The kingdom of Bosnia, called Moesia, is large…. Its climate is very temperate and very healthy. The ground is rich with many mines of iron, lead, tin, copper, silver, and gold. Men are tall, handsome, clever, robust, and courageous. The soil is rich in all things for nourishment and human sustenance. It is irrigated by many navigable streams and adorned by many lakes, rich in fish; it excels in a great and agreeable diversity of springs, hillocks, and valleys, plains, and forests. It reminds us more of land cultivated by man than of wilderness. It produces plenty of fruits and animals of all kinds. People are gentle and very given to hospitality; they compete to receive wayfarers, to give food to them and their horses, and do them any possible service without taking any payment. It is amazing that their hospitality has not vanished although these regions are exhausted and ruined by Turkish tyranny and military units, which continually spend winter here and devastate the country when they pass through it.

Glasnik Zemaljskop muzeja u Sarajevu, 21/1904, p. 69 Excerpted from Fra Ignacije Gavran, Fellow-Travelers of Bosnian History, Svjetlo riječi, Sarajevo 2001, p. 65

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