“We crossed the deserts of Servia, almost quite overgrown with wood, through a country naturally fertile.  The inhabitants are industrious; but the oppression of the peasants is so great, they are forced to abandon their houses, and neglect their tillage, all they have being a prey to janissaries whenever they please to seize upon it.  We had a guard of five hundred of them, and I was almost in fears every day to see their insolencies in the poor villages through which we passed....  I was assured that the quantity of wine last vintage was so prodigious that they were forced to dig holes in the earth to put it in.  The happiness of this plenty is scarcely perceived by the oppressed people.  I saw here [Nissa] a new occasion for my compassion.  The wretches that had provided twenty waggons for our baggage from Belgrade hither for a certain hire being all sent back without payment, some of their horses lamed, and others killed, without any satisfaction made for them.  The poor fellows came round the house weeping and tearing their hair and beards in a most pitiable manner, without getting anything but drubs from the insolent soldiers.  I would have paid them the money out of my own pocket with all my heart, but it would only have been giving so much to the aga, who would have taken it from them without any remorse....  The villagers are so poor that only force would extort from them necessary provisions.  Indeed the janissaries had no mercy on their poverty, killing all the poultry and sheep they could find, without asking to whom they belonged, while the wretched owners durst not put in their claim for fear of being beaten.  When the pashas travel it is yet worse.  These oppressors are not content with eating all that is to be eaten belonging to the peasants; after they have crammed themselves and their numerous retinue, they have the impudence to exact what they call teeth-money, a contribution for the use of their teeth, worn with doing them the honour of devouring their meat.”

This is a lively picture of Turkish rule a century and a half ago; it helps us to understand the saying, “Where the Turk treads, no grass grows.”

The insurrection in Bulgaria had just broken out when I was in Servia:  I cannot say I heard it much talked of; we, none of us, knew then the significance of the movement.  But great uneasiness was felt in reference to the wide spread of certain communistic doctrines.  A disturbance was stated to have taken place a few days before at Negotin.  The foreign owners of property expressed themselves very seriously alarmed about the communistic propagandists who were going round the country.  No one seemed certain as to the course events would take.

However—­to resume my own simple narrative—­after dining in the little village aforesaid, we set our faces again towards Maidenpek, returning by another route, which afforded us some very romantic scenery.  I finished the difficulty about the horse by purchasing the one I had ridden that day.  He was smaller than I liked, but he had proved himself strong and sure footed.  I cannot say he was a beauty, but what can one expect for seventeen ducats—­about eight pounds English?