s
respect the Prince is harsh, and according to Western ideas barbaric,
though local circumstances fully excuse his seeming cruelty. The
smallness of the prison at Podgorica shows more forcibly than anything
else the remarkable lack of crime in the land. At present (1902)
dangerous lunatics are confined in the common prison, but an asylum is
rapidly nearing completion.

The government is autocratic. A senate, composed of the different
ministers, exists in Cetinje, but all powers are jealously held by the
Prince. He appoints the ministers and all the higher officials of the
land, and only recently have the people been granted the right to
elect the kmets.

Montenegrin engineers now build the roads in place of Austrians and
Russians, and the difficulties that they meet with and surpass at
every turn are sufficient evidence of their capabilities. Foreign
doctors and professors are yearly becoming more rare. In fact,
Montenegro is rapidly becoming self-supporting and self-educating.

Literature, always in olden times in advance of the surrounding lands,
is fostered by the Prince, himself a scholar and a poet of no mean
order. Two weekly papers in Cetinje and Niksic have a large
circulation.

Under Prince Nicolas' fatherly care the country improves in a
wonderful manner from year to year. Roads are planned to connect the
whole land, which only lack of funds are hindering from completion,
and a railway is projected to connect the towns of Niksic, Podgorica,
and Rijeka with Antivari and the sea.

When Prince Nicolas shall be called to his fathers his son, Prince
Danilo, will worthily carry on the work so nobly begun by his father,
for he is a man imbued with the ideas of Western improvements and
civilisation.

CHAPTER III

The journey to Montenegro--Arrival in Cattaro--Beauty of the Bocche,
and the drive to the frontier--First impressions of
Montenegro--Njegusi--The national troubadours--Arrival in Cetinje.

The simplest way of entering the Land of the Black Mountain is _via_
Cattaro in Dalmatia. The sea-trip from Trieste, which takes a little
over twenty-four hours, is a revelation of beauty, for the Dalmatian
coast is sadly unknown to the traveller. The journey can also be made
from Fiume, whence the "Ungaro-Croata" send a good and very frequent
service of steamers. But the idler should take a slow boat and coast
lazily down the Dalmatian archipelago, visiting all the smaller towns
and islands, which the