent. He was aware of the existence of haiduks in the

Bulgarian lands and of the striving of the people to be free. Not all

Bulgarians had totally submitted to the conquerors. In the Balkan Mountains,

which “signify mountains of defense,” the Bulgarians retained “to a greater or

lesser extend their ancient privileges.”

American physician

The American physician was

very impressed with the natural beauty of the land and its rich resources. He

thought that there can be “no fairer” place than the Balkans: “It is endowed

with the eternal advantages of nature. Washed by the Euxine, the Aegean, and

the Adriatic, and boasting of the noblest rivers and richest plains, its

commercial and agricultural resources are not surpassed by any other part of the

globe. The northern slope of the Balkans is covered with rich forests.

A deep humus extends almost up to their

summits. And southward, ‘while the mountaineer kindles his fire on the

glaciers, the olive, the fig, and the pomegranate grow below in the valleys

that know no winter.’ There is a land of gentle breezes, of purple skies, of

all the soft delights of the great-eyed Orient.” However, under Turkish rule,

“which consuming forever, the monuments of ancient art and power have moldered

away.” The former hum of business and noise of commerce had been replaced by

“the silence of death” and the sites of populous cities were marked only by

“the silent cities of the dead.”

Noyes was not just a spectator of the

pastor of nature. He attempted to become acquainted with the life of the simple

Bulgarian peasant. At one time instead of staying in Turkish khans, he “sought

out the humble cottages of the Bulgarians, experiencing everywhere the

hospitality which is proverbial in the East.” He quoted with great approval

“the poetical description” of the Bulgarian way of life by a previous and

illustrious visitor of this land Cyprian Robert.