stirring up the people against the rule of the reforming Sultan, the Pacha of Novi-bazar felt himself insecure in a town with no other defence than a crumbling fort, and a few hundred soldiers of the Nizam; consequently, it was determined that Soliman Bey, and his little army of Arnouts, could not be better employed than in aiding the Pacha, with their long guns, in the event of an attack on the town. In the meantime, my enterprizing friend, Veli Bey, resolved to fulfil his mission at every risk, threw aside his military uniform, and enveloping himself in the costume of a plain travelling Mussulman, with two or three others of his party similarly disguised, we started at early dawn to cross the vast ridge of mountains that separate Novi-bazar from Bosna-Serai, better known to the European reader as Sarievo, the capital of Bosnia.

It took us three days hard riding, through a succession of the most inaccessible mountains and dangerous defiles of any other district I had yet travelled over in European Turkey, before we arrived at Sarievo. Previous to the Turkish conquest, this line of country formed the frontier between the Slavonian tribes of Servia, and those of Bosnia; for although these people trace their origin to the same source, they have never remained for any length of time subject to the jurisdiction of the same prince: nature itself having formed such an impregnable line of breast-work, so easily defended, seems to have destined them to a separate

existence. In viewing these mountains, we must marvel how the Turks, or any other enemy, could have been able to penetrate through them to the conquest of Bosnia; which, indeed, never would have been effected had the people continued united, and of the same religion.

During our route, we passed through some beautiful and fertile valleys as any in the world, particularly the Rasca, watered by its fine river of the same name; then there was the plain of Senitza, with its river, fort and town, of about a thousand inhabitants; Priepol, also a small town, built in a romantic valley, watered by the Lim; Taschlitza was the most important place we met with, and might contain about two thousand inhabitants, with half a dozen pretty mosques.

These little towns, were so far useful, since they afforded us rest and provender for our horses, together with a hearty welcome from the principal Mahometans of the place, and enabled Veli Bey to obtain accurate information of the state of the country. As yet we did not meet with a single insurgent; the Rayah was seen quietly at work in the fields, the shepherd tending his flocks and herds, the pandour lying in his karaoul, handling a tchibouque instead of a gun, or playing on the gousla. It was alone, among the armourers of the towns, who appeared to be busily employed in furbishing up old weapons, that we saw anything like preparations for war, and in the number of Arnouts and the

Kavaas that were seen lying about in groups near the residence of some Osmanli official.

Forests, here and there, of very fine oak-trees, are found in these mountains; but the country was nearly uninhabited, if we might judge from the absence of cultivation and villages, and the number of wild animals that were continually crossing our path, not unfrequently a wolf, a bear, or a lynx; and in the marshes of the defiles we more than once saw the boar with its young, rushing for safety, on perceiving us, into a tangled thicket of reeds and briars. But perhaps the greatest of all our difficulties was the number of rivers we had to ford during our route, and the danger we incurred of being carried away with the flood, a few hours rain being sufficient to swell them into torrents, in these mountain districts.

On leaving these savage wilds with their annoyances behind us, and emerging from the depths of the roaring Migliatzka, my delight was not greater than my astonishment when I caught the first view of BosnaSerai, and its beautiful plain, a very vision of fairy-land in a wilderness; so little, indeed, does the stranger expect to find a town so large, and evidently wealthy, in the centre of the ever-turbulent Bosnia. In truth, the old capital of Bosnia, although shorn of its ancient grandeur and commercial importance-when it was the depôt for the merchandize of Europe and Asia, and contained upwards of a hundred thousand inhabitants,

is still one of the most beautiful and interesting towns in the Turkish empire. Then its delightful environs, blooming gardens with their pretty kiosks, the number of rivers and rivulets, transparent as crystal, winding through a plain unsurpassed for fertility, combine to form a landscape seldom equalled for picturesque effect; neither must we forget its gilded tower, the swelling dome, pointed minaret, and bazaars roofed with tiles of every shade and colour all glittering in the sun.

In wandering through the town and environs, we see bridges built of stone with their elegant arches here and there thrown over the rapid Migliatzka, the Bosna, and the Jelechnitza; large and commodious hans, superior to those generally found in Turkey, are ready to welcome the traveller; coffee-houses and restaurants are seen in every street with abundance of the choicest provisions at almost fabulous prices as regards cheapness and quality, when compared with those of Western Europe. In addition to which, the inhabitants, however much they may be divided among themselves in their political and religious opinions, manifest towards the stranger the most marked respect and courtesy.

Bosna-Serai being the central station for the caravans that continually travel from it into every part of European Turkey, the commerce of the town is still considerable. The manufactures are principally confined

to the fabrication of coarse woollen cloths, fire-arms, cutlery and sabres; the latter are held in high repute, and much esteemed for the beauty of the workmanship and the temper of the blades. There are also several tanneries and manufacturers of jewellery, and if we may judge by the piles of rich merchandize, Asiatic and European, we see exposed for sale in the bazaars and the shops, there must be a wealthy population in the town and the country to constitute purchasers.

The quadrangular fortress, with its twelve towers and massive walls, so renowned for having arrested the triumphal march of the Imperialists, under Prince Eugene of Savoy, is still in tolerable preservation. The hero, after destroying one Turkish army after another, pushed on for the capital of Bosnia; and had it not been for the desperate and determined bravery of the citizens of Bosna-Serai, who threw themselves into the fortress and held out till the people recovered from their surprise and flew to their assistance, Bosnia might now have been numbered among the Slavonian provinces belonging to the Austrian Empire. The position of the fortress, erected on the summit of a projecting rock, at an elevation of three hundred feet, with the rapid Migliatzka running at its base, might be rendered impregnable were it not commanded by a higher eminence at no great distance, from which it could easily be destroyed by cannon. It appears to have been built by a Hungarian General, named Cotroman, in the