Editing Arthur Evans (section)

====Reporter for ''The Manchester Guardian''====
Home again, Evans wrote of his experiences, working from his extensive notes and drawings, publishing ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73712 Through Bosnia and Herzegovina]'', which came out in two editions, 1876 and 1877. He became overnight an expert in Balkan affairs. ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' hired him as a correspondent, sending him back to the Balkans in 1877. He reported on the suppression of the Christian insurrectionists by the [[military of the Ottoman Empire]], and yet was treated by the Ottomans as though he were an ambassador, despite his anti-Turkish sentiments. His older interests in antiquities continued. He collected portable artefacts, especially seal stones, at every opportunity, between sending back article after article to ''The Guardian''. He also visited the Freemans in Sarajevo whenever he could. A relationship with Freeman's eldest daughter, Margaret, had begun to blossom. In 1878 the Russians compelled a settlement of the conflict on appeal by the Serbs. The Ottomans ceded Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a protectorate.

In 1878, Evans proposed to Margaret Freeman, three years his senior, an educated and literate woman, and until now secretary for her father. The offer was accepted, to everyone's great satisfaction. Freeman spoke affectionately of his future son-in-law. The couple were married near the Freeman home in [[Wookey]], Somerset, at the parish church. They took up residence in a Venetian villa Evans had purchased in Ragusa, Casa San Lazzaro, on the bluffs overlooking the Adriatic. One of their first tasks was to create a garden there. They lived happily, Evans pursuing his journalistic career, until 1882.

Evans's continued stance in favour of native government led to a condition of unacceptability to the local regime within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He did not see [[Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina]] as an improvement over Ottoman. He wrote: "The people are treated not as a liberated but as a conquered and inferior race...."<ref>{{harvnb|Gere|2009|p=63}}.</ref> The Evans's sentiments were followed by acts of personal charity: they took in an orphan, invited a blind woman to dinner every night. Finally Evans wrote some public letters in favour of an insurrection.
Evans was arrested in 1882, to be put on trial as a British ''[[agent provocateur]]'' stirring up further insurrection. His journalistic sources were not acceptable friendships to the authorities. He spent six weeks in prison awaiting trial, but at the trial nothing definitive could be proved. His wife was interrogated. She found most offensive the reading of her love letters before her eyes by a hostile police agent. Evans was expelled from the country. Gladstone had been apprised of the situation immediately, but, as far as the public knew, did nothing. The government in Vienna similarly disavowed any knowledge of or connection to the actions of the local authorities. The Evans returned home to rent a house in Oxford, abandoning their villa, which became a hotel.<ref>{{cite web | author=yvr101 | title=Excelsior Hotel, Dubrovnik | url=https://www.panoramio.com/photo/30115046 | publisher=Panoramio | access-date=4 April 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525220936/http://www.panoramio.com/photo/30115046 | archive-date=25 May 2015 | url-status=dead }} The villa sits on a bluff at the base of a ring of hills. Adjoining it a modern hotel towers over the scene.</ref> However, Evans's reputation among the Slavs assumed unassailable proportions. He was invited later to play a role in the formation of the pre-Yugoslav state. In 1941 the government of Yugoslavia sent representatives to his funeral.<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1993|pp=26–27}}</ref>

During [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|Gascoyne-Cecil's]] first tenure as Prime Minister from 1885 to 1886, the English public held negative views of the [[Kingdom of Serbia]] and instead supported the [[Kingdom of Bulgaria]]. A ''Times'' correspondent said Serbia was the biggest threat to peace in the Balkans. This view was refuted by Evans, who stated that [[Kosovo Serbs|Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija]] were facing terror from the hand of local [[Kosovo Albanians|Albanian population]], with murders being a daily occurrence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marković |first=Slobodan G. |title=Grof Čedomilj Mijatović: Viktorijanac među Srbima |publisher=Pravni fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu, Dositej |year=2006 |location=Belgrade |pages=130–131}}</ref>