nous buildings.
Extensive barracks were windowless and tenantless, but the mosque and
the Pasha's Konak were in good order. We were ushered into an
audience-room of great extent, with a low carved roof and some
old-fashioned furniture, the divan being in the corner, and the
windows looking over the precipice to the Danube below. Hafiz Pasha,
the same who commanded at the battle of Nezib, was about fifty-five,
and a gentleman in air and manner, with a grey beard. In course of
conversation he told me that he was a Circassian. He asked me about my
travels: and with reference to Syria said, "Land operations through
Kurdistan against Mehemet Ali were absurd. I suggested an attack by
sea, while a land force should make a diversion by Antioch, but I was
opposed." After the usual pipes and coffee we took our leave.

Hafiz Pasha's political relations are necessarily of a very restricted
character, as he rules only the few Turks remaining in Servia; that is
to say, a few thousands in Belgrade and Ushitza, a few hundreds in
Shabatz Sokol and the island of Orsova. He represents the suzerainety
of the Porte over the Christian population, without having any thing
to do with the details of administration. His income, like that of
other mushirs or pashas of three tails, is 8000l. per annum. Hafiz
Pasha, if not a successful general, was at all events a brave and
honourable man, and his character for justice made him highly
respected. One of his predecessors, who was at Belgrade on my first
visit there in 1839, was a man of another stamp,--the notorious
Youssouf Pasha, who sold Varna during the Russian war. The
re-employment of such an individual is a characteristic illustration
of Eastern manners.

As my first stay at Belgrade extended to between two and three months,
I saw a good deal of Hafiz Pasha, who has a great taste for geography,
and seemed to be always studying at the maps. He seemed to think that
nothing would be so useful to Turkey as good roads, made to run from
the principal ports of Asia Minor up to the depots of the interior, so
as to connect Sivas, Tokat, Angora, Konieh, Kaiserieh, &c. with
Samsoun, Tersoos, and other ports. He wittily reversed the proverb
"_El rafyk som el taryk_" (companionship makes secure roads) by
saying, "_el taryk som el rafyk_" (good roads increase passenger
traffic).

At the Bairam reception, the Pasha wore his great nishau of diamonds.
Prince Alexander wore a blue uniform with gold epaulett