l_
to those of certain European powers, would in the matter of _personnel_
be sufficiently good to render the Turkish dominions perfectly secure
from hostile invasion, which is now very far from the case. At present,
unfortunately, his whole attention is devoted to the manning and
equipment of the navy, for the amelioration of which large sums of money
are paid and heavy debts incurred. The visionary character of his
ambitious projects on this head is apparent to all but himself, since
the Turkish navy can scarcely be expected ever to attain more than a
fifth or sixth-rate excellence. The recent changes in the dress of the
army betoken that some attention has been devoted of late to the
subject. Nothing can be more desirable than an assimilation of the
uniform to the natural style of costume; and the loose Zouave dresses of
the army of the Turkish imperial guard[R] are not only better adapted to
soldiers who do not indulge in the luxury of beds and the like, than the
tight-fitting garments heretofore in use, but present a far more
workmanlike appearance, for the simple reason that they understand
better how to put them on.

After a month's sojourn in the tents of the Osmanlis, the rapid
shortening of the days warned me of the necessity for pushing on if I
wished to see the more peaceable portion of the country, before the
snows of winter should render travelling impossible. Already the day had
arrived when the first fall of snow had taken place in the previous
year.

Despite the hardships indispensable from the kind of life we had been
living, it was with much regret that I bade farewell to my hospitable
entertainers, and started once more on my solitary rambles. For the
first day, at least, I was destined to have company, as the Pacha of
Bosnia's private Secretary was about to return to Bosna Serai, having
fulfilled a mission on which he had been sent to the camp of the
Commander-in-Chief. My object was to return to Mostar by way of
Nevresign, which, as well as being new ground to me, forms a portion of
the projected line of defence. After waiting no less than five hours and
a half for an escort of Bashi Bazouks, who, with true Turkish ideas of
the value of time, presented themselves at 12.30, having been warned to
be in attendance at 7 A.M., we at length got under weigh. These
irregulars were commanded by Dervisch Bey, one of the principal Beys in
that neighbourhood. Some twenty years ago his father, a devout
Mussu