summoned on a short notice, with many fervent blessings and prayers
for our welfare, and at length, which pleased us as much as any thing,
a very eatable dinner. During that day, and part of the ensuing week,
I improved my acquaintance with Cattaro--an acquaintance which, before
final separation, became very intimate indeed. It contains several
small squares or places, with some churches and other public
buildings. There is a respectable _cafe_, which is frequented by the
officers of the garrison, and on the whole it is rather a neat little
town. The population may be about three thousand. It is fortified,
having two gates to the land and one to the sea. Perched above, at a
great height, is the castle, said to be of considerable strength. In
the late war Cattaro was taken from the French by Sir William Hoste,
Bart., and afterwards garrisoned by the _Vladika_ of Montenegro, since
which time an Englishman has hardly been seen by the people within
their gates. Consequently their ideas of robbing the stranger are
faint and barbarous; here, as throughout Dalmatia, should you give a
man money, and the sum be not even more than twice the value of the
obligation, the poor ignoramus is delighted, and thanks and blesses
you most fervently. The climate of Cattaro is not considered healthy.
The inhabitants die of consumption in the winter, and fever in the
summer, and they generally have a sickly appearance. There are smart
silversmith shops, and many ornaments are wrought with much neatness.
There are several also devoted to the sale of arms, as the Montenegrians
here buy and repair the principal weapons they use. Pistols, guns, and
yataghans are mounted in silver and mother-of-pearl, coral and other
stones, with skill and taste. The population are as remote in
appearance from that of any town in western Europe, as in the most
primitive part of the East. The town's-people wear a black jacket of
cloth or velvet, with silver basket buttons, a small cap, and wide
drawers of the same cloth, with black stockings or high boots, and a
red sash. The costumes of some of the villages along the shores of the
Bocca are very pretty. The women from Dulcinea wear a body petticoat
and jacket of scarlet, with silver buttons and buckles, and a white
covering tastefully enfolding the head and shoulders. The peasantry to
the south wear the Montenegrian dress; the poorer ones, in extreme
scantiness. These profess, like that people, the tenets of the Gr