urs, and, being supplied by the Captano of the Circolo with the
necessary vises and letters of recommendation to the subordinate
officials through whose districts I should have to pass, it only
remained to decide upon the mode of travelling which I should adopt,
and to secure the requisite conveyance. My first point was Metcovich, a
small town on the right bank of the Narenta, and close to the frontier
lines of Dalmatia and Herzegovina. Three modes of performing the journey
were reported practicable,--viz. on horseback, by water, or by carriage.
The first of these I at once discarded, as both slow and tedious; the
choice consequently lay between the remaining two methods: with regard
to economy of time I decided upon the latter. But here a difficulty
arose. The man who possessed a monopoly of carriages, for some reason
best known to himself, demurred at my proceeding, declaring the road to
be impassable. He farther brought a Turkish courier to back his
statement, who at any rate deserved credit, on the
tell-a-good-one-and-stick-to-it principle, for his hard swearing. I
subsequently ascertained that it was untrue; and had I known a little
more of the country, I should not have been so easily deterred, seeing
that the road in question is by far the best which exists in that part
of Europe. It was constructed by the French during their occupation of
Dalmatia in the time of Napoleon, and has been since kept in good order
by the Austrian government. Being thus thwarted in my plans, I made a
virtue of necessity, engaged a country boat, and got under weigh on the
evening of the day on which I had landed at Gravosa. The night was
clear and starry; and as my boat glided along before a light breeze
under the romantic cliffs of the Dalmatian coast, I ceased to regret the
jolting which I should have experienced had I carried out my first
intention. Running along the shore for some ten hours in a
north-westerly direction, we reached Stagno, a town of small importance,
situated at the neck of a tongue of land in the district of Slano, and
which connects the promontory of Sabioncello with the mainland; ten
minutes' walk across the isthmus brought us again to the sea. The
luggage deposited in a boat of somewhat smaller dimensions, and better
adapted for river navigation, we once more proceeded on our journey.

A little to the north of Stagno is the entrance to the port of Klek, a
striking instance of right constituted by might. The port