DIFFERENT APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY. 309 



and poverty. Does not this lead us to reflect, 

 that in two provinces, such near neighbours, there 

 must be some very powerful cause for the dif- 

 ference observable between the Bulgarians and 

 Servians ? There must be something wrong some- 

 where, that such a difference should be so evident 

 in a few miles, on passing from one territory to 

 the other ; and I fear we must, however unwill- 

 ingly, attribute the wretchedness of the Bulgarians 

 to the badness of the Ottoman rule, whilst the 

 prosperity of Servia is owing to its being governed 

 by its own prince, who pays a tribute to the 

 Ottoman Porte, but without there existing any 

 interference of the Porte in the internal affairs of 

 the country. It would seem that the severing of a 

 province from the Ottoman Empire is a signal 

 for the termination of its wretchedness, and that 

 the advance of prosperity is in proportion to the 

 retrogradation of the turban. 



The whole way up the Danube we used to see 

 great numbers of Greek washerwomen collected 

 together on the banks, beating the clothes on 

 stones, as is the custom in this part of the world ; 

 but these good ladies appeared to hold peculiar 



