16. – The Ethnological Map by Ami Boué (1847).

Ami Boué (1794-1881) of French descent, is the first duly prepared man for scientific research who explored the Balkan Peninsula from 1836-1838. His numerous works on European Turkey show plainly the careful way in which he investigated the countries visited by him. Among these books the first place is due to his two principal works: "La Turquie d'Europe", Paris 1840 (four thick volumes) and "Recueil d'Itinéraires dans la Turquie d'Europe, Vienna 1854 (two volumes). His map is of extraordinary importance because of the most fundamental studies made everywhere. At first this map was added only to a few copies of the works: these were originals, coloured by Boué himself. Later on, the map appeared in the "Physical Atlas" by Berghaus; it is reproduced here on a somewhat smaller scale but in fac-simile colours of the original. Especially exactly drawn are the western boundaries of the Bulgarian people just because Ami Boué had made very extensive studies in these boundary-districts.

P. N. Miljukoff, the first Minister of Foreign Affalrs in revolutionised Russla, one of the best contemporary authorities on Balkan peninsula matters, utters himself in the following manner on the scientific worth of this map:

"Ami Boué has travelled in the Turkish Provinces during the third decade of the XIXth Century. The ethnological map of the Balkan peninsula drawn by him, and printed by Berghaus, is of great interest because it is the first that appeared before the national tendency-quarrels about the possession pf Macedonia had begun. For this reason the map shows only that which the author had seen and heard on the spot, without whatever interpretations. The Slavic inhabitants of Macedonia are considered by A. Boué as Bulgarians, because they call themselves "Bugari". (see P. N. Miljukoff: "Five Ethnographical Maps of Macedonia with Text. St. Petersburg 1900").

According to Boué the whole of Macedonia (excluding the most southern part) with Czerni-Drin-River as western frontier, the whole southern Morava-Basin with the towns Nisch, Lesskowetz, Wranja, Prokupie, Plrot etc., the whole Dobrudja, and even a part of Russian-Bessarabia are districts inhabited principally by Bulgarians.