After resolving to leave Göttingen, Evans and Lewis planned to spy against the Principality of Montenegro in the rebellious mountain village of Bobovo, Pljevlja at the time of their journey the strongest point of resistance in triple mountain ranges of Ljubišnja mountain and Tara gorges. During the struggle in Bobovo on 15 August 1875 during the Herzegovina uprising (1875–1877) they were expelled from Province of Pljevlja by the Ottoman authorities and went to board a ship in the city of Dubrovnik via Pljevlja, a city with a large settlement from the Roman period, which Evans named as the Municipium S...? They knew that the region, a part of the Ottoman Empire, was under martial law and that the Christians were in a state of insurrection against the Muslim beys placed over them. Some Ottoman troops were in the country in support of the beys, but mainly the beys were using irregular forces, the Bashi-bazouks, loosely attached to the Ottoman military. Their notorious cruelty, which they practised against the natives, helped to turn the British Empire under W. E. Gladstone against the Ottoman Empire, as well as to attract Russian intervention at Serbian request. At the time of Evans' and Lewis's initial adventure, the Ottomans were still trying to lessen the threat of intervention by placating their neighbours. Evans sought and obtained permission to travel in Bosnia from its Turkish military governor.