The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-06-20
DOWN THE DRINO BY RAFT.
4 BRIEF BUT EXCITING EUROPEAN
JOURNEY.

NnO hutuhhn ItDEuFE-Au
In the voyaEe-Incidents or the noutine.
Ihad travelled from seraievo, the capital OF
Bosnia, through q wild. picturesque mountain
land to visegrad, near Turkey and Scrvia-
"Thero is no direct road from horo to northern
| Bosnia" said the landlord of tho visegrad hotel
in answer to my inquiries. ITO go by land you
must retrace half your way. 60 By water; noas
! down the Drino on q raft, along tho border Oh
Bosnia and Servin. Shall / look up q raftsman
for your
His enthusiasm and my aversion to returning
over the road by which I had come decided mo
to nccept his advice. While he was searching
for raftsmen 1 strolled through tho narrow
streets and out upon a beautiful white stone
bridge that In eleven graceful arches spanned
the bluish-grecn water of tho Drino.
"Ihavo found you O raftsman." said my host
when l returned to the inn IN hour later. He'll
take you as far as Zyornik. near the mouth Of
the Drino, and you are to give him two guldens-
not q kroutzer moro, remember. Six o'clock In
tho morning, he says, he will start, but that
means any time tomorrow or this week.
The next forenoon the door of the Inn was
darkoned, and looking up I saw a tall man with
n great scar on tho side of his face. Ho wore
an immense red turban, a suit OF hemp Of mar
! vcllous wilderness from the lace-trimmed collar
OF tho tunio to the meeting place of the loose
trousers, deliberately embroidered stockings. q
red sash, and a leather belt, from which pro-
trudod brass handles OF long knives. and Pipe
stems.
"Mohammed. your man. said my host
"Will you be ready to start In ten minutes !"
asked the Turki "Yest Well. come to the
bridge and a."
"Oh, you notify us when you arc ready" In
tcrposed the landlord.
An hour aftorward q ragged urchin rushed In,
apparently out of breath, and said that the raft
was not completed, but would be in half an hour,
And would ! give him Eve kreutzers for bring
ing tho information 30 quicklyi At intervals
during the remainder OF the day he with other
urchins-the number increasing until most Of
the boy population of the town was included
appeared ut the inn, delivered the same message,
and demanded rewards.
Mohammed himself came at noon on the next
day. He had substituted for the white garments
an old suit Of darker material and for the big
turban q more modest hcadgcar. The landlord
noticed these changes. "Now no will start" no
said. Mohammod asked Are you ready r with
so much innocence that the thought that i had
been waiting for him for a day and q half could
never have entered his mind. He laid In as pro-
visions two long rolls of brown bread and a bottle
Of rakUd THE native schnapps), and we walked
to the river accompanied by a majority OF the
children Of the town. who begged the privilege
of bestowing their blessing upon me in return
for coppers. Our escort went no further than
the bridge, content to watch from there our en-
barkation.
Beneath one Of tho arches half a dozen big
logs, pinned together with pine boards, wore
straining as II to break away and float off on the
rapid current-not an inviting craft for a voy-
age of moro than 100 miles upon q river notori-
ously treacherous. The raft was in charge Of
three Bosnians, who were to go as helpers. We
were about to push away from the shore, when
two children rushed down the bank and asked
to go with us part Of the way. They were bare
footed. their heads were closely shsyen, except
a fcz; their clothes. castoff garments OF older
Bts sTso eoIIo Me Of m nS sGhfer f fSsyF1 wera ae ss 70 pas as
my fellow passengers, and we were borne away
upon the current amid Z, fries OF srefa" Put
THE rapidstN The rapidsl" cried Mohammed
when we had been about three minutes afioat.
we sank and were drenched by the water that
washed the raft from end to end. Ny fellow
passengers grabbed my arms and began crying.
We were hurled into an angry eddy, and, in spite
of the efforts Of the raftsmen, were whitfield
TDrna 4 As we ren Mounted anS the taed thin shot boards %R Is that ano heid
the raft together snapped; the logs flew apart.
clinging around my neck. The other was swept
S%y oGbmmaa but r. caught lightly Sy the hS,t tu d-o of his hair 6 by
OF tho raftsmcn with wonderful adroitness
seized the log upon which / was flying down
stream. dragGed it against the others. and
The he dropped. face downward across the
logs, and. with his feet and hands pressed
against the two on the sides. held them all to.
gether until we were through the rapids. No
body, apparently. was responsible for the trouble
through which we had passed; each man vowed
that he was the best raftsman on the Drino, and
that It was all on account of the other fellows,
who had not steered properly. was assured that
there was no further cause for fear, as wo should
be transferred TO two big RATS that were await.
ing uS down stream. When we reembarked upon
the large rats, 1t was with an entirely new
crew. ,Mohammed had dismissed all OF his
SnIShpi Is ueep tenure %eU OF OH Office sHS on a G rat aG in BosGi a
But the new ones were not satisfactory, for we
: that their equals as raftsmen did not exist. we're
, taken on and two others wore discharged. Such
| Who dropped of rocks amid Tie foliage along lon
/ Upon the right q brook of warm water emptied
! into the river. Through the gorge could b
5 fssR SSSse w Vii hb%.eSS nilt By q Ff tSs fRS oma;n an e!s
) sinfs been 4 M SISa by y THras, sSs om v and II ROs ,
,, mosque and minaret, was perched. like ar
! eoSlo's nest. on a shelf Of the mountain that
bend from IN the t%s P PRaG.'' snS &an after ~ the s'0R Paffs a had {
foated into a bay, an old man came from one o.
2 the dozen or more houses which lay within II,
> ths sole ,ho in enCM "nd The nRe..S old ,na man H'o.. Gm
! OF Allah upon them and then sat dow
I to smoke and watch them make repairs. TIL,
) lumber agent. who had thus far accompanied III
to see II the RATS were strong. enough, here for
nally intruBted them to Mohammed, and tolC
him to take the front oar of the nrst raft. Mo
Z hammed's trust consisted OF about O.O0O feet o
+ boards and 900 logs, which, as great pines an,
Turkish border. The steering apparatus wa
a long paddle oars, one at each end. Milano,
Serbian, was In charge of tho second raft. Tn
4 two helpers were BOsnians. Savo and Sander.
u Late in the afternoon my fellow passenger
began dancing with delight and cried Mother
|. mother" as they caught sight OF a woman on
rock by tho river bank waving her distaff. The,
y waited with much impotence until we cam
q near her and then jumped into the water.
v The little girl ls the better swimmer. :" sal.
!, Milano. / had thought that they were botl
j. boys. The woman lifted the dripping it'll
It figures from ne water and hugged them TO heI
asthey started through the forest.
a Tho country became wilder and moro pic
tnresque; no living being, no house, not even
" woodm9n,s hut. was to lie seen, Green slope
= crowded 10 the river edge so closely that Tn
gray peaks. which at starting could be seen In tn
north, were hidden except where a valley opened
u