We found the old gentleman seated on a divan of more sumptuous appearance than any we had yet seen, with two other dignitaries, a Mutasarìf (probably of Banjaluka), and the Kaïmakàm of Dervent. Two chairs were brought for the ‘Europeans;’ and the Pashà, after enquiring courteously about our travels, and giving us a friendly message to our Consul, chose out for us a Zaptieh after his own heart, who was to escort us on our next day’s match, and whom he particularly enjoined to obey us in everything, wait when we waited, and sleep where we slept. His excellency was as fat and jolly a personage as ever dined, and in a grey European dress, with his measured English way of speaking, good-humoured face, and hearty manner, he reminded us more of a fox-hunting squire than a Turk; though there are episodes in his life—and Ali Riza Pashà is an historical character—which smack more of the Divan than the hunting-field. He began his career as a soldier, but soon discovered that swash-bucklering was not his forte, and that his nerves were better adapted for the arts of peace; for, coming upon the Russians near Kars, he literally took to his heels, and having the misfortune to be followed by his men, was dismissed the army. But he had now proved himself incapable, and accordingly became a natural recipient of Turkish honours. In due course he was created a Pashà, and received the lucrative post of Banjaluka, where to this day, though he is unable to write his name, he retains his office by administering heavy bribes alternately at Stamboul and Serajevo. With the Divan it has long been an _arcanum imperii_ that the more incompetent the official the greater his tribute of bribery. At this moment our Pashà was engaged in collecting troops to be employed, so it was said, against the insurgents in the Herzegovina. But why were they to be massed at Banjaluka, in a remote corner of Bosnia? Leaving the Konak, we took a stroll through the streets of Dervent, and observed the wares, which may be divided into two kinds—the Oriental and the English. Many Manchester goods, Sheffield cutlery, and other useful articles, find their way here from England by way of Trieste; and we actually found in our chamber in the Han a hair-brush with the name of an English maker on it. The chief product of Dervent and its neighbourhood, besides the Slivovitz, which every cottage makes for itself, is dried plums. These plums are especially grown in the Possávina—the part of Bosnia bordering on the Save—and indeed form the principal article of the export of the country, amounting yearly in value to about 40,000_l._, nearly an eighth of her total exports. They are shipped up the Save and then overland to Trieste, where they are packed in wooden boxes, and thence find their way to the Western markets, so that many of the inferior qualities of the so-called French plums sold in this country are really Bosnian.