Hitherto intellectual Bulgaria has created but little, and that little is quite out of proportion to the achievements of some other much smaller Slav nations. Bulgarian art and literature are merely poor reproductions of foreign originals and by no means express the strength and vitality of the people. Of all their poets Ivan Vasoff, Hristoff, and Aleko Konstantinoff alone have understood anything of the soul of the people, and only their work will live. In art we seek in vain for anything purely Bulgarian. But there is one thing of the greatest value that the educated Bulgarians have done for their nation, and for this they deserve a true crown of laurels. I am referring to the organization of the Macedonian bands during the last half-century. Their perseverance and heroism call for the greatest admiration. The country owned by the Bulgarians is one of the most beautiful inhabited by Slavs. Only Dalmatia and Bosnia can compare with it, and whoever has once been there will never forget it. It is the land of the great Balkans in all their wild beauty—the land of the Kazanlik Valley with its vast glorious rose-fields; the Vratza Gorge with its romantic cliffs, dark primeval forests, and hills covered with lilac; the Black Sea, and the beautiful shores of Varna and Burgas, and above all tower the snow-capped summits of the Vitosha. Everywhere, and in everything, dwells a throbbing life, full of variety and contrast, beautiful as the men of Bulgaria and rugged as their women. * * * * * Bulgaria was freed from the Turkish yoke in 1878. The work of emancipation was carried out by Russia with the help of Bulgarian bands and many volunteers from all the Slav countries. By the peace of San Stefano Bulgaria was _de jure_ declared mistress of the entire territories from the Black Sea to Silistria, and along the Danube as far as Vidin in the north, from Vidin along the Morava _via_ Ochrida as far as Yanina in the west, from Yanina _via_ Salonika to Kavala in the south, and in a straight line from Kavala to Varna in the east. _De facto_ she was only given independent jurisdiction over such territories as she possessed up to the first Balkan war. The complete liberation of Bulgaria was by no means achieved by the emancipation, and she continued to remain under Turkish suzerainty.