CHAPTER I. PAGE

FROM MELBOURNE TO SOFIA.

Autobiographical--My Wanderjahr--First Glimpse of Servians--Rome--A Prospective Mother-in-law--Sad Result of eating Chops--A Spanish Poet--The Chance of a Lifetime--How I seized it--Garcia's Gold Watch--The Via del Poppo--Off to London--Engaged by the Turkish Government--Vienna revisited--Stamboul--Origin of the Crescent--Misserie's Hotel--The Turkish Character--A Splendid Belvedere--View from the Seraskierat Tower--Scutari and Florence Nightingale--Stamboul by Day and Night--Scene in a Bazaar--Three Sundays a Week--A Trip to Sweet Waters--Veiled Beauties--I am gazetted to a Regiment--An Official Dinner--Off to the Front--A Compulsory Shave--My Charger--The March to Sofia--My First Patient--Prescription for a Malingerer--Mehemet Ali--My Soldier Servant--Diagnosing my Cases--Bulgarians at Home--At Sofia--MacGahan the War Correspondent--Learning Turkish--A Dinner in Camp--Leniency to Bulgarians--A Lady Patient--So near and yet so far--From Pirot to Nish--The Wounded--My First Operation 1