The result was that I decided to go to Mostar and lay the facts before the consuls, who had been charged to form a commission to investigate and report on the state of things in Herzegovina. I was joined by the correspondent of "Le Temps" and a Belgian engineer engaged on the new road beyond Seraievo, and we engaged a courageous coachman to drive us to the capital of Herzegovina, for timid people would not venture to make the journey, such was the anarchy of the country. As far as Metcovich we were in Austrian territory, but there we fell into the Asiatic order of things, meeting a frontier guard of ragged Turkish regulars, to whom the visas on our passports seemed of small account, in view of their evident desire to regard us as enemies; and all along the road to Mostar we had the scowling faces of the native Mussulmans bent on us as we passed, and the few Christians we saw wore an air of harelike timidity. The city of Mostar is one of the most picturesque I have ever seen. At that time its dirt, decay, and generally unkempt appearance added to the picturesqueness, but not to the comfort. We got shelter at a khan, whose owner hardly knew if he dared admit a Christian guest; but the authority of the English consul, Mr. Holmes, reassured him, and we were admitted to the society of more fleas than I had considered possible at that time of the year. I had, however, provided myself with an ample supply of the Dalmatian product known as "flea powder," the triturated leaves of the red camomile which grows in great perfection all over the mountains of Dalmatia and Montenegro, as if nature had foreseen that it would be especially needed there, and I slept in comparative immunity, though my prior experiences in hostelry had never given me an adequate understanding of the khan filth and discomfort. I found that the consuls had all been fully informed of the general state of the country and the treachery exercised by the Turkish commanders, and Holmes told me that he had reported to the ambassador at Constantinople what he had learned, and that his report had been sent back with orders to make it less unfavorable to the Turks. Holmes (later Sir William Holmes, the distinction being well deserved for the courage and honesty with which, though strongly Turcophile in his tendencies, he exposed the abuses) said to me, relating this fact, "What can I do? I tell him what I know to be the facts as I have learned them, and he wants me to change them to make the report more favorable to the Turks!" I put his case before the public in the "Times," and the honest fellow reaped the reward he deserved, though against the will of his ambassador.