The evicted tenants in Ireland, who are turned out of their cottages because they decline to pay rent, never appeal strongly to my personal sympathies. These poor Tomaks, followers of a defeated faith, who of their own free will leave home and country, part with their lands, and give up their livelihoods in order that they may live henceforward amidst the followers of the Prophet, seemed to me far worthier of respect than the victims of Saxon oppression in the distressful country.
One of the innumerable ranges of the Balkans runs along the sea-coast of Bulgaria between Varna and Bourgas. Dense, black clouds hung all day over the cliffs to the west, while on the east the sky was blue and clear. The consequence was that we could see but little of the coast, which we skirted for hours, rounding one headland, half enshrouded in the mist, only to see another headland stretching miles away, half hid amidst the gloom of the overclouded afternoon.
Still I could catch glimpses enough to be sure that the sides of the slopes running down to the sea were seldom cultivated, and that the coast was very sparsely peopled. In a run of fifty miles, during all of which we were close in sight of land, I could only note three villages and a dozen whitewashed buildings, which were probably coastguard stations or watch-towers.
Natural breakwater
The sun was sinking as our steamer doubled the last promontory, and we found ourselves in comparatively smooth water, under the shelter of the long tongue of sand which juts out into the sea to the north of Bourgas, and serves as a sort of natural breakwater. In fact, the Bay of Bourgas is better land-locked than that of Varna. But I am told by inhabitants of the former port that the roads inside the bay are not as secure or as easy of access as those of their own port.
How this may be I do not pretend to decide. All I can say is, that the landing is equally uncomfortable and equally inconvenient in both ports. In justice, I ought to add that at both places travellers are equally exempt from the exactions which usually accompany the process of landing in boats.
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