It does not appear that Ali Pacha acquired any great credit by his method of conducting the operations.  Quitting a strong position in the afternoon, he arrived at the villages to be attacked after nightfall.  Having fired them, he was compelled to make a precipitate retreat, which might have been most disastrous, had he been opposed to an enterprising enemy.

With reference to the discrepancy manifested in the two accounts, we may feel assured that both are highly coloured.  But the deception resorted to by the rebels, and the simple explanation given by the Turkish officials, would tend to impart to their story the greater appearance of truth.  Had the Turks, moreover, wished to avenge the deaths of their soldiers, or to vent their hatred of the Christians, they would have maltreated the people of the first villages at which they arrived, in place of marching seven miles through a difficult country to the borders of a district which had for two years defied their efforts at reduction.

The implication of the villagers in the numerous murders which had occurred was proved by the discovery of some of the Turkish bayonets at Beronschitzi, while they actually made an offer to restore the property of the murdered aide-de-camp, provided a reward was paid for them.  They even sent a list of the effects to Ali Pacha, with the sum which they demanded for the restoration of each article.

I venture to give these details even at the risk of incurring the charge of too great prolixity, as hitherto a one-sided account only has been given to the world.  Every channel of information, whether it be the telegraph from Ragusa or the Slavonic press, does its best to mislead the general public, by exciting sympathy for the Christians, as unjust as it is undeserved.  Even in the affair in question much stir was made by the Slavish newspapers about the death of seven Christians, while, as Dervisch Pacha very fairly complained, no notice was taken of the murder of thirty-seven Mussulmans during the same period.

Another event, which afforded a handle for the ill-wishers of Turkey, was the pillage of the four Greek chapels of Samabor, Dobrolie, Kazantzi, and Grachantzi.  This occurred in July 1859, and the case was investigated by the Russian Consul at Mostar, who imputed the act to Turkish soldiers, producing in evidence the fact of a sergeant having in his possession a kind of church vestment.  The sergeant, however, did not attempt to conceal the vestment, and accounted for his possession of it in a manner which was deemed satisfactory by the British and other Consuls.

It was more probably done by Uskoks, who gutted a chapel near Nevresign a few years before, or by the rebels themselves, at the instigation of others, for the purpose of bringing odium upon the Turks in the eyes of Europe.

By these and other no less unworthy means was the agitation fostered throughout the province, until the whole frontier became denuded of Mussulman inhabitants, who were compelled to take shelter in Klobuk, Niksich, and other places capable of some sort of defence.