The whole of these villagers affirm that their only crime consisted in having united with other villagers in posting videttes, to give warning of the approach of Bashi Bazouks and Uskoks.

This somewhat improbable story is denied by Dervisch Pacha, who gives the following account of the matter:—­The occupants of twenty-one different villages revolted in the spring of 1859, and interrupted the communications between Gasko and Niksich and Grasko and Mostar.  They then attacked those villages occupied by Mussulmans in the plain of Gasko, and made raids into the district of Stolatz, from which they carried off 6,000 head of cattle, the property of the Roman Catholics of that district.  They further compelled many Christians to join in the revolt, who would otherwise have remained quiet.  Dervisch Pacha therefore sent Ali Riza Pacha, a General of Brigade, to restore order.  He, after taking and garrisoning Krustach, advised the rebels to send deputies, to show the nature of the grievances of which they complained.  These were sent accordingly, headed by one Pop Boydan, a priest, and a leading mover of the insurrection; but in place of lodging any complaints, the delegates appeared rather in the light of suppliants demanding pardon and favour.  Meanwhile the villagers returned, but not to live peaceably—­merely with the view of getting in their crops.

While the deputation, however, was at Nevresign, the villages of Lipneh, Samabor, Yassenik, Yenevitza, and Beronschitzi revolted again, and cut off the communications between Gasko, Krustach, and Niksich.  They also posted guards along a line of frontier, which they said that no Turk should pass.  When called to account by Dervisch Pacha for this breach of faith, the deputies replied that the Christians acted through fear, which feeling was taken advantage of by a few evil-disposed persons for their own ends.  They, however, undertook to pacify them, and wrote a letter professedly with that object, but without effect.  The disorder increased, and numerous outrages were committed.  Seven soldiers were murdered whilst cutting wood about four miles from Metokhia; Ali Pacha’s aide-de-camp and five soldiers were cut to pieces between

Niksich and Krustach, and seven other Mussulmans were killed.  Still the Turks hesitated to act with severity.  They appealed again to the deputies, who wrote another letter, which, as the bearers of it affirmed, only enraged the rebels, who tore it, and trod it under foot.  But this affords little proof of the intensity of their feelings, as it has since transpired that an arrangement had been made by the deputies that all letters written voluntarily and in sincerity should bear a private mark; and the letter in question was not so distinguished.  Upon the discovery of their treachery the deputies were imprisoned, and energetic measures at once resolved upon.  To give these effect, Ali Pacha advanced at the head of a small force, and summoned the rebels to surrender.  They replied by firing on the advanced guard.  The three villages were then taken, and five men and two women killed, while a few prisoners were made.  These last were released, but one died in prison.  Such is the story told of the affair by Dervisch Pacha.