THROUGH WILD EUROPE 155 



The Lake of Scutari forms a natural boundary 

 between the two countries, the frontier running 

 diagonally across. There was a very decent little 

 inn at this village, Vir-Pazar, where we stopped for 

 the night. It was a market day, and the busy but 

 peaceful scene in the streets was a pleasant change 

 after our experiences in Scutari. 



After dinner we had a conversation with two 

 Montenegrin gentlemen stopping there on their 

 way to Cetinje, the capital, one a doctor, the other 

 some official. On learning I was an Englishman 

 they began to pour their troubles into my ears, in 

 the most impassioned language, begging for the 

 protection of England as the only way to save their 

 country from Austria or Italy on the one side, and 

 from Turkey on the other. In vain I pleaded that 

 I was not the Prime Minister, but merely an 

 obscure naturalist with no influence whatsoever ; 

 that England had quite enough on her hands with- 

 out incurring the further jealousy of all the great 

 European powers, who were already jealous enough ; 

 that even if I wrote to the papers, and had my 

 writings accepted, my name would carry no weight 

 at all ; and that the complications of Balkan politics 

 were far beyond my comprehension or the compre- 

 hension of anybody who had not given them a 

 life-long study. All this was of no avail ; they still 

 talked and pleaded, sometimes with tears in their 



