Cattaro

"The first sight of Cattaro from the water is very impressive - its fortified walls, zigzagging up to the frowning fortress on a mighty rock above the town, kindle the imagination no less than another zigzag line of white behind it, winding like a thread up the "black mountains" of Montenegro. It is the new road made by the austrian Government, which leads to the heart of that romantic land where the mountaineers contended for centuries with thei hereditary enemy, the Turk. Cattaro has been the site of a Roman Catholic bishopric since the sixth century, and the Greek Orthodox bishop has also a residence here. It is a military station of considerable importance, from which all the movements on the Bocche are directed (p. 175).

Trusting that our letter from the Governor of Dalmatia, instructing all officials to assist us, would be sufficient to make an exception in our favour, we went boldly forth one morning at Cattaro with the camera well in evidence, and took some pictures under the very noses of the military ; only on our return to tho steamer on which we had slept on our way further south, were we warned by the ship's officers that we had narrowly escaped being put under lock and key, from which the civil authorities could only have rescued us after many formalities. On this, we called on the commander of the garrison, showing our introductions; but he, though courteous, was adamant, and the camera had to go to bed (p. 167).

The presence of the officers adds animation to the streets of the little town, and the scene in the gardens of the café on the promenade by the waterside is a very gay one on summer evenings, when the band plays, and the townspeople take their supper or drink Dalmatian wine at the little tables beneath the trees. The harbour is frequently enlivened by the presence of English or American yachts, and sometimes the large yachting steamers call and land their passengers for a day or longer to explore the town or drive to Cettinje (p. 175).

The Montenegrin market, where the picturesque mountaineers offer for sale such dainties as smoked mutton and goat-flesh, as well as vegetables from the fertile district round Scutari, interested me greatly, and I longed fir an artist’s brush to reproduce the splendide figures of the men in colour, but was sorry to see that these noble-looking individuals left the hard work of carrying their produce to market to the overworked, prematurely aged women, whose existence seems to be little different to that of a beast of burden (p. 177)”.