cedonians;" Macedonia to be either an entirely
separate nation by itself, or an autonomous state, under Turkish
suzerainty.

Their organization had a more immediate purpose, however. And that
was to establish some sort of order in the midst of Turkish
anarchy. The trouble with the Turkish rule was not that it ruled too
much, but that it ruled too little. Brigands, both Mohammedan and
Christian, ranged the mountain regions, preying on the poor
peasants. Turkish troops made no special efforts to check them.
Turkish courts were so corrupt that justice was a joke. Though there
was a tendency on the part of the courts to favor their own people,
all other things being equal, still that was not the chief grievance
of the Macedonian peasants. The trouble was that the courts could
always be bought and a case always went against the poor man,
whether he was Christian or Mohammedan. And finally, in some
sections of Macedonia, especially down around Monastir, toward the
Greek frontier, the Greek Church was still enjoying the same
authority over Bulgar communities that it had once enjoyed up in
Bulgaria. To add to this trouble, the Greek patriarch was again
attempting to push his propaganda all over the country, employing
armed bands to terrorize the villagers into declaring themselves
Greeks. This, of course, was a campaign carried on in conjunction
with the Greek Government, which wished to Hellenize Macedonia
against the day when Turkey should be driven out, so that it could
lay claim to the country on the strength of "blood kindred."

Over and over again the Bulgar communities sent delegations to the
Turkish padisha complaining of these evils, but no measures were
ever taken to remedy them. The brigands continued unmolested, the
courts remained corrupt and as for curtailing the power of the Greek
Church, that was distinctly against the policy of the sultan. With
the Bulgars in overwhelming majority, he considered it wise to
confer his privileges on the fewer Greeks, thus to rouse a mutual
hatred between the two peoples, so they should not join together and
make common cause against him.

CHAPTER XVI

ATTEMPTS AT REFORM IN MACEDONIA

The first object of the organization which Grueff and Deltcheff set
about forming was to remedy this evil. In each village they
established a local committee, composed of the more intelligent
villagers, whose function it should be to take the place of the
Turkish courts. The members o