It is here in the Rhodope Mountains that Meyer’s guide of 1902 could refer to the area as being notorious for the insubordinate ‘, wild tribes of Pomacks [that] live here and the bands of robbers that terrorise the area. (Miss Stone)’ The name in brackets was intriguing. It turns out that Miss Ellen Stone, at the time she became famous, was a single, middle-aged Evangelist who had been appointed by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to spread the word to the (already Christian, though Orthodox) Bulgarians; the society having failed to convert any of the Moslems (who, under Ottoman law, could be sentenced to death if they changed faith). She spent a number of years just south of Sofia and was then transferred to Plovdiv (Philippopolis) where she served as head of the ‘Bible Ladies’ for fifteen years.

The spring of 1901 found her responsible for the mountainous region in which we are now travelling as well as in Macedonia. And it is here that religious politics crosses paths with a nationalist crusade.

Macedonia was (is) contested ground. The name is shared by Greece and the present-day Republic of Macedonia and it also refers to Pirin Macedonia, now part of Bulgaria. At the relevant time—the ‘Stone age’—Macedonia was part of the Ottoman possessions and only a few years before had seen the formation of various Macedonian revolutionary forces such as the MRO (Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation) and SMARO (Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation) which later became the IMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation). The main aim of these organisations was Macedonian independence from the Ottoman Empire. They hoped to provoke the Ottoman rulers into reprisals for their attacks, assassinations and robberies which would provide motivation for intervention by one or more of the great powers. For this they needed money, and Miss Stone, travelling in their area for meetings with her ‘Bible Ladies’ and their (few) converts, paid by a wealthy American organisation and relatively unguarded as well, proved to be too strong a temptation. In August 1901 she set out from Plovdiv to Bansko for a meeting and on September 3 she left the town with a small party and was kidnapped, along with a Mrs. Tslika who was to deliver a baby girl during a captivity which lasted until the end of February the following year. In order to avoid capture the kidnappers crossed and recrossed the Bulgarian-Ottoman border, tiring at the best of time but life-threatening in winter. The ransom, amounting to over $500,000 at today’s rates, was paid by public subscription in the United States though it was only about half of the original demand.

In the late afternoon we visit an old spa and boating park on the outskirts of town. It is all but deserted now and one of the restaurants which had a natural waterfall coming from the mountainside into its dining area is slowly succumbing to damp and neglect.