After a few days’ stay at Travnik my medical adviser began, I fancy, to despair of my case; and on the same principle as doctors elsewhere recommend Madeira to hopeless cases of consumption, he advised me to continue my journey to Bosna Serai.  The difficulty was to reach that place.  Here, however, the Kaimakan came to my help, and volunteered to let out on hire an hospital-cart belonging to the artillery.  I accepted his offer, and after a few days’ stay at Travnik set forward on my journey to Bosna Serai.  The carriage was a species of Indian dak ghari, with side doors, but without a box-seat; it was drawn by artillery horses, ridden by two drivers, while a sergeant and gunner did escort duty.  Fortunately the vehicle had springs, which must have suffered considerably from the jolting which it underwent, although we only proceeded at a foot’s pace.

After three days’ journey we reached Bosna Serai, where I was most kindly received by Mr. Z., the acting British Consul, and by M.M., the French Consul, with whom I stayed during the three weeks that I was confined to my room by illness.

Bosna Serai, or Serayevo, is probably the most European of all the large towns of Turkey in Europe.  It is not in the extent of the commerce which prevails, nor in the civilisation of its inhabitants, that this pre-eminence shows itself; but in the cleanly and regular appearance of its houses and streets, the condition of which last would do credit to many a Frankish town.  This happy state of things is mainly attributable to the energy and liberality of the present governor of Bosnia, Osman Pacha, who, notwithstanding his advanced years, has evinced the greatest desire to promote the welfare of the people under his charge.  In the nine months of his rule which had preceded my visit, he had constructed no less than ninety miles of road, repaired the five bridges which span the river within the limits of the town, and introduced other reforms which do him honour, and have procured for him the gratitude and goodwill of all classes of his people.  The system which he has introduced for the construction of roads is at once effective and simple.  By himself making a small portion of road near the capital, he succeeded in demonstrating to the country people the advantages which would result from the increased facility of traffic.  By degrees this feeling spread itself over the province, and the villagers apply themselves, as soon as the crops are sown, to making new portions of road, which they are further bound to keep in repair.  This is obviously the first and most indispensable step in the developement of the resources of the country.  It would be well for the Sultan were he possessed of a few more employes as energetic, able, and honest as Osman Pacha.

I regretted that the rapidity of his movements prevented my taking leave of him and his intelligent secretary.  But, a few nights before my departure, an express arrived bringing intelligence of a rising in Turkish Croatia, near Banialuka.  The news arrived at 9 P.M., and the energetic Pacha was on the road to the scene of the disturbance by 6 A.M. the following morning.  The emeute proved trifling; not being, as was at first reported, a Christian insurrection, but a mere ebullition of feeling on the part of the Mussulmans of that district, who are the most poverty-stricken of all the inhabitants of the province.