Zara

"About six on a fine afternoon (July 20), took our leave of the bay of Pola. The next morning we started at four o'clock with a delightful breeze, which carried us to Zara, one hundred and sixty French miles, in fourteen hours. At six o'clock we came to anchor under the walls of Zara. We were detained a long time at the gates by a douanier, who could neither read nor write; and when at last we were conducted to the inn, it looked so filthy, that we did not like to abide there. We then ransacked the whole town to see if we could procure private lodgings, and were shown to such habitations, that an Englishman with his notions of comfort could hardly believe to exist. We seated ourselves at last in despair in a caffé. […]. In the mean while the gates of the town had been shut, and we should not have obtained our baggage if the master of the house had not, as captain of the band, exerted his interest with the guard to get them opened. [...]. The city, though once the capital of Liburnia and at present that of Dalmatia, is gloomy, confined, and with no striking buildings: its ramparts are the only spot where the inhabitants can obtain the least air. [...]. The famous marasquin is the great manufacture of Zara, and in fact the town itself smells of nothing else (pp. 27-29).
The system of society at Zara, like that in Italy, seems to be to meet in caffés: they possess a small theatre of marionettes, which were really most curiously well managed, particularly in a little ballet which was acted. From the higher classes of Zara we met with every civility. As it was our wish to go from Zara to Sebenico by land, in order more nearly to see the manners of the natives, we applied for that purpose to the governator and to the police. The attention, with which they received our request, deserves our thanks; they supplied us with horses, gave us an order for guards (panduri), without whom it is impossible in this dangerous country to travel, and from their through knowledge of Dalmatia, assisted our plans with some most useful information (pp. 30-31)".