and, covered with a cupola, the stumps of the white marble
columns which support it are still visible. Entering the church, I saw
on the right the tomb of St Simeon, the sainted king of Servia; beside
it hung his banner with the half-moon on it, the insigni_um_(!) of the
South Slavonic nation from the dawn of heraldry; and near the altar was
the body of his son, St Stephen, the patron saint of Servia." Another
day's journey through the same rugged and sterile scenery, in a
direction due south, during which they passed the Demir-kapu, on Iron
Gate, on the bank of the Ybar, where there is only room for a single led
horse in a passage cut through the rock, brought them to the quarantine
station on the river Raska, two hours' distance from Novibazar in
Bosnia, which it was Mr Paton's intention to visit, attended by a
Servian quarantine officer.

The conversion of the Bosniaks to Islam was effected by force, on the
conquest of the country in 1463, by Mohammed II., the only instance in
the career of Turkish conquest in which the injunction of the Prophet
against compulsory proselytism has been violated; but they have always
held the faith, thus forced on them, with the zeal of renegades, and are
now the most fanatic and bigoted Moslems in the empire. The Christians
resident in their territory are subject to every species of tyranny and
maltreatment, several instances of which, related by refugees in Servia,
are given in the work before us. A Frank traveller is a sight scarcely
known; and Mr Paton soon had abundant evidence, on his approach to
Novibazar, which lies in a fertile plain about a mile and a half in
diameter, surrounded by low hills, that his visit here would be even
less favourably received than at Sokol. The gipsies, whose tents covered
the plain, and who here profess Islamism, cried furiously after them,
"See, how the Royal Servians now-a-days have the audacity to enter
Novibazar on horseback!" Youssouf Bey, the governor, was said to be
asleep in his harem, (the usual Not-at-home of an Oriental,) but, as
they afterwards ascertained, was actually afraid to receive them; and
while they were sauntering round the town, a savage-looking Bosniak
starting up, exclaimed, "Giaours, kafirs, spies! I know what you come
for!--Do you expect to see your cross one day planted on the castle?"
The threat of a complaint to the Bey only provoked fresh insolence; and,
warned by a Christian bystander that the whole town would soon be