246 BIRD-HUNTING 



nobody would touch it — but I feared that a revolver, 

 especially one of a superior pattern, had been too 

 great a temptation to these weapon-loving people, 

 where everybody is required, nay ordered, to carry a 

 revolver always, and to carry it loaded. 



But I had done them an injustice ; about three 

 days later the missing revolver was found stuck 

 inside the mouth of a large sack which contained 

 my tent. One of the boatmen must have picked it 

 up and put it where he felt sure I should find it, 

 without saying anything about it. I was very glad 

 to see it again ; and when Melitza, who had found 

 it, displayed it dramatically, I had to apologize 

 inwardly for my doubts as to the national honesty. 



I begin to see now why this town appears so 

 Turkish in character. Of course it is Turkish, or 

 rather was so up to thirty years ago, when it was a 

 Turkish port and part of the province of Albania. 



Before then Montenegro for several centuries had 

 possessed no port nor any coast-line. At a still 

 earlier date its coast extended from Ragusa to the 

 mouth of the Drin, the capital being Skodra or 

 Scutari ; but as the fortunes of war have fluctuated, 

 so the dominions of the Prince of Montenegro have 

 waxed or waned. But whether large or small, 

 Montenegro has ever existed a free and independent 

 State, owning no suzerainty to any other power. 



At the collapse of the ancient Servian kingdom in 



