I will abstain from speaking; but such as it was, it was freely given, and it took much persuasion to induce the honest fellow to accept any remuneration.  His post can hardly be a pleasant one, for malaria and fever cause such mortality, that the station is regarded much in the same light as is the gold coast of Africa by our own government servants.  As a set-off against these disadvantages, my friend was in receipt of 2_d._ per day additional pay.  May he pass unscathed through the ordeal!

By 2 A.M.  I had again started, and reached Metcovich at 5 A.M. on September 5.  Here M. Grabrich, the principal merchant of the place, put me in the way of procuring horses to take me to Mostar, about nine hours distant.  My destination becoming known, I was beset with applications for my good offices with Omer Pacha.  Some of these were petitions for contracts for supplying the army, though the greater number were demands for arrears of payment due for the supply of meal, and the transport of horned cattle and other provisions to the frontier.  One of the complainants, a Greek, had a grievance of a different and much more hopeless nature.  He had cashed a bill for a small amount offered him by an Irish adventurer.  This, as well as several others, proved to be forgeries, and the money was irretrievably lost.  Although travelling under an assumed name, and with a false passport, I subsequently discovered the identity of the delinquent with an individual, whom doubtless many who were with Garibaldi during the campaign of the Two Sicilies will call to mind.  He was then only remarkable for his Calabrian costume and excessive amount of swagger.  When at Niksich I learned that he had escaped through that town into Montenegro, and he has not, I believe, since been traced.

No punishment can be too severe for a scoundrel who thus brings English credit into disrepute, and disgraces a name which, although little known in these regions, is deservedly respected.

From Metcovich the traveller may proceed to Mostar by either bank of the river.  I was recommended to take the road on the northern side, which I did, and ten minutes’ ride brought us to the frontier, where a custom-house official insisted upon unloading the baggage so recently arranged.  In vain I remonstrated, and brandished my despatches with their enormous red seals in his face.  His curiosity was not to be so easily overcome.  When he had at length satisfied himself, he permitted us to depart with a blessing, which I acknowledge was far from reciprocated.  The first place of any importance which we passed is Gabella.  It stands on an eminence overhanging a bend of the river, by whose waters three of its sides are washed.  In former days it was defended by two forts, whose guns swept the river in either direction, and commanded the approach upon the opposite bank.  In A.D. 1694 it was taken by Cornaro, and remained in the hands of the Venetians until A.D. 1716, when they evacuated it, blowing up the greater part of its defences.