©arfterrj) Cotoer 
 ftibrarg. 
 
 D : 6 
 
Lffi 
 
T RAVE L S 
 
 SOME PARTS OF 
 
 GERMANY, POLAND, MOLDAVIA, 
 
 AND 
 
 TURKEY. 
 
 By ADAM NEALE, M. D. 
 
 LATE PHYSICIAN TO THE BRITISH EMBASSY AT CONSTANTINOPLE, 
 
 PHYSICIAN TO THE FORCES, 
 
 AND MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN. 
 
 PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 AND A. CONSTABLE AND CO. EDINBURGH. 
 
 1818. 
 

 Printed by A. Strahan, 
 Nev.-Street-Squtre, London 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Although it has been querulously observed that 
 few books disappoint their readers more than those 
 containing- the narrations of Travellers, yet the de- 
 mand for such productions sufficiently evinces the 
 good-will with which they are received by those 
 whom a happier destiny enables " to live at home 
 at ease," and to traverse the globe while sitting 
 at their own fire-sides. Encouraged by this consider- 
 ation, the Writer of the following pages ventures to 
 commit them to the Press — not, however, without 
 becoming solicitude as to their reception. Conscious 
 of his want of power to communicate much either of 
 pleasure or of information, he confides rather in the 
 
 attractive nature of his subject, and the keenness of 
 
 a 2 
 
J v PREFACE. 
 
 public curiosity, than in the novelty of his details, or 
 the vividness of his descriptions. 
 
 The first object of his Travels was neither enter- 
 tainment nor instruction. But as accidental circum- 
 stances, connected with the exercise of his profession, 
 made him acquainted with some new facts, not alto- 
 gether uninteresting, he has conceived that they might 
 be made to serve as speculative points to others, who, 
 possessed of more leisure and erudition, may hereafter 
 follow in the same track. 
 
 The field, though extensive, has hitherto received, 
 comparatively speaking, little cultivation. The fairer 
 regions of Greece and Italy, enriched with the monu- 
 ments of antiquity, and endeared to every scholar by 
 countless associations, will long — perhaps for ever, 
 prove more alluring to the enlightened Traveller, than 
 the sandy heaths of Germany, the swampy regions of 
 Sarmatia, or the savage shores of the Euxine : these, 
 however, are scenes among which the inquisitive man 
 and the philanthropist, can collect remarks which 
 may serve to elucidate the past history, or to improve 
 the present condition of considerable portions of 
 mankind. And without effecting, or attempting the 
 removal of rooted prejudices and errors, the service 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 even of confirming' received truths may be allowed to 
 be important ; nor can it ever be useless to show by 
 fresh examples, that in all states the practice of Virtue 
 constitutes the foundation of happiness ; that simple 
 manners are constantly attended with health, peace, 
 and longevity ; that the avaricious are not always rich, 
 nor the ambitious secure ; that the revolutions of em- 
 pires are uniformly accelerated by the corruption of 
 morals ; and that the visitations of Providence are not 
 the less to be dreaded because they have long been 
 deferred 
 
 A. N. 
 
 Exeter, Jan. 20tk, 1818. 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR THE BINDER TO PLACE THE PRINTS. 
 
 Plate I. The Greek Reis to face the title page. 
 
 II. Dresden - Page 70 
 
 III. Koenigstein on the Elbe, Saxony - - 71 
 
 IV. Meissen the Margraviate of His Serene 
 
 Highness Prince Leopold (2 Views) - 78 
 
 V. The City of Prague .... 83 
 
 VI. Wissegorod of Prague, and City of Brunn 118 
 VII. Halietz on the Dniester, and Greek Palace 
 
 at Terapia 152 
 
 VIII. Jassy, Capital of Moldavia ... 161 
 
 IX. Agatopoli, a village on the Black Sea - 192 
 
 X. Promontory of Eneada, Black Sea - - 193 
 
 XL Turkish Boatmen and Barber - - 248 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Owing to the distance of the Author's residence from town, the following errors of the press have occurred, which 
 the reader is requested to amend : — 
 
 Page 2, line 13, for ** North/' read " South." 
 
 14, 28, for " covered," read "coloured." 
 
 23, for " Strucasee," read " Struensee," and there and passim, for " Obstrites," read " Obotrites. 
 
 31, for " Gadesbach," read " Gadesbusch." 
 
 32, for " Mernburgh," read ** Merseburg." 
 
 35, for " Swante-vil," read " Swante-vit," and, for " Russians," read " Rugians." 
 
 52, for *' Count de la Masche," read " Count de la Marche." 
 
 91, for " Suranos," read ** Serranos," (mountaineers). 
 113, line 25, for " that," read ** those." 
 137, for " Marienpont," read " Marienpoul." 
 154, line 5 from bottom for " towns," read *' downs." 
 16?, after " England" insert " and Italy." 
 175, for " membranoses" read *' membranous entrails." 
 185, for " practical" read *' piratical." 
 199, for " also a black," read u a white." 
 
 202, for " attendant of Valide," read " intendant of the Valide." 
 217, line 8, after " victims," insert ** and which." 
 219, for** and shall be less surprised," read " than be surprised." 
 
 247, for " Seicks," read " Peichs." 
 
 248, after "Lent," dele** and"; for "Eden" read ** Edinburgh.** 
 255, for " M. de Viscues." read ** M. de Viemse." 
 
 285, (Notes), for " Maauer," read '* Magna." 
 
 286, for " Vestaphos," read "Vesta, ***." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Heligoland. — Sicambri. — Temple of Phoseta. — Worship of Herthtis, 
 the Mother-Earth. — Husum. — Cimbri. — Embankments, their History 
 and Construction. — Rendsburg, its Canal. — Convicts. — The Plague 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Itzehoe. — Pinneberg. — Danish Farm Houses — their vast Extent and 
 internal Arrangement. — Hamburg — its sickly Population. — Charitable 
 Foundations. — Lombards — their Utility - - 12 
 
 CHAP. HI. 
 
 Public Granary. — Foundling Hospital. — The Vierlands. — Singular Te- 
 nure of the Blue Sisters' Convent. — Rivalry between Hamburg and 
 Altona. — Parallel Events in their History. — Funeral of the German Poet 
 Klopstock. — Lubec — its decaying State. — Mare Meyer Kneller. — 
 Ostade. — Strucasee Gadesbusch. — Rhadagaisus King of the Obstrites. 
 — Idolatry. — Reliques of the Estii in Spain 23 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Schwerin. — Neustadt. — Prussian Posting. — Fehrbellin Canal. — Ber- 
 lin. — The Schloss or Palace. — Public Buildings. — Monuments. — Li- 
 terary and Scientific Establishments. — New Mint, — Public Hospital. 
 
 a 
 
x CONTENTS. 
 
 — Institution for Deaf and Dumb. — Anecdote of a Dumb Painter, and 
 
 the Countess Lichtenau. — Regeneration of Prussia — its Effects Page 39 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Porcelain and Iron Manufactories. — Charlottenburg. — Mittenwalde. — 
 
 Pine Forests. — Cobalt Works. — Saxon Villages. — Grossenhaym. 
 
 Dresden. — Legendary History. — Fatal Consequences from the Acqui- 
 sition of the Crown of Poland. — The Catholic Church. — High Mass. 
 
 — Terrace of Count Bruhl. — Zuinger Orangery. — Picture Gallery. 
 
 — Kcenigstein. — Meissen. — Porcelain Manufactory - - 62 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Zehist. — Wheel greasing. — Peterswalden. — The Geyersberg. — Sin- 
 gular Accident. — Toeplitz — its superb Valley. — Dobrowska-polu. — 
 Palace of Prince Clary. — Prague — its Bridge. — Legendary History. 
 
 — Wisse-gorod. — Libussa. — Premislaus. — Cathedral Church. — Uni- 
 versity. — John Huss and Jerome of Prague. — Peter Payne. — John 
 
 Zisca. -------_ 79 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Catholic Monuments. — Field of Battle near Collin. — Czeslaii. — The 
 Tomb and Epitaph of John Zisca. — Hussite Warfare — its Resemblances 
 
 to that of the ancient Cimbri. — Carragos — still formed in Spain. 
 
 Jenikau. — Steindorff. — Reisengebirge. — Znaym. — Funeral Proces- 
 sion of the Emperor Sigismund - 88 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Vienna. — St. Stephen's Church. — Tombs of Prince Eugene. — Cuspini- 
 anus. — Joseph the Second. — Church of the Augustines. — Canova's 
 Monument. — Ephcsian Tomb. — Literary and Scientific Establish- 
 ments. — Population. — Arsenals. — Cara Mustapha's Head. — Aus- 
 trian Generals - --_.__ 93 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 Political Reflections. — Van Swieten. — Austrian Magnates. — The Old 
 Abbe - - - - - - - -110 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The Prater. — Stammersdorf. — Nicholsburg. — Brunn. — The Spiel- 
 berg. Austrian Manufactures. — Olmutz. — ■ The Haunacks. — Hern- 
 
 hutters. — Firdeck. — Carpathian Mountains. — Silesia. — Teschen. 
 
 Bielitz. — Poland. — Miastas. — Peasantry. — Liberty co-existerit 
 
 only with Virtue. — A floating Bridge ... - Page 1 1 5 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 Lemberw — its ruinous State. — Population and Commerce. — Jewish 
 Synagogue. — Russian Troops. — A modern Thalestris. — Polish Fuhr- 
 mans. — Halietz. — The lliver Dniester. — Marienpont. — Teutonic, or 
 Marian Knights. — Ancient Pruteni — their Idolatry. — Jews - 137 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 Olmacks. — Obertier. — Snyantine. — The River Pruth, — Tschernowitz, 
 or Czernowitz. — Polish Filth. — The Plague. — Zoring. — Nomades — 
 their Waggons. — Moldavia — grandeur of its Landscapes. — Doro- 
 hoi. — Botussano. — Hebrew Wedding. — Hebrew Sabbath. — Molla- 
 g as t. — Jassy. — Prince Mourousi — his Capital - - - - 150 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Marsh Effluvia. — Wolves. — Wolf-Dogs. — Greek Churches. — Fate of 
 Prince Mourousi. — Character of Greek Hospodars. — Hippomulgi. — 
 Xamolxis. — Longevity. — Grecian Repasts. — Night Scene on the 
 Mountains. — Birlat, the ancient Palloda. — " Ups and Downs." — Ro- 
 man Causeway. — Scythian Barrows and Funeral Rites. — Servian 
 Burials and Graves. — Galatz. — Turkish Governor Tomi - - 161 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 Voyage down the Danube. — Isaxi. — Darius Hystaspes — and Milti- 
 ac les. — Tulese. — Battle of Salices. — Island of Peuce. — Bastarnae 
 Peucinae. — Tunny Fishery. — Istropolis. — Worship of the Dioscuri. 
 — Guardian Saints of St. Andero in Spain. — The Island of Leuce. 
 
 Temple of Achilles. — Invasion of the Amazons. — Sanctity of 
 
 Islands. — Bizona — Chiustenza. — Kavarna. — Balzachuk. — Agato- 
 
 poli. — Eneada - - - - - - -176 
 
 a 2 
 
Xll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 Terapia — its beautiful Situation. — Classical Associations — with the 
 Events of the Argonautic Expedition. — Altar of Phryxus. — Tomb of 
 Amycus. — Temple of Jupiter Urius. — Darius Hystaspes. — Gardens of 
 Sultani-Baktchi. — Turkish Apathy. — Illness of the Sultana Valide. — 
 Author's Visit to the Sultana. — Turkish Superstition and Ignorance. 
 
 — Death of the Sultana. — Her last Interview with her Son. — Her 
 Character ------ - - Page 195 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Fishery of the Pelamydes, on the Thracian Bosphorus. — Quotation from 
 
 the Halieutics of Oppian ------ 204 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 The Plague 210 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Death of Don Joze Ocarris, the Spanish Ambassador. — Illness of Mr. 
 Chenevix. — Saracenic Pharmacy and Hebrew Empirics. — Murder of 
 Mr. Wood -------- 220 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 
 A Picture of Constantinople. — Greek Hospodars. — Mustapha Bairactar. 
 
 — Selim Effendi. — Count Froberg. — Prince Italinski. — Monsieur 
 Ruffin. — Baratariats - - - - -226 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 Turkish Navy. — Views of the Russian Cabinet. — State of the Defences 
 
 of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus. — Ancient Walls of Constantinople 238 
 
 CHAP. XXI. 
 
 The Beiram. — Illumination of the Mosques. — Popular Remedy for Con- 
 sumption. — Mosque of the reigning Sultan at Scutari. — Turkish Chart 
 
CONTENTS. x [[[ 
 
 of the Black Sea. — Peramidias. — Invasions of the Don Cossacks. — 
 Navigation and Commerce of the Black Sea. — Conjectures as to the 
 Etymology of the Bos-poros and Hellespont. — Bosporean Kiosks and 
 Villas. — Beautiful Cameo and sculptured Horn of Rhinoceros. — Anec- 
 dotes of Sorcery. — The Salii of the Romans, and Seicks of the Turks Page 247 
 
 CHAP. XXII. 
 
 Departure from Pera. — Fanaraki. — Voyage across the Black Sea. — 
 Midiah. — Eneada. — Agatopoli. — Sizeboli. — Rites of Circe. — Aiouli. 
 
 — Zingani. — Mesembria, now Missouri. — Varna. — Turkish Khan. 
 
 — Arabats. — Dafac. — Bulgarian Dwellings and Peasantry. — Yeni- 
 Bazar. — Rusgrade. — Torlaqui. — Dervises. — Pizanza. — Ruschuk. — 
 Giaorgoi. — Bucharest. — Fokshani. — Ancient Dacians. — Birlat-Jassi. 
 
 — Botussani. — Czernowitz. — Dr. Fleisch. — The Sivvens of the Tran- 
 sylvanian Mountains. — Native Cinnabar ... 260 
 
 CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 Lemberg. — Salt Mines of Wielickska. — Conjectures as to the Origin of 
 Fossil-salt. — The Ocean the Parent of Salt. — Cracow. — Silesia. — 
 Miseries of War. — Bielitz. — JagersdorfT. — Neustadt. — Neisse. — A 
 Family of Irish Exiles. — Conclusion. - ... 275 
 
 Notes - _.__.-_ 285 
 
TRAVELS 
 
 THROUGH 
 
 GERMANY, POLAND, MOLDAVIA, and TURKEY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Heligoland. — Sicambri. — Temple of Phoseta. — Worship of Herthus, 
 the Mother-Earth. — Husum. — Cimbri. — Embankments, their History 
 and Construction. — Rendsburg, its Canal. — Convicts. — The Plague. 
 
 With a north-west wind the passage from Harwich to Husum 
 may be performed in eight-and-forty hours. — On the 19th 
 of July, 1805, we had the good fortune to make that rapid 
 voyage in the Ayrshire Post-Office Packet, commanded by Cap- 
 tain Hamilton. — On quitting the coast of Essex, the first objects 
 we perceived were the look-out ships of the British squadron then 
 blockading the Texel ; and in the afternoon of the following 
 day we came in sight of the high table Cliff of the island of 
 Heligoland, situated about twenty-five miles from the mouth of 
 the Elbe. — This island, though now the abode of only a few 
 fishermen and pilots, was, in the 692d year of the Christian 
 aera, a royal residence, being held by Radebol, king of the 
 
 B 
 
2 HOLSTEJN. 
 
 Sicambri, or North Frisians, an uncivilized people, who, like the 
 Algerines of the present day, subsisted by piracy and rapine- 
 There seems to be good reason for believing that they were the 
 descendants of the Cimbri, who, in the time of Marius, poured 
 themselves down into Italy, after having ravaged Gaul. The 
 Cimbri * inhabited Prussia, Hanover, Holstein, Jutland, and the 
 adjacent islands ; but, in consequence of the repeated inunda- 
 tions, and of the losses of territory which they suffered from the 
 sea, as well as from the invasions of their northern enemies 
 the Suevi (Swedes), they appear to have been frequently 
 under the necessity of sending forth shoals of emigrants in 
 search of new settlements in the North of Europe. 
 
 As the art of making embankments was to them unknown, 
 those who remained in the Chersonesus of the Cimbri removed 
 their habitations to the moors and uplands, and upon the island 
 of Heligoland the highest spot on this coast they had fixed the 
 royal residence, together with the temple of their great goddess 
 Phoseta or Phosta, or as she is called by Tacitus Herthus, " the 
 Mother Earth," the Veste or Cybele of the Romans, and the 
 Ceres of the Greeks. ' On reading the passage in Tacitus, de- 
 scriptive of the rites with which the goddess Herthus was 
 worshipped, and on comparing it with the corresponding de- 
 scriptions in Ovid's Fasti, of the worship of the goddess-mother 
 and the Eleusinian mysteries of Ceres, we cannot but be forcibly 
 struck with the complete coincidence of these several solemnities. 
 In all the three instances quoted, the procession of the image 
 of the goddess veiled, and placed in a car drawn by two oxen, 
 was followed by crowds of women shouting and invoking the 
 
 * Koum-beri, dwellers in the sands. 
 
HOLSTEIN. 
 
 deity. The mysteries lasted three days, and during their cele- 
 bration there was an entire cessation of all other public and 
 private transactions. On the third day the image was carried 
 in solemn procession to the brink of a lake, into which it was 
 thrown by the Germans, and the goddess disappeared, not to 
 return to the eyes of admiring mortals until the subsequent anni- 
 versary. At the Eleusinian mysteries, as well as at those of 
 Cybele, the statues of the goddess were carried to the sea or a 
 river to be washed, and after this lustration, were again deposited 
 in their respective temples till the ensuing spring. These coin- 
 cidences have, doubtless, been often remarked ; but, I am not 
 aware that any writer has particularly noticed the striking 
 affinity of the ceremonies still observed in various parts of 
 India, with those of Herthus, I allude to the worship of the 
 Goddess Dearg or Dourg. Captain Turner in his embassy to 
 Thibet, has described the Pooja of De-arg nearly in the same 
 manner in which Tacitus has noticed that of the German Deity, 
 and the account given by Monsieur de Grandpre, is still more 
 circumstantial : " The Ganges has been held in the most pro- 
 " found veneration ever since De-arg, according to the re- 
 " ceived tradition, precipitated herself into it. She was a cele- 
 " brated legislatrix. In her advanced age, she descended into 
 " the Ganges, where she now dwells. In consequence of which, 
 " the supreme blessing of this life consists, in bathing in the 
 " river and drinking of its water, which has the virtue of purify- 
 " ing both soul and body. De-arg is held in the greatest vene- 
 " ration, her feast is celebrated annually in the month of Oc- 
 " tober, and lasts three days, when all is gaiety and mirth. Her 
 " image is inclosed in a small niche of clay, ornamented with 
 " flowers, bits of tinsel, and such like finery. During two days 
 
 B 2 
 
4 HOLSTEIN. 
 
 " they pay her every respect and adoration, but on the third the 
 " scene changes, they abuse her — call her — expose the naked 
 " posteriors to her, loading her with all manner of curses ; in 
 " conclusion, they hoist the figure on their shoulders, and march 
 " in procession to the banks of* the Ganges, where, with hideous 
 " yells and shouts, they cast her into the river, and abandon her 
 " to the current." Few, I think, will be disposed to doubt that 
 the De-arg of the Hindoos is the same deity with the He?ihns* of 
 the ancient Germans ; it remains to be shown that this worship 
 extended from the banks of the Ganges to the western islands of 
 Scotland, and to the banks of the Shannon in Ireland. Such was 
 undoubtedly the fact. The island of St. Kilda, the most remote 
 of the Hebrides, was called Hirth, or Hirt, or Hirtha. In the 
 Philosophical Transactions for the year 1677, Sir Robert Moray 
 has given a particular description of that island, which is not 
 unlike Heligoland, in many particulars ; and Mr. Walter Scott, in 
 his admirable poem of the Lord of the Isles, has commemorated 
 St. Kilda under its more ancient appellation of Hirt. Boswell in 
 his journal of his and Dr. Johnson's voyage to the Hebrides, 
 notices the ceremonies attending the worship of a divinity called 
 Anaitis, identified as Herthus, and in an island, now remarkable 
 for the seat of St. Peter's purgatory, the rites of De-arg were 
 formerly celebrated. The mountain near Edinburgh, now called 
 by corruption Arthur's seat, was, I suspect, formerly sacred to 
 the worship of Herthus, the true appellation being Herthus or 
 " Herthur seat," and the ruins of a chapel dedicated to St. 
 Anthony, now occupy the place where the temple of the deity 
 formerly stood, close to which was the sacred fountain, now 
 
 * Tacitus calls this divinity Herthum, but the proper name is Herthur. 
 
HOLSTEIN. 5. 
 
 known as St. Anthony's Well. In a word, wherever human re- 
 search has yet extended, the worship of Herthus, the Mother- 
 Earth, may be traced : that worship which replaced the know- 
 ledge of the true God, when, from the debasement of mankind 
 after the deluge, the adoration of the real divinity, the Creator, 
 was overpowered by superstition and error. 
 
 But to return to Heligoland. This island is at present little 
 more than one mile in circumference. It consists of a perpen- 
 dicular cliff one hundred and fifty feet high, with a plain on the 
 top, on which are situated a church and village together with a 
 light-house erected by the Merchants of Hamburg for the safe 
 guidance of vessels entering the Elbe. At the foot of this cliff is a 
 tract of low sand or downs, equal in extent to the cliff, con- 
 taining a village of fishermen's huts and a small pier and road- 
 stead. D'Anville states that this island was formerly many miles 
 in extent, but that about the years 800 and 1300 of the Christian 
 aera, great portions of the downs were swept away by the action 
 either of high spring tides or by the concussion of earthquakes ; 
 and that as lately as 1649, much of the remaining beach was 
 carried off by an inundation of the sea. The present inhabitants 
 amount to about two thousand souls. The men gain their sub- 
 sistence by fishing and pilotage, while the women tend the flocks 
 of sheep and cows, and cultivate the soil, which produces little 
 more than barley and oats. The communication between the 
 cliff and the downs, is carried on by means of a broad wooden 
 staircase fixed in the rock, which is red breccia. — There are three 
 wells of fresh water, but scarcely a shrub or tree of any kind on 
 the island ; and turf, wood-fuel, and garden vegetables, are brought 
 from Cuxhaven and Hamburg, in exchange for the fish with 
 which the hardy Heligolanders supply these towns. Off the 
 
g HOLSTEIN. 
 
 island, running out to the south-east, is a low ledge of sunken 
 rocks, upon which are affixed two buoys coloured white and red. 
 It had been blowing a strong gale of wind some days previous to 
 our arrival, and the mooring chains of the red buoy having given 
 way, it had drifted off its proper station, so that had it not been 
 for the shrewd sagacity of an old Danish pilot who accompanied 
 us from Harwich, we must inevitably have gone on the rocks. — 
 Luckily he suspected what had happened, and by giving them a 
 greater offing we escaped. The packet, however, which succeed- 
 ed us, was not so fortunate, for, not discovering the error, she went 
 ashore on the ledge, and the ship's crew and passengers were 
 saved, solely by the prompt assistance afforded by the boats from 
 Heligoland. About sun-set we entered the mouth of the river 
 Hever, and sailing up among low marshy islands covered with 
 rich pasture and herds of horned cattle, came to an anchorage off 
 the island called Nord Strand, whence we ascended the Hever 
 Stroem a narrow channel winding amidst high muddy banks for 
 nearly four miles. The night was extremely dark, the boat small, 
 and loaded to the water's edge with passengers and luggage, but 
 although we grounded several times, happily no accident occurred. 
 At length we were landed at a ruinous stone pier, from which we 
 groped our way to a little inn in the town of Husum, where in the 
 chimney-corner of a clean sanded kitchen, by the side of a blazing 
 turf fire, with a bottle of Langen-Cork or weak Bourdeaux 
 wine, myself and fellow-passengers consoled ourselves after the 
 dangers of the deep. The custom of sleeping between two 
 feather-beds was quite novel to me, a nouveau debarque in Ger- 
 many, and was really intolerable ; the being saluted in bed next 
 morning with a warm cup of coffee was equally new, but much 
 more agreeable ; when that was discussed, and the ceremony 
 
HOLSTEIN. 7 
 
 of dressing gone through, the procurement of post-horses was 
 our next concern ; but to our great disappointment, we found 
 that our German fellow-passengers had already bespoken every 
 pair in the village, and that we must perforce be detained four 
 and twenty hours longer at Husum. I and my companions, 
 Mr. and Mrs. K., determined to saunter about the village, and 
 to while away the time by exploring the environs which are 
 not altogether uninteresting. The ancient inhabitants of the 
 coast of Holstein after having suffered for more than ten cen- 
 turies repeated inundations, some of which carried off above six 
 or seven hundred persons, entire villages, and whole herds of 
 cattle at a time, determined at length to undertake the inclosure 
 of the entire coast, and by means of dykes to fence off for 
 ever the raging element. For this purpose they dug deep 
 ditches around all the marshes, and heaping up the excavated 
 earth on the outer brink, they formed broad dykes eight feet 
 in height, and of a corresponding width. These works were 
 carried on at intervals during four centuries. At the commence- 
 ment of the eleventh century, the inclosed marshes on the coast 
 of Sleswick alone were so extensive, as to include three pro- 
 vinces. However, in the year 1075, during a high spring tide, 
 a south-west gale impelled the sea over the dyke of the island 
 of Nord Strand, and the dyke itself having yielded to the force 
 of the waves, a great part of the island was washed away. 
 Similar catastrophes occurred in the years 1114 and 1158, and 
 in 1204, which proved fatal to many of the marsh settlers. At 
 length in the year 1216, the sea having risen so high, that its 
 waves passed over Nord Strand, Eyder Stade and Ditmarsk, 
 nearly ten thousand inhabitants of these low lands perished. 
 
HOLSTEIN. 
 
 Again in the year 1330, when part of Heligoland was engulphed, 
 seven parishes in Nord Strand and Pell-worm were destroyed 
 and in the year 1338, a great portion of Ditmarsh was swept 
 away, Lastly, in the year 1362, the isles of Fora and Svlt, 
 then forming one tract, were absolutely disjoined, and Nord 
 Strand, then a marsh joined to the continent, was formed into 
 an island. Things remained in this state till the year 1525, 
 when the inhabitants having in some measure recovered from 
 their despair, again turned their thoughts to excluding the ocean. 
 For this end, stakes were planted in front of all the creeks 
 which admitted the sea and osiers interwoven between them. 
 These served as a sort of advanced work to break the force of 
 the waves. Behind these, some years afterwards they raised 
 dykes of considerable height, employing wheel-barrows, which 
 were at that time (1500) a new invention. About the same 
 period, the interior canals were enlarged and deepened so as to 
 obtain more earth to augment the bases of the dykes. Not- 
 withstanding which, on the 11th of October 1634, the sea 
 having risen to an excessive height, made a breach in the dykes, 
 and overwhelmed Pell-worm, Nord Strand, a great part of Dit- 
 marsh and a portion of the new lands of Jutland. Princes 
 now came forward to the relief of their suffering subjects, and 
 Frederick the third Duke of Sleswick having learnt that the 
 art of making embankments had attained greater perfection in 
 Holland than elsewhere, applied to the States General, request- 
 ing they would send him an experienced engineer with proper 
 workmen. This being granted, all the ruined dykes were re- 
 paired in the most substantial manner, and the descendants of 
 the engineer were endowed with grants of land, and being 
 
HUSUM. 
 
 Catholics, were protected in the free exercise of their religion ; 
 they now inhabit Nord Strand, and superintend the repairs of 
 the dykes all along this line of coast. 
 
 The particular improvement which this Dutch Engineer intro- 
 duced into Holstein, was that of covering the dykes with straw 
 ropes, a process which during our walk this day we had an op- 
 portunity of witnessing. The workmen having a bundle of straw 
 near them, kneel down on the external slope of the dyke, and 
 having twisted a rope of about two inches in thickness, thrust it 
 into the earth of the embankment to the depth of several inches, 
 by means of a forked chisel. To the remaining end of the rope 
 they twist more straw, and again press it into the earth at inter- 
 vals of six or eight inches, proceeding in this manner regularly 
 along the dyke from top to bottom, each straw rope being laid 
 close to the preceding as regularly as the bands of a beehive. 
 The grass speedily springing up between these ropes, binds the 
 whole surface together with its roots, and presents a yielding 
 elastic cover to the waves of the sea, against which they produce 
 little effect. The quantity of straw consumed annually in these 
 repairs is, no doubt, immense, as it is necessary to renew these ropes 
 whenever they become decayed, but such is the amazing fertility 
 of the inclosed soil, that the farmers are speedily repaid, and 
 the roofs of the barns and farm-houses being all thatched with 
 bog-reeds, which are extremely durable, the straw from the fields 
 is entirely set apart for the repairs of the dykes. 
 
 Husum itself is a poor village of about five hundred houses, 
 the inhabitants of which are chiefly supported by dredging for 
 oysters and preparing malt, of both which articles they send 
 large quantities to Altona and Hamburg. The houses are built 
 in the Dutch style, with high gabel ends fronting the streets, in 
 
 c 
 
10 
 
 RENDSBHRG. 
 
 which are planted long rows of lime-trees clipped square, in the 
 fashion of yew-tree hedges. — The dress of the men and women 
 is also in the Dutch taste ; and like the Hollanders, they cover 
 their oraves over with wicker work, and ulant them with flowers. 
 There is a large church and a ruinous palace belonging to the 
 ducal family of Holstein, both which buildings, as well as all the 
 rest in the town, are constructed of brick. After having our 
 passports examined and countersigned, the postmaster con- 
 trived to procure us post-horses next morning ; these we yoked 
 to a second hand berlin which we had purchased here, and pro- 
 ceeded towards Rendsburg through a barren sandy tract of coun- 
 try, which a Danish poet of the fifteenth century, has well 
 described in these lines. 
 
 At madidis abducta locis, terraque palustri 
 In virides saltus, nemorosaque rura recedit. 
 
 Rendsburg, the key of Jutland, built on the southern bank of 
 the river Eyder, is regularly fortified with bastions and wet 
 ditches, and reputed to be one of the strongest fortresses belong- 
 ing to the crown of Denmark. It is a dull dirty town, and 
 chiefly remarkable as being the centre of a canal communi- 
 cation between the North Sea and the Baltic. From Tonnin- 
 gen, a sea-port on the North Sea, the Eyder is navigable for 
 ships which ascend with the tide as far as the ramparts of Rends- 
 burg, where they are received by a lock, and are raised fifteen 
 feet to the level of a canal, connecting several small lakes 
 to each other. After passing through these, the ships reach 
 a second lock at Kluvansick, on which they ascend eight addi- 
 tional feet, and on arriving by the canal at Konningsford, a third 
 lock receives them, and elevates them eight feet more : This 
 is the highest level between the two seas. They now pass 
 
RENDSBURG. 
 
 11 
 
 through two other lakes, the Wittunsee and Westensee, and 
 descending three locks as before, they enter the Baltic at Hol- 
 tenau. 
 
 While at dinner at Rendsburg, we were disturbed by the 
 clanking of chains, and upon looking from the windows of our 
 inn, which commanded a view of the ramparts, we there ob- 
 served about three hundred convicts, dirty, miserable, and half- 
 naked, equipped with spades, mattocks, and wheel-barrows, 
 returning under an escort, from their daily labour. This place 
 may hence be called the Woolwich of Denmark. The lament- 
 ably filthy, wretched condition of these unfortunate felons re- 
 minded me of having somewhere read, that when the plague 
 last visited Holstein in 1764, it first originated amongst the con- 
 victs in this garrison. We were here again detained for want of 
 post-horses, and we found this inn dirty and miserable to a great 
 degree, compared with that at Husum. 
 
 The ramparts are in part agreeably shaded with lime trees, 
 under which we found the inhabitants enjoying the last rays of 
 the evening sun. — The surrounding country is flat and sterile, 
 and it was with pleasure we found ourselves next morning 
 enabled to set off for Itzehoe. 
 
 c 2 
 
12 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Itzehoe. — Pinneberg. — Danish Farm Houses — their vast extent and 
 internal arrangement. — Hamburg — its sickly Population — Charitable 
 Foundations. — Lombards — their utility. 
 
 The country improved in appearance as we approached Itzehoe, 
 a lively little town lying in a hollow slope by the side of the 
 Stor, a rapid stream turning several mills in its course ; after 
 dining here, we proceeded in the evening to Pinneberg. During 
 this day's journey, we had several opportunities of surveying the 
 interiors of the farm houses, which are generally built upon the 
 same plan, having externally the appearance of large barns, with 
 foldinp- doors at each end of sufficient size to admit loaded 
 
 o 
 
 waggons ; and, indeed, on stopping to bait our horses, our 
 (Schwager) postillion, invariably drove in at one door, and took 
 his departure by the other. On one hand are the apartments 
 occupied by the farmer and his family, on the other the stable, 
 cow-house, dairy, and piggery ; in the centre, a large space, set 
 apart for the waggons, ploughs, harrows, and other implements 
 of husbandry, and over head the granary and hayloft. We were 
 often agreeably surprised at finding the apartments of the far- 
 mer's family, furnished with a degree of comfort and neatness al- 
 most bordering upon luxury ; every article was substantially good 
 in itself, and was preserved in the greatest order and cleanliness. 
 Thus, white muslin curtains, with fringes and draperies, covered 
 
1TZEHOE. - 
 
 the windows ; looking-glasses and chests of drawers were placed 
 around ; excellent large feather beds, and a profusion of the best 
 well-bleached linen displayed the industry of the good house- 
 wives, while their dinner tables were equally well supplied with 
 damask cloths and snowy white napkins. Near the doors of the 
 dairies were ranged quantities of large, singularly shaped, brass 
 and copper vessels, bright as mirrors, resembling those groupes 
 of " still life" which so often adorn the corners of the pictures 
 of Teniers, Jordaens, and other Dutch and Flemish artists. The 
 dimensions of some of these buildings are surprising ; I paced 
 one which was 110 yards long, resembling in extent, the area 
 of Westminster Hall. On the tops of their roofs, are generally 
 displayed a set of antlers, and a weathercock ; on others, two 
 horses' heads are carved out in wood, and announce the rank of 
 the inhabitants ; the antlers, or rather bulls* horns, denoting the 
 house of a tenant, the horses' heads that of a landed proprietor. 
 This form of building seems to have been adopted from the ear- 
 liest ages, amongst the inhabitants of Northern Germany, for 
 Joannes Lasicius, in his treatise upon the gods of the Sarmatians 
 thus describes them. « Their cottages, which they call towers, 
 (turres) are formed into an acute angle at the top, with an open- 
 ing to give vent to the smoke and foul air, and are constructed of 
 rafters and planks, straw and bark ; in these they live, with all 
 their herds of cattle, lodged upon a boarded floor, so that the 
 master of a family has constantly all his property under his own 
 eye, whilst by sleeping close to the door himself, he protects his 
 cattle from the wild beasts, and from the cold. To the Deaster, 
 or household god, (the Browney, I presume, of the Scots), is 
 committed the care of the fire, and it is his double duty to pre- 
 vent its extinction during the night, and to take care that none 
 
14 
 
 ITZEHOE. 
 
 of the sparks may be communicated to the building, notwith- 
 standing which, it frequently happens that either the dog or the 
 hog, while stealing the meat from the pot on the fire, scald their 
 noses with the boiling broth. Those who live in villages keeD 
 their flocks of sheep in folds adjoining the marshes. But both 
 villagers and farmers are accustomed to stuff their mattrasses 
 with the strippings of feathers, which are so soft as neither to 
 irritate their skins nor keep them awake." Unfortunately, howe- 
 ver, for this mode of building, which is certainly both convenient 
 and economical, the brownies keep watch very remissly, so that 
 fires are very frequent ; and, as it is next to an impossibility, 
 when they do occur, to bring forth the cattle from their stalls, 
 the poor farmers generally lose every article both of their live 
 stock and furniture, in the course of a few hours. Indeed their 
 government has been obliged to interfere, and impose some very 
 strict regulations, by which every farmer is forced to insure his 
 dwelling and live stock ; nor are houses allowed to be built in 
 groupes, as formerly, unless at certain distances : this has had 
 some good effect, for of late years, fires have neither been so 
 frequent, nor so disastrous as heretofore, seldom extending be- 
 yond the single house in which they originate, while formerly 
 whole villages were destroyed by the raging element. As in- 
 surance is so universal, it follows that the premium is moderate 
 in proportion. 
 
 From the small town of Pinneberg, where we slept, we passed 
 through a very fertile and populous tract, towards Hamburg — 
 the fields were covered with herds of horned cattle, or richly co- 
 vered with the waving blossoms of beans, buck wheat, and clover : 
 the sides of the roads fenced with avenues of poplars and wil- 
 lows. It was Saturday, and we met long trains of stool waggons, 
 
HAMBURG. 15 
 
 containing the burghers of Hamburg and Altona, pouring forth 
 from these "reeking cities," to enjoy the repose of the tranquil 
 Sabbath, amidst the fragrant orchards of the surrounding vil- 
 lages. The high bell-towers, covered with copper sheathing, and 
 glittering in the sunshine, announced at the distance of several 
 miles, that we were approaching the large commercial city of 
 Hamburg; which we entered by a long wooden bridge, tra- 
 versing a deep and broad wet ditch at the Mullen-Thor, or 
 Altona Gate. As we halted here to give the serjeant of the 
 burghers guard time to take down our names, we were conning 
 over the pious motto inscribed on the arch above our heads, " Da 
 pacem Domine in diebus nostris," which, indeed, ought to be 
 that of every Christian and commercial state, although so often 
 contravened, not, however, without severe and lasting cause of 
 repentance. The Serjeant's queries being soon answered, we 
 passed on to the inn of the K'onig Von England, where we 
 were speedily put in possession of some good apartments on the 
 third floor. 
 
 Hamburg, as the residence of all the foreign envoys of Lower 
 Saxony, may be regarded as the court and capital of the country, 
 although but a trading republic. The gambling houses, theatres, 
 tables d'hote, and opportunities of indulgence and luxury with 
 which this spacious city abounds, prove an ample field of attrac- 
 tion to the neighbouring magnates who flock thither to get rid 
 of the ennui of their own homes, and indulge their social and 
 luxurious propensities, in a place where their habits and conduct 
 neither attract observation nor call down censure. At the time of 
 our visit the French army had occupied Lauenbourg, the opposite 
 bank of the Elbe, and the whole of Hanover ; the English Mini- 
 ster, Sir George Rumbold, had just before been forcibly carried off 
 
16 
 
 HAMBURG. 
 
 to France, from within a gunshot of its gates, and De Bourrienne, 
 the French Minister, was lording it over the luckless senate with 
 the most tyrannical authority ; hence Hamburg became but a 
 precarious place of residence for our countrymen ; so much so, 
 that Colonel Gillespie, the intimate friend of my fellow-tra- 
 vellers, had considered it imprudent to remain there and await 
 their arrival, as he had intended, having only by chance, 
 through the good nature of Napper Tandy, then in Hamburg, 
 narrowly escaped being conveyed into Hanover, by a stratagem 
 planned for that purpose. Indeed, such was the system of 
 espionage carried on at that period, that an unfortunate Hano- 
 verian, late our fellow-passenger in the packet, employed to 
 raise men for the German Legion, was ferreted out within 
 twenty-four hours after his arrival, arrested at the request of 
 De Bourrienne, and sent prisoner into Hanover, where he was 
 detained in a fortress for twelve months. Setting aside, however, 
 the political condition of Hamburg, at that moment, it was, and 
 will be always, a town of considerable attractions. Its site on the 
 Elbe, a noble expansive river, here four miles wide, interspersed 
 with beautiful islets highly cultivated ; its ramparts affording the 
 most pleasing walks and rides, for an extent of nearly five miles, 
 under avenues of well grown lime trees ; the Jungfernsteig, a fine 
 walk upon the Binnen Alster, a bason of water 1000 feet square, 
 often covered with pleasure boats ; the gardens of Rainville, at 
 Altona, overlooking the Elbe ; the hospitality of the inhabitants, 
 the abundance of public libraries and literary lounging places, 
 all contribute to render this city one of the most agreeable resorts 
 for a foreigner in the North of Germany. 
 
 The population of Hamburg is much too dense, considering the 
 extent of the town : there are not less than 120,000 inhabitants 
 
HAMBURG. 
 
 17 
 
 who seem to be an unhealthy race, if we may judge by their 
 sallow countenances, and by the amazing number of druggists' 
 and apothecaries' shops in the remarkable proportion of at least 
 ten to a single baker's shop. The French, by shutting up the 
 Elbe, had put an end to the foreign trade ; the river was 
 without shipping ; and nothing in the shape of commerce, 
 except that of the sugar-bakers and preparers of salted beef, 
 was going forward. The quantity of sugar refined in this city 
 must have been immense, there being not fewer than 500 bake- 
 houses for that article, with which they supply all the ports 
 of the Baltic, and much of the interior of Germany, Poland, and 
 Russia. The salting and smoking of beef, is a branch of trade 
 which grows out of the refining of sugars *, for as a very large 
 quantity of blood is required to clarify the syrups, the excess of 
 animal food can only be employed by salting and exporting it to 
 other countries. Sugars and animal food are, therefore, very 
 cheap, at Hamburg ; fruit, vegetables, and milk, are uncom- 
 monly good and abundant; weak red wines, from Bourdeaux, are 
 likewise very reasonable. Bread is the only necessary article of 
 life which is frequently dear, and the reason is, that the number 
 of licensed bakers is small, and their weights are not subjected 
 to public inspection. Impunity being ever the parent of impo- 
 sition, the bakers have become the bloodsuckers of the poor, 
 selling pieces of bread of an ounce weight, at the price which 
 by law they ought only to charge for double the quantity. House 
 
 * Indeed not less than eighty millions of pounds weight of white sugar are refined 
 annually ; there are ninety-eight millions imported ; and forty-six million pounds of 
 coffee, which may account for the consumption of the surplus. 
 
 D 
 
J g HAMBURG. 
 
 rent is also very dear, notwithstanding which, all articles of life 
 in the adjacent town of Altona, are from fifteen to twenty per 
 cent, cheaper ; but to keep matters on an equality, provisions 
 coming from Altona pay a tax to the city exchequer on passing 
 the gales. The streets in Hamburg, with very few exceptions, 
 such as the Newall, the Admiralty street, and the Old and New 
 Steinwig, are narrow crooked dirty lanes, without side flags, 
 pent in by lofty houses six or seven stories high, leaning over 
 the heads of the passengers. The number of private carriages 
 is very great, and as the coachmen drive always at a full trot, 
 with no command of their reins or horses, accidents in the streets 
 are very frequent ; but such is the indifference for the lives of the 
 pool*, that these Jehus are never punished except by a small fine, 
 and the sufferer, with his broken bones, is carried to an hospital 
 without any notice being taken of the occurrence in any of the 
 five newspapers printed here. This is very Vandalic and disgust- 
 ing to a stranger ; and another peculiarity is not less so : The 
 number of deformed ricketty children, and humpbacked dwarfs 
 and adults, is perfectly astonishing, and the name applied to the 
 disease sounds strangely. Rickets throughout Germany, are 
 called the English malady Englische Krankheit. — Luckily 
 however for England, this disease is now little known amongst 
 us. It is true, that towards the year 1 634, Rickets were noticed 
 in the London bills of mortality as having caused the death of 
 fourteen children ; this was then quite a novel disease, but from 
 that time it went on gradually, increasing its ravages till the 
 year 1660, when it is said to have proved fatal to no less than 
 five hundred and twenty-one children ; but, at the beginning of 
 the eighteenth century the mortality had decreased to three hun- 
 
HAMBURG. 
 
 19 
 
 dred and eighty, and fifty years afterwards, it had sunk down to 
 eleven, so that at the close of the century, only one child is 
 stated to have died of it. Hence we may conclude, that rickets, 
 like the plague, are now a disease quite extinct in Great Britain. 
 This fact in the natural history of mankind, is very extraordi- 
 nary, and would be nearly inexplicable but for the rapid and 
 remarkable change that occurred in our metropolis soon after the 
 year 1660, when this disease was at its height. London was 
 then what Hamburg is at the present day, a dirty ill-ventilated 
 town, with narrow lanes, old wooden houses, damp cellars, the 
 environs covered with marshes, and a very dense population 
 confined within a small space surrounded with high walls. The 
 plague of 1665, by carrying off ninety-seven thousand three hun- 
 dred inhabitants, removed very probably an effete degenerate race, 
 while the great fire which happened the following year, destroyed 
 the unhealthy tenements, and made it necessary to rebuild the 
 city upon an enlarged scale, better calculated to ensure the 
 health and comforts of the rising generation. The common 
 sewers were deepened, and Fleet-ditch and the other drains 
 covered over ; good pure water was conveyed in greater abun- 
 dance to the new dwellings, and the whole manner of living, and 
 domestic management and economy of the population during 
 the next century; underwent a complete change ; while a new 
 stock of healthy people from the country were replacing the 
 race which had passed away. We may therefore conclude, that 
 if ever the Senate of Hamburg should adopt the pious and wise 
 resolution of throwing down the greater part of their ramparts, 
 and filling up their stagnating ditches, widening their unhealthy 
 narrow streets, and giving the lower classes of the inhabitants an 
 
 d 2 
 
20 HAMBURG. 
 
 opportunity of emerging from the wretched damp cellars in 
 which they are forced at present to exist, the rickets would be- 
 come, as in England, almost unknown, and strangers would 
 no longer be shocked at beholding so many deformed human 
 beings perambulating the public streets. 
 
 A more pleasing subject for contemplation is afforded by the 
 numerous charitable institutions to be found in this city. Ham- 
 burg having been an Archiepiscopal see during the Catholic regime, 
 abounded with abbeys, nunneries, and other pious foundations, 
 the funds of which, upon the introduction of Lutheranism were 
 very properly appropriated to the support of the poor and aged, 
 and the endowment of hospitals for the sick. Of the charitable 
 foundations, one or two may be here more particularly described ; 
 and, first, the Lombard, or public pawn house, or Monte de Pieta, 
 as it would be called in Italy. These establishments were first 
 formed at Rome, Bologna, and some otherltalian cities, for the sake 
 of relieving the poor in their moments of distress, and rescuing 
 them from the gripe of usurers and Jews ; they were subsequently 
 formed at Hamburg and Amsterdam, and perhaps no better idea 
 can be given of their scope and utility, than by quoting the words 
 of a traveller who journeyed in Holland about the commencement 
 of the last century. " The magistrates of this city, Amsterdam, 
 take out of the merchants' bank a sufficient stock of money to 
 supply the Lombard, a bank that lends out money, and is 
 governed by four commissioners chosen out of the magistrates ; 
 who sit in court every day in the Lombard, which is a large 
 public building 300 feet long, containing several chambers and 
 magazines under one roof; in these several chambers the com- 
 missioners have officers sitting to lend money upon all sorts of 
 
HAMBURG. 
 
 21 
 
 goods, even from a pair of shoes to the richest jewel, &c. This 
 is a great convenience for poor people ; yea, and may benefit 
 merchants also, who sometimes require money to pay a bill 
 of exchange ; it prevents the cheating and extraordinary extortion 
 used by the pawnbrokers in England and other countries. The 
 poor have their pawns safely and well preserved ; neither are they 
 punctually sold when the stipulated time expires, nor denied 
 under the pretext of being mislaid, as the poor are sometimes 
 served by the wicked pawnbrokers. There is also another con- 
 venience in this Lombard, viz. an excellent method of disco- 
 vering thieves and stolen goods ; they publish two general open 
 sales of goods pawned twice a year, that such as are able may 
 redeem their goods, and on paying the interest may have them 
 again, although the time be elapsed." So much for the Lombard 
 at Amsterdam. — That of Hamburg is situated on the ramparts 
 near the Lombards-Briicke. Money is lent on property at one 
 half per cent, monthly interest, and the establishment is under 
 the direction of two senators and six burghers, two being chosen 
 from each of the three inferior chambers. It would not, perhaps, 
 be amiss if some such establishments were formed in England ; 
 for, while we are creating banks for the savings of the more 
 industrious poor, we ought not to abandon the helpless and 
 less fortunate class to the gripe of Hebrews and usurers who 
 wring from them twenty and twenty-five per cent, interest, 
 which in a short time amounts to such a sum that they can 
 scarcely, if ever, redeem their effects. It has lately been proved 
 before a Committee of the House of Commons, that borrowing 
 upon pledges has become an almost indispensable resource to 
 the labouring classes ; why then should they be abandoned in 
 
22 HAMBURG. 
 
 England alone, of all countries in Europe, at the moments of 
 their greatest need. * Certainly if one or two Lombards were 
 established in each large manufacturing town, and placed 
 under the strict scrutiny of the police, they might be made a 
 very efficient means of detecting thieves and suppressing petty 
 larcenies ; by rendering the disposal of stolen goods an affair 
 of much greater difficulty than it is under the present system. 
 
23 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Public Granary. — Foundling Hospital. — The Vierlands. — Singular te- 
 nure of the Blue Sisters' Convent. — Rivalry between Hamburg and 
 Altona — Parallel events in their history. — Funeral of the German 
 Poet Klopstock. — Lubec — its decaying state. — Mare Meyer Knel- 
 ler. — Ostade. — Strucasee Gadesbusch. — Rhadagaisus King of the 
 Obstrites. — Idolatry. — Reliques of the Estii in Spam. 
 
 Another institution at Hamburg deserving of particular com- 
 mendation, is the Kornhaus or Public Granary, which generally 
 contains fifteen hundred lasts of corn, and which, in times of 
 scarcity, is sold out to the poor at a moderate price. I am not 
 aware that there is any similar institution in England, except in 
 the town of Birmingham. The Waysenhaus or Foundling Hos- 
 pital is upon a larger scale than that of London, but whether its 
 effects on public morality are beneficial or otherwise, may be 
 questioned. In all countries where Foundling Hospitals are 
 common, it has been remarked, that child-murder is a crime of 
 rare occurrence ; but whether female incontinence be or be not 
 more frequent, it is difficult to decide. In Spain and Portugal, 
 for instance, where there are Foundling Hospitals or Inclusos 
 as they are called, in every little town, the number of Foundlings 
 is immense ; so also is the number of persons who live in a state 
 of celibacy ; but never did I hear, while in Spain, of a mother 
 having murdered her infant. On the whole, I am inclined to 
 
24 HAMBURG. 
 
 think that in all countries where civilization is far advanced, 
 Foundling Hospitals on an extended scale are necessary, to 
 prevent the commission of greater crimes. That of Ham- 
 burg was established by the beneficence of a rich and eminent 
 merchant, another Captain Coram. It was founded early in the 
 seventeenth century. Its income amounts to about 6000/. 
 sterling per annum. The number of children is limited to one 
 thousand, but the sucklings and babes are kept in the country 
 till they are of a proper age, so that there are seldom above 
 seven hundred and fifty or eight hundred at a time in the house. 
 The children, when educated, are placed out as apprentices to 
 different trades and occupations. 
 
 The fertility of the soil around Hamburg is amazing ; the 
 banks and islets are composed entirely of alluvial earth washed 
 down by the Elbe, and, like the Delta of Egypt, are covered 
 with the most luxuriant vegetation. A tract called the Vierlands, 
 has long been noted for the beauty of its gardens. It consists of 
 many acres covered with roses and the scarlet strawberry, which 
 fruit is produced here in greater perfection than any where in 
 Europe, not excepting even the far-famed banks of the Esk in 
 the environs of Roslin Castle. The men and women from the 
 Vierlands and Bardwick, remarkable for their grotesque dress, 
 carry round these fruits and vegetables from door to door, the 
 Vertumni and Pomonas of Hamburg ; their vigorous and muscu- 
 lar forms are a strong contrast to those of the slender pining sugar- 
 bakers, or the more graceful and often interesting figures of the 
 Haus M'ddchens, tripping like children of the sun, with radiated 
 caps approaching to the form of the golden head-dresses of 
 the ancient Irishwomen, still dug up from time to time in 
 the bogs of Cullen. 
 
HAMBURG. 25 
 
 A stranger may well be permitted to smile on beholding the 
 slip-shod Burgers' guard crawling after a tattered banner in- 
 scribed S. P. Q. H. in sad imitation of the imposing style of the 
 most heroic and warlike nation that has yet appeared on the 
 earth. From the sublime to the ridiculous there is indeed but a 
 step. A custom in Hamburg nearly allied to the sublime, but 
 more to the Schimmelpenninck-^omWe-SMWime, is the tenure by 
 which the Blue Sisters, a secularized religious society, hold their 
 property. Whenever a felon is led forth to execution, in passing 
 through the Stein- strasse, where their old convent stands, the 
 nuns are required to be in waiting to present the criminal with a 
 glass of white wine, which having drank, the executioner takes 
 the glass from his hands and dashes it against the pavement, that 
 no one may again drink from the accursed cup. The breaking 
 of the rod, and. throwing it into the tomb after pronouncing the 
 style of the deceased, as practised in our own country, and the 
 masked warrior entering the cathedral church of Cracow, and 
 breaking the sceptre of the departed Monarch upon the altar, are 
 but paraphrases of the same moral lesson ; the paths of glory as 
 well as those of crime lead but to the grave. This ceremony is of 
 rare occurrence however in Hamburg; in 1805 there had been 
 no execution for above a year. The last malefactor who had 
 forfeited his life to the laws of this country, was one Rusan, by 
 birth a Russian, and a candidate, that is, in holy orders, and 
 engaged in the public education of youth. This wretched man, 
 in the month of August 1803, had murdered his wife and four 
 children, but owing to the extreme tardiness of justice in Ger- 
 many, he was not executed till Monday, the 19th March 1804, 
 when he suffered the punishment appointed for his crime, being 
 broke upon the wheel. 
 
 E 
 
26 HAMBURG. 
 
 Among the many reverses of fortune which history so clearlv 
 points out to be incident to all human affairs, there are many 
 striking instances of Divine retribution displayed against hostile 
 Princes and rival Nations. And among these examples, the fates 
 of the rival cities of Altona and Hamburg, are by no means the 
 least instructive, or remarkable. 
 
 Voltaire, in his history of Charles the Twelfth, says, that the 
 burning of Altona by the Swedish army under General Stenbock, 
 on the 9th of January, 1713, the most barbarous and cruel act, 
 in all its circumstances, that was perhaps ever perpetrated, was 
 done expressly at the instigation of the Senate of Hamburg in 
 order that they might rid themselves of their hated commercial 
 rivals ; and the strong evidence upon which this accusation is 
 founded, is, that when the town of Altona was in flames, and the 
 wretched inhabitants were driven out in the midst of a bitter 
 winter-night to perish in the snow, the Hamburgers barbarously 
 refused to open their gates, or allow even the women with their 
 babes at their breasts, to take refuge in their city. Pollnitz, in 
 his memoirs, attempts to apologise for this inhuman conduct 
 saying, " that the plague was then raging in Holstein, and that 
 the Hamburgers dreaded any communication with the Altonese 
 lest by that intercourse they should bring the contagion within 
 the walls ; and besides that, they dreaded lest the army of Sten- 
 bock should rush in with the fugitives, and plunder Hamburg 
 also." Such may have been the facts, but presumptions are 
 strongly against Hamburg. The fate, indeed, of that city in our 
 own days, while under the cruel fangs of the French army, 
 seems to be but a just retribution by Divine Providence, for the 
 sins of their forefathers against the people of Altona. History 
 may be challenged in vain to produce two instances so completely 
 
HAMBURG. 
 
 27 
 
 parallel as the sacking of these rival cities at the interval of one 
 hundred years, by two foreign armies. The Swedes came at the 
 instigation of the Hamburgers as their friends ; the French came 
 at the suggestion of the Danes, as their allies. The Swedes 
 spared Hamburg but burnt and plundered Altona ; the French 
 occupied Hamburg, plundered the beloved bank, but respected 
 their friends the Altonese. The burning of Altona took place 
 in the midst of winter, when the ground lay deep in snow ; the 
 refugees implored from their cruel neighbours that assistance 
 to which as neighbours and Christians they were entitled, but 
 which the Hamburgers, more implacable than the elements, re- 
 fused. The French General Davoust, at the same season of the 
 year, drove out the aged and sickly inhabitants to perish amongst 
 the snows naked and helpless ; but here, fortunately for huma- 
 nity the parallel terminates, the inhabitants of Altona, forgetful 
 of all the wrongs their parents had suffered from the Hamburgers, 
 generously opened their gates to the wanderers, and preserved 
 them from certain destruction ; and who shall deny that the fin- 
 ger of Divine Providence directed this late but sure retaliation. 
 " • Vengeance is mine,' saith the Lord." 3 
 
 Happy would it be for the nations of Europe, if they would 
 recollect the fates of Altona and Hamburg, and instead of wast- 
 ing their resources in the most unceasing attempts to ruin their 
 rivals, act like the Samaritan inhabitants of Altona, and assist 
 each other in their days of distress. It is certainly time that a 
 better spirit should arise amongst mankind, and these two cities 
 have set the example. For in this more amicable disposition, 
 did their inhabitants unite in March, 1803, to do honour to the 
 remains of the immortal poet Klopstock, who died in Hamburg, 
 in his 80th year, and lies buried in the church of Ottensee, in 
 
 e 2 
 
28 
 
 HAMBURG. 
 
 Altona. His remains were attended to the grave by all the Fo- 
 reign Ministers, then resident in Lower Saxony ; by all the Se ■ 
 nators and Magistrates of Hamburg, preceded by a band of mar- 
 tial music, and the choristers of the cathedral : and followed by 
 a train of 120 carriages. The magistrates of Altona came forth 
 in procession to receive the funeral convoy, attended by all the 
 members of the learned professions, men of letters, general and 
 other officers, preceded by a guard of honour, composed of 
 Danish troops. Three young women clothed in white, and 
 crowned with chaplets of flowers, accompanied the funeral car, 
 carrying garlands of roses and myrtles, and strewing the flowers 
 of spring, while the choristers chanted over the poet's grave, his 
 own sublime ode to immortality. 
 
 In Hamburg there are no public buildings remarkable for 
 architectural beauty. The dohm, or cathedral, is a very ancient 
 Gothic structure, but it is built of brick, and the steeple, 
 although of a great height (a leaning tower, like that of Pisa, in 
 Italy), is only constructed of wood, sheathed with copper. In 
 this church are some remarkable Gothic tombs, amongst others 
 that of Anscarius, first bishop of Hamburg, who was massacred 
 by the heathen Vandals, and sacrificed to their idols : that of 
 Pope Benedict the Fifth, who died in exile in Hamburg, 
 A. D. 996, and that of Albertus Crantzius, the historian, who 
 died in A.D. 1517. 
 
 Having completed my arrangements at Hamburg, in which I 
 was politely assisted by Mr. Thornton, the British resident, and 
 his brother, Mr. Robert Thornton, (author of " The present 
 
LUBEC. 
 
 29 
 
 State of Turkey," who was then on his return to England,) I 
 took leave of my good friends Mr. and Mrs. Kearney, and set 
 off for Lubec ; which is distant one day's journey from Ham- 
 burg, the road lying across a sterile sandy tract of country 
 entirely devoid of beauty. 
 
 Lubec, once the rich and all powerful head of the Hanseatic 
 League, has silently fallen to decay, whilst her old associate 
 Hamburg, profiting by her neighbour's political errors, and 
 more fortunate in her geographical position, at the mouth of 
 the main river of Germany, has continued to rise in the scale of 
 wealth and prosperity. Fruitless and expensive naval wars 
 against Denmark exhausted the finances of the Lubeckers, and 
 rendered an increase of all their public burthens necessary; 
 whilst a most intolerant spirit amongst their Lutheran Clergy, by 
 banishing Jews and Catholics, has completed their city's decline. 
 
 The Hamburgers, destitute of ambition, and not curst with 
 the overbearing spirit of their neighbours, early professed uni- 
 versal toleration, received the refugee Walloons, expelled from 
 Flanders by the cruelty of the Duke of Alva, and at the same 
 time opened their gates to all Hebrews and Catholics. Hence 
 the capital and industry which were repelled from Lubec, finding 
 ample security and encouragement at Hamburg contributed to esta- 
 blish her preponderance in such a degree, that no subsequent efforts 
 of the Lubeckers have ever been sufficient to recover their lost 
 trade. So that now, while in Hamburg, the most wretched 
 cellar or garret produces a high rent, entire palaces in Lubec 
 may be inhabited for a very trifle, and every necessary article of life 
 is to be had in proportion. Thoughts have at different times 
 been entertained of cutting a navigable canal between these two 
 cities, which are only thirty-six miles asunder, and separated too 
 
30 
 
 LUBEC. 
 
 by a tract tolerably level ; but as the Elector of Hanover, the 
 Duke of Mecklenburg Schwerin, and the King of Denmark, are 
 all severally interested in distinct portions of the intervening soil, 
 the difficulty of bringing these potentates to any amicable 
 arrangement seems almost insuperable ; more particularly, as 
 the Danish monarch would suffer materially in his revenue, by a 
 falling off in the duties now paid by vessels entering the Sound. 
 Still there is a sort of communication for flat-bottomed boats only, 
 between Lubec and the German Ocean, through the rivers 
 Steckenitz and Elbe ; but the grand object would be to have 
 a canal capable of transmitting square-rigged vessels of 180 
 or 200 tons burthen, as in the Danish canal of Rendsburg. 
 
 Lubec is built in an oval form, along two sides of a ridge ;the 
 river Trave, on which it is built, forming a basin for ships in the 
 centre of the town. Like Hamburg, it is surrounded with bas- 
 tions and ramparts, the streets are also narrow, and the houses 
 terminate in acutely pyramidieal roofs, with the gable ends 
 fronting the streets. It abounds with churches, built as in 
 Hamburg, of brick, with lofty steeples, and containing many 
 curious objects of Gothic sculpture, painting, and mechanism, 
 particularly a Dance of Death, resembling that of Holbein, at 
 Basle in Switzerland, and a curious astronomical clock. 
 
 To strangers are still shown the rooms where the solemn 
 meetings of the great Hanseatic Alliance were once held, when 
 they were attended by the deputies of eighty-five trading cities ; 
 and a stone yet stands in the market-place, on which their 
 Admiral, Mark Meyer, had his head struck off, for flying from 
 before the Danish fleet. 
 
 The population of Lubec does not exceed forty-two thousand 
 persons. No Jews are permitted to reside within the walls, but 
 
LUBEC. 21 
 
 they have a little village called Jsraelikdorff, at two miles dis- 
 tance, from whence they come daily to transact business. The 
 port of Lubec is more properly at Travemunde, about nine miles 
 down the river, at which place the custom-house entries amount 
 generally to nine hundred or one thousand vessels, (that of Ham- 
 burg being two thousand,) about ninety of which pass the 
 Sound ; the rest go to the different ports in the Baltic. There is 
 also a constant and rapid intercourse by packets, between Trave- 
 munde and Riga, in Livonia, and the ports of St Petersburg 
 and Cronstadt. 
 
 The house in which our celebrated painter Sir Godfrey 
 Kneller drew his first breath, was pointed out to me here, as 
 also that of Adrian Ostade, the favourite subjects of whose 
 pencil I could easily recognise in the little pot-houses along the 
 road. Near the cathedral church there still stands the house in 
 which Count Struensee, the David Rizzio of Denmark, once lived, 
 when practising as a physician, before his unlucky stars sent 
 him to the court of Copenhagen. 
 
 The country immediately around Lubec is very beautiful, in 
 parts resembling Windsor forest ; we found the green sward 
 covered with flocks of geese, which are reared in large quantities 
 to supply the quill manufactories of Lubec. As you approach 
 Gadesbach, the country becomes hilly and covered with copses ; 
 and in the bottoms we encountered deep clay bogs, through 
 which, from the lightness of our berline, we were extricated 
 without much labour ; but in one of these we passed a heavy- 
 built English coach, containing a lady and family, immersed up 
 to the very axle-trees, which the efforts of six horses seemed 
 inadequate to move, and it rained so hard, that the children 
 could not be taken out of the carriage ; but we procured them 
 
32 
 
 LUBEC. 
 
 two yoke of oxen from a neighbouring farm-house, which helped 
 them out of their embarrassment. 
 
 Gadesbach, where we dined, is remarkable in modern times 
 for a bloody action fought in its neighbourhood, by the Swe- 
 dish army under Stenbock, and the allied Danish and Saxon 
 troops, when victory declared itself for the former. In more 
 ancient times, Gadesbach is celebrated as being the site of a 
 religious grove belonging to the idolatrous Obstrites, who here 
 offered human victims to one of their false deities called Rada- 
 gaisus or Rhadagast ; a fragment of the iron crown which 
 adorned the head of this image, is still preserved in the west 
 window of the church, and shown to travellers. All this 
 country, Mecklenburg Schwerin, as well as Mecklenburg 
 Strelitz and the coasts of the Baltic, were occupied during the 
 eighth and several succeeding centuries by tribes of Sclavonian 
 pagans, distinguished by various names, such as Obstrites, 
 Rhedarii, Tollenzenii, Venedi, Vandali, &c. &c. &c. These 
 people were converted to Christianity by the efforts of the 
 Catholic missionaries and Knights of the Teutonic order, but, 
 after a period of seventy years, they relapsed into idolatry, and 
 practised it openly as lately as the time of the German historian 
 Ditmar of Mernburg, who wrote towards the commencement 
 of the eleventh century. " There is," says that historian, " in 
 the country of the Rhedarii, a certain city which is called 
 Rhedegast ; it has three horns and three gates, and is sur- 
 rounded by a dismal forest, which forest is held in reverence by 
 the inhabitants, who religiously abstain from touching any of 
 the trees of which it is composed. Two of the gates of the 
 city stand open to receive all those who may wish to enter ; but 
 there is one looking towards the east, which is the smallest, 
 
GADESBACH. qq 
 
 and the only approach to which, is by means of a narrow foot- 
 path winding by the edge of a lake which is dreadful to look 
 upon. There is a temple curiously constructed of wood, sup- 
 ported on its foundations by the horns of various animals. Those 
 who have had any opportunity of inspecting this temple say, 
 that its walls are adorned externally by the figures of gods and 
 animals, admirably carved ; but in the interior are the fioures of 
 the divinities themselves, upon each of which is sculptured its 
 appropriate name. These have helmets on their heads, and are 
 cloathed in coats of mail, after a dreadful fashion. The princi- 
 pal idols are called Luarasici. These are honoured by the 
 Gentiles more than all the others ; their standards remain there 
 constantly, and only such as are necessary for the foot-soldiers 
 going upon military expeditions are ever removed. There are 
 priests expressly appointed by the natives, carefully to guard all 
 theseobjects. When the priests of the temple assemble together to 
 sacrifice to the gods or to appease their resentment, they seat 
 themselves on the ground, while the assistants remain stand- 
 ing. They then whisper to each other in the ear, scratch 
 the ground with looks of terror, and after having thrown 
 lots, endeavour to decide the matters in doubt. Accord- 
 ing to the various religious rites in this country, so have they 
 temples and images of each particular demon. But the before- 
 mentioned city contains the chief of the whole; of which when- 
 ever they are about to levy war they go solemnly to take leave ; 
 and, upon returning from a successful expedition they conse- 
 crate to it the presents to which they believe it entitled. They 
 endeavour carefully to find out, either by casting lots, or by means 
 of horse-divination, what victims are best suited to appease their 
 divinities, believing that their ineffable vengeance is only to be 
 
„ 4 GADESBACH. 
 
 averted by the blood of quadrupeds or human beings." This 
 mode of divining, by means of horses, was in use both in Pome- 
 rania and in ancient Persia. — In many other respects the rites 
 thus described bear a resemblance to those seen by Captain Cook 
 and Sir Joseph Banks in the morais of the South Sea islands. 
 One cannot but reflect with some degree of surprise that such 
 should have been the condition of the tribes of Northern Ger- 
 many, so lately as the middle of the eleventh century ; but an 
 anecdote of very recent date, mentioned by Count John Potocki, 
 in his Travels in Lower Saxony, respecting a Venedic peasant 
 in Hanover, is too remarkable to be omitted, more particularly as 
 it shows the barbarism of their manners, even about the middle 
 of last century. " At a place called La Ghorde, in the midst of 
 a wild and savage tract of land, is a forest, one part of which is 
 called the Jammer Holtz, or wood of lamentation. It is recorded, 
 that George the Second, while hunting in this forest, heard 
 some deep groans, and on gallopping up to the spot whence the 
 sounds proceeded, be found a Venedic peasant in the act of 
 interring his father alive. The monarch shuddered with horror 
 at the sight, whilst the peasant assured him with the greatest 
 artlessness, that he was only pursuing a custom established 
 amongst his own tribe from time immemorial ; but which they 
 only practised in secret, because of the fear they entertained 
 of their German neighbours." After this, which is received as 
 an undoubted fact in Hanover, we may the more easily give 
 credit to the following circumstances, which are recounted of this 
 same people in the year 1135. (i On the death of Kanute, sur- 
 named Lawaid, king of the Obotrites, his principalities were 
 divided between Prebyslas and Niclot, one of whom governed 
 the Wagrians and Polabians, and the other the Obotrites. These 
 
GADESBACH. 
 
 35 
 
 two princes were in truth two ferocious savages, thirsting after 
 the blood of Christians, and during their reigns the worship of all 
 sorts of idols, and the practice of every description of horrible su- 
 perstition was common throughout Sclavonia. For, besides their 
 sacred groves, and the lesser divinities, which filled every house 
 and field, they had Prowa, idol of the territory of Aldenbourg ; 
 Siwa or Sivva, goddess of the Polabians ; Radegast, idol of the 
 territory of the Obotrites ; all which idols had their priests and 
 sacrifices, and their peculiar modes of worship ; the priests cast 
 and consulted lots, and according to their inferences, fixed the days 
 for the greater solemnities ; at which were assembled all their 
 men, women, and children, and at which times they sacrificed 
 bullocks, goats, and sometimes even Christians, because it is their 
 belief that the blood of these last victims is peculiarly agreeable 
 to their false divinities. The priest, after having knocked down 
 the victim, pours forth libations of its blood, that he may thereby 
 be enabled to utter oracles, it being their general notion that 
 blood attracts the demons. When the sacrifices are concluded, 
 then the people give themselves up to rejoicing and feasting ; for 
 it is at that time that the Sclavonians perform a singular custom, 
 which they have while drinking together, to pass round a large 
 cup (patera) in which each individual mutters some words, I will 
 not say of consecration, but rather of execration, in the name 
 either of their good or bad divinities ; implicitly believing that 
 all good fortune proceeds from their good idol, and all bad for- 
 tune from their evil deity; which last they call Dia-Bol or Czerni- 
 boch, that is to say, the black idol. 
 
 " Amongst the numerous divinities of these Sclavonians, the 
 most illustrious is Suante-vil, the idol of the Russians ; him they 
 believe to be the most efficacious in his oracles, and in com- 
 
 f 2 
 
36 
 
 GADESBACH. 
 
 parison with him they consider all the others as inferior ; so that 
 to render him more particular honour they select annually, by 
 lot, a Christian , and offer him up as a sacrifice ; to the expences 
 of which festival all the other Sclavonian tribes and provinces 
 jointly contribute. For this temple these people have a singular 
 respect, permitting no one to swear there, nor do they suffer its 
 boundaries to be violated, even in pursuit of an enemy. The 
 Sclavonians, are, moreover, a people transcendent for cruelty, 
 never enduring to live in peace, and constantly harrassing their 
 enemies by unprovoked hostilities, either by sea or land. Nay, 
 it is difficult even to conceive all the various kinds of horrid 
 deaths, by which they immolate the Christians. Sometimes they 
 attach one end of their entrails to a tree, and wind them off by 
 forcing the poor wretches to walk round it in a circle ; at other 
 times they nail him to a cross ; thereby making a mockery of the 
 symbol of our salvation ; for it is their belief that the most 
 wicked only should be crucified. Those whom they destine to 
 be ransomed they afflict with torments and with heavy irons in an 
 unheard of manner." — ( Helmoldi Chronica Slavorum. ) Lu- 
 bec, Mo. 1659. 
 
 Such were the barbarians by whom the cities of Hamburg 
 and Lubec were for several centuries beset, and against whom 
 thev, in self-defence, first entered into the great Hanseatic 
 league, and whom afterwards, conjointly with the Dukes of 
 Saxony, and the Knights of the Teutonic order, assisted occa- 
 sionally also by the armies of the Emperors, they succeeded in re- 
 ducing to subjection, and converting to the mild doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity. The passages before quoted from the works of Ditmar, 
 bishop of Mersebourg, and from Helmold's Chronicles of the 
 Sclavonians. had fallen into oblivion, when, towards the latter 
 
GADESBACH. 
 
 37 
 
 end of the 17th century, between the years 1687 and 1697, 
 some workmen, in digging through an artificial hillock in this 
 neighbourhood, discovered various bronze implements and 
 grotesque statues, connected with the performance of these 
 idolatrous rites. Drawings of these were afterwards made 
 by Mr. Panwogen, an artist of Berlin, and plates published 
 from them. Within these last thirty years, Count John Po- 
 tocki, an illustrious Polish nobleman, has collected and 
 published many drawings of similar reliques, consisting of 
 patera, urns, and images of idols fabricated either of bronze 
 metal, or potters' earth, baked and unbaked, inscribed with 
 Runic characters. * Radegast is represented as a human figure 
 with a double visage, and having a bird perched upon his head, 
 a bull's head with horns is represented on the trunk of his body : 
 Sivva is figured as a female above the cestus ; the figure beneath 
 often represents a male. Prowa is generally represented as an 
 old man cloathed in a coat of mail, with a bearded human head 
 on his stomach. The other reliques represent Anubis, Hela or 
 death, demons with a triple or quadruple visage, &c. &c. The 
 name of Rhadagaisus imports, that he was the god of agricul- 
 ture, Rada signifying a plough, and gaisus a lord. Sivva, the 
 Venus of these idolaters, derives her name from the Chaldean 
 Zif, splendour, beauty, or loveliness. As connected with the 
 foregoing observations, it may be stated, that amongst other 
 migrations of the Sclavonic Venedi, a great multitude appear 
 to have landed on the northern coast of France, and to have 
 occupied the country once called Poitou, to which they gave the 
 
 * Count John Potocki : " Voyage clans quelques parties de la Basse Saxe, pour la 
 recherche ties Antiquites Slaves ou Vendes." Hambourg, 1795, Ito. 
 
38 
 
 GADESBACH. 
 
 name of the Venedic territory, which is now known by the 
 appellation of La Vendee. Another tribe of Sclavonians, called 
 the Estii, who inhabited the province now called Esthonia, on 
 the Baltic, appear to have passed at a very remote period 
 into Spain, and occupied a tract of country in Castile, 
 comprehending Salamanca, Ciudad Rodrigo, Gallegos, and 
 the banks of the Coa river ; for Tacitus states, that these 
 people venerated the goddess mother under the image of a wild 
 boar, which they carried with them on all their expeditions, and 
 at this hour the rudely carved granitic images of a wild boar, 
 (or bear, or hippopotamos) are to be seen built into the Roman 
 bridges of Salamanca and Ciudad Rodrigo, and also near the 
 churches of Gallegos and San Felices, on the Coa. The name 
 given by the Spaniards to these images, is the Barrieco or the 
 roaring animal (barus, grave ; and echo, sound). 4 
 
39 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Schwerin. — Neustadt. — Prussian Posting. — Fehrbellin Canal. — Berlin. 
 — The Schloss or Palace. — Public Buildings. — Monuments. — Lite- 
 rary and Scientific Establishments. — New Mint. — Public Hospital. — 
 Institution for Deaf and Dumb. — Anecdote of a Dumb Painter, arid 
 the Countess Lichtenau. — Regeneration of Prussia — its effects. 
 
 We slept at Schwerin, the capital of one of the principalities 
 of Mecklenburg : a pleasant little town, beautifully situated by 
 the edge of a shallow lake, remarkable for giving rise to two 
 small rivers ; the one flowing into the Elbe and German ocean, 
 and the other into the Baltic Sea. Adjoining the town is the 
 Gothic castle of the Prince, placed upon an island, and connect- 
 ed by drawbridges with the main-land. The town of Lubec owes 
 much to the Dnkes of Merklenhurg Srhwerin, who assisted the 
 people in their wars against the Sovereigns of Denmark, as well as 
 against the pirates of the Baltic. Indeed, it was Henry the Lion, 
 first Duke of Schwerin, who, having seized by a stratagem the 
 persons of Waldemir the Second, (A. D. 1222,) and his son, re- 
 stored the Hanse towns of Lubec and Hamburg, with all the ad- 
 joining coast, to their ancient freedom, afterwards more fully 
 established by the victory of Bornhovede, and the total defeat of 
 the Danes. In memory of this good service, the Magistrates of 
 Lubec are accustomed to send every year, at Martinmas, during 
 the month of November, a deputation to the Duke of Schwerin, 
 
40 
 
 MECKLENBURG. 
 
 to compliment him with a hogshead of Rhenish white wine. Dr. 
 Nugent, who travelled through Mecklenburg in 1766, was pre- 
 sent at this ceremony, now known by the name of Martins man. 
 u The court of the palace," says the Doctor, " was filled with an 
 immense crowd, when a vehicle, resembling a post-waggon, drove 
 into the court, in which were seated a deputy of the magistrates 
 of Lubec, several subaltern officers dressed in red, a public notary, 
 and two witnesses. They brought with them a hogshead of Rhenish 
 wine, which the senate of Lubec send every year as a present to the 
 Duke of Mecklenburg Schwerin. They drove pretty fast round 
 the court, throwing money among the mob, who fought and 
 scrambled for it like devils. Presently an officer belonging to the 
 Duke made his appearance, and was addressed by them in the fol- 
 lowing terms. — ' The senate and citizens of Lubec have sent 
 this cask of wine to his Serene Highness, as a testimony of friend- 
 ship and good neighbourhood.' The Duke's officer made an- 
 swer, ' We accept it not on account of friendship and good neigh- 
 bourhood, but as a just debt and matter of obligation.' Upon 
 which the deputy ordered his notary to take down his protest in 
 writing, and the witness to attest it. The same caution was 
 used on the side of the Duke's officer, who entered a counter 
 protest with vehemence and warmth. Then the deputy and his 
 attendants were led into an apartment in the castle, and enter- 
 tained with a good dinner. But what is very droll in this cere- 
 mony, the carriage is carefully examined before it drives into the 
 court, and if there should happen to be a defect in the wheels or 
 in any other part, the whole is forfeited to the Duke. The 
 deputy and his people stay all night, but are obliged to depart 
 next day before noon." 5 See Nugent 's Travels in Germany, 
 vol. ii. p. 221. 
 
PRUSSIAN POSTING. 4J 
 
 Schwerin, in Sclavonic, signifies a deer park ; we drove through 
 one on leaving the town, where, instead of deputies from Lubec, 
 we left a host of spies from the French army at Lauenburg, who 
 intercepted, when they could, all couriers going or coming from 
 England, and only a few weeks before an English messenger had 
 been robbed by them, and left tied to a tree in a forest near 
 Gadesbuch. The country between Schwerin and Neustadt is 
 well wooded, and resembles much the New Forest in Hamp- 
 shire, between Southampton and Lymington. — We saw no 
 French picquets, but passed within half a mile of their out- 
 posts : it was pleasant to know that we had reached the Prussian 
 frontiers, as I had been entrusted with some letters for Vienna 
 and Constantinople, which were of consequence to the British 
 interests there. But as no pleasure is unalloyed, I was soon 
 made sensible of the miseries incident to travelling through the 
 deep sands of Prussia. Indeed, the excessive irksomeness of a 
 journey through that country cannot be well described. Sterile 
 dreary flats extend on every side, to render which fertile the 
 industry of man seems struggling against the complicated auste- 
 rity of a severe sky, and a rigid military government. Bad post- 
 houses, uncivil post-masters, sulky drivers, jaded horses, and most 
 abominable roads, are the agreeable attendants of Prussian post- 
 ing ; the only consolatory circumstance is the recurrence of the 
 large mile stones of red granite, shaped like obelisks, which meet 
 the traveller's eye from time to time ; and announce a hope that he 
 may at length come to the end of these weary stages ; it is above 
 all things singular to contemplate the effects of a strictly military 
 regime upon the conduct and character even of the civil servants 
 of the government. Protected by his royal livery, the Prussian 
 postillion saunters on at the rate of one German mile an hour, 
 
 a 
 
42 PRUSSIAN POSTING. 
 
 and no bribes, intreaties, or threats, can induce him to exceed the 
 regulation, or spur his horses into a smart trot, even where the roads 
 will permit such a wonderful exertion ; with all the provoking 
 phlegm inherent to his character, he grins sardonically in your 
 face, drops his reins on the necks of the rosinante post-horses, and 
 taking out his everlasting meerschaum tobacco-pipe, his tinder- 
 box, and flint, goes on chipping for half an hour, till he lights 
 the sluggish weed ; whiffs the nauseous fumes in your face, 
 mounts or dismounts to arrange his wretched ragged harness, 
 ever and anon cracks his greasy whip, merely to keep himself 
 awake, or puffs harsh discord from the cracked tube of his bat- 
 tered post-horn ; and if he ever does venture to urge his steeds, 
 it is only upon the dislocating surface of some ruined causeway, 
 when he hopes to break the springs of your berline, and delay 
 you at some village where he may drink a triple portion of 
 brandy wine schnaps. All this, and much more, must every 
 traveller expect to endure who makes a progress, or rather pil- 
 grimage through the Prussian states. To crown his mortifica- 
 tions, it may also happen to him, as I know it did more than 
 once to myself, that about the middle of the stage his postillion 
 may encounter another equipage bound to his own post-house. — 
 If so, he will have the additional gratification of seeing a very 
 amicable exchange of carriages, the two postillions unharnessing 
 in the middle of the road, each putting his own horses to the 
 strange carriage, and after conversing for half an hour, again 
 turning their faces homewards. The first time this happened to 
 me I was silent ; it seemed so strange that I was determined not 
 to interrupt the process which took place in a dark night on the 
 road between Peileberg and Fehrbellin ; but just when I hoped 
 that every arrangement was settled, and that my new postillion 
 
PRUSSIAN POSTING. 
 
 43 
 
 and his horses would make amends for my long forbearance, the 
 fellow discovered he had lost his whip — then there was such 
 jabbering and spluttering, and sacramenting, nothing was ever 
 like it. Not a star was to be seen ; all dark as pitch, with no lamps 
 to our carriage ; the wretch cursed and swore, and whined, but 
 all to no purpose, then he got on his knees and groped on the 
 sand for a good quarter of an hour, till at length Czerni-bog 
 or the devil took pity on him, and surrendered the lost whip, 
 and at last we proceeded along the sands. This may do for 
 once, thought I, but I can hardly submit to it a second time ; 
 a Saxon postillion, however, near Dresden, was still more un- 
 reasonable, for, having three horses, this fellow, on meeting a 
 traveller coming from Dresden with only two, very coolly un- 
 harnessed mine, with the intention to exchange them against 
 the pair ; this I could not allow, so leaping from the carriage, I 
 showed my pistols, and made the fellow bring them back again, 
 and we then went on to Dresden, where he lodged a complaint 
 against me, but no purpose. The same thing again occurred to 
 me while travelling in Galitzia, when I once more resisted and 
 prevented its execution ; so that I conclude it is an unauthorised 
 exchange, which although very notorious, is not yet openly jus- 
 tified by the German governments. 
 
 Near Fehrbellin, the road crosses a canal, which unites the Elbe, 
 the Havell, and the Oder*; it seemed to have been lately finished, 
 but there was little traffic upon its banks. Fehrbellin was the scene 
 of a battle in the beginning of last century, between the Prussians, 
 under their Great Elector Frederick William, and the Swedes ; 
 
 * The Canal of Bromberg was begun in 1 782, and completed in fifteen months. 
 It has ten locks, its length is 6850 rods, reckoning the rod at 12 feet Rhenish 
 measure. 
 
 G 2 
 
44 BERLIN. 
 
 when, the Elector being mounted on a white horse, which attract- 
 ed the enemy's fire, one of his equerries persuaded him to ex- 
 change horses ; this man's generous solicitude for the safety of 
 his sovereign proved fatal ; for a few moments after, a cannon 
 shot terminated a life of honour by a death of glory. The name 
 of this brave man was Forben, and his devotion and loyalty to 
 his Prince will entitle him to a high rank amongst the illustrious 
 patriots of Prussia. 
 
 About one German mile from Fehrbellin we entered a thick 
 wood, which continued with little interruption to within half a mile 
 of Berlin. Our last relay of post-horses was obtained at a single 
 house, standing solitarily in the midst of this forest, so deeply hid 
 amongst the trees, that we were already at the door before we 
 had descried it ; and it strongly reminded us of a blockhouse in 
 the midst of a North American wood. Three hours more brought 
 us to Berlin. Here our carriage was stopped at the gates that the 
 passport might be examined ; and whilst this was transacting at 
 the guard-house on the right hand, a brace of custom-house 
 officers sallying from their lodge on the left-hand side of the 
 gate, took possession of the keys of our portmanteaus, and began 
 to rummage their contents, lest, peradventure, smuggled snuff 
 or tobacco should have taken refuge amongst our linen or books. 
 It was an amusing sight to observe the avidity with which these 
 harpies of king Phineas's court pounced upon the baskets of the 
 unfortunate citizens, and seized the copper coin extorted from the 
 hapless and reluctant peasants, for each luckless cucumber or let- 
 tuce. I had never before seen " Finance's petty-fogging pickling 
 plan" so well exemplified in all its miserable deformity. Not a 
 single shalot or radish could escape; every thing eatable here pays a 
 duty before it can enter the town. As to ourselves, the officers found 
 
BERLIN. 45 
 
 nothing excisable, but there being an unlucky box of papers 
 amongst my luggage, directed to the Right Hon. C. A. at Constan- 
 tinople, the seals of which I did not choose that they should break, 
 as well as a paper parcel directed to the Hon. Mr. Jenkinson, at 
 Vienna, on which I imposed the same veto ; the custom-house 
 worthies immediately beckoned two soldiers, who springing up 
 before and behind the carriage, conducted us to the yard of 
 the custom-house, where these spolia opinio, were deposited in 
 due form ; and I was then permitted to go to my hotel. First 
 impressions are powerful, and this reception was but ill calcu- 
 lated to put a weary traveller in good humour with the Prussian 
 capital, but the appearance of the breakfast table at the Golden 
 Eao-le would soon have dissipated my spleen, had not the land- 
 lord come up with a printed Police report, in which, before I 
 could swallow a single cup of coffee, I was forced to enter name, 
 country, profession, &c. &c. &c. This, however, is Berlin 
 Police. Leges sine moribus. But what are laws, alas, without 
 morality ! 
 
 No contrast can well be more striking than that presented by 
 the cities of Berlin and Hamburg. None of the offensive pecu- 
 liarities in the appearance of the latter city are here visible ; the 
 traveller, in the course of sixty miles, seems to have borrowed 
 the wino-s of time, and outstripping the slow and gradual 
 progression of the arts for four centuries, finds himself on a 
 sudden, placed as it were in the midst of an Italian city, 
 surrounded with wide and dry streets, spacious squares, avenues, 
 bridges, porticoes, palaces, triumphal arches, statues, and 
 cupolas, and instead of the jutting abutments of mean brick 
 buildings, beholds on all sides the ample proportions of stately 
 edifices — the triumph of human industry over the sterility of 
 
46 
 
 BERLIN. 
 
 nature, a modern Palmyra raised by the wand of an enchanter 
 amidst the hyperborean deserts of Brandenburgh. 
 
 Of the history of Berlin previously to the commencement of 
 the thirteenth century, nothing is positively ascertained. It was 
 probably an obscure village — for it was not till the reign of the 
 Emperor Frederick the Second, that Prussia, possessed by idola- 
 trous hordes, was converted to Christianity by the swords of the 
 Teutonic knights. It then remained Catholic till A. D. 1539, 
 when the Elector Joachim the Second, embraced the doctrines of 
 Luther, and the people followed their Prince's example. When 
 the Great Elector appeared, all the houses of Berlin were of 
 wood, the streets crooked and unpaved, and every thing about 
 it in the same vile condition. But as soon as that Prince had 
 obtained peace for his country, he dedicated himself to the 
 improvement of Berlin his favourite city, and transferred the seat 
 of government thither from Konigsberg. His son, the first 
 king of Prussia, followed up his father's plans, and after him, 
 Frederick the Great occupied himself during the intervals of a 
 long and stormy reign of forty-six years, in completing it in its 
 present splendour. 
 
 The river Spree, upon which Berlin is situated, is narrow and 
 of no great depth, but navigable for small craft. It rises in 
 Lusace, and, after winding through the plain of Berlin, where it 
 divides its waters to form two islands, it joins the Havell under 
 the walls of Spandau. By the navigation of this river, Berlin 
 obtained the stone which composes its public buildings and the 
 pavements of its streets ; through the same channel its markets 
 are always well supplied with great quantities of fresh fish. 
 Berlin (properly speaking) is formed of five towns and four 
 suburbs, but they are so closely united as to be only one city 
 
BERLIN. 
 
 47 
 
 surrounded by a wall about eighteen feet high, of no strength, 
 and of no further utility than to prevent the introduction of 
 goods except at the barriers. The private houses are generally 
 of four and five stories high, solidly constructed of brick cased 
 with stucco to imitate free-stone, the streets are drawn in regular 
 angles, well paved, with footpaths, posts, and chains, to protect 
 the foot-passengers from the carriages and sledges ; and many of 
 them are shaded with rows of lime trees. The soil is very dry 
 and sandy, so that heavy rains are soon absorbed ; but from the 
 action of the sun's rays in summer, and the drying easterly winds 
 of winter, it is liable to be raised in clouds of very subtile dust 
 which enters the organs of respiration ; and the variations of 
 temperature in the atmosphere being great, as well as sudden, 
 inflammatory diseases, particularly of the lungs, are common 
 and very fatal, generally terminating as in England in pulmo- 
 nary consumption, and, as in the latter country, are here the 
 principal cause of mortality. In the year 1802, the Berlin bills 
 of mortality stated the deaths from this disease at not less than 
 1424, which, from a population of 150,000 souls, is a very great 
 proportion. 
 
 The beauty of the royal street, (called formerly St. George, 
 which name was dropped after the solemn entry of Frederick 
 the First, returning from his coronation at Konigsberg,) is a 
 principal object of attention. A stranger, on arriving at the 
 great bridge, is first attracted by the equestrian statue of " the 
 Great Elector" Frederick William, erected in 1703 by his son 
 Frederick William. The long bridge then conducts him to the 
 great square of the King's palace, where he finds himself sur- 
 rounded by some very imposing masses of architecture. On his 
 right is the royal Schloss, built in the form of a lozenge, 
 
48 
 
 BERLIN. 
 
 one front looking upon the great square, the opposite towards 
 the garden (Lustgarten), another upon the river Spree, and the 
 fourth on the buildings called " the liberties of the palace." 
 Around the attics runs a balustrade adorned with statues and 
 trophies. As the Schloss has been built by portions erected at 
 various times, its symmetry is far from perfect, but the general 
 effect is good, the front, looking upon the Spree, is the only 
 part now remaining of the ancient electoral residence. Frede- 
 rick the First, and his successor Frederick William the First, 
 rebuilt the other three faces, and the whole was completed in 
 1716. Frederick the Great, living chiefly at Potsdam or in the 
 camp, bestowed but little pains upon its interior embellishments, 
 which were chiefly completed by the late monarch. The portico 
 of the front, looking towards the royal liberties, has been most 
 admired, as a tolerable imitation of the arch of Septimius Severus 
 at Rome. It was designed by the celebrated Schluter. By an 
 adjoining staircase there is a communication from the vaults 
 under the palace to the roof, where are three cisterns capable of 
 containing seven thousand hogsheads of water, which are forced 
 up by some hydraulic windmills from the zverder or island in the 
 Spree. This water is destined for the extinction of fire in case 
 of accidents. The interior of the Schloss corresponds with its 
 external magnificence. The apartments of Frederick William 
 the First, those of Frederick the Great, and of the late King, the 
 concert saloon, the dinner hall, the orderly hall, the white hall, 
 the hall of the Swiss, and of the knights of the Black Eagle, 
 together with the picture gallery, are all very fine, and the 
 cabinets of curiosities and of natural history contain several rare 
 and good specimens, well arranged, as do those of medals and 
 antiques. In the cabinet of curiosities we particularly noticed 
 
BERLIN. 
 
 some sculptures in amber and ivory ; articles from Japan, China, 
 America, and Otaheite ; many antiques illustrative of the rites and 
 customs of the ancient Prussians ; models of an English man of 
 war and of a windmill at Saardam, made by Peter the Great of 
 Russia. In the natural history collection are some fine minerals 
 and fossil productions of great rarity and value, particularly those 
 illustrative of the formation of amber, which is to be seen exud- 
 ing from wood, and filling up all its pores and crevices. Among 
 the zoological specimens, is the fine collection of fishes formed 
 by the late Dr. Block, consisting of 850, of which 520 are 
 preserved in spirits, and the rest dried or stuffed. 
 
 The Lust garten is only a large square serving as an exercising 
 ground for troops ; it was here that Frederick the Great used 
 to take great delight in looking upon his gigantic grenadiers 
 from a window of the palace still pointed out to strangers. In 
 an alley of this garden stands the statue of Prince Leopold 
 Anhalt Dessau, one of the organisers of the Prussian infantry. 
 He is sculptured in white Carrara marble, standing on a pedestal 
 adorned with bas reliefs and inscriptions ; but this, although a 
 work of Schadow, is but ill adapted to display the sculptor's 
 talents, the costume being modern and abominable. Near it 
 stands the cathedral church built by Frederick the Great, a 
 handsome edifice, the front of which is adorned with six 
 columns of the Ionic order, the dome surrounded by Corinthian 
 columns. Within it are deposited the remains of the royal 
 family. Near the " dog's bridge" is the arsenal, where are 
 twenty-one masks representing the various aspects of death, 
 which it is the fashion to think very fine, but the figure of 
 repentance with her head surrounded with snakes, is, in my 
 opinion, much better. The finest quarter of the city is that 
 
50 
 
 BERLIN. 
 
 called the burg of Dorothea, built by the great Elector, and 
 named after his consort Dorothea. Passing a fine bridge, you 
 come upon the great square of the opera, surrounded by the 
 palace of Prince Henry on the right, the opera-house on the 
 left, the library and cathedral church on the further side, while 
 the magnificent Linden walk, terminated by the far-famed 
 Brandenburg gate, completes the perspective. The Italian 
 opera-house is a fine building capable of containing 6000 
 spectators, and having a concert room adjoining. Fronting it is 
 the royal library built in 1775 by Frederick, containing now 
 160,000 volumes, formed and selected from the various collec- 
 tions of several private individuals and men of science, such as 
 Spanheim, Roloff, Dr. Mochsen, Quintus Icilius, Professor 
 Forster, &c. &c, to which have been more lately added, those 
 of Prince Henry and of the Academy of Sciences. In this build- 
 ing are preserved several curious objects, such for instance as a 
 Chinese printing apparatus ; the first pneumatic machine invent- 
 ed by Otto Guericke, and his two hemispheres, called the hemis- 
 pheres of Magdeburg ; an ancient writing executed with a 
 style on a tablet covered with wax ; an Indian writing on 
 papyrus ; a beautifully illumined MS. Alcoran, a MS. of Luther, 
 and another of Albertus Magnus. Adjoining to the library are 
 some rooms thrown open to the public thrice a week, where the 
 books of the library may be consulted. The Linden walk is a 
 street about 1600 paces in length by 50 in width, havino- on 
 each side a range of magnificent buildings, with a drive for 
 carriages fenced off by granite posts and iron chains. The 
 Brandenburg gate at the further end, is an open colonnade 
 composed of twelve fluted Doric columns, each 44 feet by 5 ; six 
 of these are placed on each front, leaving five intervening 
 
BERLIN. 
 
 51 
 
 apertures. It was built in 1790 after the designs of Laughan 
 formed upon the model of the Propylea of Athens. The attic is 
 adorned with sculptures in bas relief, representing the Margrave 
 Albert Achilles, one of the ancestors of the house of Hohenzol- 
 lern, capturing with his own hands, a standard from the army of 
 the Nurembergers. The metopes are adorned with sculptures 
 representing the combats of the Centaurs and Lapithae, and to 
 crown the whole, there is the thrice captured triumphal 
 quadriga. 
 
 Wilhehns Platz, or William's Square, may be regarded as the 
 Pantheon of the Prussian heroes of the seven years' war. It is 
 adorned with five statues of white Carrara marble. One of these 
 represents Field-Marshal Schwerin, in Roman costume, holding 
 the stand of colours which he seized at the battle of Prague, 
 (6th March, 1757). Another represents, Lieutenant-General 
 Winterfeld, who was killed at Mays, in Upper Lusace (9th 
 September, 1757), also habited in Roman costume, leaning 
 against an oak, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. The 
 third is Field Marshal Keith, killed at the battle of Hochkirk, 
 (14th October, 1759). He is represented in modern uniform, as 
 well as General Seidlitz, who died in 1773. Lastly, there is the 
 fine statue of the Hussar General de Zieten, the favourite of 
 Frederick, and one of the most intrepid of the Prussian warriors. 
 He is in his full Hussar uniform, with his left hand raised 
 to his chin, his usual musing attitude. These statues are over- 
 looked by a number of fine hotels, particularly that of Prince Fer- 
 dinand of Prussia. The last mentioned statue, much the best of 
 the whole, was not erected till after the decease of Frederick. It 
 stands fifteen and a half feet high, including the pedestal, which is 
 formed of grey Silesian marble, encrusted with basso relievos of 
 
 h 2 
 
52 BERLIN. 
 
 white marble, representing some singular military achievements, 
 performed by De Zieten. The garrison church contains four 
 good pictures by Rode, representing the deaths of the before 
 named Generals, which have been well engraved by German ar- 
 tists ; and the church is also decorated with many colours and 
 standards, captured from the enemy, the trophies of Prussian 
 valour. Another very beautiful monument at Berlin, is that of 
 the young Count de la Masche, natural son of the late King, by 
 the Countess IJchtenau, which stands in the church of Dorothea. 
 The count is represented in the act of expiring, reclined on the 
 top of a sarcophagus, his helmet has fallen from his head, and 
 his sword is quitting his lifeless grasp. Around the sarcophagus, 
 are sculptured in bas relief, the three Parcas, who have wound 
 off the vital thread of this pupil of Minerva, which Goddess is 
 represented beside the twin brothers, Sleep and Death, to 
 whose empire she resigns the Prince. This tomb and that of 
 General De Zieten, are from the chisel of the Prussian sculptor, 
 Schadow. 
 
 Berlin abounds with literary and scientific men who compose 
 various societies, amongst which, the Academy of Sciences, the 
 friends of Natural History society, and the Cabinet of Mines, 
 are the most prominent. The first was formed by the Queen 
 Sophia Charlotte, of Hanover, a sovereign of the most amiable 
 character, and great literary merit, passionately enamoured of 
 metaphysics, and the friend and patron of the great Leibnitz, 
 whom, with other learned men, she invited to Berlin. During 
 the reign of Frederick, the great mathematician Maupertuis, 
 organised the academy anew, and arranged it into four classes ; 
 comprehending mathematics, experimental physics, metaphysics, 
 and belles lettres. Each class has a director and five resident 
 
BERLIN. 
 
 53 
 
 members, making the whole number of ordinary members 
 twenty-four, exclusive of the president and perpetual secretary. 
 Each member receives a stated pension, and is employed by the 
 state, to perform particular duties, connected with his own depart- 
 ment. There are two great public sittings held annually, when 
 the premiums are distributed. During the reign of Frederick 
 its transactions were published in French, but since his decease, 
 both Latin and German papers are admitted. The sittings are 
 held in a building near the Linden walk, behind which is the ob- 
 servatory, a square tower, sixty feet high, terminated by a plat- 
 form. It contains a good collection of mathematical and astro- 
 nomical instruments, and the library is confided to the care of 
 Mr. Bode, Astronomer Royal, favourably known in the literary 
 republic, as the author of an Uranography, or Catalogue of 17,240 
 stars, a work of great accuracy and observation. 
 
 At present, however, the study of Natural History in all its 
 branches, is that which is cultivated with the greatest assiduity 
 at Berlin. The lovers of nature first formed themselves into 
 a society in 1773, which was sanctioned by the government in 
 1778, and the late king presented them with a large house, 
 where they now hold their meetings every Thursday ; they have 
 also monthly conversazioni in turn at each other's house. 
 Their transactions are contained in 18 volumes, comprising dis- 
 coveries and notices upon eveiy branch of Natural History, 
 Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Medicine. Amongst the members 
 belonging to this society are Humboldt, Bode, Klaproth, Will- 
 denow, Karsten, De Hermstaedt, De Fleurke, De Laspeyres, 
 De King, De Gronau, De Reich, &c. &c. This society also pos- 
 sesses an excellent library, and a choice cabinet of specimens in 
 Natural History, comprehending a rare collection of the mam- 
 
54 BERLIN. 
 
 miferae of Africa, insects of Surinam, turtles and tortoise-shells, 
 and anatomical preparations, &c. and a fine herbarium of the 
 plants of India and the Cape of Good Hope ; besides a most 
 precious collection of minerals, consisting of 12,000 specimens 
 brought from the mines and mountains of Transylvania, Hun- 
 gary, Silesia, Carinthia, Carniola, France, Switzerland, Italy, 
 England, Scotland, Ireland, and South America. Besides M. 
 Humboldt, the intrepid investigator of the Andes, Berlin may 
 boast of having produced another illustrious living traveller, the 
 Count de Hoffmanseig, who has traversed the greater part of 
 Europe, and has for many years been occupied in preparing for 
 the press a magnificent botanical work, with plates descriptive 
 of the Flora of Portugal and Brazil, the plates and drawings of 
 which work he has spared neither labour nor cost to collect and 
 execute. This work, when completed, will do honour to the 
 arts in Prussia, and place the name of Count Hoffmanseig 
 among those of Banks, Humboldt, Lambert, Linnaeus, and other 
 illustrious men, who have by their exertions so effectually pro- 
 moted and embellished the science of botany. Mr. Willdenow, 
 the celebrated author of the Species Plantarum, possesses a her- 
 barium of 19,000 plants, comprehending those collected by 
 Gundelsheim the companion of Tournefort. Both Klaproth 
 and Hermstaedt are distinguished for their chemical discoveries 
 as well as Karstine, who is charged with the department of the 
 mines, and has arranged in a very scientific manner the collection 
 of minerals contained in the new mint, a building lately erected 
 by the present king. These minerals he has divided into three 
 classes, namely, one illustrative of the topography of Prussia, 
 another of the system he adopts, and a third comprehending all 
 minerals foreign to the Prussian states, or the exotic, as he styles 
 
BERLIN. 55 
 
 them. The system adopted by M. Karstein is that of Haiiy. 
 To this collection have lately been added many rare minerals 
 presented by Humboldt and Ferber. Amongst other curious 
 specimens, is a piece of yellow amber, weighing thirteen pounds 
 and a half, found by a peasant at Strapohen, a village near Jur- 
 terburg. The present king presented the fortunate finder with 
 one thousand rix-dollars. There is also a morsel of native platina 
 weighing 1088 grains, and a large piece of fiery opal brought 
 from South America by Humboldt. The building itself, has 
 externally no claims to admiration ; it is decorated, however, 
 with some bas-reliefs, representing the processes of working and 
 stamping the precious metals, and an inscription as follows : — 
 
 " Fkeuekicus Gullielmus III. Rex. 
 " Rei Monetary, Mineralogics, Architectonics." 
 
 The charitable establishments of Berlin are numerous and 
 well-conducted. The great hospital founded in 1710 by King 
 Frederick the First, contains four establishments ; a Clinical 
 hospital, a lying-in charity, a syphilitic or lock hospital, and an 
 hospital for lunatics. It is a large building consisting of four 
 pavilions placed round the sides of a square surrounded ex- 
 ternally by gardens and groves of white mulberrj -trees. The 
 wards are large and airy, containing each 30 or 40 beds, clean, 
 well arranged, and during winter well warmed by means of 
 large earthen-ware stoves. The first physician to this charity 
 is the celebrated Dr Hufeland, the king's physician, and the 
 second Doctor Horn, well known by several literary works. In 
 the lock hospital, the female patients are, generally speaking, 
 extremely young, early victims to the great depravity of morals 
 
56 
 
 BERLIN. 
 
 for which Berlin is so notorious, and of which the following may 
 give some idea. 
 
 Inter aegrotas hoc nosocomio inclusas saepe reperiantur ducentae puellae morbo 
 syphilitico affectae, quarum plurimae, vix duodecim annus natae, ulcera specifica 
 palato et velo pendulo palati habentes ! ! ! 
 
 The number of sick received into this hospital annually 
 amounts to about three thousand ; but the mortality is very 
 great, seldom less than one in six ; while in the hospitals of Lon- 
 don it is only one in fourteen and one in sixteen. 
 
 Another establishment, connected with the healing art, is the 
 Medico-Chirurgical College for the training and instruction of 
 army surgeons. It is composed of a principal and twelve pro- 
 fessors, who ffive lectures on all the various branches of science 
 connected with medicine and surgery. This school enjoys a 
 great reputation throughout Germany, the professors being men 
 distinguished for their talents and scientific knowledge, such as 
 Kufeland, Waller, Formey, Willdenow, Heraubstaedt, Mus- 
 sinna, &c. &c. The anatomical theatre is under the direction of 
 Walter, one of the first anatomists of the age, and is most 
 amply provided with subjects, at least two hundred annually. 
 Every physician and surgeon, before he can settle within the 
 Prussian dominions, must have studied at this school : a wise 
 and humane regulation, which has tended much to raise the cha^ 
 racter of the medical profession, and has been of essential 
 benefit in particular to the army in producing many excellent 
 surgeons, such as Schnucker, Theden, Goerke, &c. Seventeen 
 pupils are constantly instructed here at the expence of govern- 
 ment, and sent to fill vacancies as they occur amongst the regi- 
 mental surgeoncies. The superb anatomical collection of pre- 
 
BERLIN. 
 
 57 
 
 parations formed by Mr- Walter, has lately been purchased by 
 His Majesty, for 100,000 rix-dollars, and consecrated to this esta- 
 blishment. It is placed in a large building in the Linden walk, 
 and is thrown open to the inspection of the public on certain days 
 weekly, cards of admission being delivered on application to the 
 junior Mr. Walter, who is appointed conservator of this collection, 
 the formation of which occupied his father during twenty-five 
 years of a long life. The preparations are kept in admirable 
 order, and comprise many very curious objects ; amongst them 
 are, two gigantic skeletons of Frederick's far-famed grenadier 
 guardsmen. From a catalogue of this collection, lately pub- 
 lished by Mr. Walter, the number of specimens appears to 
 amount to six thousand and upwards. 
 
 The hippiatric art is also much attended to in Prussia. The 
 late king founded a veterinary school in 1790, which is situated 
 in the suburb of Orangeburg, and includes an area of 20 acres. 
 The circular building in which the lectures are given is capable 
 of containing twelve hundred auditors, and is lighted by a cupola 
 at top. In the centre is a round table, which, by means of 
 pullies, can be lowered into the vault beneath to receive the 
 dead quadruped to be demonstrated, which is then raised into 
 the lecture room. Adjoining is an excellent collection of prepa- 
 rations in comparative anatomy, and a museum of stuffed qua- 
 drupeds, among which are a dromedary, zebra, fawns, a lion, a 
 camel born in Prussia, and the favourite grey cropt charger of 
 Frederick the Great, which died a few years since in the royal 
 stables at a very advanced age. Ranged by their side is a collec- 
 tion of skeletons of all these various animals. There is also a 
 singular assemblage of every description and form of horse-shoe 
 in use amongst the various people of the globe. In a pavillion 
 
 i 
 
58 
 
 BERLIN. 
 
 in the garden stands an immense electrical machine, with glass 
 plates the size of cart-wheels, and a battery of six jars of adequate 
 dimensions, the charge of which is said to be of such power as 
 to knock down a horse. The place in which the sick horses are 
 put into a warm bath, is so constructed that the animals may 
 walk gradually down an inclined slope till the warm water 
 reaches their necks ; a stable well warmed with stoves adjoins it, 
 into which the animal is afterwards conveyed. There is also a 
 large range of infirmary stables, and the establishment is provided 
 with two professors, a druggist, and two farriers, who give 
 practical demonstrations on the best mode of shoeing and ma- 
 naging the hoof. 
 
 I had almost forgotten to mention a small establishment for 
 deaf and dumb children, on the plan recommended by the 
 Abbes Sicard and De l'Epee, at Paris. The pupils here generally 
 amount to fifteen or twenty. They are instructed in reading, 
 writing, arithmetic, geography, and drawing. This establish- 
 ment was founded, as I believe, during the reign of the late 
 king, and the Countess Lichtenau has left us a most interesting 
 anecdote of a young man who was here educated. " A protes- 
 tant minister at Anspach. named Hoffmann, had nine children, 
 six of whom were deaf and dumb. But one whom nature had 
 not treated with so much injustice, was employed at Berlin in 
 the department of the mines. He waited upon me one day, 
 accompanied by one of his deaf and dumb brothers, described to 
 me the distressing situation of his family ; showed me several 
 pictures which this brother had painted, and beseeched me to 
 take him under my protection. I remarked in the works of this 
 unfortunate young man the germ of real talent, and immediately 
 gave him a commission to make me some copies, of which he 
 
BERLIN. 
 
 59 
 
 acquitted himself admirably, and for which I paid him. His 
 accuracy, zeal, and good conduct having augmented the interest 
 with which he had first inspired me, I settled upon him a fixed 
 salary, and I had shortly the satisfaction of learning that he 
 appropriated the greatest portion towards assisting his poor 
 parents. I then determined on sending him to Dresden, that he 
 might there copy the most rare pictures in that celebrated collec- 
 tion, where he spent nine months in fulfilling, with the greatest 
 intelligence, the commission entrusted to him. He returned to 
 Berlin, and lived honourably on the fruits of his talents and 
 industry. I set off for Italy, and on my arrival wrote to His 
 Majesty, requesting that he would permit Hoffmann to join me, 
 which favour was granted me. Hoffmann repaired to Rome, and 
 there I left him on my departure for GeruiHiiy. But no sooner 
 did he learn my misfortunes, than he quitted Italy, and came 
 directly to my house at Charlottenburg, and when he became 
 convinced by his own eyes that he had not been imposed upon, 
 but that I was really absent and in captivity, he was seized with 
 phrenzy, and went and threw himself into the Spree ; he was 
 saved ; but, alas ! his reason never returned, and this victim of 
 gratitude afterwards put a period to his existence during a 
 paroxysm of insanity." < 
 
 In my passage through Dresden I endeavoured to procure a 
 small painting, by this unfortunate Hoffmann, but was not suc- 
 cessful in my search. I am happy in having this opportunity of 
 stating a circumstance which does so much credit to the memory 
 of a woman, who has experienced the usual fate of royal mis- 
 tresses, that of being flattered and worshipped during her pros- 
 perity, and reviled and calumniated after her fall. This beauti- 
 ful woman, the Jane Shore of the Court of Berlin, was ever a 
 
 i 2 
 
60 
 
 BERLIN. 
 
 kind and merciful protectress of the poor and distressed. She 
 was certainly the instrument of inflicting much unhappiness on 
 the consort of the late King, but perhaps she was more to be 
 pitied than blamed, as, from all that has been stated on this sub- 
 ject, the fault appears chiefly to have been in the conduct of the 
 King himself, not in that of his mistress, who was a helpless ac- 
 complice, instead of an active author of all the mischief imputed 
 
 to her. 
 
 However complicated the causes, certain, however, it is, that 
 Berlin is at this day, (1806), the most dissolute of German 
 cities. An idle garrison of 30,000 men, whatever splendour and 
 magnificence it may add to the court, must diffuse vice and im- 
 morality widely amongst the citizens. The punctuality too with 
 which these troops are paid, but ill compensates for the great in- 
 sufficiency of each individual's pittance, to meet the high charges 
 necessarily attendant on a residence in so expensive and volup- 
 tuous a capital. Hence all sorts of disorder arise in the military 
 body, and notwithstanding their boasted discipline, the officers 
 themselves, are accused by the people of not being sufficiently 
 alert in curbing the " spirit of rapine," and excesses of their 
 men. The system too of keeping regiments, quartered in the 
 same town for years together, without once dislocating them, 
 except to attend reviews, although it may be economical, is 
 most adverse to warlike institutions. And indeed so completely 
 disorganised and disaffected had the whole body become, that 
 when the tide of battle poured upon their country, they were 
 found much too effeminate to withstand the fatal energy of that 
 soldiery, which had grown grey in camps, and braved in succes- 
 sion the snows of Mount St. Gothard and the sandy deserts of 
 Egypt. The loss of a single battle, therefore, within their own 
 
BERLIN. qi 
 
 territories, proved as disastrous to Prussia as it had been to Car- 
 thage, and ere the vultures had been sated on the bloody field 
 of Eylau, the Gauls were already in the capital. 
 
 " Sweet, however, are the uses of adversity." Nothing short 
 of so dreadful a lesson, would probably have been efficacious. 
 After draining the bitterest dregs of the poisoned chalice, a new 
 spirit arose throughout the land. The bond of union (Tugen- 
 bande) of Kcenigsberg was formed, and the laurels gathered by the 
 regenerated Prussians, on the plains of Quatre Bras and Water- 
 loo, have encircled the cypresses overhanging the tombs of their 
 gallant Prince and beauteous Queen. The stoic virtues of their 
 widowed Monarch, have atoned for the past political profligacy 
 of his cabinet, and Prussia fre& and enlightened, may if virtuous, 
 now become, not the sovereign of Hanover, or the dread of her 
 neighbours, but the seat of real patriotism and honour, and the 
 rallying point of the protestant interests of Germany. 
 
62 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Porcelain and Iron Manufactories. — Charlottenburg. — Mittenwalde. — 
 Pine Forests. — Cobalt Works. — Saxon Villages. — Grossenhaym. — 
 Dresden. — legendary History. — Fatal Consequences from the Ac- 
 quisition of the Crown of Poland. — Hie Catholic Church. — High 
 Mass. — Terrace of Count Bruhl. — Zuinger Orangery. — Picture 
 Gallery. — Kcenigstein. — Meissen. — Porcelain Manufactory. 
 
 Since the power derived from steam, for impelling machinery, 
 has become known over Europe, a new impulse has been given 
 to the activity of mankind. The great superiority which this 
 discovery has for many years afforded to Great Britain in the 
 production of various articles of the greatest utility at a sur- 
 prisingly cheap rate has at length induced our neighbours to 
 extend this improvement to their own manufactories; and in 
 most of the large cities in Germany, steam engines are to be 
 found aiding the ingenuity and talents of the natives. Thus at 
 Berlin the process of manufacturing porcelain has been greatly 
 extended since the introduction of them, and the articles pro- 
 duced are furnished on much lower terms than formerly. The 
 work belongs to the crown, and is carried on under the direction 
 of Mr. Rosenstiel, a native of Alsace ; giving employment to 
 400 workmen. The machinery for pulverising the materials 
 and grinding up the clays, is put in motion by means of a 
 large steam-engine. The argillaceous earth is dug up at Bann- 
 
BERLIN. 
 
 63 
 
 stoett near Hall, and the silex is furnished by quartz found at 
 Lomnitz in Silesia. The paste thus produced is good, and the 
 enamelling particularly well executed. Another manufactory 
 has been lately established which does equal credit to Berlin. 
 It is that of cast iron. The royal foundery is situated outside 
 the Orangeburg gate, and produces a great variety of articles of 
 every size and form, from the component parts of an iron 
 bridge down to the smallest trinket. The finish and sharpness 
 given to minute articles is quite surprising ; portraits, garlands 
 of flowers, urns, nay even lockets and necklaces are cast here 
 with as much precision as gold, silver, or bronze ornaments. 
 The iron employed is that of Silesia. The process is kept 
 secret, but it is conjectured that a small portion of tin and 
 silver is added to the metals employed for casting the trinkets. 
 Pitcoal is used as fuel in the furnaces ; and the minuter objects 
 while warm are rubbed over with a brown varnish, to keep them 
 from rusting. lastly, the royal palace and park of Charlotten- 
 burg are amongst the objects well worth seeing at Berlin. 
 What the late Mr. Windham ingeniously said of Hyde Park and 
 the citizens of London, may be well applied to the park of 
 Chai-lottenburg, which is the " very lungs" of the Berliners. 
 On Sundays and holidays, all the artists and artisans of Berlin 
 pour forth along the banks of the Spree, to enjoy " the banquet 
 of nature" under the shades afforded by the trees of the royal 
 forest. The spectacle is very beautiful, and I recollect it with a 
 more melancholy pleasure, having then seen for the first and last 
 time the late beautiful Queen of Prussia, walking with her royal 
 consort and his brothers amongst the orange-trees of Charlotten- 
 burg, into the garden of which I was introduced by Monsieur 
 Beichard, author of the " Guide des Voyageurs," whose ac- 
 
64 
 
 MITTENWALDE. 
 
 quaintance I had the pleasure of making, through a letter I 
 carried from Dr. George Pearson of London, to Dr. Brown, 
 physician to the Court of Berlin ; in whose absence M. Reichard 
 did the honours of his house, and received me with the greatest 
 hospitality. Having seen as much of the city of Berlin as the 
 shortness of my stay would permit, I obtained a fresh passport 
 from Mr. Jackson, then British minister there, and called at 
 the Custom-house for the sealed parcels. They were stamped 
 with lead, and entries made of them in due form on the back 
 of my passport ; for which operation the officers did not forget 
 to exact a very unconscionable fee ; besides detaining me for 
 nearly two hours. I then was conducted as before with a file of 
 soldiers on the carriage to the Mittenwalde gate, when the 
 officers on guard having reviewed the sealed articles of luggage 
 and compared them with the passport, pronounced their vale- 
 dictory address to the postillion, and we set off for Mittenwalde, 
 which we reached at midnight, after a melancholy drive across a 
 dead flat, covered with crops of corn, so thin that the straggling 
 spikes only served the more to reveal the sterility of the sandy 
 soil beneath. At Mittenwalde, a ruinous place with ramparts, 
 drawbridges, &c. &c. we passed a comfortless night in a cold 
 dirty inn, where a Prussian officer, stretched in his camp cloak 
 over a large table, slept and snored so loudly, that partly owing 
 to that nasal solo, and partly to the hardness of my bed, 
 which was only a wooden sofa, I could get little sleep. Be- 
 fore sun-rise next morning, we were again on the road, and 
 after a tedious day's journey through magnificent pine-forests 
 where the burning sands produced a heat in the stagnant 
 atmosphere, which was almost intolerable, we had at length 
 the pleasure of descrying the limits of the Prussian domi- 
 
COBALT WORKS. 
 
 65 
 
 nions marked out by two posts surmounted with the respec- 
 tive arms of Prussia and Saxony; and entering the territory of 
 the latter Power, bade a long adieu to the black eagles of Prussia. 
 The pine forests through which we passed this day, supply fuel 
 to the works for smelting zaffre or ore of cobalt, carried on at 
 Classdorf, a village near Baruth, where are some large glass- 
 houses for the manufactory of the blue pigment called smalt. 
 This article is produced in large quantities, and has for a long 
 period been a source of great profit to Saxony. Zaffre is a grey 
 powder, formed from heating together in large crucibles, a mix- 
 ture of impure oxyde of cobalt and silex. If a larger quantity 
 of sand be employed, joined with a vitrifiable flux, a dark blue 
 glass is produced, which on being ground in mills to an im- 
 palpable powder, forms the article of commerce called blue smalt, 
 of so much importance in giving the fine blue colour to the 
 enamels of porcelain ware. The use of cobalt was lono- known 
 in China. The Saxons were the first in Europe who discovered 
 the properties of this metal, which they worked and employed 
 with great advantage in colouring the Mismian porcelain. Some 
 veins were subsequently discovered in France, but the Saxons 
 have retained almost exclusively this branch of commerce. 
 Within these last twelve years a mine of cobalt has been found 
 out and wrought on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, and very 
 lately a vein of great value has been hit upon in Cornwall, but 
 the preparation of smalt has not yet attained any great degree of 
 perfection in England. I understand that a smalt company was 
 lately established in Wales, but the excise laws having been 
 rigidly enforced against the proprietors, as being preparers of 
 glass, they were exchequered to a very large amount, and were 
 absolutely ruined for having had the folly to be foremost in esta- 
 
66 
 
 DRESDEN. 
 
 -Wishing a branch of commerce, which, with a little forbearance, 
 not to say encouragement, from the government, would soon 
 have produced a large income to the country ! Finance's petty- 
 fogging plan has had its day; we cannot but wish for the perpetuity 
 of a wiser system, that of a graduated per centage on income, 
 which, under all the circumstances of the country, is the only 
 real remedy for the everlasting vexations arising out of all other 
 modes of levying an adequate revenue. 
 
 The aspect of a Saxon village awakens strange feelings in the 
 breast of a British traveller. The small churches, with their square 
 bell towers, and Saxon horse-shoe arches ; the zigzag ornaments 
 and billets encircling the porches; the very tombstones around the 
 church-yards, with the mouldering graves shaded by ample yew 
 trees ; the neatness of the houses, and decent cleanliness of the 
 inhabitants, the very expression of integrity in their looks, all 
 proclaim a common origin, and recall the recollections of our 
 Anglo-Saxon ancestors, that race of freemen to whom England 
 is indebted for the first germs of the religious spirit, freedom 
 of thought and honest industry, which characterise her present 
 inhabitants beyond all surrounding nations. These sentiments 
 occupied my mind very agreeably while travelling through the 
 country beyond Grossenhaym ; till at length my attention 
 was suddenly aroused by a long avenue of lime trees leading 
 to the gates of Dresden. 
 
 After entering the drawbridges and fortifications of the Neu- 
 stadt, and passing the large square, in which is the equestrian 
 statue of Augustus the Second, we at length came upon the 
 magnificent Elbe-bridge, which, on this fine summer's evening, 
 was covered, as usual, with a throng of well dressed people, 
 loitering to catch the last rays of the sun, then setting in the 
 
DRESDEN. 
 
 67 
 
 greatest splendour beyond the mountains of Meissen. On either 
 side the public buildings of Dresden rose in imposing masses, 
 and were reflected in the clear and rapid current beneath. Na- 
 ture and art, beauty and grandeur, are here united in forming 
 one of the finest scenes to be found in any inland city of 
 Europe. 
 
 It would fatigue the reader, and require a much longer time 
 than can be here spared to enter minutely into the details of 
 this capital ; the collections and museums of which have been 
 so long and so justly celebrated. It may suffice, therefore, to 
 notice in a brief manner, a few of the more prominent objects and 
 features usually exhibited to strangers. 
 
 In its local situation, Dresden has greatly the advantage over 
 Berlin, being situated in a fertile soil, on the banks of the Elbe, 
 surrounded by precipitous hills, covered with vineyards and 
 orchards, and enlivened with villas and farm-houses in a very 
 picturesque manner. 
 
 In early times the site of the city was occupied by a Vandalic 
 temple and burying ground, surrounded by lakes and marshes on 
 the northern side of the river, the communication with which, 
 was kept up by means of a ferry-boat. In due course of time 
 this ferry-boat was replaced by a wooden bridge guarded by a 
 blockhouse, and on the introduction of Christianity, the pagan 
 temple gave way to a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the 
 shrine of which was enriched by a cross of miraculous powers, 
 to which the peasants of the neighbouring mountains flocked for 
 succom*. In this state Dresden remained till about the middle 
 of the thirteenth century, when Henry the Illustrious, one of 
 the Dukes of Saxony, transferred his residence thither from the 
 neighbouring town of Meissen. The frequent repairs of the 
 
 k 2 
 
68 
 
 DRESDEN. 
 
 wooden bridge having then become troublesome, an edifice of 
 stone was built in its stead, and a Gothic castle substituted for 
 the blockhouse in the year 1223. But the splendour of Dresden 
 and the miseries of Saxony, were destined to commence during 
 the reign of Frederick Augustus, who, to obtain that fatal crown 
 of Poland, embraced the Catholic religion, and disjoining his 
 family and kingdom from the Protestant interests of Europe, 
 threw himself into the arms of Austria. The revenues of Poland 
 were then expended in beautifying the capital of Saxony and 
 enriching it with collections and cabinets bought up in the Italian 
 states ; but the nobles of Poland and the Jesuits of Italy having 
 soon followed the spoils and treasures of their respective coun- 
 tries, the morals of the Saxons were corrupted in turn, and 
 luxury, taste, and profligacy, became joint tenants of the 
 palaces and gardens of Dresden, Since that time the decline of 
 Saxony has been progressive. Placed unfortunately between 
 two hostile states, Prussia and Austria, and constrained rather 
 by necessity than choice to become a party to their differences, 
 Saxony and its capital have been generally the object and prey 
 of their victories, so that the enjoyments arising from the 
 possession of the treasures of ancient art, have been more than 
 counterbalanced by the visitations of war, the burden of intolera- 
 ble taxation, and the depopulation of the country, and Saxony 
 now presents the extraordinary anomaly of a Protestant state 
 governed by a Catholic family : a family too, which formerly 
 had the honour of being the foremost in throwing off the 
 degrading yoke of Popish superstition, and in patronizing the 
 doctrines of Luther and Melanchthon. As it belongs to the 
 inconsistency of the human mind to pass rapidly from one 
 extreme to another, the later Monarchs of Saxony have spared 
 
DRESDEN. g9 
 
 no expence to do honour to the Catholic worship. At the invi- 
 tation of Augustus the Third, an Italian architect named Chia- 
 veri, was brought from Rome to Dresden to lay the foundations 
 of a church, which, both from the beauty of its architecture and 
 the grandeur of its position on a platform at the end of the Elbe- 
 bridge, has excited the admiration of Germany. This free-stone 
 structure forms an oblong square with semicircular ends, and 
 occupies an area 330 feet in length by 220 in breadth. The bell 
 tower is of beautiful proportions and 450 feet high. The 
 approach is by a flight of steps under a circular peristyle deco- 
 rated with statues ; the roof is covered with copper, and sur- 
 rounded by a double ballustrade supporting sixty colossal statues 
 of saints. The interior is laid out in one principal church, with 
 four side chapels, and nine altars, and the vaults beneath are 
 appropriated to receive the mortal remains of the Electoral 
 family. The taste of decoration which prevails throughout, 
 is chaste and imposing, and over the principal altar of grey 
 Pirna marble, is the celebrated painting of Raphael Mengs 
 representing the assumption of the Virgin. The altars, baptis- 
 mal fonts, pulpits, and gallery for the royal family, corres- 
 pond in symmetry with the surrounding architecture, and 
 constitute altogether a most imposing coup d'ceil, more par- 
 ticularly during the celebration of high mass, when all the 
 powers of vocal and instrumental music are put in requisi- 
 tion, to captivate the senses. The most choice soprano 
 voices of Italy are then to be heard, accompanied by some of 
 the best instrumental performers of Germany ; and the richness 
 of the melodies, the full body of sound, and splendour of the 
 surrounding objects, altogether produce an effect which can 
 hardly be described. Every Sunday the Protestant inhabitants 
 
70 DRESDEN. 
 
 flock in crowds to regale their senses with this delightful treat, 
 which has been got up under the direction of the King's confes- 
 sor, named Schneider, who is a Jesuit, and perfectly alive to all 
 the ambitious views of his order. The proselytes to the Catho- 
 lic religion are few, and chiefly from among the courtiers ; the 
 lower orders, after hearing the music, always retire as if from an 
 opera-house, and leave the Court to the celebration of the 
 mysteries and imposing rites of Catholicism. The best situation 
 for viewing the bridge and city of Dresden, is from a terrace in 
 the garden of the late Count Bruhl, overlooking the river near a 
 pavillion of the Doric order, where the annual Spring exhibitions 
 of the works of Saxon artists take place. In the garden called the 
 Zuinger, is a fine orangery, consisting of three or four hundred 
 trees, in large tubs, the history of which is singular : they were 
 sent as a present from the coast of Africa, by a Saxon nobleman, 
 to one of the Electors who was fond of the amusement of 
 turning, and for which they had been purposely taken up by the 
 roots ; but on their arrival at Dresden, as the vital principle did 
 not appear altogether extinct, they were planted and watered, 
 and (with the exception only of forty or fifty) they all took root 
 and flourished. 
 
 The picture gallery of Dresden is a perfect mine of art, which 
 attracts most of the young painters from the neighbouring Ger- 
 man States, who, on application to either of the two inspectors, 
 receive free admission to the gallery, and are permitted to make 
 copies of the chef (T ceuvres it contains. The collection is placed 
 in a quadrangular building called the Marstall, and is composed 
 of nearly 1200 pictures, the works of three hundred and thirty 
 artists of every school. It has been valued at 500,000/. sterling, 
 and is now the principal collection out of Italy. It is, however, most 
 
Ss 
 
^ 
 
DRESDEN. 
 
 71 
 
 celebrated as containing six of the best easel pictures of Corregio, 
 for the smallest of which, the Penitent Magdalen, a picture of 
 only 18 inches by 12, Augustus gave the Duke of Modena 
 13,000 Dutch ducats. The other Corregios are the celebrated 
 Night-piece, or Adoration of the Shepherds ; the St. George : 
 the St. Sebastian ; and two more. At the time of our visit there 
 were several artists, chiefly females, making copies. The works 
 of Corregio seemed most in request, and also the pictures of 
 Dietriey, a Saxon artist, who was born at Weimar about the 
 beginning of last century, and died at Dresden, while court- 
 painter to the Elector. But a profusion of examples seems as 
 fatal to genius as the reverse, for excepting Dietriey, and a few 
 good enamel painters, Saxony has produced no artists of any 
 celebrity ; the students whom we saw seemed to be wasting their 
 time in making minute and laboured copies in sepia or distemper, 
 whether from a want of patronage or of talent and feeling to 
 direct their studies properly, it would be vain to conjecture ; but 
 to study from nature seemed to be (mite foreign to their plan. 
 
 Instead of dwelling upon the cabinets of Dresden, the reader 
 will be, perhaps, better pleased to be made one in a party to the 
 hill fortress of Kcenigstein, which is distant about sixteen miles up 
 the Elbe. After passing through the village of Pirna, memorable 
 for the surrender of the entire Saxon army to Frederick the 
 Great, during the seven years' war, we soon arrived at the foot 
 of the rock on which the castle stands, where we left our car- 
 riages, and commenced the ascent. As soon as we reached the 
 first gate, we were challenged by a sentinel posted on the 
 walls above, and after a short delay received permission to 
 approach by a very steep road cut through the " living rock," 
 
72 
 
 KCENIGSTEIN. 
 
 which reminded me of a similar, but smaller path, hewn in the 
 rock of Dumbarton Castle, in Scotland. 
 
 Our conductor round the works, was the Wastsmeister, an 
 officer who had served in the seven years' war. From the 
 walls we had a magnificent prospect over the surrounding 
 country, with the Elbe winding at our feet, at a great depth. 
 The buildings are placed on the summit of an enormous mass of 
 free-stone, insulated like that of Dumbarton, and hanging over the 
 Elbe, as the latter does over the Clyde. The height is 1800 
 feet perpendicular, and wherever a weaker spot occurred, the 
 rock has been blasted, and walls added, so as to render esca- 
 lading impossible. There is no other approach than that before- 
 mentioned, and all provisions, ammunition, artillery, stores, &c. 
 are lifted into the body of the fortress by means of a crane and 
 pulleys. The works were commenced during the sixteenth cen- 
 tury by the Elector Christian the First ; succeeding monarchs have 
 added magazines and bomb-proof casemates, and the present 
 Elector has considerably augmented the defences and accommo- 
 dations for troops. It is now an impregnable place of deposit for 
 the archives and treasures of Saxony, and commands the passage 
 into Bohemia by the Elbe. We were shown a surprising well 
 which supplies the garrison with water; it is 1700 feet in depth, and 
 four feet in diameter, cut through solid rock, and has generally 80 
 feet of water standing in it. The sinking of this well was the labour 
 of forty years ; it was finished in 1553, since which time the spring 
 has never been known to fail, and is calculated to supply a gar- 
 rison of 1600 men, which the casemates will contain in the event 
 of a siege. From this well thirty-six buckets of water are daily 
 drawn up by means of a large wheel trodden round by four men ; 
 
KCENIGSTEIN. 73 
 
 each draft requiring 800 steps. We drank of its waters in a 
 wooden goblet turned by the hands of the Elector Augustus the 
 First. Within one of the octagon towers is a dining-room occa- 
 sionally visited by the Electors ; it was formerly encrusted with 
 mirrors, but these have been shivered, and partly liquified by the 
 frequent assaults of the electric fluid during thunder storms ; 
 the tower has been lately supplied with conducting rods of 
 metal, which have put an end to these disastrous visitations. 
 From a window below we were shown a projecting pinnacle 
 called pagenbetten, or the page's bed, to which a singular 
 anecdote is attached. It is recorded that one day while the 
 Elector John George the Second was dining in this tower, Charles 
 Heinrich Van Grunau, one of his pages, having got excessively 
 intoxicated, crept out from a window, and laying himself down 
 upon the edge of the rock overhanging the Elbe, fell fast asleep. 
 The Elector on being shown his perilous situation, first caused 
 him to be well secured by means of ropes, and then to be 
 awakened by a flourish of drums and trumpets ; and after per- 
 mitting him to contemplate the terrific spot on which his 
 intemperance had placed him, he was drawn up in safety to the 
 window. Some years afterwards, this same page had another 
 miraculous escape ; for being mounted on a spirited horse, he 
 was passing the Elbe bridge, when the animal took fright and 
 leapt with him into the river. He was again saved, and lived 
 to a very advanced age; for in the year 1740, Grunau, being 
 then in his 102d year, came to pay his homage to Augustus 
 the Second, as he was passing through Bischofswerda on his 
 way into Poland ; he died four years afterwards, the 9th Decem- 
 ber, 1774, at Schmcelen, being then 106 years of age. In the 
 
74 
 
 KffiNIG STEIN. 
 
 Orangeburg, we were shown the state prison, in which the 
 unfortunate Chancellor Crell was confined without being inter- 
 rogated, from 1592 till 1601, when he was removed to the 
 square of Dresden, called the Judenhof and beheaded (5th 
 Oct. 1601). The unfortunate Swedish Minister Patkull had also 
 been imprisoned here in 1704, and suffered a similar death. In 
 an adjoining tower had been immured the celebrated Boetticher. 
 This man, who had been an apothecary at Dresden, boasted that 
 he had discovered the art of transmuting metals ; Augustus, 
 King of Poland, had him seized and confined, ordering him to 
 be furnished with all necessary crucibles and other implements, 
 that he might work for the good of the public exchequer. The 
 man was, of course, a notorious impostor ; but although unable 
 to produce gold, he discovered the method of making that 
 which has been a source of much wealth to Saxony ; namely, 
 the pigments and glazing materials of porcelain ware, which 
 were at that time unknown in Europe, and upon the discoveries 
 of Boetticher, the porcelain manufactory of Meissen was estab- 
 lished in 1710. The death of Boetticher took place in 1719. 
 
 The Germans are fond of colossal tuns ; the great tun of 
 Heidelberg has been long celebrated ; that of Konigstein, built 
 in 1725, is less known although much larger, as it is capable 
 of containing 3709 eimers, which is more by 609 eimers than 
 the measure of that of Heidelberg. We ascended to it by a 
 staircase of 32 steps, and drank a glass of its contents, which 
 is good Saxon white wine. Formerly it was kept filled, but now 
 there is a smaller tun suspended within the large one, the 
 leakage of which was found to be rather excessive. This fass 
 or tun is 34 feet deep, and 24 feet wide. 
 
MEISSEN. 
 
 75 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Koenigstein are twelve other insulated 
 rocks, the highest of which called Lilienstein, lies on the 
 opposite bank of the Elbe, and is also 1800 feet high. From 
 some old archives of the 14th century, it would appear that a 
 fortress then occupied the summit which was called the fortress 
 of Ylgenstein. Two of the Saxon monarchs have ascended to 
 its summit, namely, Augustus the First, (July, 1708,) and the 
 present king, who with all his court dined on the top of. it in 
 1771. An obelisk with an inscription, serves to record the first 
 of these royal visits. It stands on a pinnacle on the west side 
 of the rock. The remains of an old flight of steps conducting 
 towards the top, are still to be traced, and an inscription has 
 been found on a well, bearing date, the year of Christ 1499. 
 
 On returning from Koenigstein, we were invited to join a 
 party going to Meissen, a city on the Elbe, twelve miles below 
 Dresden, to which we descended by water. This city, which 
 is the more ancient of the two, now contains only about 4000 
 inhabitants. It is situated very beautifully upon two hills, 
 overhanging the river in the midst of a rich and delightful 
 valley. There are still the remains of strong walls and fosses, 
 and the architecture of the towers of Wasserburg and of the 
 gates is very ancient and picturesque. The houses are chiefly 
 of stone, but huddled together, and the streets are narrow and 
 winding. The cathedral church, and the Castle of Albrcchts-> 
 burg, are situated on the smaller hill called the Schlossberg or 
 Castle hill, and communicate with the adjoining buildings by 
 means of a fine old bridge of a single arch built by Henry the 
 Illustrious, of Pirna free-stone, the masonry of which is so 
 excellent, that it has now stood 600 years without requiring any 
 repairs. The cathedral, a fine Gothic structure, was finished in 
 
 l 2 
 
76 MEISSEN. 
 
 the year 948 by Otho the First, and contains several ancient 
 tombs ; but the greatest curiosity belonging to it is a most 
 extraordinary and perhaps unique pinnacle called the rugged 
 tower. It is a sort of open worked pyramid, surmounted with a 
 cross, placed upon an octagonal tower, which again reposes 
 upon a square tower, within which, by a staircase of 187 steps, 
 there is an ascent to the top. This extraordinary piece of Gothic 
 architecture appears to be so slightly put together, as to be in 
 danger of falling by the first gale of wind ; but such is the nicety 
 of art with which its parts have been adjusted and strengthened 
 by iron chains, anchors, &c. to the foundations in the rock below, 
 that it has now stood in complete preservation nearly one thou- 
 sand years. The only tower to which it bears a resemblance, is 
 that of Burgos in Spain. Within the church are deposited 
 twenty-two of the Princes of Saxony, of whom eleven are 
 commemorated by monuments. The adjoining Castle of Al- 
 brechtsburg, is the remaining part of a very old fortress, which 
 formerly contained three palaces, one of which was occupied by 
 the Margrave of Meissen, and each of the other two by the 
 Bishop and Burg-graf or Mayor. It is now filled by the royal 
 manufactory of porcelain, which was placed here in 1710. The 
 clay for this work is procured from the Schneeberg, a mountain 
 in Upper Saxony, and all the enamels and pigments are furnished 
 by the Saxon mines at Freyberg. The ware produced is ex- 
 tremely beautiful, and very reasonable in price, much more so 
 than at Berlin ; fine miniature copies of the best antique statues 
 in white biscuit china, are sold for less than twenty shillings 
 British, and other articles in the same proportion. When 
 Frederick the Great entered Saxony during the seven years' war, 
 he was guilty of one of the most unjustifiable abuses of power 
 
DEPARTURE FROM DRESDEN. 7*7 
 
 towards the workmen of this manufactory ever known ; for 
 being desirous of establishing a similar work at Berlin, he seized 
 upon all the artists here, and transported them to his own 
 capital as prisoners of war, and actually forced them to com- 
 mence a manufactory there.* Modern times have not produced 
 any exercise of the rights of conquest more unjustifiable than 
 this ; neither can any unprejudiced mind admit, that the Saxons 
 have deserved the harsh treatment they have lately experienced, 
 at the hands of the Congress of Vienna, a treatment too, which, 
 whatever may be its present effects, I am inclined to think will, 
 at no very distant period, prove the cause of another war in Ger- 
 many. Even at the moment these sheets are going to the press, 
 the grateful nation to whose grasp our Ministers have consigned 
 one half of the Saxon provinces, are proving their attachment 
 and sense of obligations to Britain, by prohibiting the entry of 
 all British manufactured goods. Sperate miseri, cavete felices, 
 should now be the motto of Saxony. A happier epoch is in 
 reserve, and the womb of time will reveal the folly of past 
 measures to many of the cabinets of Europe, not excepting our 
 own. 
 
 In taking leave of Dresden, it is melancholy to remark, that its 
 history, in one striking particular, is an exception to that of 
 almost every capital city in Europe, namely, the decrease of the 
 population for the last sixty years. In 1755 the census then 
 taken showed a population of 63,209 individuals. But in 1770 
 and 1772, it had decreased to 45,000, and since that time has 
 never exceeded 58,000. The mortality now amounts to 1800, one 
 
 * One of Miss Edgeworth's beautiful moral tales, " The Prussian Vase," is founded 
 on this circumstance. 
 
78 
 
 POLITICAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 in 32, while the marriages do not exceed 400 annually, and every 
 year the number of still-born and illegitimate children is 
 encreasing. The native writers refer this falling off to various 
 causes, such as the dearness of fuel and of provisions, and the host 
 of petty regraters and forestalled who enhance the prices of all 
 the necessaries of life. To the honour of the Saxons, however, 
 it may here be observed, that they are the most loyal people in 
 Germany. Notwithstanding the weight of their taxation ; not- 
 withstanding their difference of religion from that of the royal 
 family ; in spite of the mistakes of their policy, and the misfor- 
 tunes which have been heaped on the people in consequence of 
 the real or supposed delinquencies of their governors ; there is 
 no nation more sincerely attached to their royal family than the 
 Saxons, and no people that possess more real and genuine patriot- 
 ism. Dragged into disastrous wars by the imbecility of their 
 ministers, they have suffered all the calamities incident to the 
 occupation and pillage of their country by foreign armies. Still 
 they have borne their misfortunes with a manly and cheerful 
 fortitude, which we may in vain look for in surrounding states. 
 They have given vent to no murmurings, no repinings, no 
 disloyalty, no cowardly evasion either of taxation or privations. 
 Trusting to their own industry, and to the integrity and equity of 
 their individual characters, they have cheerfully put their shoul- 
 ders to the wheel, and will, ere long, rescue their country from 
 the abyss of distress, in which it is at present plunged, a distress 
 not indeed arising from their own ambition, but from their unfor- 
 tunate local situation, and the ungenerous conduct of those 
 powers from whom they had a right to expect a very different 
 treatment. 
 
( //<■?/.„■„ an (m ( .< / ' / ';- ■;>',■„, ',{,. //,:,/" 
 
 ffoe f < v '///',,/ ffct • ,'.■'/. 
 
 'r'/.ji'/f em '/>' ' ' ' V 7>t;,r ,,• . ■,,.,,, 
 
 ■ 
 
79 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Zehist. — Wheel-greasing. — Peter 'maiden. — The Geyersberg. — Singu- 
 lar accident. — Toeplitz — its superb valley. — Dobrowska-polu. — Pa- 
 lace of Prince Clary. — Prague — its bridge. — Legendary history. — 
 Wisse-gorod. — Libussa. — Premislaus. — Cathedral Church. — Uni- 
 versity. — John Huss and Jerome of Prague. — Peter Payne. — 
 John Zisca. 
 
 It was at Dresden that I overtook Sir R. Rollo (then Colonel) Gil- 
 lespie, who was proceeding overland towards India ; and having 
 delivered to him some letters, entrusted to my care by his rela- 
 tives, Mr. and Mrs. Kearney, we agreed to travel together as far as 
 Constantinople, which was to be the termination of my journey. 
 Setting out for Prague in the afternoon of a fine day in August, 
 we changed horses at a village called Zehist, and went through 
 the tiresome ceremony of wheel-greasing, to which, whether 
 your vehicle requires it or not, you are subjected at every post- 
 house in Germany. Soon after wereached Peterswalden, the first 
 stage and custom-house in Bohemia, a miserable straggling vil- 
 lage lying in the gorge of a mountainous defile, where the road 
 enters the Geyersberg. 
 
 Night overtook us while we were crossing this exalted range, 
 so that like two of our predecessors, Lady M. W. Montague and 
 
80 TOEPLITZ. 
 
 Mr. Wraxall, we had to lament the absence of light to illumine 
 the beauties of the bold mountainous scenery around us, with 
 the Elbe flowing in the valley below. On a sudden we heard 
 some loud cries, and on our postillion pulling up, found that 
 one of our servants, who followed in another berline behind us, 
 having fallen asleep, had been, by a sudden jolt, thrown out, and 
 pitched headlong down the precipice. This man, a Constantino- 
 politan Jew, who had travelled with Mr. R. Thornton through 
 thfc Crimea, as an interpreter, I had permitted, at Mr. T.'s re- 
 quest, to accompany me from Hamburg, but he was such an in- 
 tolerable smoker, that he was in a perpetual state of stupidity, 
 and was rather an impediment than a furtherance to our 
 journey. In falling, he contrived to cling to some bushes on 
 the steep ; and Colonel G.'s servant scrambled down and pulled 
 him up. He was not much hurt, and I afterwards left him at 
 Vienna. 
 
 We reached Toeplitz* next morning to breakfast. This town, 
 celebrated for its thermal springs, is, like Bath in our own island, 
 the summer resort of the fashionable valetudinarians of Saxony 
 and Bohemia, who flock thither in multitudes, to lounge, bathe, 
 and gamble. Its waters are said to have been in good repute for 
 the cure of gouty, rheumatic, and paralytic complaints, for up- 
 wards of ten centuries ; having been discovered some time about 
 the year 762 ; the springs are seventy-seven in number. By ana- 
 lysis, the waters have been found to contain carbonic acid and 
 sulphurated hydrogen gases, carbonate of lime, iron, muriate of 
 
 * Toeplitz — Sclavonic — Teple, warm — itz, a place or town — the town of 
 warm springs. Thus Teplitz, or Tefliz, in Georgia. 
 
TOEPLITZ. 
 
 81 
 
 lime and silica. These are the proportions, according to Jahn, 
 
 a Saxon chemist : 
 
 Cubic Inches. 
 
 Carbonic acid gas, 132.5 
 Sulphurated hydrog. 28.5 
 
 Carbonate of lime, 16.5 
 
 Iron, - - 3.25 
 
 Muriate of lime, 61.3 
 
 Silica, - - 15.4 from 225.400 grains of water. 
 
 The only peculiarity of these springs is, the large proportion 
 of muriate of lime which they hold in solution. The heat va- 
 ries from about 98° in some springs, to 110' of Fahrenheit in 
 others. The bathing rooms are very indifferent, small, cold, 
 naked, and comfortless, paved with brick, destitute of carpets, 
 and of every convenience. The best is called the stone bath, 
 which is faced with stone, and lined with sand ; the others are 
 small, and badly supplied with water. 
 
 The environs of Toeplitz are magnificent. The valley in 
 which it stands is about six miles in extent, surrounded on all 
 sides by screens of lofty mountains, of the most sublime cha- 
 racter of beauty, in some parts covered with pine forests, in 
 others gilded with corn-fields or richly coloured with purple 
 heaths, from which the naked pinnacles of rock rise towards the 
 sky. Scattered in the hollows around, are some beautiful vil- 
 lages, such as Hestine, Kraupen, and Marieschin. Hanging 
 over the town, is a rocky mount, crowned by a ruined castle, 
 called, Dobrowska-polu, which was one of the strong holds of 
 that mysterious and unfortunate order, the Knights Templars. 
 The town belongs to Prince Clary, who has a country house in 
 the neighbourhood. The adjoining forests of his domain, are 
 
 M 
 
82 
 
 PRAGUE. 
 
 a retreat for wild boars, the hunting of which, is a great source 
 of amusement to the loungers at Toeplitz. 
 
 The road from thence to Prague, passes through a very deep 
 or hilly country ; so that, although the distance is only fifty miles, 
 we did not reach that city until the forenoon of the next day. 
 The name of Prague seems to have been recorded in characters 
 of blood ; the battles and sieges of which it has been so often 
 the theatre, make it in a degree more familiar to one's imagin- 
 ation than that of most other German towns. Its aspect is 
 forlorn and dreary : wide deserted streets, dirty Jews, and begging 
 monks, ruinous palaces, and mouldering Gothic churches, are 
 the first objects to greet a traveller's eye on his entrance ; and 
 the cheerless apartments of the inn called the Archduke 
 Charles, will not dissipate the unfavourable impression thus 
 produced. Prague has derived its name from the great bridge 
 over the river Moldau, " Prag" being the town of the Brig or 
 " the bridge" by eminence. This structure is 1800 feet long, 
 and 35 feet broad, the arches are 24 in number. The battle- 
 ments are ornamented with thirty-two statues of saints, and at 
 each end is a high Gothic tower of handsome architecture. The 
 date of the first erection of this bridge is unknown, but it appears 
 from a Latin inscription in capitals, at one end, that it was rebuilt 
 by Charles the Fourth in 1357, and again by Joseph the Second 
 in 1784. " Carolus Quartus Augustus pontem extruxit, Anno 
 Christi, 1357, vetustate vitiatum ; et fluminis glacie devolventis, 
 Anno 1784 pene dirutum, Josephus Secundus Augustus instaurari, 
 novisque substructionibus muniri jussit" 
 
 The rust of ages has covered the origin of Prague with traditions, 
 romantic and fabulous as those of Rhaea Sylvia with her twins, 
 
s> 
 
PRAGUE. 
 
 83 
 
 Romulus and Remus, and the she-wolf of the Roman capital. 
 Lybussa, a sorceress, the youngest of the three daughters of a 
 shepherd-king named Croc, governed the surrounding country 
 for fourteen years, and held as her palace, a strong hold on a 
 rock which overhangs the river, where are still some ruins and a 
 church occupying the site of what is called Wisse-gorod or 
 " the secure castle." Having been entreated by her subjects to 
 marry, she fixed her choice on a country labourer named Pre- 
 mislaus, who being taken, Cincinnatus like, from his plough to 
 share the throne, carried his sandals with him, to be preserved 
 as memorials of his humble origin, and to be shown occasionally 
 to his descendants, that they might not be over elated with the 
 prosperity of their condition. He enlarged Prague, if he was 
 not actually its founder, and with the exception of a rebellion 
 amongst his Amazonian subjects, on the death of his queen, when 
 he narrowly escaped the fate of Orpheus, he reigned peaceably 
 till his death, which happened without violence. On his death- 
 bed he ordered his shepherd's cloak and sandals of lime-tree- 
 bark to be deposited in a religious edifice, and to be shown only 
 on the election of a king, which custom has been sacredly 
 observed, not only by the Pagan but even the Christian succes- 
 sors to the crown of Bohemia. 
 
 The cathedral church of Prague is a fine old Gothic building, 
 beautifully placed on the steep side of the western hill overlook- 
 ing the river and bridge and the greatest part of the city. It 
 suffered severely from the bombardment of the Swedish army 
 during the thirty years' war, and the mischief then done still 
 remains unrepaired. We were shown, in its aisles, the gorgeous 
 tombs of a long line of monarchs, and the relics of a host of 
 
 m 2 
 
84 
 
 PRAGUE. 
 
 saints, not forgetting the miraculous arm bone of St. Vitus, the 
 patron of Bohemia, which was brought with much care from 
 Rome, by the Emperor Charles the Fourth, who begged it as a 
 favour from the Pope. Another personage of great note in the 
 annals of Prague, is named Horsemir. This gallant Knight of 
 Bohemia, flying from his enemies, made his horse bound at one 
 leap from the castle mount, across the entire city bridge and 
 river. Near the door of the cathedral, is an equestrian statue of 
 this Bohemian Perseus, equipped in complete armour, bestriding 
 his Pegasus. From the pedestal at his feet, flows a stream of 
 pure water, which is received into a circular basin beneath. Over 
 the centre arch of the bridge, is the statue of St. John Nepomuc, 
 whom King Winceslaus caused to be thrown into the river, for 
 having refused to reveal the confession of the queen to her 
 jealous husband. Nepomuc is the patron saint of Prague, and 
 wards off the inundations of the river Moldau. The university 
 of Prague was founded by Charles the Fourth, in 1347. It was 
 the first in Germany, and was attended at one time by 40,000 
 students, who rushed in such crowds from the lecture rooms, 
 that a bell used to be sounded a quarter of an hour before the 
 classes were dismissed, to give notice to the inhabitants to leave 
 the streets clear. Within forty years after its foundation, 
 appeared the two constellations of Bohemia, John Huss, and 
 Jerome of Prague, the successors of Wickliffe, and forerunners 
 of Luther. 
 
 The marriage of Richard the Second of England, to Anne 
 daughter of the Emperor Charles the Fourth, and sister of 
 Winceslaus King of Bohemia, had created a free intercourse 
 between these two countries. On the death of this Queen, 
 
PRAGUE. 85 
 
 which happened in 1394, many of her attendants returned to 
 Prague, and carried with them (printing being then vinknown) 
 manuscript copies of the writings of WicklifFe " the Morning 
 Star of the Reformation," whose doctrines the deceased Queen 
 had particularly patronized. About the same time one Peter 
 Payne, an Englishman, who was principal of Edmund-Hall, 
 Oxford, was forced to fly from England by the Carmelite friars, 
 whose idleness and beggaries he had strongly censured. Payne 
 also repaired to Prague, and helped to propagate the opinions 
 of Jerome : and, indeed, so much were Wickliffe's writings 
 relished in Prague, that when Strynko, the Archbishop, caused all 
 he could collect to be publicly burnt, upwards of 200 copies, 
 adorned with costly covers and golden bosses, belonging to the 
 Bohemian nobles, were consigned to the flames. 
 
 The constancy and firmness of mind with which John Huss 
 met his death excited the astonishment and admiration of the 
 beholders ; when the faggots were piled up to his neck, the 
 Duke of Bavaria, who was present, was officious enough to desire 
 him to abjure. " No!" said Huss, " I never taught any doc- 
 trine of an evil tendency, and what I taught with my lips I now 
 seal with my blood." Jerome of Prague, his friend and dis- 
 ciple, but superior in talent and eloquence, had at first subscribed 
 to the condemnation of his master's doctrines ; but having 
 learnt the magnanimity with which Huss had met his fate, he 
 was ashamed of enduring life on such terms, retracted publicly, 
 and was also sent to the stake. Poggio Bracciolini, of Florence, 
 secretary of Pope John the 23d, and one of the first restorers 
 of literature, who was present at his interrogatory and punish- 
 ment, says, that Mutius Scaevola did not burn his hand off with 
 
gg PRAGUE. 
 
 greater constancy than this man endured the consuming of his 
 whole body, and that Socrates did not swallow the poisoned con- 
 tents of his cup with more cheerfulness than he mounted the pile 
 of faggots. " Quum Victor ignem post tergum ne id videret 
 injicere vellet ; ' hue 1 inquit ' accede, et in conspectu accende ignem ; 
 si enim ilium timuissem, nunquam ad hunc locum, quern fugiendi 
 facultas erat, accessissem' Hoc modo vir prceter Jidem egregius 
 est consumptus ; et singulos actus inspexi." Such is the power 
 of enthusiasm, such the strength of mind inspired by the con- 
 sciousness of dying in a just cause ; such too was the glorious 
 feeling with which the blind Zisca was inspired, who, rising like 
 a phoenix, from the ashes of Huss and Jerome, spread the ven- 
 geance of heaven over the kingdoms "of those princes who, by 
 suffering their safe conducts to be violated by the Council of 
 Constance, had become the cowardly accomplices of these 
 legalised murders. It is affecting even at the present day to stand 
 on an eminence amid the ruined citadel of Prague, and survey 
 the scenes of those religious wars. But after contemplating with 
 due reverence the Videchon, the Wisse-gorod, and the Chapel of 
 Emmaus, where the bones of the Hussite leaders repose, it is not 
 a little mortifying to view the parapets of that bridge, so often 
 the scene of their triumphs, now covered with a long line of gilt 
 and varnished statues, and to reflect that in Bohemia, where so 
 much blood has flowed in defence of liberty of conscience, the 
 superstitions of the Catholic Church have extinguished even the 
 semblance of religious freedom ; and that the advancement of 
 the human mind has been cramped and retarded by the 
 benumbing influence of bigotry and error. The seat of govern- 
 ment has been transferred to Vienna, and learning has fled to 
 
PRAGUE. 
 
 87 
 
 more favoured regions ; the university of 40,000 students can 
 now scarcely boast the attendance of 400 ragged boys, and deso- 
 lation fills up the vacancies of a metropolis which once gave the 
 law in morals, science, and politics to the rest of the German 
 empire. The arts still linger, but it is only to trace the reliques 
 of past magnificence, or to bewail the loss of those treasures of 
 which their city was despoiled by the barbarous Swedes. 
 
88 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Catholic monuments. — Field of battle near Collin. — Czeslau. — The tomb 
 and epitaph of John Zisca. — Hussite 'warfare — its resemblances to that 
 of the ancient Cimbri. — Carragos — still formed in Spain ; — Jenikau. 
 — Steindorff. — Reisengebirge. — Znaym. — Funeral procession of the 
 Emperor Sigismund. 
 
 At a short distance from Prague and the banks of the Moldau, 
 the fields assume a novel aspect, and the traveller perceives the 
 increasing influence of a more southern climate, in the change of 
 the vegetable productions around him. Crops of wheat, rye, and 
 barley, here give place to lofty maize, and to the mantling tendrils 
 of the vine, waving over the shelving sides of the roads, intermixed 
 with the deep orange-coloured blossoms of the melons and other 
 cucurbitaceous plants. From time to time, the doors of ample 
 wine-caves meet the stranger's eye along the highway, remote 
 from human dwellings ; crucifixes and bleeding saints crown the 
 pinnacles of the bridges, or terminate the vistas of intersecting 
 passes, while every object reminds him of the culture, manners, 
 and habits of the South. Amidst these peaceful labours of the 
 Bohemian peasants, ever and anon the postillion touches his hat, 
 to recall the remembrance of the well contested field ; thus, 
 between Planca and Collin, in passing some extensive downs, he 
 pointed out to us a lone farm-house, from the windows of 
 which, Frederick the Great directed the movements of the 
 
CZESLAU. 89 
 
 Prussian army, in the action which he lost against the Austrians 
 under General Dhaun. 
 
 But it was at Czeslau, a poor village of about three hundred 
 houses, that we stopt to contemplate the tomb of perhaps a 
 greater man than even Frederick himself. It is that of the blind 
 Zisca, who lies interred in the village church ; his extraordinary 
 career having been terminated by the plague, on the 6th of Octo- 
 ber 1422, in the neighbouring castle of Priscow, when on his way 
 to give a meeting to Sigismund, King of Bohemia. The epitaph 
 over his tomb runs thus : the Hero speaks : 
 
 " I John Zisca, descended from the noble house of Trusnow, in 
 Bohemia, not inferior in military skill to any leader or general, a 
 severe avenger of the pride and avarice of the clergy, and a stre- 
 nuous defender of the rights of my country, here lie interred. 
 
 " Whatever ' the blind' Appius Claudius by wise counsel ; 
 whatever Marcus Furius Camillus, by intrepid conduct, achieved 
 for the Bomans, that also I performed for my countrymen the 
 Bohemians. Never was I wanting to the fortune of war, neither 
 was that fortune ever wanting to me ; I foresaw, although blind, 
 every favourable opportunity for action. In eleven engagements 
 I came off ever victorious. It was manifest to me that I well 
 sustained the good cause of the hungry and the poor, against 
 the delicate, fat, and pampered prelates of Borne, and on that 
 account experienced the favour of the Deity ; and had not the 
 envy of my enemies stood in my way, I should no doubt have 
 merited the glory of being reckoned amongst the most illustrious 
 of mankind. Nevertheless, my bones are deposited in this 
 consecrated ground, without the permission and in spite even of 
 the Pope.'' 
 
 " Joannes Zisca ex nobili Trosnoviorum apud Bohemos fami- 
 
 N 
 
90 
 
 TOMB OF ZISCA. 
 
 lia nulli Imperatorwn, Ducwnque rei militaris peritia inferior, 
 superbice simul et avaritice clericorum severus ultor, patriceque 
 acerrimus propugnator, hie jaceo ! 
 
 '•' Quod Appius Claudius coccus bene consulendo, quod Mar- 
 cus Furius Camillus strenue agendo, suis Romanis prcebuere, 
 hoc ipsum Bohemis meis prcestiti. Fortunce belli nunquam defui 
 neque ilia mihi, omnem opportunitatem rerum bene agendarum 
 etiam caucus pravidi. Signis collatis undecies semper victor 
 depugnavi. Visus sum mihi esurientium, optimam causam 
 advei^sus delicatos pingues et saginatos sacerdotes egregie egisse, 
 et ob hoc Dei auxilium sensisse ; nisi illorum invidia obstaret, 
 inter illustrissimos numerari procul dubio meruissem. Tamen 
 ossa mea hoc sacrato loco cubant, etiam insalutato et invito 
 Papa." 
 
 The contagious malady which caused the death of Zisca, must 
 no doubt have prevented his followers from executing the wish 
 he expressed when dying, that his skin should be flayed from his 
 corpse and extended on a drum, that he might strike his foes 
 with terror, even when his body had descended to the grave, thus 
 displaying the ruling passion strong even in death. iEneas 
 Sylvius, then Nuncio from the Pope to the Emperor of Ger- 
 many, has left us a faithful picture of the Hussite warfare, and 
 on reading its details one cannot but be forcibly struck with 
 the resemblance it bears to that waged by their ancestors the 
 Cimbri of old, against the Roman legions under Marius, as 
 described by Plutarch. " After the death of Zisca," says the 
 historian iEneas Sylvius, " the Hussites entered rarely into 
 walled cities, except to purchase those articles of which they 
 stood in need ; but formed one immense encampment, in which 
 they dwelt with their wives and children. For this purpose they 
 
CARRAGOS. 
 
 91 
 
 were provided with a vast number of waggons, which served 
 them both for houses and ramparts. When obliged to fight, they 
 disposed their arms crosswise in a sort of chevaux defrise, outside 
 the carrago, 6 or circle formed by their waggons, and inclosed their 
 infantry in the centre. When the combat had actually commenced, 
 the drivers of the waggons advanced by slow degrees, and sur- 
 rounded the squadrons or battalions of the enemy according to the 
 signals given by their leader. The enemy being thus surrounded 
 and cut off from their own succours, were either cut to pieces by 
 the infantry, or pierced by the arrows of the men and women who 
 rode in the waggons. The cavalry fought outside of this circle, 
 and whenever they found themselves hard pressed, the waggons 
 opened out and permitted them to come withinside, where they 
 could fight under cover, as behind high ramparts. By these 
 means they gained several victories, because the neighbouring 
 nations which attacked them were unacquainted with this man- 
 ner of fighting." 
 
 The same mode of arranging waggons I have remarked to 
 prevail at this day in Spain. The officers who served with the 
 British army there must frequently have seen the convoys of 
 suranos, when transporting provisions to our camp towards 
 night-fall, driving their vehicles into a circle, and after having 
 unyoked their oxen and permitted them to range at pasture, 
 kindle a fire in the centre of their carrago, round which they sung, 
 caroused, or reposed during the night, secure from the attacks 
 of wolves and wild beasts. By day-break they whistled their 
 oxen back to the yokes, and uncoiling the circle, like a huge 
 snake, the leading oxen moved along the highway. 
 
 Between Janikau and Steindorf, we passed over a barren 
 mountainous country, with the Alpine summits of the Reisen- 
 
 N 2 
 
92 
 
 EMPEROR SIGISMUND. 
 
 gebirge, or Giant's mountain, skirting the horizon on our left. 
 The elevation of these peaks is such, that although distant at least 
 forty miles, their snowy summits glittered high among the clouds. 
 We entered Moravia at Iglau, a ruinous old town amidst the 
 mining district, where we stopped for some hours, and then 
 proceeded by five dreary stages, to Znaym, the capital town of 
 the province. This is a large place, with wide streets, and a 
 good clean market-place, seated on the slope of a hill. The ruins 
 of a castle, and the vestiges of a Roman temple, are still pointed 
 out to travellers. Znaym is also noted in German history, for 
 the affecting spectacle presented here after the unfortunate Em- 
 peror Sigismund breathed his last, in the 70th year of his age. 
 When the funeral procession of the Emperor moved off to- 
 wards Hungary, the widowed Empress Barbara, followed his 
 hearse, not as a mourner, but as a state prisoner in shackles, 
 and surrounded by an armed band of her own subjects. JEneas 
 Sylvius, in his history of these times, has described this extra- 
 ordinary spectacle, characterising the Empress Barbara as an- 
 other Messalina. " Mulier inexhaustce libidinis quce inter con- 
 cubinos illaudatum cevum publico agitans, scepius vivos petiit quam 
 peteretur" 
 
 From Znaym in six more posts we arrived at Vienna late in 
 the evening, and took up our residence at a hotel near the 
 Kohl markt. 
 
93 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Vienna. — St. Stephen 9 s Church. — Tombs of Prince Eugene. — CuspinianuS. 
 Joseph the Second. — Church of the Augustines. — Canova's monu- 
 ment. — Ephesian tomb. — Literary and Scientific Establishments. — 
 Population. — Arsenals. — Cara Mustapha's head. — Austrian Generals. 
 
 Travellers of every nation, seem to have vied with each other 
 in proclaiming the many charms of this delightful capital, which 
 sm*passes in attractions all its German rivals. The beauty of its 
 sylvan environs, the richness of its public collections, the attrac- 
 tions of its opera, theatres, and public amusements ; the abun- 
 dance and cheapness of its markets, the magnificence of its 
 buildings, and the hospitality and affability of its inhabitants ; 
 all contribute to distinguish most pre-eminently the capital of 
 the Austrian States. The commercial man might prefer Ham- 
 burg ; the military parade of Berlin possesses attractions for the 
 soldier ; the artist and mineralogist would probably tarry at 
 Dresden ; but he whose pursuits are the acquisition of general 
 knowledge, and the charms of society, would abandon all those 
 cities for Vienna. Every liberal pursuit may be here indulged, 
 every taste cultivated and improved, knowledge and science ac- 
 quired, and the moments unoccupied by study or business, agree- 
 ably passed in the very best society. Is he fond of Gothic archi- 
 tecture? he may muse amidst the aisles and cloisters of the 
 church of St. Stephen, one of the finest specimens of art in 
 
94 VIENNA. 
 
 Germany : Is music his delight ? the orchestra of the Imperial 
 opera will gratify him to the utmost : Do sylvan beauties please 
 him ? the retreats of the Prater along the banks of the Danube 
 afford the finest ranges for picturesque excursions : Is painting 
 dear to him? the Imperial gallery offers him 1300 pictures of 
 every school, from the infancy to the very perfection of art : 
 while the Imperial library will gratify his taste for study, and the 
 collection of antiques arranged by the science of a Winkelmann 
 will instruct and accomplish him. He may study the art of war 
 amidst the arsenals and fortifications of the city, and acquire in 
 turn, every science within a circle not exceeding the area of St. 
 James's Park. 
 
 The building to which the steps of a stranger are generally 
 first directed, is the church of St. Stephen. Its beautiful 
 spire, covered with fret-work, attracts his eye from a distance, 
 while its roof, distinguished by the finest mosaic tiling, proudly 
 towers far above the surrounding edifices. A late illustrious 
 writer, the accomplished female who has preceded us in that path 
 which we must all shortly tread, has very justly remarked that 
 this church is in some respect or other closely connected with 
 every period of the history of Austria. The Princes who found- 
 ed or adorned it sleep within its vaults, and the heroes* who have 
 defended, or the sagesf who have added lustre to the Austrian 
 name have obtained as a last recompence a resting place within 
 its walls. The sounds of the great bell strike upon your ear ; 
 the very bronze which calls you to prayer once battered the 
 walls of the city, and the bones of the soldier whose valour 
 achieved its conquest lie interred beneath the marble upon 
 
 * Prince Eugene of Savoy. f Spiesshammer, and Conrad Celtes, the poet. 
 
VIENNA. 
 
 95 
 
 which you carelessly tread. The earliest historian of Austria 
 fills the contiguous vault ; and the marble tablet will inform you 
 that philosophy, history, and poetry, united to display the under- 
 standing and talents of Joannes Cuspinianus*, the friend, his- 
 torian, and physician of the Emperor Maximilian the First. 
 Even the Roman inhabitants of Vindobona have mingled their 
 dust on this consecrated spot ; and the tombs of Publius Titius 
 and of Conrad Celtes in the adjoining cloister, display in affect- 
 ing emblems, the caducity of human life, and the proud yet fad- 
 ing trophies of genius and power. 
 
 Not far from St. Stephen's, the church of the Augustines re- 
 veals the beautiful tomb of the Archduchess Maria- Christina, 
 equally interesting as a tribute of exalted affection, and delight- 
 ful as an effort of human ingenuity. While the beauty of the 
 groupe depositing the funeral urn in the deep recesses of the si- 
 lent pyramid, calls forth our sympathy for the deceased ; the 
 certainty of a future state is awakened by the divine genius re- 
 cumbent on the steps, and the angels spreading branches of 
 palm trees around the medallion of the archduchess, encircled 
 by serpents, the emblem of immortality. Much as you feel for 
 the disconsolate Prince, whose loss is testified in the laconic in- 
 scription, of " Albert to the best of wives," still you glory in the 
 genius of the artist Canova, who, by the magic touch of his chisel, 
 could so ably embody the pensive lesson which it is calculated to 
 convey. Nor could such a memorial be more aptly placed than 
 in the church of the Augustines, or over the vaults containing 
 the enshrined remains of seventy members of the Imperial 
 
 * Spiesshammer — latinized into Cuspinianus, according to the absurd fashion 
 of his age. 
 
96 
 
 VIENNA. 
 
 family of Austria. Those very surrounding walls have re- 
 echoed to their nuptial benedictions and the murmurs of 
 their funeral anthems. More than once the blooming bride has 
 only retired to return in a few months a corpse on the fatal 
 Catafalque, and the notes of joy or of sorrow have alternately 
 arisen from a crowd of attending minstrels, or weeping sub- 
 jects. Well too have the princes of Austria merited the tears 
 of their subjects ; nobly did the philanthropic Joseph earn 
 the colossal statue their gratitude has erected to his memory. 
 Look around on the charitable foundations created during the 
 reign of that excellent, wise, and tolerant prince ; compare the 
 transactions of his life with those of any of the contemporary 
 monarchs of Europe, and then refuse him, if you justly can, 
 that modest title which he gloried in adding to his name, " the 
 friend of the human race." 
 
 All the grand benefits that England owes to her Henry the 
 Eighth, acting from the selfish dictates of a proud and vo- 
 luptuous mind, did Austria receive from the force of reli- 
 gion, reason, and humanity, acting upon the correct and bene- 
 volent understanding of her Joseph the Second. He expelled 
 the Jesuits, and turned out the inhabitants of two thousand 
 convents, but it was only to convert the funds which these 
 drones and perverters of religion so iniquitously expended, into 
 the support of the needy, and to alleviate the real and una- 
 voidable miseries of humanity. Previous to his accession, the 
 indigent sick of Vienna were frequently suffered to expire in the 
 streets ; to prevent these scenes of distress, he founded an hos- 
 pital containing two thousand beds. Prior to this event, child- 
 murder and the exposing of infants were frequent crimes ; to 
 prevent the perpetration of which, he founded a lying-in-hospi- 
 
VIENNA. 
 
 97 
 
 tal ; its doors were ever open to all distressed females requesting 
 admission. They are not even obliged to reveal their names, 
 but only to have them written in a sealed note on their bosoms ; 
 which is never examined unless in cases of death. In Vienna, 
 then, the crime of child-murder is altogether unknown, since the 
 establishment of a Foundling Hospital in 1785. 
 
 The same humane spirit which dictated these charities, erected 
 an hospital for the reception of lunatics, a place of retreat for 
 lame and wounded soldiers, and an asylum for the distressed and 
 destitute poor. In addition to these benevolent institutions, he 
 suppressed all religious pilgrimages, restrained within due limits 
 the arrogant and unjust pretensions of the Papal power, as exer- 
 cised within his dominions, equalised the livings and revenues 
 of the bishops and clergy of the Catholic church, tolerated the 
 exercise of all other religious worships, not excepting Mahom- 
 medanism, abolished feudal vassalage, endeavoured, but unsuc- 
 cessfully, to equalise the land tax, and, although himself illite- 
 rate, patronised both literature and the arts, from a conviction 
 of their humanising influence, encouraged and protected com- 
 merce and all useful and laudable speculations, and as far as his 
 natural powers of mind or limited acquirements would permit, 
 did every thing that a Prince could do, to advance his people in 
 virtue, comfort, and social happiness : and, indeed, if we except 
 only the despotic establishment of military conscription, there 
 was no measure of internal regulation, devised by Joseph the 
 Second, which was not equally wise and beneficent. 
 
 The literary establishments in this city, are upon the same 
 grand scale as the charitable foundations. Adjoining to the 
 gallery leading to the church of the Augustines, is the imperial 
 
 o 
 
98 
 
 VIENNA. 
 
 library, contained in a fine building designed by a German 
 architect named Fischer of Erlach. It has two entrances, one 
 reserved for the court, communicating with the palace, the other 
 opening upon the Joseph-platz, where is situated the colossal 
 equestrian statue before alluded to. This library is thrown open 
 to the public every day, Sundays and holidays only excepted, in 
 the summer-time from eight in the morning, and in the winter 
 one hour later. Excepting the Vatican library, it is allowed to 
 be the first collection in Europe. The statues and busts of 
 Charles the Sixth, and a long line of descendants who have con- 
 tributed to these literary treasures, adorn the halls. Amidst 
 them, a very distinguished object is a large tomb of Parian 
 marble of exquisite workmanship, and in good preserv- 
 ation, presented to this library by Count Maximilian de Fug- 
 ger, a commander of the Teutonic order. That distinguished 
 nobleman after serving with reputation in the celebrated 
 battle of Lepanto, undertook a journey into Asia Minor, 
 and having discovered this superb relique in the neighbour- 
 hood of Ephesus, was so fortunate as to succeed in bringing 
 it to Vienna, and generous enough to present it to the public. 
 The subject represented in basso relievo, is the combat of 
 Theseus with the Amazons of Sarmatic Asia, reputed to have 
 been the founders of Ephesus. Near it are several Etruscan 
 vases, one of which Winckelmann has caused to be engraved in 
 his collection of " Monumenti Antichi Inediti" and which that 
 distinguished critic has pronounced to be the most beautiful 
 extant. The manuscripts of this library alone, amount to twelve 
 thousand, in all languages, and are preserved in two separate 
 rooms, connected with the main hall, which are warmed during 
 
VIENNA. 
 
 99 
 
 winter by large stoves ; implements of writing are freely fur- 
 nished to all those who come for the purpose of study or of 
 making extracts. 
 
 The Emperor Maximilian the First had the honour of com- 
 mencing this establishment, in 1498, and employed his confidant 
 Joannes Cuspinianus or Spiesshammer, in making the necessary 
 arrangements. In 1662, during the reign of Leopold, it already 
 contained eighty thousand volumes. Charles the Sixth erected 
 the building, and threw it open to the public. On the death of 
 Prince Eugene of Savoy, his library, amounting to 15,000 
 volumes, was added by Joseph the Second, including a magnifi- 
 cent collection of prints ; and the cabinet of portraits made by 
 the superintendent Fouquet, being afterwards united to these, 
 the series of prints and engraved portraits is now the most 
 complete in Europe, consisting of 26,000 pieces, and filling 737 
 volumes. 
 
 On coming to the throne, the Empress Maria Theresa had 
 added the library of her father, besides several other collections 
 which were purchased for her by Van Swieten, including that of 
 the Baron Stosch. And Van Swieten being afterwards appointed 
 its conservator and director, bestowed every diligence during a 
 period of twenty-seven years, not only to add to it, but to 
 complete the deficient works by the acquisition of many thou- 
 sand volumes ; purchasing also from the Oriental press of 
 Ibrahim Effendi at Constantinople every work which appeared ; 
 so that it now amounts to above 300,000 volumes. One hall 
 alone is filled with early books, printed between the years 
 1457 and 1500. 
 
 o 2 
 
100 VIENNA. 
 
 But amongst the distinguished individuals who have promoted 
 the cause of literature in Austria, the name of Busbequius ought 
 to stand very prominent. The collection made by that great 
 and excellent man during his embassies in Turkey, between the 
 years 1555 and 1562, comprehending many precious manuscripts 
 and ancient and rare medals, constituted the foundation of the 
 rich collection of Oriental literature which Vienna has now to 
 boast. But these treasures would probably have been over- 
 looked and forgotten, had it not been for the talents of M. 
 Hammer, who stands distinguished as probably the first Oriental 
 scholar at this time in Europe. By his exertions and that of an 
 Oriental society which he had the honour of founding, all the 
 MSS. and objects connected with the literature of the East, have 
 been arranged and classed together, and Vienna possesses at this 
 time some of the best Oriental linguists in Europe, such as 
 Alexandides, Chabert, Dombay, Gautz, and lastly, Frederick 
 Schlegel, whose writings on dramatic literature, have of late 
 become so favourably known in Great Britain. 
 
 Nor should the name of Van Swieten be here omitted in the 
 list of the philanthropists of the Austrian States, for in a country 
 where the name of Howard is dear, every lover of mankind must 
 be respected, and Van Swieten possesses high claims on our 
 admiration. Having obtained the confidence of his Sovereign 
 Maria Theresa, as well on account of his talents as a physician, 
 as of his virtues as a man, this generous individual employed his 
 ascendancy neither in enriching his family nor in acquiring 
 Court influence, but in directing the streams of royal bounty, 
 into channels which might be generally useful to mankind, and in 
 
VIENNA. 101 
 
 founding a school of medicine, in the establishment of hospitals for 
 the sick, in the diffusion of knowledge, and in works of charity 
 and mercy. The university of Vienna, founded by the Emperor 
 Frederick the Second, in 1237, had been surrendered to the Je- 
 suits in 1662, by Ferdinand the Second. On the dissolu- 
 tion of that ambitious order in 1752, Maria Theresa, yielding 
 to the urgent representations of Van Swieten, resolved to reform 
 the mode of conducting medical education within her States, and 
 granted the Baron not only the university buildings, but a con- 
 siderable sum of money to carry the plan into effect. Van Swieten 
 lost no time in laying the foundations of a large building in 1753, 
 which was completed in three years, during which period he gave 
 lectures to the students in the vestibule of the Imperial library. 
 The botanical garden was enlarged and given in charge to M. 
 Langier ; De Haen was appointed Clinical lecturer, and the 
 talents of Doctors Storck and Crantz were called in to aid the 
 rising school. Free admission, and leave to transcribe and take 
 notes from the books and manuscripts in the library, were ex- 
 tended to all applicants ; the salaries of the professors were at the 
 instance of the Baron increased, by order of the Empress, and 
 the interests of learning were promoted in a degree before un- 
 known throughout the Austrian dominions. Afterwards Joseph 
 the Second added an anatomical collection, and enriched it by the 
 purchase of the beautiful preparations of Ruysch, Albinus, and 
 Liebeckun ; and the school of botany had the honour of bringing 
 forward the talents of Jacquin and Host. The school of military 
 surgery owes its foundation to Joseph the Second, who, at the 
 instigation of his surgeon Bambilla, and aware of the great 
 want of good surgeons in his army, followed up the example set by 
 
i QO VIENNA. 
 
 the King of Prussia, and took that of Berlin for his model. This 
 seminary enjoys numerous privileges, grants the degree of Doctor 
 in Surgery, and is under the immediate direction of the Council of 
 War. It contains a fine collection of anatomical preparations, 
 a good library, a botanic garden, and a cabinet of natural his- 
 tory ; and to complete the establishment, a military hospital of 
 twelve hundred beds, where the pupils may learn their profession 
 by the bedsides of hurt and wounded soldiers. The building 
 that was formerly the college of the Jesuits is now occupied by 
 the Academy of Fine Arts, composed of six classes. The first is 
 dedicated to historical painting, the second to sculpture, the 
 third to architecture, the fourth to landscape painting, the fifth to 
 engraving, and the sixth to the mechanical arts connected with 
 design. This academy was founded by the Emperor Leopold, and 
 afterwards augmented by Joseph the First and Charles the Sixth ; 
 but Maria Theresa and her son had the satisfaction of increasing 
 the appointments of the professors, and of placing the institution 
 on its present respectable footing. 
 
 Belonwino- to this academy at present are, thirty-five historical 
 painters, fifteen landscape painters, eight animal painters, four 
 painters of flowers, thirty-one painters of portraits, fourteen 
 painters in miniature, ten painters of heraldry, twenty sculptors, 
 twelve engravers of medals, four engravers in ivory, ten engravers 
 of seals, six modellers in wax, fifteen architects, and twenty-six 
 engravers of copper-plates. 
 
 These artists are supported by a population of 230,000 
 inhabitants. At the time of the last census the numbers 
 within the walls were estimated at 46,437, and the sum 
 total, including the thirty-three suburbs, at 224,092, of which 
 
VIENNA. 
 
 103 
 
 amount there was a very remarkable excess in the female po- 
 pulation of not fewer than eleven thousand five hundred and 
 fifty-four. The garrison of Vienna is generally 12,000 men, 
 being double that of Dresden, and only one-third as numerous 
 as that of Berlin. 
 
 Since 1768, the population of Vienna has been continually 
 augmenting, in consequence of the great influx of emigrants from 
 Italy, the Low Countries, Holland, Poland, Switzerland, and the 
 German States. But at the same time the ratio of mortality has 
 been constantly exceeding in a great proportion, without any very 
 evident causes, unless it be that the area of the buildings is too 
 limited for the density of the population. Thus in 1786, the annual 
 mortality was from nine to ten thousand persons ; but sine 1790, 
 the numbers have successively augmented to thirteen thousand 
 and fifteen thousand, or even sixteen thousand every year : a 
 mortality far beyond the increase of population. In general, the 
 mortality is now one in fifteen annually; whereas in London it 
 is only one in thirty ; and at Vienna the instances of longevity 
 are equally rare, in comparison. Thus, at Vienna, with all its 
 delights, human life is exposed to double the risk to which it 
 is subjected in London. Whether this arises from the gluttony 
 in which the inhabitants are proverbially stated to indulge, I 
 know not. The climate is assuredly very variable, frequently 
 changing in the course of only a few hours, from the extreme of 
 heat to that of cold ; and the air of Vienna, unless ventilated 
 daily by a breeze about two hours before mid-day, is said to 
 become pestilential — " Aut ventosa aut venenosa Vmdobona" is 
 an old adage. The spring water also is insalubrious, being 
 apt to occasion bowel complaints to strangers, and the water 
 
104 VIENNA. 
 
 of the Danube is thick and muddy, so that it cannot be drank 
 unless filtered.* 
 
 From a consideration of the frail tenure of human life, the 
 transition is natural to that of the instruments used for its 
 destruction, and the three arsenals of Vienna supply these in all 
 their sad variety. The grand arsenal situated upon the Hohe 
 Brucke, built by Maximilian the Second, well merits inspection, 
 from the very extraordinary nature of its contents, particularly 
 the trophies of Prince Eugene's Victories, consisting of four 
 enormous pieces of Turkish cannon. One of these, bearing date 
 1516, was taken at Belgrade in 1717 ; it weighs 179 quintals, 
 and can throw a ball of 124 pounds weight ; another founded 
 in 1560, weighs 117 quintals, and will throw a ball of 60 pounds 
 weight. Near these are two stone pieces, one of which throws a 
 stone ball of four hundred weight and upwards, and the 
 other one of two hundred and fifty pounds weight. There is 
 also an iron mortar of an enormous calibre, begirt closely with 
 iron hoops, each two inches thick, and another very large 
 bronze mortar inscribed Sigismundus Archidiix Austrice, 1404. 
 Besides these, are several pieces of cannon calculated for balls of 
 70, 48, and 36 pounds. Encircling the external walls, is a prodi- 
 gious chain twelve hundred feet in length, each link weighing 
 24 pounds. This is merely a fragment of a chain which the 
 Turks had thrown across the Danube, near Buda in Hungary, to 
 keep off the Austrian gun-boats. Amongst the remains of 
 ancient armour, is the red velvet cap of Godfrey of Bouillon, 
 
 * In the year 1679, the plague which raged in Vienna, carried off 76,921 persons. 
 See Paul de Sorbach. Consil. Med. de Peste Viennensi, 1679. 
 
VIENNA. 
 
 105 
 
 and the buff leather waistcoat of Gustavus Adolphus, King 
 of Sweden, pierced on the left side with the musket ballwhich 
 terminated his existence at the battle of Lutzen in Saxony, in 
 1632. Historians have amused themselves with sage conjectures, 
 whether that King came fairly by his death ; omitting that 
 discussion, as not belonging to this place, I would here record 
 the efficacy of silk in repelling a musket shot, in a case which 
 came under my own observation in Spain. A very promising 
 young officer of engineers, with whom 1 lived in habits of the great- 
 est intimacy and friendship, while he was employed in repairing 
 the breaches at Ciudad Rodrigo, consulted me respecting an obsti- 
 nate headach and giddiness, which I found was principally occa- 
 sioned by his wearing a stiff black leather stock. I earnestly 
 recommended him to lay it aside, which he rather tenaciously 
 declined, when, as a further inducement, I told him, that in 
 the event of his substituting a black silk handkerchief, it might 
 one day preserve his life, as silk would certainly turn a ball which 
 might penetrate leather. At length he complied, and as I had pre- 
 dicted, his headaches left him. We soon after separated, he going 
 to the light division, and my station being with that of Lord Hill. 
 The campaign commenced, and in a few weeks I learnt with the 
 greatest grief, that my gallant friend had fallen at the head of 
 the first storming party at St. Sebastian's. I was then stationed 
 at Reynosa, many leagues distant. As I believed him dead, my 
 surprise and joy were great on receiving a letter from him some 
 weeks afterwards, acquainting me, that when on the very glacis, 
 he had been wounded by a musket ball from a man on the walls. 
 He instantly fell, covered with blood, which streamed in profu- 
 sion from his mouth and nostrils ; one of his own corps dragged 
 him immediately into the trenches. He was carried to his 
 
106 
 
 VIENNA. 
 
 quarters, and his wound, on examination, was pronounced 
 mortal ; the ball, not being found, was supposed to have 
 lodged in the vertebrae of the neck. He lived, however, for 
 three days, and no bad symptoms coming on, the surgeons 
 began to doubt the accuracy of their opinions. The sapper, 
 who saw him fall, was examined to ascertain whether he had 
 seen the bullet, which he instantly produced from his waistcoat 
 pocket, saying, that on untying Mr. Reid's silk handkerchief, he 
 found part of it carried into the wound, and using a little force 
 in withdrawing it, the ball came out with it ; not a single thread 
 of the silk handkerchief having given way, as appeared on exami- 
 nation. I have since had the pleasure of embracing my friend 
 in good health in Bourdeaux, have subsequently seen his name 
 honourably recorded by Lord Exmouth* for his services at Al- 
 giers, and have had the still greater satisfaction of hearing, some 
 short time since, that my friend the Lieutenant is now Major 
 of the Royal Engineers, a rank to which his military talents and 
 conspicuous bravery justly entitled him. 
 
 In a glass case, in the arsenal of the towns-people of Vienna is 
 still shown the grim visage of Cara Mustapha, Grand Vizier and 
 Commander of the Turkish army at the last siege of Vienna by 
 the Turks in 1683. The fate of the man whose head is thus 
 carefully preserved, is rather singular. He was a favourite and 
 paramour of the Valide Sultana, and was, by her influence with 
 her son, Mahomet IV. appointed to the first offices of state. 
 Being unfortunate at the siege of Vienna, he was strangled at 
 Belgrade, by order of the Sultan, and his remains were privately 
 interred. But the Austrian troops, on taking that city, dug up 
 his body, and sent his head in pickle to the Burghers of Vienna, 
 as a trophy. Certainly, few heads had ever indulged more gi- 
 
VIENNA. 107 
 
 gantic projects of ambition, than Cara Mustapha's. He had en- 
 tered the Austrian States, as the voluntary leader of more than 
 three hundred thousand men, commanded by five petty sovereign 
 princes, and thirty one pashas, and his train of artillery amount- 
 ed to three hundred pieces of cannon. His plan was nothing less 
 than to have conquered Vienna, and then subjugated the west of 
 Europe. Fortunately for mankind, his intentions were frustrated 
 by the courage and genius of John Sobiesky, King of Poland, 
 and like many other of his predecessors and successors, 
 
 " He left a name at which the world grew pale, 
 " To point a moral, or adorn a tale." 
 
 But perhaps the head of Cara Mustapha might be of greater 
 use to the Austrians, would they condescend to take a lesson 
 from their barbarous neighbours, the Mussulmen, and strike off 
 the head of an unfortunate General, from time to time, " pour 
 encourager les autres," as a celebrated writer would have it. There 
 is strong reason to suspect that Cara Mustapha was well de- 
 serving of his fate, for besides being ignorant in the extreme, 
 as is common with some other Grand Viziers of the present 
 day, he seems to have been a rank coward. There is now 
 before me a little book printed at London, " by Royal com- 
 mand," in 1684, in which, amongst other curious matter, it is 
 stated, on the report of " a Polander," who " got into the town, 
 that the Grand Vizier was carried every three days in an iron 
 house, through all their works and approaches." (See Journal of 
 late Siege of Vienna, p. 43. London, 1684.) The man whose 
 nerves are so weak as to require the silly covering of an iron 
 house, to visit the trenches, has no right to lead other men into 
 danger, and, besides, I cannot help being persuaded that no ge- 
 
 p 2 
 
108 
 
 VIENNA. 
 
 neral, or even physician, was ever uniformly unfortunate in prac- 
 tice, without being grossly ignorant, and unworthy of confidence. 
 Perhaps no generals were ever more uniformly unfortunate than 
 those of Austria ; for a long time, during their late wars with 
 France, battles were lost and posts surrendered in rapid succes- 
 sion, yet in no instance was it ever known that an Austrian Ge- 
 neral was shot, either for cowardice or treachery. While at 
 Vienna, I heard indeed of some who had been degraded and 
 thrown into the Spielberg, amongst the common felons who 
 sweep the streets of Brunn ; I even saw the stains of blood in the 
 floor of a room, which we occupied at the hotel, which the 
 waiter told us had flowed from the heart of a man who had fallen 
 upon his own sword on that spot, a few months before, when he 
 had arrived at Vienna in consequence of a summons from the 
 Emperor to answer for his misconduct. But these were rare occur- 
 rences. Some years ago my profession brought me acquainted in 
 London, with a German Ex-General, formerly in the service of the 
 Ex-Emperor of France, who, like Sarrazin, had deserted from his 
 post. While I was in the habit of seeing him, the rapid and un- 
 accountable successes of the French armies in Italy, were often 
 the subject of his conversation. He assured me that when 
 serving under Buonaparte against the Austrians, previously to 
 the peace of Campo Formio, he had frequently been detached 
 to take possession of posts which were surrendered almost 
 without firing a shot. On one occasion he was instructed to go 
 at sunrise to a rising ground near a village, where the Aus- 
 trians held a strong detachment ; on arriving there, he was to 
 display his men, without bringing them within range of shot, 
 and look out for a white cloth, which he was to observe on 
 a tree, in an orchard adjoining the village. If the appointed 
 
VIENNA. 
 
 109 
 
 signal was shown, he was to proceed, if not, to return without 
 loss of time. He went to the eminence, took out his stop 
 watch and telescope, and within five minutes of the time ap- 
 pointed, he saw a white handkerchief waving from a tree ; he 
 proceeded to the attack, and a detachment triple the strength 
 of his own, threw down their arms. The narrator of this 
 story is no more, having died in Spanish Galicia, about the 
 year 1812. I know no cause, therefore, to conceal his name, 
 which was General Merck, and I have still less reason for 
 doubting his veracity on this occasion. 7 
 
110 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Political reflections. — Van Swieten. — Austrian Magnates. — The Old 
 
 Abbe. 
 
 The fatal war-storm which soon after deluged the fields of Aus- 
 terlitz, was silently gathering around the Austrian frontiers, at 
 the time we were approaching Vienna. During our journey to 
 Toeplitz, we had heard at every post-house, nought save the 
 rumours of warlike preparations, and even melancholy prognosti- 
 cations of the calamities which soon followed. 
 
 A large camp of observation was forming at Egra in Bohemia, 
 which my companion would willingly have visited, but finding 
 that it would have led us two or three days' journey to the right, 
 and occupied more time than either of us were inclined to spare, 
 the project was abandoned. At Vienna, although the govern- 
 ment paper was at a great depreciation, and the foreign exchanges 
 were becoming daily more unfavourable, although the agents of 
 government were buying up in haste horses for the artillery in 
 all quarters, and great magazines of provisions and forage were 
 daily forming, yet no one who was not actually in the secret, 
 could be brought to believe, that the Austrian ministry had de- 
 termined to decide their differences with France, by an appeal to 
 arms ; as it was very generally known that no Government could 
 
VIENNA. 
 
 well be less prepared for such an alternative. So fully indeed was 
 my companion persuaded of this truth, that he very patriotically 
 but very uselessly devoted most of his mornings to writing long 
 details to his political friends at home, to point out the dangers to 
 which Austria would expose both herself and Europe in general, 
 by the rashness of her conduct. But the die was cast, and the 
 traitor Mack was already named to the command by the recom- 
 mendation of Mr. Pitt, to the great disgust of the Archduke 
 Charles, and the astonishment of every military man at Vienna, 
 qualified to form a judgment of their respective characters. The 
 recommendation proved disastrous to Austria, as well as to the 
 ill-fated minister with whom it originated ; while the traitor of 
 Ulm, as well as the imbecile Prince of Aversperg, instead of 
 suffering on the same scaffold, escaped with a few years impri- 
 sonment in the Spielberg. " Yet such things are, and over- 
 come us like a summer's cloud, without our special wonder." 
 
 While the preparations for this sad drama were in rehearsal be- 
 hind the scenes, every thing went on as usual, in the gallery, the 
 boxes and parquet noble. Monsieur le Baron pledged Monsieur le 
 Chevalier to the success of the good cause in Imperial Tokay and 
 Johannis-bergens cabinet, while Mudame la Baronne flirted at 
 the Sunday evening's opera with Son Excellence ; the alleys of 
 the Prater were well covered every evening, with three thousand 
 carriages, and the sounds of gaiety and folly resounded as loudly 
 as ever amongst the pedestrians, upon the Bastions and the 
 Graben. How could it be otherwise ? It was the month of 
 August, the weather was most lovely, and painful forebodings 
 seldom affect deeply the inhabitants of that happy capital. 
 " What a pity" said an old Abbe to me one day, " that men 
 should think of killing each other in this fine weather." — " Yes, 
 
112 
 
 VIENNA. 
 
 but I belong to a different profession." — " So much the better 
 for you, Sir," said an Austrian officer who had been eighteen 
 years a subaltern. — I bowed — We were walking in the garden 
 of the Schoenbrunn. — " Will you visit, Sir," said the Abbe, 
 " the room in which Van Swieten breathed his last, at the age 
 of seventy-two ?" — " Most willingly," said my companions, 
 and the conversation terminated. 
 
 All the world has heard of Schoenbrunn, and when told that 
 it is a palace as large as Hampton Court, and equally splendid, 
 more need not be added to convey a vague idea to the generality 
 of English readers ; it would be more difficult to give them a 
 notion of the church of St. Charles Borromeo, which we passed 
 on our return near the gate of Italy, a building with a cupola and 
 portico with columns, and a flight of steps flanked by two tri- 
 umphal columns and small arches, which serve as buttresses 
 to the main building. 
 
 Near it we inspected some beds of saltpetre, which is prepared 
 in considerable quantities from the rubbish of Vienna. The ma- 
 nufacture also of fish-hooks, needles, crayons, musical instru- 
 ments, carriages, porcelain, &c, affords lucrative employment to 
 the majority of the labouring classes ; and steam engines are com- 
 ing'^into play here as well as at Berlin ; a needle manufactory, and 
 a work for spinning cotton thread being both turned by them. 
 
 Two circumstances particularly engage the notice of a 
 stranger ; — the splendour and extravagance of the rich, and 
 the sobriety and good conduct of the poorer classes of the Aus- 
 trian capital. In Moravia alone, Prince Lichtenstein has above 
 twenty estates, each consisting of twenty or thirty villages, and 
 his income is above 120,000/. per annum. Prince Esterhazy's 
 domains produce upwards of 600,000 guilders annually, and 
 
VIENNA. 
 
 113 
 
 Prince Schwartzenberg, above 400,000. Such, however, is the 
 taste for splendour amongst the grandees, that almost all the 
 nobility exceed their revenues, and become involved. A noble- 
 man having an annual income of five or six thousand pounds 
 sterling, will keep, perhaps, twenty-four or thirty horses, with 
 four or five carriages, a secretary, maitre d'hotel, two valets de 
 chambre, two running footmen, two jagers, two or three coach- 
 men, five or six footmen, and a porter. Princes Lichtenstein and 
 Esterhazy also keep in pay a corps of body guards, have a regalia 
 of jewels, court dresses, and give profuse banquets, consuming all 
 their incomes in sensual luxury — tout pour la tripe, rien pour 
 r esprit. — Mere animal life is, generally speaking, the enjoy- 
 ment of a pampered Austrian. It is very frequently the same in 
 all countries where education and the moral discipline of youth 
 are badly conducted. " What care I for posterity, what has 
 posterity ever done for me ?" was the epicurean saying of an Irish 
 magnate. It is the sentiment of the illiterate Russian and igno- 
 rant Portuguese. It may once have been common in France, and 
 is becoming but too much known in our own commercial island, 
 since riches are universally the idol of all ranks of people, and 
 liberty and independence of mind are bartered hourly for gold. 
 Read the description of Germany by Tacitus, and compare it with 
 the actual inhabitants, you shall not find one single trait of their 
 ancient character yet lingering amongst them. But the characteris- 
 tics of La Bruyere's " Giton" are exactly that of an Austrian Baron, 
 and seem to have been drawn from the life — they present the man 
 himself. " Giton has a rosy colour, full visage, and pendant cheeks. 
 His eye is fixed and confident, his shoulders large, his stomach 
 prominent, his walk firm and deliberate, he speaks with confi- 
 dence, he makes the person who addresses him repeat his sen- 
 
 Q 
 
1 14 VIENNA. 
 
 tences, and rarely approves any part of his discourse ; he spreads 
 out an ample handkerchief, blows his nose very loudly, spits to a 
 distance, and sneezes with a great noise ; he sleeps in the day-time, 
 he sleeps at night, and soundly, he belches in company." &c. &c. 
 
 During the late war the dearth of intellect and energy of 
 mind amongst the nobility of Austria, had nearly proved fatal 
 to their country, and its proofs may be collected on glancing 
 over their military history for the last century. Amongst their 
 generals of talent, few are to be found who were natives of 
 Austria ; and as no persons of plebeian rank were then ad- 
 mitted to command, the imbecility of the noblesse was the 
 more felt. 
 
 The grand defect of character, however, amongst the nobility 
 of Austria is, want of confidence in their own abilities. This 
 distrust must arise either from a consciousness of incapacity, or 
 too high an estimate of the powers of their opponents. Per- 
 haps its source is to be found in deficiency of mental culture, 
 and the inadequacy of public education. For talent being in all 
 countries nearly equal, the power which should develope it is 
 alone most frequently deficient. 
 
 But amongst the Austrian nobles many very honourable ex- 
 ceptions may no doubt be found, men highly gifted and well 
 educated, generous encouragers of arts and sciences, and in 
 every respect calculated to advance their country in the scale 
 of civilization. Such, no doubt, have been the ancestors of the 
 Lichten stein family. 8 
 
115 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Prater. — Stammer sdorf. — Nicholsburg. — Brunn. — The Spielberg. 
 — Austrian Manufactures. — Olmutz. — The Haunacks. — Hernhutters. 
 
 — Firdeck. — Carpathian Mountains. — Silesia. — Teschen. — Bielitz. 
 
 — Poland. — Miastas. — Peasantry. — Liberty co-existent only with 
 Virtue. — A floating Bridge. 
 
 In proceeding from Vienna towards Constantinople, the tra- 
 veller may choose between two routes, one leading through 
 Hungary and Transylvania to Bukarest and Ruschuk, the other 
 carrying him through Galitzia and Moldavia. Having made 
 our arrangements as to passports, &c, we felt some difficulty in 
 deciding upon which of these routes we ought to prefer. Mr. 
 Ross, the messenger, then just arrived by the route of Varna 
 and Transylvania, gave us so exaggerated an account of the 
 difficulties he had encountered, that we were inclined to over- 
 look them altogether, and pursue that road as being the shortest ; 
 when a lucky accident brought us acquainted with a Greek, 
 named Amaxaris, the resident agent at Vienna, of the Hospodar 
 of Moldavia, who stated to us in such confident terms the supe- 
 riority of the posting and roads in Galitzia and Moldavia, that we 
 determined to abide by his advice, and go through Lemberg, 
 Yassy, and Galatz ; for which purpose he very politely gave us 
 letters to Prince Mourousi, which we found of much utility: 
 Amaxaris himself had been interpreter to Sir Sidney Smith 
 
 0. 2 
 
116 
 
 THE SPIELBERG. 
 
 on board the Tigre, when off the coast of Syria, and was strongly 
 attached to the English, although he complained rather queru- 
 lously that his services had not been sufficiently rewarded. 
 
 Quitting Vienna, therefore, by the same gate we had entered, 
 and repassing the arms of the Danube by that bridge which was 
 so soon to become the scene of such painful events, we drove 
 along the skirts of the Prater, towards the village of Stammers- 
 dorf. The morning was fine, and the sun was rising gloriously ; the 
 herds of deer which had been chased away by the busy crowds 
 of promenaders the preceding evening, had returned to their 
 wonted haunts, and were quietly ranging the dewy glades, amidst 
 plants of the same kind which our countryman, John Ray, had 
 found growing there above one hundred and fifty years ago. 
 
 Hostile armies had in succession traversed these forests, en- 
 camped beneath their shades, and beleaguered the ramparts of 
 Vienna ; crowns and sceptres had passed away, the Sobieskis, the 
 Eugenes, and Cara Mustaphas, had descended to the tomb, and 
 the events with which they were connected, now eclipsed by 
 actions of greater interest, seemed but obscurely remembered, 
 like the imagery of a troubled vision ; but the surviving herds 
 still sported over the fields of their fame, and the vegetable 
 tribes of the clematis, alkakengi, and marrubium waved their 
 blossoms in the gale over the sods which had been so often drench- 
 ed with human tears and human blood. 
 
 We slept at Nicholsburg, an indifferent village, and next day 
 reached Brunn, a considerable town in Moravia, where we dined. 
 On a hill adjoining and overlooking this town, is the fortress of the 
 Spielberg, which we visited. Within the dungeons of this single 
 fortress are immured the majority of the criminals of Austria ; 
 and if we consider the great population of the Austrian States 
 
THE SPIELBERG. 
 
 117 
 
 (twenty-four millions) and the small extent of this building, we 
 cannot but be surprised at the very few criminals it contains. 
 Travellers, indeed, have been astonished at the general good 
 conduct of the Austrians, and the small number of offences 
 which are annually perpetrated. And it is a mortifying com- 
 parison to make, but not less true, that more crimes are com- 
 mitted within a single English county in twelve months than 
 throughout the whole extent of Austria in two years. Amongst 
 other humane innovations introduced by Joseph the Second, was 
 the abolition of the punishment of death ; but this lenity, greater 
 in appearance than in fact, being found incompatible with good 
 government, was withdrawn by his successor Leopold, and mur- 
 ders and some other offences are now punished with death, as in 
 other European states. Still, however, the criminal code of Aus- 
 tria is less bloody than that of most other countries, and, in my 
 humble opinion, this is one of the reasons, amongst many others, 
 that crimes are so rare. 
 
 Below the deep moats of this fortress, we were shown several 
 dungeons appropriated to the use of some hundreds of felons, 
 who here drag out their loathsome existence. They had finished 
 the labours of the day, and, under the inspection of the officers 
 of the fort, the jailers were chaining them down to strong iron 
 bolts running along the foot-boards of large wooden bedsteads, on 
 the planks of which, they were extended in rows of about forty 
 persons each. They are not allowed straw, and, of course, sleep in 
 their clothes. They were chained in pairs by handcuffs at the 
 wrists, their feet being secured by a running chain, to the bolts 
 before mentioned. The squalid misery and ruffian-like physiog- 
 nomies of many of these wretched men was dreadful. Such, 
 too, is the ferocious disposition which they often evince, that, as 
 
118 
 
 BRUNN. 
 
 we were told by the officers, even upon very slight provocations, 
 when at work, they have been known to dash out their compa- 
 nion's brains with a blow of their handcuffs. Two or three of such 
 desperadoes were pointed out to us, chained down in corners of 
 the dungeons, apart from their companions in guilt. The lowest of 
 the dungeons we visited, was eighty feet beneath the bottom of 
 the ditch, and the necessary ventilation is admitted by narrow 
 grated shafts opening into the moat. In the rooms above, are 
 confined state criminals of rank. It was here that General Mack 
 and Prince Aversperg were afterwards confined, the latter for 
 two years, the former only for a few months. The labours of 
 the common convicts consist in cleaning the streets and repair- 
 ing the ramparts of Brunn ; they work in pairs, and when at any 
 time one of the two expires during the day, his companion is 
 forced to drag his body about till sun-set, when he is liberated 
 from the corpse, but never before. 
 
 Brunn, however, is now likely to acquire a better name, for it 
 is fast becoming the Leeds of Austria. Of late years several 
 manufactories of fine woollen cloths and kerseymeres have been 
 established here, and are now in a very flourishing condition, 
 government having granted to them many important privileges, 
 and being occupied in devising measures for their benefit ; so 
 that from the local advantages of the city, the command of run- 
 ning streams, fuel, <xc, there is every reason for supposing, that 
 the manufactures of Brunn will both extend and rapidly acquire 
 great repute throughout Germany and Italy. The three principal 
 establishments are those of the Baron de Mund, Mr. Biegmann, 
 and Mr. Offermann. The first named gives employment to 
 upwards of five thousand workmen, and sells cloths annually to 
 the amount of one million of florins, or about one hundred 
 

 ■v "/ 
 
 
BRUNN. 
 
 119 
 
 thousand pounds sterling. Mr. Biegmann keeps in pay two 
 thousand two hundred workmen. In the works under the 
 management of Mr. Offermann, the scissars for shearing the 
 broad cloth are set in motion by water wheels : one wheel driving 
 ten pairs of shears. The articles fabricated, consist of swan-skins, 
 rattines, and kerseymeres. In the work-shops belonging to M. 
 Seitter, are also made Turkish bonnets or calpacs, which are 
 sent to Constantinople, Salonica, and Smyrna. Dyeing is like- 
 wise carried on to a great extent at Brunn : and the colours there 
 produced, are celebrated throughout Germany for their brilliancy 
 and durability. The principal dyer is named Schoelli, and he 
 has amongst his workmen several Englishmen. In his vats they 
 principally dye scarlets. All the broadcloths and kerseymeres 
 woven throughout Moravia, are sent to Brunn to be dyed, 
 coming even from Bochtiltz in the vicinity of Znaim, which 
 place alone produces woollen cloths to the amount of several 
 millions annually. The finest of the Moravian kerseymeres are 
 produced at Teltsh, where there are upwards of thirty looms for 
 superfine cloths, ten for kerseymeres, and twenty for coarser 
 woollens. Latterly the English machinery both for spinning and 
 shearing has been introduced there, which has thrown two 
 thirds of the workmen out of employment, their numbers being 
 reduced from eighteen to six hundred. But the largest woollen 
 factory in Moravia, is situated at Machrishneustadt, near Olmutz, 
 where one hundred and eighty looms produce annually, cloths to 
 the amount of one hundred and forty thousand florins, or about 
 twelve thousand eight hundred and eighty-three pounds sterling. 
 This factory maintains large warehouses both at Vienna and 
 Brunn, and sends goods into Galitzia, Poland, Russia, Hun- 
 gary, and Transylvania. The Moravian fleeces produce the 
 
120 
 
 BRUNN. 
 
 finest wool known in Austria, but the supply being inadequate, 
 the deficiency is furnished from Russia and Poland, which, in 
 return, carry back large quantities of manufactured goods. The 
 establishments for spinning cotton thread, are also extending 
 themselves throughout Moravia, where there are upwards of ten 
 mills besides, some in the immediate neighbourhood of Vienna. 
 At Lettowitz, near Brunn, is a manufactory employing two 
 thousand persons, and producing threads to the amount of thirty 
 thousand florins annually, or nearly two thousand pounds ster- 
 ling. In aid too of these infant manufactories of cotton, the 
 dyers of Moravia practise the dyeing of Turkey or madder-red, and 
 the government has extended to this branch also, every possible 
 encouragement. Here is likewise a silk mill, but its size is very 
 small. Thus, within a few years, Moravia has become as indus- 
 trious as Silesia and Bohemia, and its factories are equal in 
 extent and utility ; while its situation is so very centrical, that 
 it can, with equal facility, send its goods by means of excellent 
 roads, to the sea-ports of Trieste and Venice, on the Adriatic, 
 or to the fairs of Poland and Russia. Brunn is the centre and 
 emporium of this commerce, which is chiefly transacted by 
 means of four annual fairs, occurring every three months, and 
 continuing four weeks at a time. The goods are carried away 
 on small light waggons, and the roads are kept in good repair. 
 There are no canals, and only one navigable river in Moravia, 
 namely, the Morava or river Murch. 
 
 The city of Brunn owes its name as well as its importance to 
 the springs of excellent water with which it is surrounded, and 
 which supply its factories and dying vats. Brunn or Briun 
 (Sclav.) signifying a source or spring of water. Two small rivers 
 called the Schwartz-a (black water) and the Swita-a (white 
 
OLMUTZ. 
 
 121 
 
 water) arise from these springs, and flow round the town. Its 
 population is about 18,000 souls. The principal parochial 
 church, dedicated to St. James, has a fine spire covered with 
 copper, and contains the tomb of Field-Marshal Louis de 
 Sonches, who fell in action under the walls of the town. The 
 fortifications are very ancient, and were formerly important, but 
 the bastions have been suffered to fall into decay, and the ditches, 
 &c, are now occupied by dye-works and tan-pits. 
 
 About a quarter of a mile to the eastward of the town, is a 
 large garden with a mound at the extremity, which commands a 
 good view of the town and the Spielberg, and in the distance to 
 the left, the fatal fields of Austerlitz. The garden itself, like 
 most of those we visited in Germany, is very indifferent, the 
 Germans being notoriously ignorant of horticulture. 
 
 Quitting Brunn, and travelling through a fertile and well 
 cultivated country, the fourth post is Olmutz, or Holomauz, the 
 ancient capital of Moravia. This city is very strongly, but very 
 disagreeably situated, in the midst of a dead level, amongst the 
 marshy branches of the river Morava, a sluggish muddy stream 
 laving the ramparts. Its population amounts to 11,000 souls; 
 the buildings are good, but in this, as well as in the other towns 
 of Moravia, although massive and substantial, they are very lofty 
 and ugly, raised for the most part on square buttresses, with 
 arcades, like those around Covent Garden market. Olmutz for- 
 merly boasted an university, which has dwindled to what is called 
 in modern phraseology, a Lyceum. Its fortifications enjoy the 
 credit of having baffled the arms of Frederick the Great in 1758, 
 and it has since our visit had the honour of sheltering the Impe- 
 rial family of Austria, after the battle of Austerlitz. Near 
 Olmutz is a small tract of country, extending about five square 
 
222 THE HAUNACKS. 
 
 German miles, and inhabited by a set of people called the Haunacks, 
 who are supposed by the native statistical writers to be the pure 
 descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants of Moravia. They derive 
 their appellation from a small river the Hauna. Their history is 
 rather obscure, but they are undoubtedly a Sclavonic tribe. In 
 stature they are short, but strong and muscular ; and being simple, 
 temperate, and plain in their habits, they attain in general a 
 very advanced age. By the neighbouring Germans they are 
 reproached as being slothful and averse to bodily labour. But 
 they themselves boast of the fertility of their soil, and look down 
 with contempt upon the other inhabitants of Moravia, as an infe- 
 rior race of beings, to whom nature has been more niggardly in 
 her endowments. Their mode of living is frugal and primitive 
 to a great degree. The flesh of swine, joined with hasty pudding, 
 is their favourite viand, and beer their only beverage. The young 
 women are remarkable for the grace and elegance of their forms, 
 and the neat adjustment of their dresses, which are very pic- 
 turesque, and show off to great advantage a considerable share of 
 personal beauty with which their wearers are gifted. Their sum- 
 mer dress consists of a large white linen cap, the lappets of which, 
 bordered with lace, and embroidered with black silk, fall over 
 their shoulders. Their long hair is suffered to float in tresses ; or 
 when the cap is laid aside, is gracefully twisted and tied over 
 the head with knots of ribbands ; their well-turned ankles are 
 set off with white or red stockings, with black shoes and red 
 heels. The dress of the men consists of a round hat, adorned 
 with various coloured ribbands ; a waistcoat commonly green, em- 
 broidered with red silk, surmounted by a broad leathern girdle, 
 with brown pantaloons and boots, joined to the vest by means of 
 large buckles. This is their summer costume, but in winter they 
 
THE MORAVIAN BRETHREN. J 23 
 
 cover their heads with a large and singularly shaped fur cap, 
 and throw over their shoulders an undressed sheep or wolf-skin, in 
 absence of which, they wear a brown woollen cloak, with a large 
 hood, like that of a Capuchin friar. 
 
 Besides these Haunacks, it may not be amiss, ere we quit 
 Moravia, to notice another caste, equally singular, namely, the 
 Moravian Brethren, or Hernhutters, whose first establishment 
 commenced about the middle of the fifteenth century, or the year 
 1457. The name of Hernhutters was afterwards applied to them 
 from a beautiful village which they had built on a spot called 
 the Hutberg, or mountain of Hut. 
 
 These Moravian Brethren first received a distinct and inde- 
 pendent existence about near the beginning of the last century, 
 when in 1720, the Count Zinzendorf granted them an especial 
 protection, and appropriated to their use a fine tract of country. 
 
 Their establishments may be regarded in some measure as 
 Protestant convents. Their religious worship partakes both of 
 Lutheranism and Calvinism. In their associations, which are ex- 
 tremely liberal, they are bound by no sort of vow, all their obli- 
 gations being voluntary, and yet they have every thing in common. 
 The men and women live together as in other European towns, 
 and marriages are celebrated as elsewhere. But, like the asso- 
 ciations formed by the Jesuits in Paraguay, they have this remark- 
 able peculiarity, that the labour of every individual does not belong 
 to himself solely, but to the community in general of which he is 
 a member. In this manner the society profits by the industry 
 and talents of each of its members, giving them in return a recom- 
 pence proportioned to their degree of merit. For a long period 
 they were in the habit of eating their meals together, but this 
 custom has been discontinued gradually as their numbers have 
 
 r 2 
 
124 THE MORAVIAN BRETHREN. 
 
 extended. At the present time they are to be found throughout 
 the different states of Germany, as well in Saxony and Prussia, 
 as in Moravia, where the traveller often meets with entire vil- 
 lages peopled by them. All their villages are distinguished by 
 the greatest cleanliness, as well as by the order and strict union 
 which seems to reign amongst all the inhabitants. They are in 
 general so peaceful, and every thing is transacted with so much 
 tranquillity, that at first sight one might be tempted to believe 
 their hamlets to be uninhabited or abandoned. 
 
 These communities, all the members of which are, in truth, 
 brethren, are directed by a committee, selected from amongst 
 the elders most remarkable for their good sense. The mem- 
 bers of it are chosen annually, and it is in its turn con- 
 trolled by a general committee, composed of the different head 
 manufacturers, or of those who direct the establishments of the 
 community. In other points, the members of the committee 
 have no other advantages, beyond that of being useful to their 
 brethren. Whenever a member has been elected five times suc- 
 cessively, the oldest man makes known the services which he 
 has rendered to the society, and from that time he is always 
 styled a clearly beloved brother. 
 
 Hitherto the Hernhutters have dedicated themselves but little 
 to agriculture. Commerce and various branches of industry are 
 their only occupations. The order they have established for the 
 general division of the profits realised by the community is, per- 
 haps, more easily carried into effect by a mercantile than an agri- 
 cultural people, among whom there is rarely enough of inform- 
 ation to enable them to keep an exact account of sums received 
 and expended. Thus, for instance, the shopkeeper, innkeeper, 
 handicraftsman. &c, are paid by the community, and all their re- 
 
THE MORAVIAN BRETHREN. 
 
 125 
 
 ceipts must be again refunded into the general chest, by aid of 
 which, the old and infirm, the young and able-bodied, are all 
 maintained alike ; while established tables fix the stipend which 
 each is to receive, according to the trade he follows, and his de- 
 gree of ability. By these means, all discussions and altercations 
 are avoided. 
 
 The two sexes live separately till the period of their marriage ; 
 the society of unmarried men living in common, and that of 
 unmarried women also ; thus forming two distinct communities. 
 Hitherto the greatest equality has been attempted and has suc- 
 ceeded. As to religious tenets, the whole society seems to be 
 ecclesiastical, every thing at least being undertaken in the name 
 of religion, and solely on that account. An invisible authority 
 seems to regulate this church, in which, however, there is no sa- 
 laried clergyman. The most respectable Elder of the commu- 
 nity, performs the sacerdotal duties, and when he thinks any 
 other individual more deserving than himself to fulfil them, 
 begs him in the name of the fraternity, to give them a discourse. 
 Such, indeed, is the impression made by the austerity of manners 
 and the purity of conduct of these Hernhutters, that strangers 
 on first visiting them, would conceive themselves carried back 
 to the primitive days of the Christian church, or would imagine 
 that the fraternity they contemplated, was composed of the pious 
 anchorites of the desert. An incomparable suavity, and an un- 
 alterable beneficence, are their distinguishing characteristics, and 
 what is perhaps not a little extraordinary, all the members seem 
 equally charitable and benevolent. 
 
 After quitting Olmutz, near a small town called Fisdeck, we 
 crossed a torrent which is one of the parent streams of the river 
 Oder, and which constitutes the boundary between Moravia and 
 
126 
 
 GALITZIA. 
 
 Silesia. We soon after entered a country as beautifully pictu- 
 resque as can well be imagined. The Carpathian mountains 
 here extend themselves towards the north to meet the Sudetes or 
 Mountains of the Giants, the Reisengebirge, and the road winds 
 amongst the fertile valleys of this subalpine ridge, in a manner 
 extremely beautiful. Fine crops of flax and corn, clover and 
 lucerne, appeared from time to time amongst the hollows, which 
 were well watered with a profusion of rapid streams, and shel- 
 tered from every wind by natural woods of gigantic pine and 
 larch trees. At Teschin, a beautiful town celebrated for the 
 signing a treaty of peace, as well as for a manufactory of excel- 
 lent rifle gun-barrels, we slept. The town stands upon the 
 junction of several torrents, which drive the machinery for 
 drilling the gun-barrels. About eight leagues further on, we 
 came to Bielitz, also a very lovely place, where we crossed the 
 rapid stream called the Bialla which descends from the Carpa- 
 thian Appenines, and gives origin to the mighty Vistula. At 
 this spot we entered Galitzia or Austrian Poland. The river 
 Bialla, previously to the first division of Poland in 1772, was 
 the boundary between Austria and Poland, and is now the limit 
 between Austrian and Prussian Silesia. 
 
 Although the face of the country still continued fertile and 
 beauteous, with the Carpathian mountains towering in great 
 majesty on our right, and covered with pine forests almost to 
 their very summits, yet the villages and dwellings of the pea- 
 sants soon betrayed a sombre and miserable aspect, very different 
 indeed from those of Moravia and Silesia. In a country like 
 Poland, where wood is plentiful, and stone, particularly free- 
 stone very scarce, it may be presumed that log huts are the 
 general dwellings of the peasantry, and that architecture is still 
 
GALITZIA. 
 
 127 
 
 in its infancy. In fact every peasant is his own mason. Armed 
 with a hatchet he enters the nearest wood, and having felled 
 such trees as he chooses to select, he carries them to the area of 
 his future dwelling, and splits each trunk into two beams. Four 
 large stones mark out the corners * of an oblong square, and 
 constitute the basis upon which the hut is raised, by placing the 
 beams in horizontal layers, with the flat sides inwards ; a sort of 
 mortice being cut in each about half a foot from the end to 
 receive the connecting beams. A sort of cage is thus formed of 
 small dimensions, generally about twelve feet by six, and moss 
 is thrust in between the logs to exclude the wind and rain. Two 
 openings however are left, one of which serves for a door, and 
 the other, with the addition of a few panes of glass or a couple 
 of sheets of oiled paper, forms a window. At one of the corners 
 within, are placed four upright posts, round which are entwined 
 some twigs covered with mud and clay, to form a square area 
 into which is built an oven or furnace of the same materials ; 
 this, when hard and dry, serves the peasant for kitchen, 
 chimney, stove, and bed The roof is closed in with rafters 
 and twigs, bedaubed with a thick coating of clay, and covered 
 over with a close warm thatch, extending over both gable-ends. 
 To finish this rude hut, the walls are sometimes extended a few 
 additional feet in a still rougher style, to form a sort of vesti- 
 bule, which also answers for a cart-house or stable ; and 
 occasionally a second is added to serve as a barn. Perhaps in 
 the whole building, there is hardly a bolt, lock, or hinge, or 
 any article of metal. Yet this is the retreat for a Polish serf, and 
 contains himself and family and all his goods and chattels. If 
 
 * The cornerstones of the Holy Scripture. 
 
128 
 
 GALITZIA. 
 
 the proprietor happens to be a little more affluent, his hut may 
 contain an oven of glazed earthenware, and two bed-rooms with 
 boarded floors, the walls of which are white-washed, and the 
 doors secured with locks. If he be a Jew, the house is still 
 larger, the roof better, and covered with shingles instead of 
 thatch. The windows are a degree wider, and if he be an 
 innkeeper, there is a long stable with a coach entrance at 
 each end, which serves, as in Holstein, for barn, stable, cow- 
 house, and a " lodging and entertainment both for man and 
 beast," as the old sign-posts of our country express it. The 
 gentry give to their wooden houses a greater extent, and a 
 form a little more symmetrical. The walls within may be stuc- 
 coed and washed with distemper colours, and the walls exter- 
 nally plastered and white-washed. The door of entrance occu- 
 pies the centre, and is covered with a rude porch raised on four 
 posts, and the front may perhaps boast three or four windows. 
 Such are the elemental parts composing a Polish village, and 
 nothing under heaven can be more miserable, dirty, or wretched, 
 than the whole assemblage, externally as well as internally. In 
 travelling through Galitzia, all the inns being kept by Jews, 
 we were generally obliged to halt in the Jewish villages. 
 Both inns and post-houses are always- situated in the public 
 squares, which occupy the centre of every miasta or town. 
 These squares are also the market places for horned cattle, and 
 have never been cleansed out since their first formation ; they 
 are perfect quagmires of filth, the putrid effluvia arising from 
 which are almost insufferable. Happy the traveller, the dimen- 
 sions of whose carriage will admit of his occupying it during the 
 night ; what abominations will he not escape ! We however were 
 not so fortunate. It is true we carried fur skins with us, upon 
 
GALITZIA. J 29 
 
 which we endeavoured to sleep, but the noisome smells 
 from the damp earthen floors of these Jewish hostels, were 
 frequently so powerful and disgusting as to keep us awake, and 
 there were a thousand other nameless annoyances more easily 
 imagined than described. From the centre of the roof of these 
 Golgothas, I always observed suspended, a large brass chande- 
 lier with seven branches ! this is the Sabbath lamp, and is regu- 
 larly lighted every Friday evening at sun-set, when all the fires 
 are carefully extinguished, and not re-lighted till the same hour 
 on the next evening. A long wooden table soiled with grease 
 stands beneath, occupying the middle of the apartment, around 
 which are ranged several wooden benches, with one or two 
 rotten chairs and a cushion stuffed with hay. In the peasants' 
 huts a sort of shovel is slung from the roof loaded with tallow, 
 on which is placed a lock of flax, which being lighted, serves for 
 a lamp. The best food which we met with at these inns, was 
 the stewed veal of calves, two days old perhaps, floating in a sour 
 paste called Barszcz pronounced barchethe, and beet root or 
 cucumbers stewed and and fermented like sour-crout, called 
 buraszki, with rosoli, a gruel made of flesh and oatmeal, or 
 pirogy, a soup or pottage made of barley, rice, and millet, or 
 manna, (Festuca Jluitans.) These messes are all very disagreea- 
 ble, particularly the large overgrown cucumbers fermented with 
 salt and fennel leaves. The bread is equally bad, black, gritty, 
 and ill tasted, generally composed of every grain except that of 
 wheat. The only thing connected with travelling, which a 
 stranger can commend in Galitzia, is the state of the high roads ; 
 these are excellent, of a good breadth, well levelled, and kept in 
 admirable repair. But these, and every thing else that is not 
 absolutely abominable, are the creation of the Austrian Govern- 
 
130 
 
 GALITZIA. 
 
 merit ; for previously to the year 1772, they were as miserable 
 as the inns. How much absurdity has been said and written on 
 the subject of the partition of Poland ! Let us grant that it was 
 attended with enormous atrocities, that much innocent blood was 
 spilt, and that all the ties of honour and hospitality were violated 
 by the partitioning powers ; let us bewail the gallant Kosciusko, 
 let us deplore his glorious fall ; let us execrate the ambition of 
 Frederick and Catherine, and lament the weakness of Joseph the 
 Second ; let us allow the bad example shown to cabinets, and 
 exclaim with Gentz on its mischievous consequences to the rest 
 of Europe ; but at the same time let us listen to the voices 
 of the Poles and we shall learn, that " the fatal partition," 
 though a curse to all the world besides, has to them been the 
 greatest of blessings. Every person has gained, excepting a few 
 vain, selfish, pampered magnates, who abused their overgrown 
 power, and were a perpetual source of misery to the unfortunate 
 serfs whom Providence had committed to their care. If ever 
 there was a country where " might constituted right," that 
 country was Poland ; the most dreadful oppression, the most 
 execrable tyranny, the most wanton cruelties, were daily exer- 
 cised by the nobles upon their unfortunate peasants. Let 
 us quote a few facts ; they will speak volumes, A Polish pea- 
 sant's life was held of the same value with one of his horned 
 cattle ; if his lord slew him, he was fined only one hundred 
 Polish florins, or two pounds sixteen shillings sterling. If, on 
 the other hand, a man of ignoble birth dared to raise his hand 
 against a nobleman, death was the inevitable punishment. If 
 any one presumed to question the nobility of a magnate, he was 
 forced to prove his assertion or suffer death ; nay, if a powerful 
 man chose to take a fancy to the field of his humbler neighbour, 
 
GALITZIA. 
 
 131 
 
 and to erect a land-mark upon it, and if that land-mark remained 
 for three days, the poor man lost his possession. The atrocious 
 cruelties which were habitually exercised, are hardly credible. 
 A Masalki caused his hounds to devour a peasant who happened 
 to frighten his horse ; a Radzivil had the belly of one of his 
 subjects ripped open to thrust his feet into it, hoping thereby to 
 be cured of a malady which tormented him. — Still there were 
 laws in Poland, but how were they executed ? — A peasant 
 going to the market at Warsaw, met a man who had just then 
 assassinated another; he seized the murderer, bound him, and 
 having placed him in his waggon, together with the murdered 
 corpse, went to deliver him up to the nearest Staroste or Justice 
 of Peace. On arriving he was asked if he had ten ducats to pay for 
 his interference, and upon his answering in the negative, he was 
 sent back with his dead and living lumber. After this fact we 
 cannot be surprised to learn that it cost a merchant of Warsaw 
 fourteen hundred ducats to convict and execute two robbers who 
 had plundered him : joined to all this injustice, there reigned in 
 Poland the most barbarous ignorance and superstition. In the year 
 1781, the Staroste Potocki, in passing through a miasta, or village, 
 learned that on the following day a person accused of sorcery was 
 to be burned alive. He examined the accused, enquired the hour 
 at which the execution was to take place, and returned home to 
 take measures for preventing this legal murder, by carrying off 
 the prisoner when on his way to the stake. The village magi- 
 strates got notice of his intention, and hastened the execution, 
 so that when Potocki arrived, he found the man had been already 
 sacrificed. — Nor was this ignorance and superstition confined 
 to any particular class or order ; people of the highest rank were 
 in that respect completely on a level with the lowest serfs. A 
 
 s 2 
 
132 
 
 OALITZIA. 
 
 Polish Baroness who had acquired some notoriety both at home 
 and in France, by her spirit for intrigue and the wit of her cor- 
 respondence, was in the habit of burning frankincense, and 
 sprinkling her apartments with holy water whenever a thunder 
 storm approached her castle. One day when these pious pre- 
 cautions were proved to have been unavailing, the lightning 
 having struck and thrown down her chimneys, she had recourse 
 to an expedient which she believed to be infallible : namely, the 
 burying around her house thirty copies of the Gospel of St John, 
 In principio erat verbum, &c, which is a custom still piously prac- 
 tised on Christmas-day throughout all the churches in Poland ! 
 The morals of the people were, and continue to be, nearly at the 
 lowest point of debasement. Female chastity is a virtue unknown 
 in Poland. From the highest to the lowest rank there prevails 
 the most dreadful licentiousness ; there are, no doubt, some ho- 
 nourable exceptions ; yet they are but exceptions to the general 
 tenor of conduct. The male sex are proportion ably profligate ; 
 drunkenness, gluttony, and sensuality prevail to a degree unknown 
 in other countries of Europe. Education is, in general, much ne- 
 glected, the lower class being unable to obtain the means of instruc- 
 tion ; and in the higher walks of life, as may be easily conceived, 
 where no man is assured of the legitimacy of his offspring, a total 
 indifference prevails as to the training of the doubtful brood. They 
 are therefore neglected from their cradles, and left to the wild exer- 
 cise of every passion, undisciplined, untutored, uncontrolled. 
 Endowed by nature with great personal beauty, the young 
 Polish nobleman makes the tour of France and Germany, 
 engrafts on his own native stock of vice those of every capital 
 which he visits, and after dilapidating his revenues returns to his 
 paternal estate attended with a train of French valets, cooks, and 
 
GALITZIA. ] 33 
 
 parasites, and all the paraphernalia of modern luxury, to wallow 
 in sensuality and die prematurely of acquired disease. Yet such 
 is the race that writers have joined in bewailing as the victims of 
 ambition and the martyrs of patriotism. These terms may exist, 
 but patriotism or ambition were in fact unknown in Poland : in- 
 ordinate selfishness was the prevailing passion and motive of 
 action, and the whole fabric of human society was rotten and 
 undermined to its very foundations. It is a truth which cannot 
 be too often repeated, that liberty can exist only amongst a vir- 
 tuous and moral people. Whenever human depravity has reached 
 a certain point, a nation must become enslaved, first by its own 
 rulers, and then by surrounding nations. History presents to us 
 this truth in a thousand aspects, and yet mankind are obstinately 
 deaf to the unwelcome truth. When the Saxon family had obtained 
 by bribery and intrigue the crown of Poland, the Polish character 
 was sunk almost past recovery ; the wars which ensued tended still 
 more to corrupt and demoralise the people, and when Stanislaus 
 Poniatowsky ascended the throne, it is but reasonable to infer that 
 that weak and profligate Pole possessed neither the talents nor the 
 inclination to reform the condition of his subjects. On the con- 
 trary it would appear that he participated in their crimes, and only 
 laughed at the scenes of cruelty and injustice which were daily 
 passing around him. Thus, during his reign, a petty noble having 
 refused to resign to Count Thisenhaus his small estate, the Count 
 invited him to dinner, as if desirous of amicably adjusting the 
 affair ; and whilst the knight, in the pride of his heart, at such 
 an unexpected honour, assiduously plied the bottle, the Count 
 dispatched some hundreds of peasants with axes, ploughs, and 
 waggons, ordering the village, which consisted only of a few 
 wooden buildings, to be pulled down, the materials carried 
 
134 
 
 GALITZIA. 
 
 away, and the plough to be passed over the ground which 
 the village had occupied. This was accordingly done. The 
 nobleman, on his return home in the evening, could find 
 neither road, house, nor village. The master and his servant 
 were alike bewildered, and knew not whether they were 
 dreaming or had lost the power of discrimination ; but 
 their surprise and agony were deemed so truly humorous, 
 that the whole court was delighted with the joke ! As a con- 
 trast to this story, (related on the authority of Baron Uk- 
 lanski, himself a Pole,) the reader may peruse the following, 
 which happened in Galitzia, after the cruel partition. A peasant 
 with his wife and children, belonging to the estate of the Sta- 
 roste Bleski, having fled into Austrian Galitzia, the Staroste 
 assembled a party of horsemen and carried off his serf, upon 
 whom he inflicted a hundred blows of the kanczuk, and threw 
 him into a dungeon. The Emperor Joseph the Second having 
 been informed of this fact, caused his Ministers to demand a re- 
 paration from the King of Poland, who answered, that it did not 
 depend upon him, but upon his permanent council. The Em- 
 peror not being satisfied with this evasive answer, sent a body of 
 two hundred dragoons, to bring back both the Staroste and the 
 serf to Zamoic, where they were brought before an Austrian 
 Court of Justice. The Staroste was condemned to pay a thou- 
 sand crowns as an indemnity to the peasant, and a fine of five 
 thousand to the Austrian Exchequer. The hundred blows which 
 he had bestowed upon the peasant, were repaid to him on his 
 own person, and he was sent home again to his estate with all 
 due respect. 
 
 Generally speaking, the whole tract of country between the 
 frontiers of Silesia and the city of Lemberg is fertile and culti- 
 
GALITZIA. 
 
 135 
 
 vated, but far from picturesque* with the single exception of an 
 extensive valley in the stage between the miastas of Mislenice 
 and Gdow. Here the road on coming to the brow of a hill, 
 passes under the extensive ruins of an old castle placed on a 
 rock, commanding the pass leading into a superb valley, watered 
 by a river called the Raaba, one of the tributary streams of the 
 Vistula. Along its rocky banks are some beautiful hanging 
 woods ; and the country, overspread with farm-houses, farms, and 
 villages, rises gradually on the right towards the Carpathian moun- 
 tains, that terminate the landscape to the south. On leaving this 
 valley we soon after passed the Vistula itself, on a floating bridge 
 between Gdow and Bochnia, which is a village celebrated for its 
 mines of rock salt. From the time of our quitting Silesia, we met 
 with but few travellers and not many human beings, excepting 
 those employed in repairing the roads, and convoys of conscripts, 
 dragged violently from their homes, and proceeding in waggons 
 and on foot by forced marches, escorted by armed veterans, to join 
 the Austrian army in Bohemia. Often at the villages where we 
 passed the night, the barns were occupied by these poor fellows, 
 with sentries at the doors to prevent their escape ; and at one miasta 
 we found the smoking ruins of a barn, which had caught fire during 
 the preceding night, and in the confusion, upwards of fifty con- 
 scripts had perished in the flames, probably from their being in 
 a state of intoxication at the time. On crossing a second branch 
 of the Vistula, near Pilsno, we overtook about 800 Polish pea- 
 sants, returning with their waggons and cattle from attending a 
 large fair in the neighbourhood. The wildness of their looks 
 and dresses, and their brigand-like manners, would not have dis- 
 graced the banditti pictures of Salvator Rosa ; nothing can be 
 imagined more grotesque and extravagant than their tout ensemble 
 
1 36 GALITZIA. 
 
 represented. The river we had to cross was about a quarter of a 
 mile in breadth, and the flying bridge could only accommodate a 
 small number at a time ; but like a herd of ferocious savages, they 
 all pressed down in a body, shouting, screaming, righting, and 
 overturning each other. The greater number were intoxicated, 
 and every one was eager to be the first to get over. Some of the 
 overseers and people employed to manage the bridge, were laying 
 about them lustily with cudgels and large whips, the blows of 
 which re-echoed on all sides, but seemed productive of little effect. 
 Several fellows mad with the fumes of spirituous liquors, rode 
 their horses into the river, and in a moment men and horses 
 were seen struggling with the waves. Two men lost their lives ; 
 still the tumult and uproar continued, and we truly rejoiced when 
 we found ourselves and our carriages transported in safety to the 
 opposite bank. 
 
137 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Lemberg — its . ruinous state. — Population and Commerce. — Jewish 
 Synagogue. — Russian Troops. — A modem Thalestris. — Polish 
 Fuhrmans. — Halietz. — The river Dniester. — Marienpont. — Teu- 
 tonic, or Marian Knights. — Ancient Pruteni — their Idolatry. — 
 Jews. 
 
 On reaching Lemberg, we found that the first division of the 
 Russian army, under General Kutusoff, was expected here within 
 two days ; and as my companion, Colonel Gillespie, had been anti- 
 cipating for a long time the pleasure he should derive from this 
 novel military spectacle, we determined to await their arrival. 
 
 In the interval we had an opportunity of inspecting this sin- 
 gular city, which in size and magnificence ranks next to Cracow, 
 and in commercial importance has become the first in Galitzia } 
 particularly since the building of Odessa. It lies in a hollow, 
 surrounded by low sandy hills, and its walls are washed by the 
 Belten, a shallow stream, as slow, muddy, and putrid as the 
 poetical Cocytus itself. Owing to the lofty towers and cupolas 
 of the cathedral, and of the conventical churches, and the height 
 and massiveness of the houses, built of free-stone, there is an air of 
 grandeur and magnificence in the exterior of Lemberg, more 
 particularly when viewed from a distance, which belies its real 
 character. Here, as in most other cities in Poland, there is such 
 a multitude of Jews, that their filthy habits mingled with those of 
 
 T 
 
138 LEMBERG. 
 
 the Russians, Poles, Armenians, and others, their fellow-citizens, 
 give a character to a population altogether as motley and villain- 
 ous, as is, perhaps, to be met with in any large city in Europe ; the 
 streets are dirty and badly paved, and the interior of the town is 
 both ruinous and neglected. Notwithstanding its low situation, 
 commanded on every side by hills, Lemberg seems at one time 
 to have been considered by the Poles as a place of strength ; 
 for even so lately as during the invasion of their country by 
 the army of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, they attempted to 
 repair its fortifications, and vainly expected that it would hold out 
 for fifteen days against that conqueror's troops ; but the folly of 
 such a hope was soon demonstrated, for Charles invested it on the 
 5th of September, 1704, carried it by assault the following day, 
 and a general pillage having ensued, the town was plundered of 
 all the treasure which had been accumulated in it. The walls are 
 low ; they are now little better than a heap of ruins ; and of a keep 
 on a hill to the eastward of the town only a few stones remain. 
 Another castle which stands in the centre of the city still shows 
 a high square tower in a state of good repair. The population is, 
 however, on the increase, being between twenty-four and thirty 
 thousand souls ; it is more than double what it was a century ago, 
 and the town is become a great commercial emporium, being the 
 principal thoroughfare from Odessa and the other Russian ports 
 on the Black Sea, to Yassy, and Vienna. The Russians bring an- 
 nually to the fairs here large quantities of Siberian and Tartarian 
 peltry, and receive in exchange the hardware, woollen and cotton 
 goods of Austria j while much of the grain of Poland and Galitzia 
 passes through in waggons, to be shipped at Odessa, for Genoa, 
 Malta, and Marseilles. The Jews are, of course, the principal 
 brokers and agents in this commerce, and have here extensive 
 
LEMBERG. 
 
 139 
 
 warehouses. Immense droves of horned cattle arrive also from 
 Moldavia, and are sent from hence into the Austrian, Russian, and 
 Silesian territories. As to the Hebrews, Lemberg may be regarded 
 as their Holy City in Europe; for they have at this place one of the 
 largest synagogues in the world, capable of containing about 10,000 
 persons. Poland is to them a second land of promise. Lemberg 
 is also the seat of a university and gymnasium, or public school, and 
 an English traveller (Mr. George Burnett, of Baliol College, Ox- 
 ford) found, on visiting the public library, that it contained a con- 
 siderable store of books in different languages. The same gentle- 
 man adds, that on inspecting the store-room of prohibited books, 
 he found Hume's Essays, Volney's Ruins, and Voltaire's Works. 
 In Lemberg there is one large bookseller's shop, which is quite a 
 phenomenon in Poland. It stands in the principal public square, 
 which is about the size of Covent Garden market, surrounded, 
 as usual, by arcades. 
 
 The Russian troops did, in fact, arrive on the appointed day, 
 and our curiosity was amply gratified by beholding the various 
 semibarbarous tribes of which their cavalry regiments were com- 
 posed. Calmucks, Cossacks from the Don and Volga, Tartars 
 from the banks of the Caspian, and Siberians from the frozen 
 bounds of the Northern Ocean, mounted on animals so small 
 and rough in appearance, that it was difficult to discriminate 
 at first sight whether they were actually horses, or some un- 
 known quadrupeds. The contemplation of these swarthy groupes, 
 congregated like the hordes of barbarians pouring down upon 
 the empire of the West, excited in our minds some extraor- 
 dinary reflections as to the ultimate consequences which might 
 one day result from this irruption. We felt we could enter 
 with a more lively interest into those passages of Ammianus 
 
 t 2 
 
140 
 
 LEMBERG. 
 
 and Jornandes describing the appearances of these northern 
 
 tribes. " Pavendd nigredrine qiuedam deformis offa, non 
 
 fades ; Jiabensque magis puncta quam luminal are the words in 
 which Jornandes describes the face of a Calmuek, and his 
 description is far from a caricature. " Prodigiosce forma et 
 pandi ; ut bipedes existimes bestias, vel quales in commarginandis 
 pontibus effigiati stipites dolantur incompti" are the words of 
 Ammianus. The Parisians, with a happier brevity of sarcasm, 
 have called them Les Cupidons du Nord, and les cornichons verds, 
 " the green cucumbers," from the colour of their uniforms, and 
 the stoop of their bodies, which the Roman historian had endea- 
 voured to express by " prodigiosce formce et pandV It even 
 occurred to us, that the western nations of Europe, in calling in 
 the assistance of these hardy savages, may have added another 
 fatal illustration of the fable of the horse and the stag, quoted by 
 Horace ; when the former in his hatred, wishing to avenge him- 
 self on the stag who despoiled his pastures, called in the assist- 
 ance of man, and gave himself a master whom he could never 
 wring from his withers. 
 
 " Cervus rquii.m pugna melior communibus herbis 
 Pellehat. • donee minor in certamine longo 
 Imploravit opes homines ; jrcenumque recepit : 
 Sed postquam victor victo discessit ab lioste, 
 Non equitem dorso, non Jrcenum depulit ore." 
 
 One circumstance connected with the passage of this division 
 is worth relating, as it illustrates what has been before stated, 
 respecting the general corruption of morals in Poland. A lady 
 of noble birth, whose chateau was situated a few leagues from 
 Lemberg, was living in the same hotel with ourselves, which was 
 
LEMBERG. 
 
 141 
 
 also the head-quarters of the Russian troops. This woman's 
 fortune, if we might form an opinion from her numerous reti- 
 nue, horses, and carriages, must have been fully adequate to her 
 rank. She had come to Lemberg to await the passage of the 
 Russian troops, expressly for the same purpose that one of her 
 Amazonian ancestors, Queen Thalestris, had thrown herself in 
 the way of Alexander and the Macedonian army. The troops 
 continued marching in for four days, during which time this 
 licentious female dined daily at the table d'hote, and adopted 
 expedients to accomplish the object of her journey, in which, I 
 presume, she was not disappointed. 
 
 The people at the inn spoke of this as belonging to the com- 
 mon course of passing events in Poland ; thus confirming the 
 truth of Wraxall's assertion, " that it is not in fact gallantry but 
 licentiousness which here reigns without controul." Wraxall 
 speaks especially of Warsaw, but the state of society is the 
 same all over Poland. 
 
 Previously to our quitting Vienna, we had been advised to 
 make a contract with a Jew at Lemberg, to furnish us with 
 horses to Jassy ; this plan we adopted, having found no difficulty 
 in striking a bargain with one of that nation, who, in considera- 
 tion of receiving a certain number of florins, furnished us with 
 four horses, two to each berline, and two drivers or Fuhrmans, 
 who were to travel at the rate of eight German miles daily, or 
 between forty and forty-five English miles, and set us down on a 
 certain day in the Moldavian capital. This plan, which is in 
 some respects convenient, we found very disagreeable from cir- 
 cumstances that afterwards occurred, but which at that time 
 we could not have foreseen. On leaving Lemberg, our first 
 day's journey carried us through Davidow, Bobrka, and Strelitz, 
 
142 
 
 HALIETZ. 
 
 all miserable villages, and terminated in the evening at Kneiche- 
 nitz, where we slept. The next day we proceeded through Bur- 
 stein towards Halietz, which is a very ancient town situated on 
 the banks of the Dniester, the Tyras or Danaster of the ancient 
 classic writers. The ruins of the Castle of Halietz are ex- 
 tensive, crowning the summit of a promontory which stretches 
 boldly over the river and commands an extensive view of a very 
 fertile valley. Two smaller rivers called the Lukewit and 
 Lomnica here form a junction with the Dniester. Halietz has 
 gradually dwindled down to a very poor village not containing 
 more than 30 or 40 families, although formerly a regal abode of 
 the kings of Halitzia, and the residence of the Greek arch- 
 bishop, whose jurisdiction also extended over the whole duchy 
 of Moldavia, until Lasco, Duke of Moldavia in 1374, having 
 embraced the faith of the Catholic church, obtained from Pope 
 Urban the Fifth, a bull erecting the city of Serete into a 
 bishoprick, and absolving Moldavia from allegiance to the see 
 of Halietz. The native historians represent Halietz as having 
 been formerly a city of great extent, containing 30 or 40,000 
 inhabitants ; and it has also the reputation of having imposed a 
 name on the adjoining territory ; Halitzia was the original name 
 of Galitzia; the H having been exchanged for the G for the 
 sake of euphony. Halle in the Sclavonic tongue signifies salt ; 
 Halitz therefore is the town or place of salt, Halitzia the 
 territory of salt mines ; an etymology which seems in this 
 instance at least, very correct. The first distinct notice which 
 occurs in history of this city is during the reign of Boleslas, 
 fourth Duke of Masovia, who succeeded to the throne A. D. 
 1226, after the death of George Duke of Russia ; the next is in 
 1375, when the see of the archbishop was removed from Lem- 
 
MARIENPONT. 
 
 143 
 
 berg to Halitz, and remained there till 1416, when it was 
 carried back to Lemberg, and has there existed until the present 
 time. The situation of Halitz is however much more beautiful 
 and healthy than that of Lemberg, but various circumstances 
 conjoined with the all-powerful influence of commerce have 
 turned the scale completely in favour of the latter city. 
 
 We left the town and castle of Halietz on our right, and 
 crossed the Dniester in a flat-bottomed bark, at a ferry about a 
 mile lower down the river, where we had a fine view of the old 
 castle with the river and ferry in the fore-ground. Ovid has 
 celebrated the Tyras for the sluggishness of its course, in his 
 enumeration of the rivers which fall into the Euxine sea, 
 " nullo tardior amne Tyras ;" and indeed this character seems 
 applicable to all the rivers in this district, so gentle is the slope 
 towards the sea. Our road lay through a beautiful and fertile 
 country, the soil a deep loam covered with heavy crops of hemp, 
 maize, tobacco, &c, and the sloping banks of the river diver- 
 sified with woods of birch and hazel. We encountered this 
 day several large droves of Moldavian cattle proceeding towards 
 Lemberg ; the bullocks were remarkable for beauty of form, 
 and their colour very uniformly a fine ashen grey. 
 
 At a village called Marienpont, we baited our horses. It is 
 inhabited by a few families, chiefly Jews, wretched, ragged, and 
 dirty, swarming with vermin, and covered with cutaneous 
 diseases. Here too we remarked some cases of that loathsome 
 complaint, the Plica Polonica. At this place are the remains of 
 some strong walls, and an old Gothic castle, built of stone. It 
 would seem that it was formerly one of the fortresses of the 
 Marian or Teutonic knights, who conquered and civilized Prussia 
 and Poland, and put an end to the idolatrous worship of the 
 
144 
 
 MARIENPONT. 
 
 European Sarmatians. This order was established by Pope 
 Celestine the Third in 1191, under the name of the order of the 
 Teutonic knights of the hospital of St. Mary of Jerusalem ; and 
 was composed of the German knights then present at the siege 
 of Acre. During the grand mastership of Hermand de Saltz, 
 the fourth who enjoyed that dignity, Conrad, Duke of Masovia 
 and Cujavia sent him an embassy, inviting the order to accept 
 the provinces of Culm and Livonia, together with all the country 
 that they might be able to conquer from the idolatrous Prussians, 
 who were continually making incursions into Conrad's terri- 
 tories. De Saltz accepted the invitation, and in the course of 
 fifty years, the Teutonic order conquered Prussia Proper, Li- 
 vonia, Samogitia and Pomerania, and afterwards purchased 
 from Waldemir the Third, of Denmark, the province of Es- 
 thonia. After building the cities of Elbing, Marienburg, 
 Thorn, Dantzic, Kcenigsberg, Marienwerder, &c. this pow- 
 erful order involved themselves in warfare with the Sovereigns 
 of Poland, and after a series of revolutions, sunk at the time of 
 the reformation to a few petty commanderies. The Teutonic order, 
 during the era of its splendour, vied in pomp and magnificence 
 with the order of the Templars, of which some idea may be 
 formed from considering the details which Wasselms has given 
 in his annals. The order comprised, he says " Twenty-eight com- 
 manders of cities, forty-six of castles, eighty-one governors of 
 hospitals, thirty-five priors of monasteries, forty maitres cChotel, 
 thirty-seven purveyors, ninety-three holders of mills, seven 
 hundred lay brethren or knights armed for the field, one hundred 
 and sixty-two religious brethren or priests, and six thousand two 
 hundred servants. These were governed by a grand master, 
 
MAIUENPONT. 
 
 145 
 
 whose court was kept at Mariendal, and attended by a grand 
 commander, a grand marshal, a grand hospitaler, grand draper, 
 treasurer," &c. &c. 
 
 The condition of the barbarous tribes who were conquered 
 by the Teutonic knights, was in many respects similar to that 
 of the Venedi : they were governed by a king who led their armies 
 to battle, and a high priest called Kirie Kiriets, who dwelt in 
 a canopy under an oak tree, surrounded by the idols which 
 they worshipped. Within this canopy no one but the patriarch 
 and subordinate priests were permitted to enter. But when 
 any of the Pruteni applied for permission to approach and 
 offer prayers or gifts, the priests removed the veil from the 
 consecrated oak, and allowed him to behold the idols, which 
 were three in number, placed on the three sides of the oak tree. 
 The first was called Petuno or thunder. The worship of this 
 idol consisted in a fire, which, like that of Vesta, was kept 
 always lighted, with the wood of the oak tree ; and the priest 
 whose negligence ever permitted the fire to be extinguished, was 
 punished with death. Next to that idol was placed Patrimpo, 
 whose worship consisted in feeding and keeping alive a large 
 serpent with milk. The third was called Patelo, who was wor- 
 shipped by keeping suspended before his image, the head of a 
 dead man. They worshipped also many inferior idols, such as, 
 Vurschay, who presided over their herds ; Schneybrato, who guard- 
 ed the geese and ducks and poultry ; and Gurcho, who presided 
 over the kitchen and all food and drink. They also worshipped 
 the moon and stars ; as well as serpents, toads, and other hideous 
 animals : and were unacquainted with letters or writing. Their 
 drink was water mixed with honey, and mare's milk ; but like 
 
 u 
 
146 
 
 MARIENPONT. 
 
 many other barbarians, they received foreigners and strangers 
 with kindness and hospitality.* 
 
 It has been often remarked by travellers, that Poland seems 
 now to be the only country in Europe where the persecuted Jews 
 have obtained any great and permanent settlement, Of course 
 their character may be here studied to greater advantage than 
 elsewhere. Enjoying privileges and immunities which they 
 possess in no other region, with the opportunities of engaging 
 deeply in traffic, and accumulating immense fortunes, masters of 
 all the specie, and most of the commerce of Poland, mortgagees 
 of the land, and sometimes masters of the glebe, the Jewish 
 interlopers appear to be more the lords of the country than even 
 the Poles themselves. Historians affirm, that such has been their 
 favoured condition for more than four centuries, since Casimir the 
 Great, at the instigation of his Jewish mistress Esther, took " the 
 stiff-necked race under his especial favour and protection." The 
 countenance thus shown to them has been fatal to the Poles, 
 whose vitals they have sucked, and whose morals, already tainted 
 by their own vicious magnates, they have been the grand instru- 
 ments in corrupting. All the distilleries throughout Poland are 
 farmed out to Jews, who pay large sums to the nobles, for the 
 privilege of poisoning and intoxicating their serfs. The liquors 
 they fabricate, are corn-spirits,, rendered more palatable and 
 destructive by the addition of the essential oils of fennel and 
 carraway seeds, which are mixed with the wash previously to 
 distillation. This spirituous compound is drank raw and un- 
 mixed with water, and the quantity consumed is enormous. 
 
 * See Prussia descript. auct. Alex. Guagnino apud Elzevir. Respublic. 
 
MARIENPONT. 
 
 147 
 
 Of this the reader may judge from a passage in Mr. Burnett's 
 work on Poland, who says " I shall give the reader a more pre- 
 cise idea of the enormous quantity which is consumed of this 
 pernicious liquor, by observing that the Count Zamoyski obtains 
 of a company of Jews, the large sum of three thousand pounds 
 sterling per annum, simply for the privilege of distilling it on the 
 largest of his estates. This domain, however, is a sort of princi- 
 pality, comprehending at least 4000 square miles." When Joseph 
 the Second obtained Galitzia, that judicious and excellent prince 
 perceived the necessity of limiting the privileges of the Jews ; he 
 took from them the power of cultivating the lands belonging to 
 the serfs, subject to contributions, and prohibited them from 
 keeping inns and distilling spirituous liquors ; but upon his death 
 all his wise maxims were laid aside, and the Jews have been slowly 
 and silently regaining their former influence and habits. The 
 inns are now altogether in their hands, as well as the fabrication 
 of ardent spirits and liqueurs. They have all the traffic in peltry, 
 the selling of both precious metals and diamonds, opals and 
 cameos, &c. ; they are also the principal agents in the commerce 
 of grain. Of late years many of these Jewish families who had 
 amassed great wealth by commerce, having affected to abjure their 
 religion and embrace Catholicism, have been ennobled and per- 
 mitted to purchase extensive estates : still true, however, to their 
 own nation, they have built large towns and villages on these 
 estates and peopled them exclusively with Jewish families ; for, 
 from a singular instinct, the Poles seem to detest their fellowship, 
 and flying from their villages, generally herd together in their own 
 miastas. The noble families of Ossolenski, Majerski, and Ri- 
 viczinski are all of Hebrew origin. The enjoyment of liberty 
 and civil rights seems to have produced a strong effect on the 
 
 u 2 
 
148 
 
 MARIENPONT. 
 
 physical constitution and physiognomy of this singular race ; 
 bestowing a dignity and energy of character upon them which 
 we may in vain look for in those of other countries. The men, 
 cloathed in long black robes reaching to their ankles, and some- 
 times adorned in front with silver agraffes, their heads covered with 
 fur caps, their chesnut or auburn locks parted in front, and falling 
 gracefully on the shoulders in spiral curls, display much manly 
 beauty. Nay, I have frequently contemplated with astonishment 
 many amongst them, whose placid, yet melancholy countenances 
 recalled strongly to my recollection the heads depicted by Ra- 
 phael, Leonardo da Vinci, Carlo Dolce, and the earlier Italian 
 painters ; and which, until I visited Poland, I had conceived to 
 exist only amongst the fine ideal forms of art. .More than once 
 an involuntary awe has seized me on contemplating on the shoul- 
 ders of a Hebrew villager, a head presenting those traits of phy- 
 siognomy, which, by a long association, I had always conjoined 
 with the abstract ideal countenance of the Saviour of the world. 
 In this feeling I am not singular ; it has been remarked by other 
 travellers*, whose minds had been also early habituated to make 
 such comparisons. In feminine beauty the women are likewise 
 distinguished, but beauty is not uncommon amongst the Jewesses 
 of other countries. When looking at them seated, according to 
 their usual custom, on a wooden sofa, by the doors of their 
 houses, on the evenings of their sabbaths, dressed in their richest 
 stuffs and pearl head-dresses, I have imagined 1 could trace a 
 strong resemblance between their present head-ornaments and 
 those sculptured upon the heads of the Egyptian sphynxes. Nor 
 do I think it at all improbable that the dresses of the Hebrews 
 
 * Denon, in his Voyage de l'Egypte : Mr. James, in his Travels in Poland, &c. 
 
MARIENPONT. J 49 
 
 in Poland, both men and women, are at this day nearly the same 
 as those of their ancestors when they left the " house of bondage." 
 Herodotus mentions the Melanchlceni, a race of people dressed 
 in black, dwelling amongst the Scythians on the banks of the 
 Tyras ; and the present inhabitants of Halietz and Marienpont 
 have probably dressed in the same fashion ever since the days of 
 that venerable historian. 
 
150 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Olmacks. — Obertier. — Snyatine. — The river Pruth. — Tschernowitz, or 
 Czernowitz. — Polish Jilth. — The Plague. — Zoring. — Nomades — 
 Their waggons. — Moldavia — grandeur of its Landscapes. — Dorohoi. 
 — Botussano. — Hebrew wedding. — Hebrew Sabbath. — Molla-gast. — 
 Jassy. — Prince Mourousi — his Capital: 
 
 This evening we slept at Olmacks ; next day we breakfasted at 
 Obertier, and the same evening reached Snyatine. D'Anville 
 has traced the name of Netin-Dava, (a Roman station within 
 the limits of ancient Dacia, mentioned by Ptolemy,) as here cor- 
 rupted into Snyatine. It is now a poor village inhabited by 
 Jews 5 and is situated near the banks of the Pruth, the Hicrasus 
 of Strabo. This river traverses a fine valley bounded on the 
 south-west by the lofty mountains of Transylvania, which now 
 accompanied our road at about ten miles' distance on the right. 
 The road followed the left bank of the river till we approached 
 the town of Tschernowitz *, where our carriages were ferried 
 over on a double boat lashed together by transverse planks 
 forming a platform, and we soon afterwards entered the last 
 frontier town of the Austrian states. 
 
 Czernowitz, the capital of the Buckowine, is agreeably situated 
 upon a hill on the southern bank of the Pruth. It consists of 
 
 * Tschernowitz — the town on the Blackwater ; — Czerni, a blackwater — itz 
 a town. 
 
CZERNOWITZ. 251 
 
 about 600 houses with three churches, and may contain a popu- 
 lation of three thousand inhabitants. Contrary to custom, its 
 streets are wide, clean, and well paved, and the houses are built 
 of free-stone. It also boasts a tolerable inn where we break- 
 fasted. Without having visited Poland, and had ocular demon- 
 stration of the filth and the abominable uncleanliness of the 
 inhabitants, it seems difficult to believe the accounts so often 
 given of the rapid propagation of pestilence in that country. 
 For instance, in November 1770, the plague broke out in Con- 
 stantinople, and soon carried off daily above one thousand per- 
 sons. Having been propagated through Moldavia, then the 
 theatre of war, by means of the Turkish and Russian armies, it 
 entered Poland ; and on being introduced into the strong fron- 
 tier-town of Kamieneck on the Dniester, it made such havoc 
 amongst the troops in garrison as well as the inhabitants, that 
 the survivors in a body abandoned the place, and for several 
 months neither Russians nor Poles would venture into it. All 
 the peasants of one village belonging to Prince Adam Czarto- 
 rinski were swept off in one day, and nine monasteries were left 
 without a single human being. This statement, extraordinary as 
 it appears, I have no hesitation in believing, after having wit- 
 nessed the domestic habits of the people. The houses of the 
 native Poles are equally dirty, and generally much smaller than 
 those of the Jews, and their habits are still more filthy. Both 
 sexes sleep together like pigs on straw or furs, upon the tops and 
 sides of their ovens, without undressing themselves. The floors 
 of their houses consist of clay or earth, always damp, and from 
 which the heat of the stove draws up a perpetual vapour of the 
 most offensive odour, which, as the windows are never opened, 
 
152 
 
 CZERNOWITZ. 
 
 circulates continually. They eat few vegetables, and their diet 
 consists of every putrescent animal food, with bad bread, diluted 
 copiously with spirituous liquors. Such a diet must pre-dispose 
 them to imbibe readily every contagious poison ; which, when 
 once received, is propagated amongst them with all the rapidity 
 of combustion itself. Generally without medical assistance, 
 these wretched beings are abandoned to their fate ; and, unfor- 
 tunately such is the callous selfishness of the great majority of 
 the Polish nobles, that instead of attempting to ameliorate the 
 condition of their serfs, all their powers of mind and ingenuity 
 are exhausted in ministering to their crapulous propensities, 
 and increasing their own overgrown incomes by throwing the 
 temptations of drunkenness in their way. Bishops and nobles 
 are joint proprietors of all the inns, and the greater the drunk- 
 enness of the peasantry, the larger are the returns to the lords of 
 the soil. This picture is far from being overcharged. I may 
 appeal with confidence to every traveller in Poland to bear truth 
 to its lamentable veracity. 
 
 The Moldavian territory commences at Zoring, a hamlet of a 
 few houses, in which are both Austrian and Moldavian post- 
 houses, and some Greek and Austrian commissaries to examine 
 and countersign passports. The country around shows the 
 remains of extensive oak forests, almost extirpated by the fires 
 of wandering Tartars and Chinganies, who, in their constant 
 migrations, apply their embers to the hollows of the largest 
 trees, thereby destroying the bark, and occasioning the trees to 
 wither and fall. We found a troop of these gypsies at Zoring : 
 their waggons are singularly constructed, and put together 
 sometimes with wooden pins only, without the intervention of 
 

 ■ ■ 
 
 
MOLDAVIA. 153 
 
 iron or metal. They use no tar or tallow to grease the axles, 
 and the noise they emit is heard at a great distance. 
 
 Neque linunt Ruteni querulos pinguedine currus 
 
 Haud picis auxilium stridulus axis habet. 
 Auditur veniens longe crepitare colossa : 
 
 Sicjragiles currus, Russe vocare soles. 
 Nam faciunt habiles uno vectore quadrigas 
 
 Invectas Ruteni, quas equus unus agit 
 Nee facile invenies ferraio hcerentia clavo,- 
 
 Plaustra J'acit ligni cuncta ministerium ; 
 Et sine Jerri usu pangunt sua plaustra terebris 
 
 Et lignum ligno consolidare solent. 
 
 The aspect of Moldavia is very singular, perhaps at this era 
 unique. There are two other districts in Europe which probably 
 once resembled it greatly, but the progress of civilization and agri- 
 culture, during the course of a few centuries, has altered them, 
 whilst Moldavia remains in its primitive state. It is intersected 
 with marshes and small lakes in a degree curious beyond all 
 description. Mecklenburg Strelitz, and La Vendee, in France, 
 were formerly in the same state. La Vendee is now nearly 
 drained dry, and the lakes of Mecklenburg are filling up. All 
 these three countries were inhabited by the Venedic nations, or 
 the people who dwelt on fens ; the same tribes who first inha- 
 bited that part of England now called Cambridgeshire. The 
 ancient Venedi appear to have been, like the Dutch of the 
 present day, the Beavers of the human race — all their settle- 
 ments were upon the banks of small rivers and lakes, or by the 
 sides of fens. What instinct could have led them to choose 
 such situations in preference to others, it is difficult at this time 
 to conjecture, but it is more than probable that their diet was 
 
 x 
 
154 MOLDAVIA. 
 
 fish and the flesh of water birds ; and finding probably that the 
 effluvia from the marshes was best obviated by covering them 
 with water, they constructed dams across the narrows and rapids 
 of the small rivers, and filled the marshy hollows with water, 
 around which they dwelt in security, and lived upon the salmon 
 and wild fowl which fattened in these artificial lakes. Most of 
 the rivers in Moldavia are at this hour intersected with weirs, 
 which dam the waters, and form ponds ; mills are built on these 
 weirs, and the villages are placed around them. Man in his 
 savage state must have learned much from inspecting the labours 
 of the brute creation. The ancient savages of Europe seem to 
 have imitated the habits of the beaver, in constructing dams and 
 building mud huts ; for the forms of both were certainly furnished 
 them by that singular amphibious quadruped. If the Nautilus 
 taught them to sail, and the boar to turn up the earth, it is not 
 discordant to reason to surmise, that the beaver and swallow 
 were their masters in civil engineering and architecture. Count 
 John Potocki says, " that the people of the Ukraine have an 
 exclusive predilection for pools of water of a certain extent. 
 Universally wherever they can arrest a stream by a dyke, they 
 form a pool, and build a village ; but where the nature of the 
 country will not admit of such hydraulic constructions, you may 
 traverse twelve or fifteen leagues without meeting with a single 
 habitation." This description will apply well to Moldavia. The 
 face of the country consists of immense undulating towns called 
 steppes, of great beauty and vast extent, covered with the most 
 luxuriant crops of grass, affording nourishment to herds of 
 sheep, horses, and horned cattle. Their monotonous aspect 
 is only interrupted from time to time by the small round lakes 
 
MOLDAVIA. 
 
 155 
 
 before-mentioned, and sometimes villages of the most primeval 
 character, surrounded by wattle fences, straggling at wide intervals 
 along the grassy brows of the hills — no trees — a few thickets — 
 no hedges, land-marks, or divisions of territory, here and there 
 some fields of maize — hares, coveys of partridges, and other game 
 hopping tamely along the sides of the roads — these roads almost 
 without a pebble, and so smooth that the wheels of the carriage 
 glide silently along, as if on the sandy beach by the shores of the 
 sea. The Moldavian peasants, who are occasionally met driving 
 bullock-wains of the simplest form and construction, are a rough, 
 hardy, and simple race, clad in white woollen, or linen garments, 
 sheep-skin caps and sandals — according with every surrounding 
 object to inspire the idea of pastoral life in the very infancy of 
 society, when every image and emotion was simple, peaceful, 
 and innocent. There are some few of the grand historical land- 
 scapes of Rubens, I mean those engraved by Bolswert, which 
 might depict the general aspect of Moldavia, and these are the 
 only representations of nature illustrative of its character, which I 
 have yet seen. 
 
 The first considerable village we passed was Dorohoi, situated like 
 others, by the margin of a pool ; the next was Botussano, a place of 
 greater size, presenting some shops arranged in the Oriental manner, 
 the owners of which were clad in the Greek costume, and sitting 
 cross-legged within the window-seats smoking their tchibouques. 
 At this place we passed the night in a Hebrew inn. A wedding 
 had taken place that evening, and the savage howling, yelling, 
 and drunken carousing of the marriage-guests prevented our 
 closing our eyes till near day-light, when our Fuhrmans entered to 
 summon us to depart. 
 
 Nor were we more fortunate on the evening of that day, which 
 
 x 2 
 
156 
 
 MOLDAVIA. 
 
 being a Friday, our Jewish postillions halted suddenly about six in 
 the afternoon at a village called Molla-gast *, and neither threats, 
 bribes, nor intreaties could induce them to proceed. It is true, 
 they attempted to procure some Moldavian peasants to drive us 
 on to Jassy, but in that endeavour they were unsuccessful. The 
 hostel at which we were detained was, as usual, kept by a Jew, 
 and the children of circumcision had already extinguished their 
 fires, and having lighted the seven-branched sabbath-lamp, by its 
 light were chaunting " by Babel's streams," in the same dialect 
 in which the royal poet had composed that lament. It was con- 
 trary to all their usages to permit a fire to be kindled within their 
 doors after the sabbath-lamp was lighted; our hunger would admit 
 of no compromise ; so that we had no other resource than to pull 
 off the thatch and wattles from an out-house, and kindle a fire in 
 the midst of the court-yard, on which we prepared our curry, and 
 boiled the kettle for our Chinese beverage. The house was 
 filthier than common, and swarmed with a more than usual 
 complement of fleas and mosquitoes ; the pious concert conti- 
 nuing with increased nasal vigour, sleeping within doors was out 
 of the question, there was no friendly barn to receive us, we were 
 therefore obliged to wrap ourselves in our boat-cloaks, and pass 
 the night in a corner of our berlines, where we spent the time, 
 Don Quixote-like, in watching our armour by the light of the 
 moon. The day had been very hot, the surrounding ground was 
 swampy, and tenanted by millions of frogs, and the night-dews and 
 exhalations were so heavy that next morning when I attempted to 
 move, I found myself hardly able to crawl, from headach, giddiness, 
 and other symptoms of fever. Most thankfully I heard that the 
 
 * Molla-gast, the Priest-king — probably the ancient residence of Xamolxis. 
 
MOLDAVIA. , -,- 
 
 horses were put to, some Moldavians having been procured as 
 drivers, and we proceeded. Our journey this day led us over a 
 country of similar aspect to that already passed, excepting that 
 we met several hordes of gypsies travelling in caravans, with 
 patriarchal simplicity, accompanied by herds of horses and 
 horned cattle, and by bullock waggons. The women were Gro- 
 tesquely attired, with large head-dresses covered with a profusion 
 of gold and silver coins, and barbaresque ornaments, infants on 
 their backs, or hanging to their breasts, while children from six 
 to ten years of age, naked as they entered the world, were 
 trudging at their heels, leading the sumpter horses, or goading 
 the bullocks ; the men were grisly and savage, with matted locks 
 and bushy beards, half naked, or with a loose jacket of sheep-skin 
 thrown across their shoulders ; but they were finely formed and 
 gracefully proportioned. They asserted the savage dignity of 
 their independent character, even amidst the rags and dirt 
 with which they were covered. 
 
 Within four miles of Jassy, we found a state carriage of the 
 Hospodar, drawn up by the door of a cottage on the road side. 
 A young gentleman in the Greek costume ran out from the 
 house, to enquire of our driver if we were the English travellers 
 from Vienna, whom he had been sent to meet, and beino- an- 
 swered in the affirmative, he introduced himself as the mich- 
 madar of Prince Mourousi, and complimented us on our safe ar- 
 rival in his master's territory ; after offering us some refresh- 
 ments, he insisted upon our alighting and entering Jassy in the 
 Prince's carriage, which we did. We were driven into the court 
 yard of Prince Alexander Mourousi, the nephew and son-in- 
 law of the Hospodar, who came forward to receive us, and re- 
 
158 
 
 JASSY. 
 
 quested we would make his house our home during our stay. 
 My indisposition had increased so rapidly, that I was under the 
 necessity of using a warm bath and immediately retiring to bed, 
 taking a very efficacious sudorific of green tea with lemon juice. 
 I awoke next morning in my usual health ; after breakfast, I ac- 
 companied Colonel Gillespie and our kind host, to wait on the 
 Prince, his father-in-law. We found his Highness seated in due 
 form in his divan, surrounded by the officers of his little court. 
 He arose at our entrance to address us, and, speaking in French, 
 welcomed Sir Rollo Gillespie and myself to Moldavia ; at the 
 same time offering us seats by his side. Coffee, pipes, sherbet, 
 and sweet-meats, were introduced in the usual Oriental fashion. 
 After some conversation on the topics connected with travelling, 
 also many enquiries as to the warlike preparations of the Court 
 of Austria and the passage of the Russian troops, whom we had 
 seen at Lemberg, he apologised for not being able to see us at 
 his country seat, owing to the severe indisposition of the Princess 
 his consort, but recommended us in strong terms to his son-in- 
 law's hospitality, and begged we would prolong our stay at Jassy 
 for a few days, and visit some spots in the neighbourhood which he 
 said deserved being seen. From this we excused ourselves for 
 want of time, but promised to wait upon him again, previous to 
 our departure. Prince Alexander drove us round the town, and 
 pointed out some very picturesque beauties of the vicinity. The 
 situation of Jassy is indeed very fine. It lies on the southern 
 slope of a low hill, near the marshy banks of a small river called 
 the Baglui, which joins the Pruth some miles below. The town 
 of Jassy extends for a short mile along both banks of the stream, 
 over which there is a wooden bridge. To the south of the city 
 
JASSY. 
 
 159 
 
 is a superb range of mountains, almost of Alpine height, clothed 
 to the very summit with woods of magnificent growth ; along 
 the heights in many parts, we descried patches of snow, yet un- 
 melted in the month of August. That the town occupies the 
 site of a Roman city called Jassiorum Municipium, is proved 
 by many inscriptions, coins, and medals, which are dug up fre- 
 quently in the grounds around. The population which is com- 
 puted at about ten thousand souls, is composed of Greeks, 
 Albanians, Russians, Jews, and native Moldavians. The 
 houses are built of brick, wood, and mud, those of the poor 
 are thatched with bog-reeds, but those of the rich are covered 
 with shingles, as in Poland. The streets, instead of being 
 paved, are laid with massive beams of wood, resting at each 
 extremity upon sleepers ; these are elastic of course, and on 
 the passing of horses and carriages, yield a loud rumbling 
 noise, like that of a draw-bridge, while the copious floods of 
 dark mud concealed beneath, are from time to time thrown 
 up in jets between the opening rafters, and bedaub the pe- 
 destrians in a ridiculous manner. Although now so consi- 
 derable a town, Jassy was not the seat of government until 
 the year 1574, when Moldavia fell under the power of the 
 Ottomans. The ancient capital and bishop's see was Suczava, 
 a town in Upper Moldavia, situated in a valley, near the sources 
 of the Prut, at the roots of the Transylvanian Alps, which 
 place is now a heap of ruins, and included in the Austrian 
 Buckovine. Jassy first became known in modern history, 
 during the wars of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden and Peter 
 the Great of Russia, when the Russian army, after having 
 taken it, narrowly escaped being made prisoners of war by the 
 
160 
 
 JASSY. 
 
 Turks under Baltagi. It was again occupied by the Russians in 
 1739, 1771, and 1788, on which last occasion it was held by 
 them till 1792, when it was restored by the treaty of Jassy, 
 signed in January, 1792, by Prince Repnin, and the Grand 
 Vizier Yousouf. 
 
161 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Marsh Effluvia. — Wolves. — Wolf-Dogs. — Greek Churches. — Fate of 
 Prince Mourousi. — Character of Greek Hospodars. — Hippomulgi. — 
 Xamohis. — Longevity. — Grecian Repasts. — Night Scene on the 
 Mountains. — Bislat the ancient Palloda. — " Ups and Downs." — 
 Roman Causeway. — Scythian Barrows and Funeral Rites. — Servian 
 Burials and Graves. — Galatz. — Turkish Governor Tomi. 
 
 Xhe exhalations from the numerous marshes around Jassy, ren- 
 der the inhabitants very unhealthy, and cause annually a great 
 mortality amongst them from the severe intermittent and re- 
 mittent fevers of which they are the cause. At any time like- 
 wise when the plague has entered Moldavia, Jassy has been 
 found to suffer most severely; for example, in 1771, during the 
 plague before alluded to, the Russian garrison here lost a pro- 
 digious number of men, including the general in command, 
 named Stoffeln, who by his foolish prejudices, over-ruled the 
 precautionary measures which the army surgeons wished to 
 enforce, and contributed to propagate the contagion more widely 
 amongst his troops, till at length it was introduced into Poland 
 and Russia, and reached Moscow, which capital it almost depo- 
 pulated. Besides the calamities of pestilence, Jassy is also 
 subject from its locality to other ravages, arising from troops of 
 hungry wolves, which pour down during the long winter nights 
 
162 
 
 MOLDAVIA. 
 
 from the forests of the adjoining mountains, and carry off the 
 domestic animals, and sometimes even women and children. 
 To repel these invaders, every family is provided with a brace or 
 two of large wolf-dogs, which keep up during the night a terrific 
 baying, and banish sleep from the eye-lids of visitors, unused to 
 these canine watchmen. Those trusty guardians quite murdered 
 my sleep during my stay, and made me often feel the force 
 of the words of the Roman poet, " vigilum canum tristes ex- 
 cubitB ;" for no sounds can be more melancholy than that of 
 10,000 or 12,000 wolf-dogs baying the moon at intervals all 
 night, while the distant hamlets at the foot of the mountains 
 re-echoed the sound. During the day-time, the clatter of the 
 wooden mallets beating the tablets at the doors of the Greek 
 churches, calling the people to prayers, the use of bells being pro- 
 hibited in the Turkish provinces, produces a most disagreeable 
 effect. 
 
 Russia has been gradually acquiring a domination over the 
 provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, by efforts which have 
 been slowly but progressively renewed. She first obtained a 
 right of interfering in their internal administration by the treaty 
 of Kainargik in 1774, which granted the right of appointing 
 consuls in any port or city in the Ottoman empire. In 1781, 
 Russian residents were appointed at the courts of Jassy and 
 Bukarest ; and in 1802 by the influence of the Russian court, 
 the Greek Prince Ipsilanti was promoted to the government of 
 Wallachia, and Prince Mourousi to that of Moldavia, with the 
 express condition that neither of them should be removed from 
 their principalities, unless proved guilty of an offence which the 
 Russian minister at Constantinople should deem sufficient to 
 justify their deposal. Trusting to Russian protection, Prince 
 
MOLDAVIA. 
 
 163 
 
 Mourousi, at the time of our visit seemed to consider his govern- 
 ment as a family fief, only to be terminated by his life, and 
 was employed in -erecting a stately palace in a commanding 
 situation, which his son-in-law pointed out to our notice, with 
 some exultation, as a token of the prosperity and permanency of 
 the Mourousi dynasty. But how fallacious were these hopes ! 
 This family were not long permitted to enjoy their new residence ; 
 for after my return to England, I observed by the journals, that 
 Prince Mourousi had died the death of most of his predecessors. 
 It was on the 7th November 1812, that Prince Demetri Mou- 
 rousi, ci-devant Hospodar of Wallachia, and one of the Ottoman 
 plenipotentiaries at the congress of Bukarest, who signed the 
 treaty of peace with Russia, was decapitated at Schumla, the 
 head-quarters of the grand vizier, agreeably to orders transmitted 
 by the Grand Seignor. We are generally assured that he suffered 
 this catastrophe because it was known that he was a partisan of 
 Russia.* Such was the fate of Demetri Mourousi, a fate which 
 commonly terminates the lives of these faithless and intriguing men 
 the Greek Hospodars. After passing several years in dangling 
 at the levees of the Turkish viziers, flattering, lying, bribing, and 
 undermining their rivals by malignant slanders, they become 
 Court Dragomans, and afterwards succeed on vacancies to the 
 principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. 9 They set out for their 
 seat of government loaded with debts, contracted in bribing the 
 members of the Turkish divan, and surrounded by a host of 
 needy relatives and hungry parasites, who are to be maintained 
 and provided for by draining the peasantry of these devoted 
 
 * Extract of letter from Vienna, dated 2 2d December 1812. — Morning Post 
 Newspaper. 
 
 Y 2 
 
164 
 
 MOLDAVIA. 
 
 provinces. The most oppressive exactions are enforced, to wrest 
 from these wretched peasants the wealth required to pay the 
 Grand Seignor's revenue and keep the divan in good humour ; and 
 often on returning to the shores of the Bosphorus to enjoy their 
 ill-acquired fortunes, the bowstring or scimitar puts a period to 
 their career. Our kind host Prince Alexander Mourousi seemed 
 an honourable exception to this character. He was about thirty 
 years of age, had accompanied a Turkish embassy to Paris, was 
 well informed, and seemed to have profited from his inter- 
 course with the enlightened society of the French capital ; was 
 a kind husband, and the happy father of two promising chil- 
 dren. The hospitality and attention which he showed to- 
 wards Colonel Gillespie and myself, and the grateful sense he 
 evinced of some professional attentions which I had it in my 
 power to show him, were sufficient to prove to me that in his 
 bosom existed a high feeling of gratitude, which we often in vain 
 look for in a more cultivated mind ; and this induces me to speak 
 of and to remember him with much esteem. 
 
 The stated salary of the Hospodar of Moldavia, although 
 inferior to that of Wallachia, is not less than 100,00(W. sterling 
 annually. Besides receiving the tenth of all yearly incomes, the 
 Prince has also, as in Germany, the exclusive monopoly of 
 letting post-horses, and dispatching couriers ; all the herds sent 
 into Germany and Russia, also pay a poll-tax, the amount of 
 which cannot be small, as Moldavia annually sells to foreign 
 markets 100,000 head of horned cattle, besides sheep and horses. 
 The other articles exported, are wax, honey, tallow, hides, corn, 
 timber, furs, smoked meats, cheese, salt, butter, wine, and to- 
 bacco. 
 
 The total amount of taxes paid by Moldavia, as estimated in 
 
MOLDAVIA. 
 
 165 
 
 1785, was two millions eight hundred and forty thousand 
 piastres. 
 
 In many respects Moldavia may be regarded as one of the 
 most interesting portions, of Europe ; not only as the latest of 
 the Roman conquests, but as the favoured abode of the Hippo- 
 mulgi, the patriarchal race celebrated by Homer for their 
 length of days, purity of manners, and piety to the gods. The 
 circumstances in which the name of Moldavia originated, are 
 very singular. The primeval Scythian inhabitants, like the 
 Hindoos, believed in the incarnation of the divinity in the 
 person of a man named Xamolxis, who, after having been a 
 slave in Greece and Egypt, returned to his native land, and hid 
 himself for three years in a cavern, in the side of Mount 
 Cogceon. He attempted the civilization of his countrymen, and 
 as the most likely way to obtain their confidence in his superna- 
 tural powers, he made them believe that he possessed eternal life, 
 and was just raised from the dead. Tt was the custom of the 
 Scythian kings to retire to this holy mountain to consult this 
 eternal Priest or Mollah ; and from this patriarch the country was 
 called Mollah-div-ia or the territory of the immortal Mollah. 
 
 The doctrines of Xamolxis were similar to those inculcated by 
 Pythagoras, respect to the gods, abstinence from animal food, 
 and a life devoted to the practice of deeds of virtue and 
 patriotism. The effects of this system were displayed in happi- 
 ness and peace of mind, healthiness of body, great length of 
 days, and a virtuous fulfilment of the duties of society. " The 
 Hippomulgi," says Homer, " were sustained by milk, long-lived, 
 and the juslest of men." The Dacians their successors, were, 
 according to the Roman historians, the bravest defenders of 
 their country, and the Moldavians of the present day possess 
 
166 
 
 MOLDAVIA. 
 
 greater virtues than fall to the lot of more favoured nations ; yet 
 they are oppressed by hordes of petty tyrants, and cursed by the 
 worst of governments, a deceitful representative system. But 
 the beauty and fertility of the soil is still as great as during the 
 ages of their forefathers, and health and longevity are still to be 
 found amongst the inhabitants of the Moldavian mountains. 
 
 Travellers have been unanimous in extolling the beauties of 
 this region, and they all equally lament the oppressed condition 
 of its inhabitants. Baron de Tott compares Moldavia to Bur- 
 gundy, the finest province in France. Carra says, " I have 
 visited almost every country in Europe, and have seen none 
 where the distribution of the plains, hills, and mountains is so ad- 
 mirable both for agriculture and picturesque effect as in Moldavia 
 and Wallachia." Thornton describes " the scenery as grand and 
 romantic; torrents rushing down the precipices and winding 
 through the valleys; — the delightful fragrance of the lime- 
 flower, and the herbs crushed by the browsing flock ; the soli- 
 tary hut of the shepherd on the brow of the mountain — the 
 mountain itself rising far above the clouds. Its whole surface 
 covered except in the snowy regions, with a deep bed of vege- 
 table earth, and every where adorned with lofty and majestic 
 forest-trees, or with rich and lively verdure :" — he adds, that 
 " all this assemblage of beauty which once gratified my sight, 
 still interests me in the picture which memory retains." Such 
 indeed must be the feelings of every individual who has once 
 travelled through this country. The sentiments which it excites 
 can scarcely ever be forgotten. As to myself, the sublime 
 intensity of the impression will never be erased from my mind. 
 General Baur laments that this beautiful country, with so fertile 
 a soil and so fine a climate, should be thus thinly peopled, 
 
MOLDAVIA. 
 
 167 
 
 being persuaded that it might nourish five or six times more 
 inhabitants than it at present contains, and Carra says, that there 
 is only one fortieth part of the arable soil in tillage. The 
 famished inhabitants of Switzerland might here find a refuge 
 without crossing the Atlantic ocean, and I am happy to learn 
 that the tide of emigration even at this time has begun to flow 
 down the Danube from the regions of the lake of Geneva. 
 The fertility of Moldavia is quite inexhaustible. The white 
 wines of the mountains are delicious ; the wheat is excellent, 
 and the season of harvest occurs as early as the month of 
 June. Here, as in Spain and Portugal, the wheats instead of 
 being thrashed by flails, are trodden out by horses, and are 
 deposited in caves instead of barns. Maize is much cultivated, 
 yields abundant crops, and it never disappoints the hopes of 
 the husbandman. Mamalika, a pottage made of its meal, forms 
 the principal food of the peasantry. Excepting the olive and 
 fig-tree, all fruit-trees common to England are found in abun- 
 dance, and melons and other cucurbitaceous fruits are produced 
 in great plenty. On breaking up the virgin soil, it is the com- 
 mon practice first to plant cabbages, and in the intervals to sow 
 pumpkins, which twining their large leaves over the ground, 
 choak the weeds, and prevent their flowering. The slopes of 
 the hills are covered with vines which produce wine in such 
 abundance that large quantities are exported into Russia and 
 Transylvania. The severity of the winters is turned to good 
 account both in the manufacture of wine and the management 
 of bees. The wine is exposed in immense butts to the open air 
 during the severe nights of December, and when its watery 
 particles have become frozen by the cold, they perforate the 
 cake of ice with a hot iron, and draw off the pure and vinous 
 
168 
 
 MOLDAVIA. 
 
 part highly concentrated.* After this process, the wine equals 
 that of Hungary in strength and flavour. With regard to their 
 bees, the intense colds of winter throw them into a state of 
 torpidity, during which they consume no honey, and as the 
 spring commences in April, and is shortly followed by the summer 
 heats, they awaken from their winter's trance, when the flowers 
 are already in full blow, and commence their labours anew. 
 The management of bees is well understood both in Hungary 
 and Moldavia, and the Austrian Government have not thought 
 it beneath their care to institute public lectures on this subject at 
 Vienna. There is no country in Europe where hares, partridges, 
 deer, and wild boars are found in such abundance. The peasants 
 of Moldavia and Wallachia track the hares in the snows, and 
 during the winter months, the number destroyed is estimated at 
 half a million annually. Thornton says, that the inhabitants of 
 the plains seldom attain to 70 years of age, and are even old at 
 60. It may be so, but instances of longevity are still common 
 amongst the mountaineers, and Prince Alexander told me he 
 knew many vigorous men amongst them above 110 and 120 
 years of age. Several were subsequently pointed out to myself 
 at Fockshani who had passed a century. Goitres I never ob- 
 served, but Thornton asserts that complaint to be common 
 amongst the deep and narrow valleys of the mountains. 
 
 After passing from the Hebrew and Sclavonic habitations of 
 Poland, the contrast afforded by the habits of a Greek palace 
 was as striking as it was agreeable. To say nothing of the supe- 
 riority of the repasts, the Oriental customs of the attendants 
 driving away the flies from the tables with large fans of peacock 
 feathers, and the Grecian handmaids entering after every meal 
 
 * Ovid alludes to this process of freezing wine. 
 
MOLDAVIA. 
 
 169 
 
 to pour rose water on the hands of the company, was equally novel 
 and amusing. But it was necessary to bid adieu to these Persian 
 luxuries, to excuse ourselves from the pressing importunities of 
 our hosts, and pursue our route to Galatz. We were furnished 
 with an order for gratuitous post-horses to the Danube, and a 
 Michmadar was sent to accompany us to the banks of that river 
 and see us safely embarked for Constantinople. The foppish 
 manners of the Grecian Petit-maitre who was commissioned to 
 this duty, displeased us, and we determined to leave him at the 
 foot of the mountains, which we reached about sun-set, and 
 hastened to ascend that evening in despite of all his eloquence 
 in dissuading us from the perils of the attempt. Having divest- 
 ed ourselves therefore of his importunities and his company at 
 the end of the first stage, we proceeded on our journey. After 
 ascending for six hours by a road carried straight forward over 
 these declivities, amongst gaps and frightful gullies, and the 
 gloomy recesses of the forests, we reached the end of our second 
 stage some hours after nightfall. The moon was then rising ; we 
 would willingly have proceeded, but the postillions and post- 
 master were so loud in proclaiming the hazards and inexpediency 
 of such a measure, descanting on the deepness of the gullies and 
 the fragility of the rotten bridge, that we deemed it prudent to 
 yield to their remonstrances, and await the break of day. The 
 log-house where we halted swarmed with mosquitoes and other 
 nameless and noisome insects, and the hard benches within 
 promised any thing but repose ; we therefore arranged our- 
 selves around the blazing fire in front of the hut, and with the 
 assistance of our cuisine ambulante indulged in the luxury of tea. 
 Afterwards with the assistance of leaves and wolves' skins, we 
 furnished out a Scythian bed, in which, if we did not sleep, we 
 
 z 
 
170 
 
 MOLDAVIA. 
 
 could at least indulge in contemplating the savage grandeur of 
 the surrounding objects. The bold lineaments of the Moldavian 
 foresters, enlivened by the bright glare of the wood fire around 
 which they squatted, the dark horrors of the surrounding forest 
 trees, the dashing of unseen torrents, and the howlings of the 
 distant wolves, with the pale gleams of the waning moon, 
 composed altogether a scene worthy of the pencil of Salvator 
 Rosa. 
 
 The dress and warlike aspect of the Moldavians is strikingly 
 picturesque, and remains nearly the same as when Hadrian led 
 their forefathers the Dacians, in triumph to the capitol of Rome, 
 and when the Roman artists chisseled the basso relievo, for the 
 pillar of Trajan. The colour of their cap distinguishes them 
 from the Wallachians, whose head dresses are black, while those 
 of the Moldavians are white. Their dialect is as bold and mas- 
 culine as their looks, composed of words chiefly Latin, but inter- 
 mixed with Turkish and Sclavonic. These they pronounce with 
 great strength and rapidity of utterance, enforcing their decla- 
 mation with rude gestures and grimaces. Living like the Tartars 
 as much on horseback as on foot, they inherit the strongest 
 affection for that admirable quadruped, talking, soothing, whist- 
 ling, or holloing to their horses by starts, during their long and 
 rapid journeys. The moment the postillions have vaulted on 
 their backs, they wave their long whips like slingers around 
 their heads, and giving a loud whoop, the animals set off at full 
 speed over hill and dale, through bog and mire, regardless of the 
 weakness of the carriage springs, the precipices on the sides of 
 the roads, or the lack of courage in the devoted traveller. " Ever 
 and anon" the postillions turn round their faces with a grin, as 
 if in quest of an applauding look, and again urge on their way 
 
MOLDAVIA. 171 
 
 with increased vigour. If one of their horses knocks up, they 
 turn him adrift from their long rope harness, and drive on with 
 the remainder, for one can be easily spared out of six or eight, 
 their common number. The discarded animal is left with his 
 two fore-legs fettered to prevent his straying, and on their return 
 they pick him up from the fields. On stopping they imitate the 
 Tartars in wringing the ears of their horses, in winter probably 
 to prevent their being frost-bitten, and in summer to ascertain 
 the vigour of the animal : when approaching the post stations, 
 those on the look out give the word, and two or three men 
 scamper off to the uplands, to collect the horses grazing on the 
 steppes, which they drive down with the smack of their whips, 
 like a pack of fox-hounds. The postmaster selects the requisite 
 number, and the rest are then permitted to scamper back in 
 liberty to their extensive pastures. 
 
 Our descent from the mountains to the plains on the south, 
 was much longer and more gradual, than our approach had been 
 from the valley on the north. The country was as rich and 
 fertile as that which we had before traversed, and was beautifully 
 diversified with forests, particularly on the banks of a river which 
 wound with great majesty on the right of our road. Schentki, 
 Vaslui, Birlat, and Pucen, were the names of the villages through 
 which we passed. Of these, Birlat, the most considerable, is 
 considered by D'Anville to be the ancient Palloda. It is a fine 
 hamlet, standing in the midst of a level by the banks of the 
 river Birlat ; and here, as well as at other Moldavian towns, we 
 saw two of the machines called " tips and downs," so common at 
 our country fairs, and never wanting at any of the villages in 
 the southern provinces of Russia. The antiquity of these ma- 
 
 z 2 
 
172 SCYTHIAN FUNERAL RITES. 
 
 chines is undisputed, and well illustrated by M. Guys in his 
 letters on Greece. 
 
 On a large plain some miles from Galatz, we crossed the re- 
 mains of a Roman causeway in good preservation, the same 
 mentioned by D'Anville, as having extended from the Siret, 
 near its confluence with the Danube, to the modern town of 
 Bender on the Dniester. About the same spot, we encountered 
 an immense collection of barrows or tumuli, the tombs of the 
 ancient Scythians, possibly the reliques of that army which was 
 opposed to the Persians, under Darius, son of Hystaspes. 
 These tumuli extended at long intervals for the space of nearly 
 three English miles. Herodotus has left us some interesting par- 
 ticulars respecting the funeral rites of the Scythians. The most 
 powerful nation was called the Basilides or royal tribe, and with- 
 in their territory was situated the principal burying ground to 
 which the dead bodies of the Chiefs of all the other tribes were 
 carried for interment. On the death of one of these warriors, 
 his body was embalmed with a certain aromatic composition, 
 similar to that used by the women, to refresh and beautify their 
 skins, probably composed of the balsams of Gilead or Mecca. 
 It was then placed upon a chariot accompanied by a concubine 
 and some slaves, who were destined to be put to death, and in- 
 terred in the tomb of their chieftain ; for the purpose, as they 
 conceived, of administering to all his wants in his new state of 
 existence ; believing as they did in a future state of metempsy- 
 chosis. With the same intent his favourite steeds, with his arms, 
 drinking cups, and cooking utensils, were added. As the* funeral 
 procession moved slowly along through the territories of the va- 
 rious tribes, the inhabitants came forth to receive it, testifying 
 
SERVIAN FUNERAL RITES. J 73 
 
 their grief by loud wailings, and by wounding themselves in the 
 face, and transfixing their left hands with arrows. On arriving 
 at the appointed place of sepulture, the corpse was deposited 
 upon the earth, and a tumulus was raised by heaping over it large 
 logs of wood, which were covered with masses of earth, of a co- 
 nical form, into which were stuck several upright javelins. The 
 horses and slaves were then strangled, their bowels extracted, 
 the cavities stuffed with hay and sewed up. The dead ani- 
 mals were next arranged in due form around the tomb, im- 
 paled in the attitudes of life, each with a dead human body 
 stuffed, and seated on its back in an erect posture. Numbers 
 of such tumuli, says the venerable historian, exist at a spot 
 between the rivers Gerrh and Boristhenes, beneath the cataracts 
 of the latter, where the river becomes again navigable for boats. 
 The reliques of this strange custom were found existing amongst 
 the Servians so lately as during the time of Busbequius's journey 
 into Turkey. 
 
 The Baron had an opportunity of seeing a Servian funeral 
 at a town called Jazodna, and has left us the following particulars : 
 " The dead body was placed in a temple, with the face unco- 
 vered ; near it were laid victuals, as bread, flesh, and a flaggon 
 of wine : the wife and daughter of the deceased stood by in their 
 best apparel ; the daughter's hat was made of peacocks' feathers. 
 The last boon that the wife bestowed on her dead husband was 
 a purple bonnet, such as noble virgins used to wear in that 
 country. Then we heard their funeral plaints, mourning, and 
 lamentations, wherein they asked the dead corpse, how they came 
 to deserve so ill at his hands ? Wherein had they been wanting 
 in their duty and obedience, that he had left them in such 
 a lone and disconsolate condition ? and such like queries." 
 
174 GALATZ. 
 
 " The priests that ministered in this service were of the Greek 
 Church. In the church-yard were erected on poles or long staves, 
 several representations of stags, hinds, and such like animals, cut 
 in wood ; when I asked them the reason of this strano-e custom, 
 they told me that their husbands or fathers did thereby signify the 
 celebrity or diligence of their wives or daughters, in managing 
 their household affairs. Moreover, by some sepulchres there 
 hung bushes of hair, which women, or maidens, had placed in 
 testimony of their grief for the loss of their relations." Those 
 who have seen an Irish or Highland funeral will discover the 
 traces of their Scythian manners in this passage. 
 
 On quitting this plain, a rapid descent brought us to the town 
 of Galatz, seated on the brink of the Danube. A Jew conducted 
 us to the house of the Governor, a ghastly old Turk, with a long 
 grey beard, shabbily equipped in a ragged silk pelisse. He was 
 seated on a divan smoking his tchibouque, and listening with 
 great sangfroid to the detail of differences between some Greek 
 and Turkish mariners, whose disputes he was settling. Having 
 delivered to him a letter from Prince Mourousi, he read it atten- 
 tively, and clapping his hands, a janissary entered, whom he dis- 
 patched in quest of a Greek Reis, whose vessel was about to sail 
 for Constantinople. The janissary soon returned, accompanied 
 by the Reis, and a bargain was speedily concluded, by the condi- 
 tions of which it was stipulated that he should sail with ballast 
 only, on the following day, and land us at Constantinople, the 
 Governor threatening him with the loss of his life if he departed 
 from the terms of this agreement. 
 
 We were then conducted to a Greek monastery, in which we 
 were lodged in a neat clean room without furniture, where we 
 were to pass the night. The window frames, instead of being 
 
GALATZ. 
 
 175 
 
 glazed, were covered with the membranoses, or air-bladders of 
 sturgeon taken from the Danube. 
 
 Galatz is a thriving little town, frequented chiefly by Greek 
 vessels which resort to it from the Bosphorus, and return laden 
 with the produce of Moldavia. Ships of considerable size are 
 also built here, but the wood which is used being worked up 
 before it has dried, shrinks ; and the seams opening, the ves- 
 sels founder : this is one among the many causes, why the shores 
 of the Euxine are so constantly covered with wrecks. 
 
 From the hill overhanging the town, we had a fine view of 
 the Danube, and the mountains of Hsemus, and even fancied we 
 could descry the white walls of Tomi, the place of banishment of 
 Ovid, the modern mame of which is Baba-dagh — the mountain- 
 capital. It lies about 45 miles S. S. E. of Galatz, and was 
 taken by a detachment of the Russian army under RomanzofF 
 in 1771. 
 
176 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Voyage down the Danube. — Isaxi. — Darius Hystaspes — and Milti- 
 ades. — Tulese. — Battle of Salices. — Island of Peuce. ■ — Bastarnce 
 Peucince. — Tunny fishery. — Istropolis. — Worship of the Dioscuri. 
 
 — Guardian Saints of St. Andero in Spain. — The Island of Leuce. — 
 Temple of Achilles. — Invasion of the Amazons. — Sanctity of Islands. 
 
 — Bizona. — Chiustenza. — Kavarna. — Balzachuk. — Agatopoli. — 
 Eneada. 
 
 After disposing of our carriages for about a fourth of their 
 value to a Jew dealer, we embarked next day and proceeded 
 down the river. The Reis, three Greek sailors and a boy formed 
 our crew. We soon passed the marshy banks at the mouth of the 
 Pruth, and then entered the southern branch of the Danube, and 
 towards nightfall anchored close to a small island covered with 
 reeds, bullrushes, and willows. Here the sailors landed, and 
 having made a fire, cooked our suppers. We then formed the 
 mainsail into an awning, and slept in our boat-cloaks and furs on 
 the planks of the deck. By day-break next morning we were 
 again under weigh. But there was no wind, the current was 
 slow, and we made but little progress. In about two hours we 
 came abreast of a small village called Isaxi, which lies on the 
 right bank of the river, with a ruined castle built on a ledge of 
 rocks, and having a small rocky islet on its front, covered like- 
 wise with a ruined tower much decayed, and of very antique 
 
G ALATZ. i * h, 
 
 architecture. This is the spot which in all ages has been 
 selected by invading armies for crossing the Ister. It was here 
 that Darius, son of Hystaspes, with the assistance of the Ionians 
 under Miltiades, threw a bridge across the river, and passed 
 over into the Scythian deserts at the head of 700,000 Persians. 
 It was here that in 1621 the Turks under Osman crossed the 
 Danube or Ister, for the purpose of invading Poland. At this 
 spot Baltaji-Mehemet, at the head of 150,000 Turks, passed 
 over in 1711, to attack Peter the Great of Russia, encamped on 
 the banks of the Pruth ; and here, lastly, in 1771, the Russian 
 troops under Weisseman and Romanzoff, entered the Romelian 
 territory. The name of Isaxi, signifying the work of an army, 
 denotes its origin. * The invasion of Darius is one of the most 
 celebrated events recorded in ancient history, and is noted by 
 Justin and Cornelius Nepos. It happened 513 years before the 
 birth of Christ, and has been related with some variations by 
 different writers. It would seem that he left Miltiades and the 
 Ionians to guard the bridge, and advanced in person with his 
 Persians in pursuit of the Scythians. With the Chief of the 
 Ionians he deposited, on his departure, a cord, having on it sixty 
 knots, one of which he ordered him to untie each day during 
 his absence, and promised to return before they were all un- 
 loosed ; but having been detained in the pursuit beyond the 
 period he had assigned for his stay, the winter overtook him in 
 the deserts, and the severity of the cold having frozen all the 
 streams and wells, his army perished from hunger and thirst, and 
 
 * Is, labour or workmanship. — Axi, power, strength, an army — Askicr, 
 armies — or Akah, death, a bier, a coffin. — Turkish — Is-is, god of labour — 
 Isis of Egypt. By travellers of yore this town is spelt Sacchi and Saxi. 
 
178 
 
 GAI.ATZ. 
 
 he lost in his retreat upwards of 70,000 men. According to some 
 authors, moreover, the Scythians had persuaded the Ionians to 
 abandon their trust, and Darius found on his return, that the bridge 
 had been destroyed. The morasses of Moldavia proved not less 
 fatal to the Turkish army under Osman in 1621 ; when, after 
 fruitlessly besieging Kaminia, a Polish fortress on the Dniester, 
 Osman retraced his steps with the loss of 80,000 men and 
 100,000 horses. 
 
 In 1711 the Russian Czar, Peter the Great, was almost as 
 unfortunate, for he permitted himself to be entangled amongst 
 the marshes of the Pruth, and surrounded by the army of 
 Baltagi, and after losing many thousands, and narrowly escap- 
 ing the entire loss of his army, returned almost by a mira- 
 cle, having abandoned all his conquests. The Russians, in 
 1771, after crossing the river, destroying Isaxi, and storm- 
 ing Baba-dagli * were again driven across the river, car- 
 rying with them the plague to Jassy and Moscow. So that 
 without enumerating the hordes of barbarians who perished at 
 various times during the decline of the Roman empire, at this 
 fatal nassage, the straits of Isaxi have perhaps witnessed as 
 great a destruction of the human race as any spot in the known 
 world. The difficulty of carrying an army through Moldavia 
 may be readily conceived by the single fact, that in 1736, Count 
 Munich commanding the Russians, found it necessary to employ 
 90,000 waggons to supply an army which never exceeded 80,000 
 men ; to cover which convoys, he was forced to march them in 
 
 * Baba-dagh — the ancient Tomi. Baba, capital ; — Dagh, a mountain 
 or stone. The Turkish army were encamped here three years. — See De Toll's 
 Mem. 
 
TULESE. 
 
 179 
 
 the centre of hollow squares, to keep off the Turkish horsemen. 
 The swampiness of the lower part of Moldavia is expressed by 
 both its appellations. Bess- Arabia meaning the watery Arabia, 
 and Tais-ia or Dacia the moist or watery territory, which names 
 any one on inspecting the map may perceive it is well entitled 
 to bear. 
 
 On passing Isaxi *, we were hailed from the shore by a Turk, 
 who ordered us to bring to, and permit him to come on board. 
 Instead of preparing to obey his orders, our crew skulking down 
 on deck, endeavoured to conceal themselves ; but on passing the 
 island we discovered that the Turk, having followed us in a canoe 
 alone, was paddling after us. My companion and I, therefore, 
 shouted to him, and warned him off, which, as he disregarded, 
 we presented the muzzles of two loaded rifles over the stern, a 
 language which he seemed to have no difficulty in compre- 
 hending ; for the old Cyclops (he had but one eye) immediately 
 put about his canoe, and paddled back to his den, spluttering 
 and cursing us for Christian dogs. This fellow, as well as we 
 could comprehend, wished to levy a contribution, to which he 
 had no other title than that of force, and our Reis seemed 
 delighted at having escaped, although he said he dreaded the 
 idea of returning soon to Galatz, for fear of his future revenge. 
 At a few miles lower down the Ister our crew landed at a Bulgarian 
 village, called Tulesef » for the purpose of purchasing goats' milk ; 
 but the inhabitants mistaking them for Turks, fled at their ap- 
 proach, and abandoned their houses, so that we were disappointed 
 in our object. 
 
 * Isaxi was burnt clown by the Russian army under Romanzoff. 
 f Tulese seems to have been a fortified position in the days of De Tott. — See 
 The Baron's Memoirs. 
 
180 TULESE. 
 
 It was near this village, probably, that the celebrated battle of 
 Salices happened, which, for a time, saved the Western Empire 
 from the barbarians. It occurred during the 377th year of the 
 Christian era, and so signal was the defeat of the Visigoths, that 
 for seven days afterwards they remained closely pent up in 
 their carrago of waggons, without venturing out to pick up 
 their wounded or dead, who were abandoned to the fowls of 
 the air. Ammianus relates, that many years afterwards he saw 
 their white and naked bones blanching in the sun on the field of 
 battle. The Ister at this point divides into seven streams, and its 
 banks, which are frequently overflowed, are from hence to the 
 Black Sea, a continued low dead flat, covered with willow, alder, 
 and tamarisk trees, intermingled with lofty reeds, sedges, and 
 bulrushes, at whose feet, close upon the margin of the stream, 
 we observed great multitudes of pelicans, swans, geese, ducks, 
 herons, storks, and other aquatic birds, sitting on their nests. 
 On the extreme point of low land, stretching into the Euxine, 
 we passed a fishing village (kiliastara), some of the inhabitants 
 of which hailed us from their boats, offering to sell us fish, and 
 from them we procured five large sturgeons for about three shil- 
 lings sterling. 
 
 These men, an industrious, but barbarous and filthy race, are 
 the descendants of the Bastarnce Peucince*, a horde of Teutonic 
 origin, who, during the reign of Probus, having been expelled from 
 the regions of the Bastarnic Alps, their ancient settlements, mi- 
 grated, to the number of one hundred thousand, towards the banks 
 of the Ister, and received permission to pass over and occupy the 
 Peuce, or Danubian Delta, where they built villages, and subsisted 
 
 * Bess, water — tarn, a clan. 
 
THE DIOSCURI. 281 
 
 upon the fisheries of tunny and sturgeon, which abound in the 
 lower Danube. In the Pence are frequently found various Greek 
 coins, amongst others, those of a city called Istros, or Istropolis, 
 which D'Anville thinks once occupied the site of Kara-Hirman, 
 " the black fortress," a place on the southernmost branch of the 
 Ister. On one side is represented a water-bird devouring a tunny 
 fish, the legend I£TPIH 'H* On the reverse are two human heads 
 turned in opposite directions, the meaning of which antiquaries 
 have ever been puzzled to determine. Isaac Vossius, in his notes 
 on Pomponius Mela, conjectured that they referred to the river 
 Danube, which was believed in ancient times to communicate 
 with two seas, the Euxine and the Adriatic. Begems thinks that 
 they referred to the local situation of the city placed between 
 Europe and Asia, but the most probable notion is, that they 
 represented the heads of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, whose 
 constellations were favourable to mariners, of which one rose in 
 the east, when the other was setting in the west. — 
 
 " Altcmantes per vicem, diem unum quidem apud patrem chanim 
 Jovem degunt, alteram autem sub latebris terrce." 
 
 Pindar. Nem. Od. x. 
 
 General Vallancey in his Collect, de Rebus Hibernicis, derives 
 the epithet Dioscuri from Di, God, and Oscar a voyager or tra- 
 veller ; and says that, at the city of Dioscurias on the Black Sea, 
 now called Isi-gour, in the country of Colchis, the rites of the 
 Cabiri were first established. There is no doubt that they were 
 the tutelary gods of navigation, and that their worship was 
 widely diffused over all the sea-ports of Europe, wherever the 
 Phenicians and Milesians had extended their commerce. A 
 
100 THE DIOSCURI. 
 
 182 
 
 very extraordinary proof of this fact, exists at this hour at the 
 port of St. Andero, in the north of Spain. In the earlier ages of 
 Christianity, the local Pagan deities were admitted into the Chris- 
 tian church, after receiving a new name, and being canonized as 
 saints. Thus Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri of St. Andero, were 
 received into the Catholic calendar under the names of Honorius 
 and Arcadius, and a legend was invented to tally with their new 
 appellations. According to it, the heads of these two noble 
 martyrs for the truth of Christianity, floated one afternoon into 
 the harbour of St. Andero in a boat of stone, and having reached 
 the shore, some fishermen took the heads out of the stone boat, 
 which having performed its divine mission, immediately sunk. 
 The bleedino- heads were deposited with due solemnity in the 
 Cathedral church, where they are kept to this hour under a 
 triple lock, the keys of which are in the custody of the Bishop, 
 Chapter, and Municipality of St. Andero. Once a year, in the 
 month of September, these two heads are taken out with much 
 pomp, and carried in procession round the city, attended by 
 the clergy, the magistracy, and all the inhabitants, as I had 
 myself an opportunity of witnessing in the autumn of 1812. 
 After the performance of these ceremonies, they were again 
 returned to the sacred niche in the cathedral. On the armorial 
 bearings of Santander, these heads are represented in the same 
 way as upon the coins of Istropolis. The mysteries of the 
 Dioscuri were performed in the night, and children of a cer- 
 tain age were sacrificed as a preservative against the dangers of 
 shipwreck. Even at this day, the belief in the efficacy of a 
 child's cawl carried to sea has not ceased, which is certainly a 
 relique of this Pagan worship. 
 
LEUCE. 
 
 183 
 
 A very extraordinary rippling is caused by the meeting of the 
 waters of the Danube with those of the Black Sea ; and as the 
 former are muddy and charged with whitish sediment, the 
 distinction between the two currents may be traced out many 
 miles from the shore. 
 
 The day was fine and the atmosphere remarkably clear, and 
 with our telescopes we had a very distinct view of the white cliffs 
 of the island of Leuce, lying to the north-east of our course, 
 about six miles. 
 
 This island, called also Macaron, or by the Turks Han Adasi, 
 the island of serpents, has been celebrated in classic lore as the 
 fabled abode of Achilles after his decease ; where, according to 
 poetic legends, he was united in marriage to Helena or Iphige- 
 nia, and enjoyed immortal happiness in company with his friends 
 Patroclus, the two Ajaxes, and Antilochus. The most mar- 
 vellous stories are to be found in ancient writers, respecting 
 Leuce, which was celebrated for containing the temple, statue, 
 and sepulchre of the hero of the Iliad. 
 
 The whole island is of small extent, uninhabited, and serving 
 only as a secure retreat to innumerable flocks of sea birds, swans, 
 pelicans, halcyons, wild geese, &c. Here, in certain valleys 
 destined by Jupiter for the reception of the souls of illustrious 
 men, who had dedicated their lives to the service and glory of 
 their country, an elysium was prepared where they were admit- 
 ted to eternal life in company with Achilles and his immortal 
 companions. To the sea-birds was committed the charge of the 
 temple, none flying past without alighting, while every morning 
 they were described as repairing to the sea, to dip their pinions 
 in the waves, and return to sweep the marble pavement with 
 
1 g4 LEUCE. 
 
 their moistened plumage. The interior recesses of this myste- 
 rious fane were filled and adorned with a profusion of votive 
 offerings and rich presents : — flagons, paterae, rings, garments, 
 armour, and precious stones were said to cover the columns, on 
 which were inscribed verses in praise of Achilles and Patro- 
 clus. Many voyagers repaired thither, expressly to worship 
 their shades, taking with them kids and goats, some of which were 
 offered in sacrifice, and others abandoned in freedom on the 
 island. As to the navigators of the Euxine, they never ap- 
 proached its shores without landing to visit the temple and offer 
 gifts. Achilles was said to appear at times in dreams to those 
 approaching the isle, directing them to the safest landing-place ; 
 and it was even affirmed that he had been seen attended by his 
 friend Patroclus, not during the visions of the night, but when 
 the parties were wide awake, and under the same form in which 
 the Dioscuri appear in all other parts of the ocean hoverinc over 
 the masts of the ship ; but with this difference only, that 
 Achilles and Patroclus were never seen except in the immediate 
 vicinity of Leuce. After landing, the votaries proceeded to 
 consult the oracle, and to learn whether the hero would deio-n 
 to accept the proffered sacrifice, and what price was to be paid 
 for the animal to be seized on the spot and offered to him. 
 The money was then spread before the altar, and additions were 
 still made to the offering, until the divinity appeared satisfied 
 with its amount. Then the animal presented itself spontaneously 
 for the sacrifice. Hence, there was always a large treasure lying 
 exposed in the temple, which no one ever had the impiety to 
 violate. Besides, the voyagers were always required to return 
 in the evenings on board their vessels, as no human being had 
 
LEUCE. 185 
 
 ever remained ashore on the island for a single night without 
 forfeiting his life. Such was the tale of wonders .related of this 
 remote island. Nor must we omit the fatal catastrophe which 
 befel the Amazons during the expedition undertaken by them 
 to pillage the temple. Some merchants belonging to a town on 
 the shores of the Euxine, having been shipwrecked at the 
 mouth of the Thermodon, fell into the power of the Amazons ; 
 who seized upon the strangers, bound them, and were about to 
 dispose of them as slaves to the Scythians. One of these young 
 men having requested and obtained an interview with the 
 Queen's sister, pointed out to her the immense booty which 
 might be easily obtained by making a descent on the island of 
 Achilles, and offered himself as a guide. The Amazons, al- 
 though it was contrary to their established customs to undertake 
 practical expeditions, did not hesitate to seize on so favourable 
 an opportunity of enriching themselves, and at the same time of 
 gratifying their hereditary vengeance against the memory of 
 a warrior who had so deeply injured their nation. The mer- 
 chants were employed to superintend the construction and 
 equipment of fifty galleys intended for their voyage, and with 
 this fleet they proceeded to the island of Leuce. On landing, 
 they were directed by the merchants to cut down the sacred 
 grove which surrounded the hero's temple. But no sooner had 
 they commenced this sacrilege, than the axe-heads quitted their 
 handles, and striking the bodies of their mistresses, laid them 
 dead on the spot. More enraged than astonished at this pro- 
 digy, the surviving Amazons rushed with fury towards the 
 temple itself* but scarcely had they approached the statue of 
 the hero, when they were struck dumb with unknown horror, 
 
 B B 
 
Jg5 SANCTITY OF ISLANDS. 
 
 and turning round with the fury of lionesses on their own com- 
 panions and guides, tore them in pieces with their nails and 
 teeth. Rushing thence with shrieks through the island, they 
 ravaged its valleys and recesses, and at length fled deliriously to 
 the shores, and precipitated themselves from the cliffs into the 
 sea. At the same time, a furious tempest arose which over- 
 whelmed the Amazonian fleet, and dashed it on the rocks. One 
 or two vessels only with a few wounded Amazons, escaped from 
 the fatal shore, and regained the port of Thermodon to tell the 
 afflicting tale, and communicate to their companions a know- 
 ledge of the disasters which had arisen from this impious 
 enterprise. 10 
 
 It is worthy of remark how prone the ancients were to con- 
 secrate remote and lonely islands to religious observances. At 
 the confines of the Western Ocean, in the Baltic, the North 
 Sea, the Mediterranean, the Euxine, the Indian Ocean, in 
 every sea, and upon every coast, we might point out islands 
 which have from the earliest ages been hallowed and set apart 
 for the worship of Pagan divinities ; and many of which on the 
 destruction of idolatry were occupied and set aside by the fathers 
 of the Christian church for abbeys and monasteries. Inde- 
 pendently of the facility of rendering them neutral territories, 
 and approaching them with ease by means of boats from the 
 adjacent coast, which in the infancy of human society were 
 conditions of no small moment to savage and hostile tribes, 
 there would seem to have been some other qualities common to 
 all insular situations, which adapted them more exclusively to 
 the celebration of divine mysteries, and the observances of hal- 
 lowed seclusion. Their circular shapes, their rugged approaches, 
 
SANCTITY OF ISLANDS. 287 
 
 their secluded situations ; the grandeur and immensity of their 
 surrounding perspective, the amenity of their natural features, 
 their abstraction from all the business and bustle of life, would 
 seem to point them out as the proper scenes for the contem- 
 plation of a power, isolated, self-existent, eternal, immutable, 
 invisible, almighty, and incomprehensible to the reach of human 
 powers and understanding. 
 
 Hence Samothrace, Delos, and Cyprus, in the Archipelago ", 
 Leuce in the Euxine, Hirta and Sky amongst the Hebrides, the 
 Isle of Rhe on the coast of France, Heligoland in the North Sea, 
 Rugen in the Baltic, and Elephanta near Bombay, besides various 
 others of lesser note*, appear from the earliest dawn of history, 
 to have been places of the greatest sanctity and veneration. 
 
 The coast stretches in a dead flat along the shore of the Black 
 Sea, from the southern mouth of the Ister, till it meets a pro- 
 montory extending from the grand chain of Mount Hsemus, 
 upon the extreme point of which stand some ruined arches, re- 
 sembling those of an aqueduct ; this spot answers to the situa- 
 tion ascribed by D'Anville to the ancient town of Bizonaf, swal- 
 lowed up by an earthquake. Between these ruins and the Sun- 
 nian branch is the fortress of Kara Hirman, and about ten miles 
 inland, on a promontory rising over a lake formed by the Da- 
 nube, is Babadagh, before mentioned, the ancient Tomi of Ovid 
 The ruins of Chiustenza, the ancient Constantina ; and Kavarna 
 and Balzachuk, spread at intervals along the shore. The 
 whole of this day we made but little progress, the winds being 
 
 * Pap'hos and Cnidus were both sacred to Venus, as 
 
 " O Venus regina Cnidi Paphique." — Hor. Lib. 1. Od. 30. 
 f Bizona — Biz, a point or promontory ; ona, a City : or riches — strength. 
 
 B B 2 
 
188 
 
 AGATOPOLI. 
 
 light and baffling. Next morning, (Monday, 16th September,) 
 the sun rose, coloured with the deepest crimson, the clouds were 
 collecting in gloomy masses along the horizon, and rolling in 
 awful majesty over the sides of the dark mountains of Thrace. Our 
 Greek mariners surveyed these appearances with great anxiety, 
 and with doleful looks predicted an approaching storm ; and the 
 Reis, altering his course, soon run us close in with the land, 
 where, on a rocky shore, we remarked a number of small wind- 
 mills, with sails of a singular form. Passing these we suddenly 
 entered a circular recess in the rock, which had all the appear- 
 ance of the crater of an extinct volcano. " Agatopoli," said the 
 Reis, pointing to a few wretched cottages huddled together along 
 the impending edge of the bason. " Agatapoli, Signores," re- 
 peated the crew, throwing a hawser on shore, which some Greek 
 fishermen quickly caught up and made fast to a rock. Our crew 
 lost no time in leaping ashore, and commencing the landing of 
 a quantity of wooden ware, bowls, jugs, pitchers, &c. which con- 
 trary to our agreement they had brought from Galatz, where 
 they are manufactured by the Moldavian Zinganies. After having 
 permitted them to land their wares, and surveyed in person the 
 misery of the town, we thought it but just to remonstrate against 
 this breach of covenant, and as the gale that had been predicted 
 did not seem to increase, we forced the captain and his crew to 
 unmoor and put to sea. However we had hardly quitted the 
 shelter of the shore, when the gale became so violent, that our 
 sailors who had been before only sulky, were seized with all the 
 agonies of despair, and throwing themselves on the quarter- 
 deck, before a picture of the Panagia, refused to obey the orders 
 of their chief or trim the latteen sails. Some of them bursting 
 
ENEADA. 189 
 
 into tears beseeched permission to run the ship into harbour. 
 The waves were rising rapidly and breaking short over the deck 
 in an unusual manner, and considering the weak construction of 
 the bark, the absence of hatchways, a loose, shifting, shingle 
 ballast, and the state of the crew, we thought it better to com- 
 ply with their wishes; and the captain putting the helm up, 
 soon run the bark into the roadstead of Eneada, where we 
 anchored abreast of a ruined tower, in about three fathoms 
 water. 
 
 As the harbour of Eneada affords the only safe anchorage be- 
 tween the Danube and the Bosphorus, on the European shore, for 
 vessels of any size distressed by a gale of wind, and as there is not 
 even a creek between it and the Bosphorus, we had ample reason 
 to thank Providence that we had followed the advice of the 
 sailors. The gale continued with increased violence for several 
 days, and before we left it upwards of thirty sail of kaiques, and 
 Turkish chekterweks were forced in by stress of weather. Dr. 
 Clarke, in the first volume of his Travels, has given so accurate 
 an account of this beautiful inlet, that I have only to bear wit- 
 ness to his great fidelity on this occasion, as on others. 
 
 When our crew had dined, I accompanied them on shore, my 
 companion, from a severe head-ach, being unable to join us. We 
 landed behind a large fragment of rock, which seems to have been 
 thrown down by some violent convulsion of nature from the 
 cliff above, adjoining to the ruined square tower. Here the 
 sailors filled their casks at a spring of excellent water, and we 
 then clambered to the uppermost of the two Turkish coffee- 
 houses, where we found some janissaries regaling with pipes 
 and coffee. The master of the house, a Turk, produced some 
 
190 
 
 ENEADA. 
 
 coffee, which, with difficulty I swallowed, as, besides being boiling 
 hot, it was both thick and muddy, and without sugar or milk. 
 While I attempted to sip this bitter cordial, a Turkish barber 
 was showing his address in trimming the chins of the boats' 
 crew. This operator was, I suspect, the identical " Mungo here, 
 Mungo there," whom Dr. Clarke had seen five years before. — He 
 was dressed in a striped cotton waistcoat and apron, and his head- 
 dress consisted of a Turkish calpac, which served to display the 
 singular features of a very grotesque physiognomy. 
 
 While this was passing on the steps before the coffee-house, 
 several janissaries arrived from the beach, with some zinganies, 
 who, to the sound of a three-stringed balalaika, commenced 
 dancing for their amusement. The beach below was occupied 
 by Turkish boats, loading with charcoal, and every thing seemed 
 much in the same state in which Dr. C. described it to be at the 
 time of his visit. 
 
 The following day some of the boat's crew set off to a village 
 about eight miles distant, to procure milk and fruit. They were 
 absent eight hours, and returned in the evening, bringing back 
 bread, buffalo-milk, water-melons, and grapes. We had intended 
 to accompany them, but the Greek Reis dissuaded us, on account 
 of the hatred which these mountaineers bear to Franks. He 
 hinted some other traits in their character, in consequence of 
 which we determined to remain by the ship, and explore the 
 shore. Towards the point the rocks presented the appearances 
 mentioned by Dr. Clarke, of basaltic columns decomposing ; we 
 also remarked the columns under water, and saw some traces of 
 a ruined mole. Connecting these circumstances with the name 
 of the place, and with a passage in Virgil, I am inclined to think 
 
ENEADA. 
 
 191 
 
 that this is the identical place upon which iEneas founded his first 
 city after flying from the ruins of Troy. 
 
 " Terra procul vastis colitur Mavortia campis, 
 Thraces want, acri quondam regnata Lycurgo ; 
 Hospitium antiquum Trojcc, sociique Penates, 
 Dtim Fortunafuit. Feror hue, et littore curvo 
 Mcenia prima loco, fatis ingressus iniquis •, 
 JEncad&sque meo nomen de nomine Jingo" 
 
 From this settlement he was driven by some dreadful prodi- 
 gies connected with a sacrifice to Jupiter, and the savage disposi- 
 tion of his surrounding neighbours. But the circumstances which 
 really occasioned his removal might have been the repeated 
 shocks of earthquakes which ruined his infant establishment. 
 Geographers have concurred in fixing on a town called JEnos, 
 at the mouth of the Hebrus, a situation not very probable, on 
 account of its vicinity to the enemies of the Trojan name. Is it 
 hot more likely that on the sacking of Troy, the survivors would 
 have taken refuge amongst their neighbours and allies the Ama- 
 zons, who inhabited the coast of Bithynia, upon the Euxine, and 
 with their assistance, might they not have transported themselves 
 to Eneada, a place so far removed from the attacks of the Greeks, 
 and which was besides recommended by ancient alliances and 
 early attachments ? Virgil states that it was in a distant country, 
 which expression would hardly apply to iEnos, a town so near the 
 mouth of the Hellespont. The conjecture here stated, seems 
 strengthened by the name of the adjacent town of Agatopoli ; 
 which may be a corruption of Achato-polis, the city of Achates, 
 the trusty friend of the hero of the iEneid. D'Anville, it is true, 
 derives Eneada from Thynnias, one of the cities of Appollonia, 
 
192 
 
 DOMUSDERE. 
 
 and Agatopoli may be a corruption of Agatho-polis ; still the 
 first conjecture seems to have much probability to support it. ,a 
 
 On the fourth morning, the gale having subsided, we weighed 
 anchor and sailed from Eneada, with a fair breeze and beautiful 
 weather. The sailors forming themselves in a circle, reposed on 
 the deck, and sung Greek airs. The Reis, a handsome middle 
 aged man managed the helm, seated by the tiller, which was 
 adorned with gilding and hung with rows of coloured glass 
 beads, completely illustrative of the situation of the luckless 
 Palinurus, the steersman of iEneas, who, when thus seated on 
 the lofty poop, was overtaken by sleep, and fell into the sea, 
 carrying the broken tiller in his hand, into the fatal domains of 
 Neptune : 
 
 " Ipse gubemator puppi Palinurus ab altd," SfC. 
 
 The whole passage is one of the most beautiful in the iEneid, 
 and the concluding lines extremely pathetic, 
 
 u O nimium ccelo ei pelagu confine serenu, 
 Nudus in ignotd, Palinure, jacebis arena .'" 
 
 Towards sun-set we came in sight of the village of Domusdere, 
 and the chasm in the mountains through which the waters of the 
 Euxine have forced themselves " the enchanted passage." So 
 high and perpendicular are the rocks on each side, and so com- 
 pletely do these mountains fold into each other, that we were 
 very near the shore before we could perceive the recess. A 
 Turkish village and fort called Ushumeri first showed their white 
 walls along the beach, and soon after, as the sun and wind went 
 down we found ourselves wafted by the mighty current under the 
 tower of the European light-house, Fanaraki. Before we had 
 reached the castles of De Tott, the short twilight had almost dis- 
 
n5 
 
 . 
 
 i 
 
 V 
 
TERAPIA. 
 
 193 
 
 appeared. From along the shores on either hand we heard the 
 hoarse voices of Turkish mariners shouting to their companions ; 
 the echoes repeated the sounds from cliff to cliff, but the be- 
 ings who uttered them were veiled beneath the shadows of the 
 precipices which impended over the Bosphorus' 3 ; then as we 
 came abreast of the castles, we were hailed by the centinels from 
 the Asiatic shore ; but on declaring ourselves, were permitted to 
 proceed. Presently, the lights of the village of Buyukdere 
 flashed upon the eye, and danced in long reflected rays, from 
 the surface of the rippling current, which was bearing us in 
 silence at the rate of several miles an hour*, amidst a fleet of 
 fishing boats, each carrying a light in the prow, by the assistance 
 of which, the fishermen were spearing tunnies, according to 
 the ancient Greek manner, alluded to by Oppian in his 
 Cynegetics. 
 
 " Qiiemadmodum vero pisces per noctem dolosi piscatores 
 Ad bolum impellunt, velocibus scaphis ferentes 
 Lucidas faces : trepidant verb conspicati 
 Pisces ; neque sustinent agitatam Jlammam." 
 
 Opp. Cyneg. Lib. 4. 
 
 Our voyage was terminated on finding ourselves alongside of 
 the quay at the village of Terapia, where we joyfully leapt 
 ashore. 
 
 Those, and perhaps those only, who have traversed uncivi- 
 lised regions and unfrequented seas, amidst storms, inquietudes, 
 and numberless discomforts, can judge of the feelings of travel- 
 lers, on finding themselves again hailed by the voices of country- 
 men, and greeted with the language of welcome and hospitality. 
 
 * The Turks called the Bosphorus, Cheiian Akendissi, or the Devil's Stream — 
 " the enchanted current." 
 
 c c 
 
194 
 
 TERAPIA. 
 
 It is then that the words of Catullus will rush upon our memory, 
 and that we are tempted to exclaim, with that illustrious Roman 
 traveller — * 
 
 " O quod soiutis est beatius curis 
 
 Quando mens onus reponit, ac peregrino 
 Lahore fessi venimus larem ad nostram 
 Desideratoque requiescimus lecto." 
 
 Cat. Carm. xxx. 
 
 * Catullus travelled through Asia Minor, and resided for some time at Nicea. 
 
195 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Terapia — its beautiful situation. — Classical associations — with the events 
 of the Argonautic expedition. — Altar of Phryxus. — Tomb of Amycus. 
 — Temple of Jupiter Urius. — Darius Hystaspes. — Gardens of SuU 
 tani-Baktclii. — Turkish apathy. — Illness of the Sultana Valide. — 
 Author's visit to the Sultana. — Turkish superstition and ignorance. — 
 Death of the Sultana. — Her last interview with her so?i. — Her cha- 
 racter. 
 
 The situation of Terapia rivals in sublimity all that the mind of 
 man can well conceive. Built on a little rocky promontory 
 overhanging the " enchanted current" of the Bosphorus, sur- 
 rounded by mountains as rich and beautiful in their natural 
 features, as they are interesting from their classical associations, 
 under a climate which, for at least nine months in the year, is 
 perfectly delicious, what spot on earth could the Greeks have 
 more aptly denominated " Healing." 
 
 Not a rock or precipice, not a grove or ruined temple, but 
 recalls the recollection of some hero of antiquity, chaunted by 
 the poet, or celebrated by the historian. There tradition had 
 placed the palace of King Phineas ; the summit of that moun- 
 tain was occupied by the temple of Jupiter Urius ; along that 
 silver current did the intrepid Argonauts pass, to encounter the 
 terrors of an unknown and inhospitable element ; on that pro- 
 montory did Phryxus offer sacrifice to the Gods ; here Medea 
 
 c c 2 
 
196 
 
 TERAPIA. 
 
 uttered her incantations : from yonder pinnacle the ambitious 
 Darius Hystaspes first contemplated the savage coast of Thrace, 
 and the mazes of the Cyanean rocks ; beneath yonder grove 
 reposed the giant limbs of Amycus, king of Bithynia, " the 
 Og of Bashan" in Grecian poetry : — Alas ! the tomb has closed 
 alike over the recorders and the recorded. — The boldest of 
 navigators, the prince of poets, the first of healers, and the most 
 learned of enchanters, have for ages mouldered into dust: 
 Scythians and Amazons, Trojans and Parthians, " lost in the 
 gloom of years" have passed away, and their names alone 
 survive, to excite the admiration or the scepticism of mankind. 
 Hordes of illiterate barbarians from the frozen regions of Cau- 
 casus have occupied this scene of enchantment, and we, the 
 pilgrims of a remote island, unknown to Apollonius, Homer, 
 Hesiod, or Orpheus, repair to contemplate those superb coun- 
 tries, which their verses have consecrated to immortality. Such 
 was the crowd of reflections excited in my mind by the morning 
 view, which burst upon my sight, from the windows of my bed~ 
 chamber in the Ambassador's palace ; I was lost in wonder 
 and delight — a thousand emotions, till then unknown, were 
 awakened, and that sublime passage rushed forcibly on my mind : 
 
 " How poor ! how rich ! how abject ! how august ! 
 How complicate ! how wonderful is man ! 
 How passing wonder he who made him such, 
 Who centered in our make such strange extremes, 
 From different natures marvellously mixt, 
 Connexion exquisite of distant worlds ! " 
 
 The book of Petrus Gyllius on the Thracian Bosphorus, will 
 be found the best guide in exploring the surrounding scenery. 
 That valley which was the retreat of Amycus, is now occupied 
 
TERAPIA. 
 
 197 
 
 by the gardens of Soultani-Baktchi, a palace built by Sultan 
 Selim the First, but which, like those of so many of the Otto- 
 man princes, is now in ruins. A murmuring brook winds 
 through this beautiful glade, and an English renegado, named 
 Selim Effendi, was engaged in constructing a paper mill on its 
 banks, by order of the reigning Sultan. The approach to this 
 retreat, is by a fine quay of massy architecture, which has pro- 
 cured from the French the appellation of Vechelle du Grand 
 Seigneur. Hither the ladies of the seraglio and the adjoining 
 villages repair during the heats of summer, to enjoy the music 
 of the groves, or listen to the voices of their slaves, accompanied 
 by the sounds of guitars. Frequently at the time of our visits, 
 have we found them in groupes reposing under the shadows of 
 the magnificent chesnuts and Oriental plane trees. To my 
 imagination this spot " the nymphaeum of the maddening 
 laurel," seemed to realise all the ideas of sylvan magnificence, 
 conveyed by the superb landscapes of Annibal Caracci, and 
 Nicholas Poussin. Here was the same gigantic grandeur in the 
 boles and branches of the trees, the same depth of verdure in 
 the foliage, and intensity of the receding shadows, while the 
 patriarchal costume of the bearded Turks supplied, not very ina- 
 dequately, the groupes which these painters have transmitted to 
 us, of Orpheus, and Eurydice, Phocion, and Demosthenes, Cicero 
 or Pericles. 
 
 Travellers have repeatedly noticed the superstitious reverence 
 in which the Mussulmans hold the groves of their ancestors. The 
 sylvan deities, as with the ancient Indians and Scytho-Indians, 
 are still contemplated with awe, and it is held sacrilegious to cut 
 down trees planted in their cemeteries or gardens. Thus, while 
 the palaces and kiosks of their departed monarchs are permitted 
 
198 
 
 TERAPIA. 
 
 to crumble into dust, the trees which they had * planted, are 
 protected by religion ; and improving in beauty during the 
 silent lapse of centuries, are permitted to wave in peaceful 
 grandeur over their neglected haunts, and veil the ruins of 
 magnificent fountains and pavilions. The slumbering Turk 
 smokes tranquilly at their feet, or laves himself in the spring at 
 the accustomed hour of prayer, and contents himself with pro- 
 claiming the unity of the Deity, and the divine legation of Ma- 
 homet, calmly awaiting, amidst the dilapidated monuments of 
 human art, or the countless sepulchres of departed generations, 
 the moment when his spirit also shall be called upon to quit 
 this terrestrial scene, and enter the abodes prepared for the 
 enjoyment of true believers. 
 
 Still, fatalism and apathy have their limits,, and the proud 
 infidel, in the hour of sickness, does not disdain to invoke the 
 assistance of the Giaour to delay the approach of death. Of this 
 I had a memorable instance within a few days after my arrival 
 at Terapia, when, very unexpectedly, I received a message from 
 the Emperor Selim the Third, to visit his mother the Sultana 
 Valide. Mr. Pisani, the senior Dragoman, was the bearer of 
 this request, and the following morning I set off by water for 
 the seraglio, accompanied by one of the junior Dragomans. We 
 were put ashore at a quay near Baktchi Capoussi, where we 
 found a Bostanji in waiting, to conduct us to the house of the 
 principal Court Physician, who lived in a narrow street adjoin- 
 ing the wall of the seraglio. On arriving there, we were 
 informed that he had already gone to see his patient, having left 
 instructions that we should follow him, which we did, entering 
 the gardens by the little white gate (Tauke Chesme Capoussi) near 
 the chapel of St. Irene. We passed a guard-house of Bostanjies 
 
TERAPIA. 
 
 199 
 
 on our left, and then proceeded under an avenue of lofty 
 cypress trees, towards a second guard-house, whence we were 
 conducted to a detached pavilion, in which we found the Hekim 
 Basha, or Turkish physician, Mahmoud EfFendi, a Greek physi- 
 cian, named Polychronon, the Kislar Agassi, a hideous Ethiopian, 
 the chief of the black eunuchs ; the Hazni Vekili, also a black 
 eunuch, keeper of the privy purse, and some dervises and 
 muftis. After being introduced, and going through the usual 
 routine of pipes, coffee, sherbet, and sweetmeats, Polychronon 
 conversing in Latin, entered into a detailed statement of the 
 malady with which the Sultana was afflicted, namely, an inve- 
 terate quartan ague, of upwards of eighteen months' standing. 
 From this she had recovered more than once, but had relapsed as 
 often, owing, in part, to her own want of due caution, and to the 
 officious interference of a set of muftis who beset her, and forced 
 upon her large draughts of iced water, in which they immersed 
 talismans, assuring her that they would establish her convales- 
 cence ; but on the contrary, these draughts invariably brought 
 back the cold fits of her ague. 14 Upon the last relapse, some 
 days before I saw her, she had, during the cold paroxysm, been 
 suddenly bereft, in her lower extremities, of all power of motion 
 and sense of feeling ; and it was upon this point, and some others 
 also, that my opinion was requested. Indeed I was to decide, as I 
 found, between three of her physicans, who called themselves Boer- 
 haavians, and four others, who professed themselves strict Brown- 
 onians, as to the expediency of prescribing a cathartic medicine, 
 the former pressing the absolute necessity of such a remedy after 
 five days' constipation, and the latter most foolishly declaring it 
 to be perfectly inadmissible, according to their interpretation of 
 the doctrine of Brown. This being premised, we all accom- 
 
200 
 
 TE It API A. 
 
 panied the Kislar Agassi to an adjoining kiosk, in which was 
 the Sultana. After exchanging my shoes at the door for a pair 
 of yellow slippers, papouches, we entered the royal apartments. 
 On a mattrass, or minder, in the middle of the floor, was ex- 
 tended a figure covered with a silk quilting, or Macat, richly 
 embroidered. A female figure veiled was kneeling at the side 
 of her pillows, with her back towards the door of entrance, 
 and the Kislar Agassi beckoned to me to kneel down by her 
 side, and examine the pulse of the Sultana. Having complied 
 with this request, 1 expressed a wish to see her tongue and 
 countenance, but that, I was given to understand, could not be 
 permitted, as I must obtain that information from the report of 
 the chief physician. The most profound silence was observed in 
 the apartment, the eunuchs and physicians conversing only by 
 signs. The Hazni Vekili then took me by the arm, and turned 
 me gently round, with my face towards the door of entrance, over 
 which was a gilded lattice, concealing the Emperor Selim, who 
 had placed himself there to witness the visit. Our stay in the 
 room did not exceed fifteen or twenty minutes. The four large 
 windows were shaded externally by gilded lattices, and the inter- 
 vening pannels were covered with mirrors and arabesque tape- 
 stry. The divan, which encircled the chamber, was veiled with 
 crimson cloth, richly embroidered with gold, surrounded with 
 cushions of the same description, and the floor was covered with 
 a superb Persian carpet. 
 
 On our return to the first pavilion, I, of course, coincided with 
 the Boerhaavians, and wrote a prescription to that effect. In- 
 deed, had she been a princess of any other European court, it is 
 probable that a large bleeding would have been decided upon j 
 but from the ignorance and prejudices of her attendants, I found 
 
TERAPIA. 
 
 201 
 
 it impossible to convince them of its necessity, and on consi- 
 dering that the mistakes, real or imaginary, of the Turkish court 
 physicians are frequently visited by the bow-string, I had but little 
 inclination to bring the lives of my colleagues into farther jeo- 
 pardy. The Hekim-Bachi and Hazni VeLili therefore carried my 
 prescription and interpreted it to the Sultan, who, in return sent 
 back a complimentary message, and a purse containing one hun- 
 dred and fifty sequins. The bloated Kislar Agassi next detained us 
 in conversation some time. With his squeaking voice he detailed 
 his own hypochondriacal ailments, and beguiled his ennui by 
 stretching out his wrist, whilst I was fruitlessly endeavouring to 
 feel the stagnant current of his radial artery, which, by a singular 
 lusus natures, did not reach the usual place, but divided into two 
 branches about the middle of the fore-arm. In the left wrist, 
 however, the pulse was manifest. 
 
 During my conversation with Polychronon, my ear was fre- 
 quently struck with the words " imperator noster." Seated amidst 
 mutes and eunuchs, in the very palace of Constantine, conferring 
 in the Roman tongue with a Greek of the city of Athens, on the 
 health of the Helena of the day, a thousand strange associations 
 rushed forcibly on my mind. Then the horned turban of the 
 Kislar Agassi suggested the recollection of the departed dynasty of 
 Egypt, and I, another stranger, seemed like the son of Abraham, 
 conversing with the butler and baker of Pharaoh, interpreting their 
 dreams. The Sultana who was the subject of our conference, only 
 survived eight days, being then in her seventy-second year. Her 
 corpse was deposited the same day with much pomp, in a Turbi, or 
 sepulchral chapel, which she had had constructed for herself, near 
 the " sweet waters." The affrighted Archiater, Mahmoud EfTendi, 
 after passing two days in great alarm, lest the Sultan should send 
 
 D D 
 
202 
 
 TERAPIA. 
 
 a mute with a bowstring, was agreeably relieved by a kind mes- 
 sage from Selim, the most humane of the Ottoman Princes. On 
 throwing himself at his master's feet, Selim raised him from the 
 ground, assuring him of a continuance of his favour and esteem ; 
 being convinced, as he said, that every effort had been used to 
 prolong his mother's days, but that the Almighty had numbered 
 them, and that the dispensations of divine mercy must be received 
 without repining. 
 
 This Archiater, a man about thirty years of age, and of an 
 excellent physiognomy, had been educated at Vienna in the 
 school of Van Swieten, and the doctrines of Boerhaave. He had 
 acquired much reputation and great riches, from having cured 
 the Sultana Valide about twelve months before, on her first 
 attack. For, according to Turkish etiquette, on such occasions 
 all the grand officers of the seraglio present the Hakim Basha 
 with rich presents ; and in this instance, those gifts, joined to the 
 donation of a handsome palace on the banks of the Bosphorus, 
 from the Sultan himself, did not amount to a less sum than 
 twenty thousand pounds sterling ; but the ill-directed super- 
 stition of the Mufti undid all that Mahmoud's skill had effected, 
 and eventually deprived the Sultan of his best adviser and 
 friend. The conduct of Selim towards another Turk on this 
 melancholy event, was humane and worthy of notice. This was 
 Yusuf Aga, the favourite and attendant of Valide, a man who 
 had amassed immense wealth under her protection, which he 
 had abused on many occasions, and created himself a host of 
 enemies. When the Sultana felt herself dying, she sent for her 
 son, and making him kneel down by the side of her couch, she 
 with tears implored his forbearance and future protection in 
 behalf of her favourite. It is said that she even required the 
 
TERAPIA. 
 
 203 
 
 Sultan to repeat an oath after her, that he never would injure a 
 hair of Yusuf's head, and that if he failed in mercy towards 
 him, or neglected his advice, he prayed Allah that every drop 
 of milk which he had sucked from her breasts, might prove as 
 poison within his veins. The Sultana then kissed her son, and 
 soon afterwards expired. This maternal denunciation, the most 
 tremendous to a Turk that can be imagined, was duly remem- 
 bered by Selim, who did not confiscate a single piastre of the 
 many millions that Yusuf had amassed. About twelve months 
 afterwards, Yusuf was sent into Asia as governor of Erzerum — 
 and Selim fell into the snares of his enemies Mousa Pacha the 
 crafty Kaimakan ; the affair of the Dardanelles and the revolt of 
 the Janissaries succeeded ; Selim was betrayed into the power 
 of his enemies and deposed. The maternal denunciation was in 
 a manner fulfilled by the violent death of Selim. The Sultana 
 had been a woman of great beauty, and strong natural talents, 
 fond of the English nation, and averse to the dark intrigues of 
 the French and Russian factions. During her whole life-time, 
 she had, in conjunction with her favourite Yusuf, contrived to 
 direct her son, and manage all the affairs of the empire. Her 
 maternal affection for Selim was so strong, that, when the 
 French army treacherously seized upon Egypt, she kept the 
 secret confined to her own bosom rather than permit its commu- 
 nication to distress the Sultan, to whom, being of a very ner- 
 vous temperament, the smallest trifle was sufficient to cause 
 agitation and alarm. In return, Selim bore his mother no 
 common degree of filial affection, he felt her loss severely, 
 and time alone enabled him to regain the usual serenity of his 
 
 mind. ' s 
 
 d d 2 
 
204 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Fishery of the Pelamydes, on the Thracian Bosphorus. — Quotation 
 from the Halieutics of Oppian. 
 
 Some few mornings after my arrival at Terapia, we experienced 
 two smart shocks of an earthquake, which however did no other 
 damage than throwing down some tiles from the roofs of the 
 houses. This concussion was succeeded by a strong hurricane 
 from the north, and a fall of snow, which was melted in a few 
 hours. The wind continuing for two or three days from the 
 north, we were surprised at beholding a singular rippling ap- 
 pearance in the midst of the waters of the Bosphorus, forming 
 a dark serpentine line about a mile and a half in length. 
 Over and all around this rippling were assembled a prodigious 
 concourse of aquatic fowls, swans, cormorants, pelicans, pen- 
 guins, solan geese, ducks, quails, divers, &c. which shrieked 
 in hoarse concert as they dived upon the myriads of pelamydes 
 (for such they were), which floated down in mid-channel. 
 While we were beholding this singular phenomenon from the 
 windows of the palace, the boats from Constantinople and the 
 adjoining villages began to arrive, and then commenced that 
 ancient fishery which has been so much celebrated in the golden 
 verses of Oppian. 
 
 " The savage -minded Tunny's youthful broods 
 Receive their oval birth in Euxine floods. 
 
PELAMYDES FISHERY- 
 
 Where through its streights the dead Meotic frees 
 The sullen wave dismist to sprightlier seas, 
 The tunnies, conscious of approaching throes, 
 Haste to the weeds, and court the soft repose. 
 The parents, nature's oldest law transgress, 
 Devour the spawn, and praise the self-born mess. 
 Part in the sedge's blind protection lies 
 Swells into life, and future broods supplies. 
 When bursting from their eggs they first begin 
 To curl the floods, and stretch th' unpractised fin, 
 To foreign seas the wanton younglings roam 
 And travel infants from their native home. 
 A spacious bay recurves the Thracian coasts, 
 The Black its name, diffusive Neptune boasts 
 No deeper seas in all his fluid reign, 
 Eternal calm serenes the peaceful plain. 
 Below no ravenous monsters chase their prey, 
 The surface smiles all innocent and gay. 
 Delightsome caves indent the shores around 
 With humid slime and sea-green herbage crown'd, 
 With kindly warmth productive of the food 
 That suits the stomachs of the tender brood. 
 Hither the Tunny's infant shoals repair, 
 Evade the frosts and mock the wintry year. 
 Nojish more dreads the cold ; with piercing blight 
 The pungent particles annoy their sight. 
 Imbosom'd thus within the calm retreat 
 They wait the slow return of vernal heat. 
 Love and the spring arrive ; the genial bloom 
 Inspires the wish, and fills the teeming womb. 
 Thence all returning to their native seas 
 In beds of ooze their ripened spawn release. 
 The Thracians launching on the gloomy bay, 
 Drag from their wintry beds the lurking prey : 
 A new machinery of death descends, &c. 
 
 But gentler arts ensnare the youthful train, 
 Entangled in the thready-bosomed seine, 
 
 205 
 
qqq PELAMYDES FISHERY. 
 
 When gloomy night obscures the frowning deep, 
 In oozy beds the scaly nations sleep; 
 All but the tunny's brood : with wakeful care, 
 Each sound they dread, and every motion fear; 
 Start from their caverns and assist the snare. 
 The silent fishers in the calm profound, 
 With circling nets, a spacious plot surround ; 
 Whilst others in the 'midst, with flatted oars, 
 The wavy surface lash. — Old ocean roars, 
 Murm'ring with frothy rage, beneath the blow, 
 And trembles to remotest depths below : 
 The dreadful din alarms the tim'rous fry, 
 They fondly to the nets' protection fly. 
 Fools ! from unbodied sounds to death to run, 
 And flying, but o'ertake the death they shun ! 
 But when returning seines the shores ascend, 
 And from the struggling ropes the fishers bend, 
 Imprudent fears the trembling shock begets, 
 Closer they press, and hug the treacherous nets. 
 But let the swain invoke, with ardent prayer, 
 The Gods, that make the watery sports their care, 
 That nothing fright the once imprison'd prey, 
 That none escapes, and shows his mates the way; 
 If second fears the timorous captives chace, 
 With sudden flight they leave the net's embrace ; 
 Dart o'er the line, enlarged seas regain, 
 And frustrate all the labours of the swain ; 
 Unless some god a just resentment owes, 
 For slighted temples, or neglected vows, 
 Contented in the thready chains they'll lie, 
 Mount to the shore, nor once attempt to fly." 
 
 See Jones's Translation of OrriAN's Halieutics, (Oxford, 1722.) Book 4th. 
 
 The reader will, it is hoped, pardon the length of this 
 extract, in consideration of the truth and beauty of the descrip- 
 tion, and the scarcity of the English translation. But to return. 
 
PELAMYDES FISHERY. 
 
 207 
 
 This shoal proved only the advanced guard of the grand army 
 of pelamydes, which were coming down from the Palus Meotis, 
 terrified by the first approach of the bleak northern blasts and 
 equinoctial gales. 
 
 Before mid-day, some hundred boats having arrived, the num- 
 bers of fish captured were prodigious. These boats were navi- 
 gated by Turks, Albanians, and Greeks, habited in the diversified 
 and richly coloured costume of their respective nations, throwing 
 their seines, and pulling against the rapid current, bawling, 
 shouting, and wrangling for the prize, which they were even 
 forced to contest with the fowls of the air, who intrepidly de- 
 scended to seize the fish when struggling amidst the meshes of 
 their nets. They gave a life and animation to the picture, which, 
 surrounded by the sublime scenery of the Bosphorus, constituted, 
 as a whole, one of the most superb and impressive spectacles 
 I had ever beheld. This occupation continued, without ceasing, 
 day and night, till the fourth morning, when the last of the shoal 
 passed Terapia. 
 
 Pelamys is the term given by the ancients to the young 
 tunny, when under a year old. The tunny is the same with the 
 Spanish mackerel, a large fish of the scomber kind, the scom- 
 ber thynnus of Linnaeus, the arcynus limosa, and pelamys of 
 other writers. It has eight or nine fins in the hinder part of the 
 back, which, as well as the abdominal fins, rise from a deep fur- 
 row. The tail is of a semilunar shape. 
 
 The tunny was a fish well known and highly prized by the 
 ancients, having constituted from the earliest ages a great source 
 of riches and commerce to the nations inhabiting the shores of 
 the Mediterranean, and, in fact, being the principal food of the 
 people of Bithynia, to whom it appears to have given an appel- 
 
208 PELAMYDES FISHERY. 
 
 lation, as the nation that lived on tunny ( Bios, vita : — biithynni). 
 The periods of its arrival in the Mediterranean sea were 
 observed, and stations for taking the fish were established on 
 the capes and inlets most favourable to that occupation. They 
 are still caught in large quantities on the coasts of Spain, France, 
 and Sicily, and sometimes, but rarely, and in small numbers, 
 they are found in the bays of the western coast of Scotland, 
 whither they are attracted by the shoals of herrings which form 
 their natural prey. When cut into pieces, the flesh of the tunny 
 being red has the appearance of raw beef, but becomes paler on 
 being boiled, and has then the resemblance, and somewhat the 
 flavour of salmon. Sometimes they attain to a very great size, 
 even seven or eight feet in length ; and they have been found 
 to weigh as much as 450 pounds avoirdupois. The body is 
 thick and round, tapering gradually towards the tail. The skin 
 of the back is smooth, thick, and black, verging gradually into a 
 shining blue or greenish hue ; the belly and part of the sides of 
 a shining silvery white, melting into cerulean and pale purple, the 
 scales and teeth very small, and the hides of the eyes of a pale 
 green. The same description applies of course to the pelamydes, 
 which, however, never exceed a tew ounces in weight. Persius 
 notices the tail of the tunny as forming the food of the wretched 
 Hebrews at Rome. " Cauda natat thynni, iumet alba Jidelia 
 vino" but the belly of the fish salted was the delight of the 
 Roman epicures, and is mentioned as such by Aulus Gellius. 
 
 " Ad c&nam adducam, et primum hie abdomina thunni 
 
 Advenientibus jwiva dabp." Aul. Gel. lib. 10. c. 20 
 
 Petrus Gyllius (de Bosph. Thracio) remarks upon this 
 fishery, that if the Turks were not obliged to pay one half of 
 
PELAMYDES FISHERY. 209 
 
 what they catched to the Grand Seignor, every market-place in 
 Constantinople might be easily filled with the youing tunnies ; 
 and that the Greeks had formerly a proverb " Thait no one in 
 his senses would carry as a rarity owls to Athens, Ibox trees to 
 Cytorus, or fish to the Hellespont ;" and adds, " that for the 
 abundance of fish, Marseilles, Tarentum, and Venice have been 
 renowned, but that the Bosphorus exceeds them all ;; for, being a 
 sort of outlet between two seas, the fish are actcustomed to 
 migrate in autumn and return in spring, (conformably to the 
 same fixed law of nature, by which cranes are accustomed twice 
 a year to fly across both seas,) and in such multitudes that the 
 first comer may catch as many as he will : neither is any particu- 
 lar skill requisite to succeed in this fishery, for women and chil- 
 dren may sit at their windows, and bring up the p>elamydes in 
 baskets-full from the current, or with hooks even without any 
 bait ; so very torpid are the fish. And sufficient might be taken 
 to supply all Greece, the abundance being such that with a 
 single net you may catch many boat-loads." In returning in 
 spring the tunnies carefully avoid the rapid currents., as they are 
 closely followed by the xiphias or swordfish, which constantly 
 oursue them in their passage to and from the Mediterranean. 
 
 The Cossacks of Citchou, a city of Circassia, carry on an 
 extensive tunny fishery from the month of May till the latter 
 end of October, when the Cuban river becomes covered with 
 ice. The Phoenicians, no doubt, pursued the same fishery ; 
 the Punic coins of Cadiz are marked with the figures of tunny 
 fish, the symbols of Isis and Hercules, the sun and moon; 
 while the reverse represents the temple of Hercules ; and the 
 Greek coins of Istropolis display the same fish in the act of being 
 devoured by a fishing bird. 
 
 E E 
 
210 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Plague. 
 
 During the long and frequent fasts of the Greek church, the 
 salted pelamydes, or the roe of the tunny and sturgeon, called 
 caviare and pontargue, form the principal food of the poorer 
 classes : the rancid oil with which these abound, joined to large 
 quantities of pumpkins, cucumbers, water-melons and grapes, 
 constitute altogether so putrid and debilitating a diet, that the 
 system becomes strongly disposed to receive any contagious 
 virus, particularly that of the plague, which generally shows 
 itseif in Constantinople during the Greek Lent ; while the 
 rooted belief in predestination entertained by the Turks prevents 
 them from using any, even the slightest precautions to arrest 
 the progress of the malady. Hence those whom it has attacked are 
 no sooner carried to the pest-hospital in Pera, than the Jew- 
 cloaths-men who attend the doors, buy their garments, and hurry 
 back across the harbour, to dispose of them in the bezensteins 
 of Constantinople ; and the luckless purchaser of these poisoned 
 robes speedily falls a victim to his newly-acquired finery. In 
 vain has the Porte at times punished with death these traffickino- 
 Hebrews ; the spirit of gain is not less active and unrelenting in 
 the capital of Turkey than in that of England. The French and 
 English, and indeed most other Franks, soon take the alarm, 
 
THE PLAGUE. 
 
 211 
 
 and shut themselves up in their own houses : but the Turks and 
 rayahs meet the storm undaunted. Greeks, Armenians, and 
 Jews, as being more filthy and intemperate in their diet, and 
 from their commercial habits fully more exposed, incur as much 
 or even more danger than the Mussulmans themselves. It is 
 true that whenever the malady reaches a certain height, prayers 
 are publicly offered up in the imperial mosques ; but the bazars 
 and streets continue quite as crowded as before. What can be 
 done in a country so despotically governed ? Should the fear 
 of contagion induce the inhabitants to put an end to all com- 
 mercial intercourse, or should the people shut themselves up 
 with one accord in their own houses, famine would add its 
 ravages to pestilence, and a public commotion would soon over- 
 turn the empire. The Turkish government, like all others in 
 such a choice of difficulties, prefer the destruction of their 
 subjects to their own overthrow. Barriers, quarantines, and 
 lazarettoes, have no existence in Turkey, because they are incom- 
 patible with the rigorous habits of despotism ; and would require 
 large public granaries, a wise police, and an hundred collateral 
 establishments, which are never likely to exist in a Mussulman 
 country. The disease then generally breaks out in Constanti- 
 nople in spring, and ceases in autumn, remains dormant during 
 winter, and shows itself again about the same time in the begin- 
 ning of the succeeding year. Dr. Murdoch Mackenzie, who 
 passed upwards of thirty years in practice as a physician at 
 Smyrna and Constantinople, and whose account of the plague is 
 much the best which has yet appeared, states, that excepting 
 four years, the plague was, during that period constantly present 
 or threatening, although he never could detect any difference in 
 these years, excepting, perhaps, that the winters set in more 
 
 e e 2 
 
212 
 
 THE PLAGUE. 
 
 severely or earlier, and that there was a heavier fall of snow. 
 Its general time of commencing he found to be about the middle 
 of March, and its cessation or interruption about the middle of 
 September. Now as the fleets from Egypt commonly reach the 
 port of Constantinople with a southerly wind between the latter 
 end of March and the beginning of May, which is also the 
 period of the Greek Lent, it is then that the plague breaks 
 forth. In its progress, it has been remarked first to attack the 
 Greeks and Armenians, then the Jews, and lastly the Turks. 
 It has been also observed, that before the most severe pesti- 
 lences there is frequently a murrain amongst the cattle. This 
 especially happened in May, 1745, and in the beginning of 
 June in the same year great swarms of butterflies arose from a 
 prodigious host of caterpillars, which had preceded them. 
 The same circumstance occurred in 1752 and 1758, and in all 
 these years the plague was very violent, more particularly in 
 August and September, 1758, when it proved fatal to several 
 persons belonging to the English and French factories in Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
 On the other hand, earthquakes and storms of thunder and 
 lightning, severe falls of snow, and early winters, have the effect 
 of checking and extinguishing the disease. Thus, in 1753, the 
 plague broke out in Constantinople, on the 31st May, and con- 
 tinued throughout the winter, and the next year, till the month 
 of September 1754. On the second day of that month, a ter- 
 rible shock of an earthquake took place, which threw down part 
 of the castle of the seven towers, a portion of the city walls, 
 seven minarets of mosques, the prison of Galata, Caravanserais, 
 &c. &c. ; and killed from sixty to an hundred persons. This 
 shock extended to Grand Cairo, where it killed 40,000 inhabi- 
 
THE PLAGUE. 218 
 
 tants, and threw down two-thirds of the city. Four days after, 
 namelv, on the 6th September, a storm of thunder and lightning 
 came on, which lasted for two hours, and, in violence, exceeded 
 any thing of the kind that the oldest inhabitants could remem- 
 ber ; the thunder and lightning continuing, without the inter- 
 mission of even a few seconds, for an hour and a half. On the 
 17th September, only eleven days afterwards, the plague entirely 
 ceased; and during the following year, hardly showed itself. 
 But, on the 6th of March 1756, it again burst forth, and did not 
 terminate before the 12th December. As to the mortality oc- 
 casioned by the plague, it is always difficult to come to any 
 very satisfactory conclusion, for the Turks keep neither records, 
 nor any register resembling our bills of mortality. A certain 
 gate of the city, leading to the principal cemetery, is watched ; 
 and whenever an hundred bodies are carried through it for inter- 
 ment, in one day, the plague is proclaimed, and prayers are 
 offered up. Dr. Mackenzie has suggested a mode of calculation, 
 founded on the daily consumption of flour, which, in Constan- 
 tinople, being 20,000 killows, and each killow being consumed 
 by fifty persons, gives pretty nearly the population, one million. 
 Now, during the months of July, August, and September, of the 
 year 1751, there was a falling off in the consumption, of three 
 thousand killows, which, being multiplied by 50, gives a total of 
 150,000 persons, swept off by plague, during these three months ; 
 including, at the same time, a great many persons who were 
 known to have abandoned the city, and fled to the interior, to 
 avoid the pestilence. * 
 
 * De Tott was then fortifying the Dardanelles, and states the numbers destroyed 
 at 150,000. 
 
214 THE PLAGUE. 
 
 It is difficult, undoubtedly, to reconcile the diversity of opi- 
 nions which have been advanced by ancient and modern writers, 
 respecting the origin and cause of plague ; but certain it is, that 
 the plains of Shinaar, Egypt, and Syria, have been, from the ear- 
 liest dawn of history, the centre and focus of pestilence. The 
 Writings of Moses establish the fact, as to Egypt, and profane 
 history has transmitted to us numerous particulars, as to Syria 
 and Greece. Of these, I have met with none more striking 
 than that mentioned by Appian of Alexandria, respecting the 
 propagation of the plague amongst the barbarians who sacked 
 the temple of Delphos. This historian states, that the Scythian 
 pirates, consisting of the Liburnians, Antarians, and those Celts 
 called Cimbri, having invaded the Delphic territory, and en- 
 camped near the temple of Apollo, the incensed divinity sent 
 such a tempest of thunder and lightning, followed by deluges of 
 rain, that these barbarians decamped with the greatest expe- 
 dition. He adds, that on their return, so great was the quan- 
 tity of frogs, produced by moisture, that they rendered the 
 rivers putrid; — that, a vapour being exhaled from the earth, a 
 dreadful corruption and pestilence took-^place amongst the II- 
 lyrians, which principally affected the Antarii, until, becoming 
 exiles from their native country, and carrying the plague with 
 them, no people being willing to receive them from dread of 
 the disease, they made a journey of three-and twenty days, 
 until they reached a marshy and uninhabited tract, where they 
 settled themselves, near to the nation of the Bastarnas. It is 
 said, moreover, that Apollo shook with eartbquakes the territory 
 of the Celts, and swallowed up their cities; nor was there an 
 end to their calamities, until they, in like manner, having left 
 their homes, went amidst their accomplices in sacrilege, the II- 
 
THE PLAGUE. 
 
 215 
 
 lyrians, whom they conquered with facility, on finding them de- 
 bilitated and worn out by the plague. Having caught it, by their 
 communication with them, they took to flight, nor halted until 
 they reached the Pyrenean mountains. * 
 
 This is a plain, true, and matter of fact statement, of what 
 has happened, almost in our own times, to the Russian army 
 on entering Moldavia. But the poets, who have embellished 
 and disguised with a veil of fiction, every historical fact, 
 have described Hercules perishing by the poisoned shirt of 
 a centaur ; and Niobe, turned into stone from grief, at be- 
 holding her family transfixed by the arrows of Apollo. Plu- 
 tarch, in the life of Pericles, has commemorated an incident 
 similar to the catastrophe of Niobe ; and every day in Turkey, 
 we might find a parallel to the poisoned garment of Nessus. lS 
 " The celebrated Pericles," says the historian, " was fated to be- 
 hold the greater part of his children, relations, and friends, fall 
 victims to the devouring pestilence ; and even, at the height of 
 his misfortunes, his firm soul remained tranquil and unmoved. 
 He was neither seen to shed a tear, nor to follow the fune- 
 ral procession of any of his kindred. But when he prepared 
 to place the crown of flowers on the last of his children 
 snatched from him by an untimely death, he was no longer 
 master of his grief, Nature gave way, and he shed a torrent of 
 tears." 
 
 The treatment and cure of this dreadful malady, are perhaps 
 as little understood in Turkey, even at the present time, as durino- 
 the days of Pericles. Free perspiration, if it can be at all pro- 
 
 * This happened in the year 278, B. C. See Appian. Alex, clc Bellis Illyr. 
 
216 THE PLAGUE. 
 
 duced, seems to be the natural crisis of the disease, and to ob- 
 tain this discharge, is the intention of nearly all the remedies 
 hitherto recommended. Busbequius has celebrated the virtues 
 of the herb scordium, or water germander, a decoction of which, 
 taken warm, was successfully used by his friend and physician, 
 William Quackelben. The compound called diascordium, pre- 
 ceded by a glass of brandy, is, according to Mackenzie, the only 
 medicine given by the Catholic priests, who have charge of the 
 pest-hospital at Pera, and is sometimes successful. The medical 
 officers of the French army in Egypt, have praised the virtues of 
 warm punch, given with the same intention. The British offi- 
 cers have celebrated purgatives ; while Baldwin, and some others, 
 have recommended oily frictions. Blood-letting, in the very 
 early stage, is strongly advised by Mackenzie, and is equally de- 
 precated by others. Some wonderful escapes and recoveries have 
 been recorded by all. The real truth may be, that plague is 
 nothing but bilious remittent fever, under its worst possible 
 form, attended with petechia, blains, and swellings of the lym- 
 phatic glands, which sometimes suppurate, but oftener do not. 
 If they suppurate, or the patient perspire freely, he recovers ; 
 but if not, the disease proves fatal. All those who have the 
 plague, however, have not buboes, and these are generally be- 
 lieved to have remittent fever only. Hence the strangest con- 
 tradictions and mistakes are to be found in all writers on this 
 subject, and they have from time to time occasioned wrangling, 
 scepticism, and false reasoning, without end ; some asserting 
 the non-contagion, and others the wide propagation of pestilen- 
 tial virus. In all other parts of the globe, the Levant alone 
 excepted, the critical suppurations which accompany bilious 
 
THE PLAGUE. 
 
 217 
 
 fevers, attack various glands of the body, in preference to those 
 of the groin ; but amongst the Orientals, as the custom of squat- 
 ting, and the great indulgence of the sexual passions, create 
 an increased morbid sensibility in the inguinal glands, the liver 
 and the parotid glands are not so often affected as with Euro- 
 peans. Thus, when the British army returned from Spain, after 
 the retreat upon Corunna, they brought with them a bilious 
 pestilential fever, of which vast numbers were the victims ; 
 although most probably the plague was never known by that 
 name, because the parotid glands suppurated instead of those 
 in the groin. Yet the disease was spread far and wide, through- 
 out the military hospitals in England ; nurses, medical attend- 
 ants, and washerwomen, falling victims to it daily, exactly as in 
 the plague in Turkey ; but it was the fashion of the day, to call 
 the malady a typhus fever, and being only a typhus, it did not 
 create much alarm ; it was, in the course of some months, 
 subdued by proper remedies, and the conjoint influence of 
 healthy food, and a temperate climate. 
 
 The necessary prevalence of pestilence in the Turkish capital 
 has been assumed by some superficial reasoners as a just and 
 plausible pretext for urging the other nations of Europe to de- 
 clare war against the Turks, and drive them back to their deserts 
 in Asia. If ever this city should fall into the hands of a Chris- 
 tian power, it will then be seen to a demonstration that the un- 
 healthiness of its inhabitants is owing more to physical than to 
 moral causes ; for if I am not much mistaken it will ever continue 
 one of the most unhealthy of European capitals. Whoever has 
 visited it, and has contemplated the vast swampy tracts which ex- 
 tend around it in all directions, must immediately subscribe to this 
 opinion. Dr. Clarke, although no physician, seized the truth at 
 
 F F 
 
218 
 
 THE PLAGUE. 
 
 once ; for the situation of Constantinople, notwithstanding it is 
 the most beautiful under heaven, is certainly the most unhealthy. 
 At a moderate calculation I should estimate the marshy grounds 
 lying immediately around its walls to be little short of twenty 
 square miles. Let us trace on a map the low shores of the Pro- 
 pontis, furrowed by shallow muddy streams, obstructed at their 
 mouths, and dilating into morasses. Contemplate the low 
 grounds of Bithynia, the lake of Nicea, and the fertile swampy 
 valleys at the foot of Olympus, together with the harbour itself, 
 and the waters of Kiat Hane, and we shall be convinced that of 
 all places in Europe Constantinople must suffer most from marsh 
 effluvia. Consider next the fastings and religious observances 
 of the Greeks, a system, perhaps, the most fatal to health that 
 was ever imagined by a nation called civilised. Imagine a race 
 of people oppressed and plundered, and having only 139 days in 
 the year which are not absolutely meagre, while during the 
 remainder their subsistence is putrid salt fish, and other un- 
 healthy viands. I7 Look at the Armenians ; their religious ob- 
 servances are scarcely less severe ; and the filthy abominations 
 of the Jews are too notorious to require any observation. Lastly 
 the Turks themselves, the most rigid of predestinarians, bi- 
 goted to their religion, and quite ignorant of natural pheno- 
 mena; is it then matter of astonishment that this uncivilised 
 assemblage, fasting all day, gorging all night, wallowing in sen- 
 suality, or expiring from misery, clothed constantly in animal 
 substances, generally in a decaying state, without changes of 
 linen *, and hovering all winter over the effluvia of charcoal, 
 
 * The Turkish, Armenian, and Greek women, wear silken chemises, which are 
 seldom washed. 
 
THE PLAGUE. 
 
 219 
 
 should be the victims of pestilential poison. And if we contem- 
 plate for a moment the unenlightened state of physic through- 
 out the Turkish empire, we shall rather wonder that any 
 one afflicted with disease should arise from his bed of sickness, 
 and shall be less surprised at the devastation occasioned by its 
 mortalitv. 
 
 f f 2 
 
220 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Death of Don Joze Ocarris, the Spanish Ambassador. — Illness of Mr. 
 Chenevix. — Saracenic Pharmacy and Hebrew Empirics. — Murder of 
 Mr. Wood. 
 
 One of the most tragical anecdotes which came to my know- 
 ledge during my residence in Turkey, connected with the state 
 of physic in that country, was the catastrophe which occurred 
 to the family of Don Joze Ocarris, Ambassador Extraordinary 
 from the Court of Madrid to the Sublime Porte. This no- 
 bleman, while travelling from Vienna to Bucharest on his pro- 
 gress towards Constantinople, attended by his lady and suite, 
 happened accidentally to meet at one of the mining towns in 
 Hungary with Mr. Richard Chenevix and Mr. Adlercrone, then 
 on a scientific tour. As the parties had previously met at 
 Vienna and Paris, their acquaintance was soon renewed, and on 
 the invitation of Sehor Ocarris, they agreed to accompany him 
 to Constantinople. The party then consisted of about fourteen 
 or fifteen individuals, including domestics. It was August, and 
 the weather was more sultry than usual amidst the deep valleys 
 of Transylvania. As the inns and post-houses were small and 
 of the most wretched description, and the party was so 
 numerous, it most frequently happened that on halting for the 
 night they chose to sleep in their carriages out of doors, rather 
 than encounter the noisome smells and swarms of insects which 
 
JEWISH EMPIRICISM. 
 
 221 
 
 infested the chambers of the inns. Owing to these circum- 
 stances the effects of marsh miasmata were speedily felt by 
 many, and before they had reached Ruschuk, nearly the whole 
 party were becoming feverish and indisposed. At that town, 
 their first care was to enquire where they might purchase some 
 cooling medicine, as the Ambassador had unluckily quitted 
 Vienna without either medicine chest or medical attendant. 
 Some of the servants, more alert than the rest, soon discovered 
 the house of a Jewish vender of drugs, who sold them his whole 
 stock of Glauber's salts, which was only a few ounces. 
 
 The Ambassador and Mr. Chenevix were therefore too late in 
 their application for a supply, but the Jew having assured their 
 messenger that he could furnish them with a box of excellent 
 pills, which would equally answer the purpose, they accepted his 
 proposal. The pills were accordingly prepared, and sent to the 
 Ambassador's quarters. Of this fatal box, Don Joze, Mr. Che- 
 nevix, and three servants partook, exceeding, unfortunately, the 
 number prescribed by the Jew, which was only one for a dose. 
 One swallowed two, another three, and some, improvidently, 
 took even four. The effects were truly dreadful. The hyperca- 
 tharsis produced was so great, that one of the servants died the 
 next day under their operation. The Spanish Ambassador, a 
 delicate man, survived only till he reached Varna, when he also 
 fell a victim to their effects. Mr. Chenevix and one of the ser- 
 vants, reduced to the most deplorable state of weakness, were 
 put aboard a small Greek vessel, accompanied by Signora Ocarris, 
 with the dead body of Don Joze, and the rest of this afflicted 
 and unfortunate party, (some of whom were delirious and raving 
 mad.) To add to their miseries, they encountered the gales of 
 the equinox, in the Black Sea, when off the mouth of the Bos- 
 
222 
 
 JEWISH EMPIRICISM. 
 
 phorus, and were twice driven into Asia, where they buried two 
 more of the domestics. The superstition of the Greek sailors 
 was awakened by the presence of the Spanish Ambassador's 
 corpse ; they mutinied and refused to hand the sails, and after a 
 series of unheard-of misfortunes, at length reached Pera. I was 
 soon after requested to visit Mr. Chenevix, whom I found in the 
 miserable inn at Pera, delirious and suffering under the cold pa- 
 roxysm of a double tertian fever, complicated with dysentery. 
 That night I passed by his bedside, and although his recovery 
 was long doubtful, the vigour of his constitution finally prevail- 
 ed, and after some days I had the pleasure of pronouncing him 
 out of danger, but his final convalescence was very tardy. What 
 might have been the actual composition of these pills, I know 
 not, but Doctor Inchiostro, an Italian physician at Pera, sug- 
 gested that they were probably the Pilulae cochiae of the 
 Arabian Physician, Rhasis, composed of turbith' 8 , scammony, 
 colocynth, and aloes. I have judged that it might be useful to 
 detail thus minutely this melancholy occurrence, as a warning 
 to my fellow-countrymen travelling in Turkey, to be cautious of 
 trusting their lives in the hands of Hebrew venders of Saracenic 
 pharmacy, as I have but too much reason to be well assured that 
 this is not the only fatal occurrence which has happened from 
 similar applications. 
 
 Various indeed are the dangers which beset a traveller in 
 Turkey ; his life is in jeopardy at every stage. The barbarous 
 murder of Mr. Wood, on his journey between Constantinople 
 and Ruschuk, occurred soon after the death of Senor Ocarris, 
 and is remarkable on account of some striking circumstances 
 connected with it. This gentleman, who had been confidentially 
 employed by the English Ambassador, was the bearer of dis- 
 
MURDER OF MR. WOOD. 
 
 223 
 
 patches between Constantinople and Petersburg, Vienna and 
 London. He quitted Pera in February 1806, and the mouths 
 of the Danube being still obstructed with ice, it was deemed 
 expedient, for the sake of greater expedition, that he should 
 take the overland route across Mount Hcemus, through Bulgaria. 
 Having hired post-horses, he set out, accompanied by a Turkish 
 Janissary, a Greek lad of fourteen, his domestic, and a Frank of 
 Pera, who was to return with the horses from the Danube. They 
 had accomplished the second day's journey in safety, and were 
 proceeding from Burgas towards Kirk-Iklissi, (the forty churches) 
 when, towards mid-day, they halted at a Khan in a village, to 
 refresh themselves and feed their animals. While there, a 
 party of armed Turks entered the house, and having surveyed 
 them very attentively for some time, sat down near the door. 
 Mr. Wood and his attendants having finished their repast, 
 mounted their horses and quitted the village, but had not proceed- 
 ed far, before they perceived these armed Turks in full pursuit. 
 The Janissary suspecting their sinister intentions, called out 
 to Mr. Wood to make what speed he could and escape ; himself 
 showing the example by digging his shovel stirrups into his 
 horse's flanks, and setting out at full gallop. Unluckily, howe- 
 ver, Mr. Wood was but an indifferent horseman, and besides 
 other incumbrances, had attached a dog by a string to the 
 cantle of his saddle. The animal becoming entangled between 
 the horse's legs, he halted to cut the string, and by so doing 
 gave the robbers time to come up with him. The Janissary and 
 other attendants were then considerably in advance, but on 
 turning round and observing Mr. Wood's critical situation, the 
 faithful Turk wheeled round his horse and rejoined him, while the 
 Frank guide galloped off. By this time the robbers, having seized 
 
224 MURDER OF MR. WOOD. 
 
 the reins of Mr. Wood's horse, compelled him and the Janissary 
 to dismount, and forced them into a thicket about two o-un-shots 
 from the road side, where they commenced rifling Mr. Wood's 
 person and packages. On ripping open the portmanteau con- 
 taining his letters and official dispatches, the Grand Seignor's 
 travelling Jirhmaun dropt out. Mr. Wood, being unfortunately 
 entirely ignorant of the Turkish language, was unable to explain 
 himself, and incautiously, and with some degree of warmth, 
 disputed with the robbers the possession of his papers. One of 
 the villains suddenly drew a loaded pistol from his girdle, and 
 discharged the contents through Mr. Wood's head ; the Janissary 
 was instantly murdered in the same manner ; and the Greek lad, 
 horror-struck at this sanguinary scene, took advantage of the 
 momentary confusion, and fled towards the mountains. But in 
 scrambling over some broken ground, he fell amidst a volley of 
 musket shots from the assassins, who believing that their fire 
 had taken effect, never followed him. In fact, however, he was not 
 wounded, but fainted from fear and lay in a ditch till nightfall, 
 when he crept back to the town which they had quitted in the 
 morning, and where he lay concealed for some days. Meantime 
 the Frank guide returned to Pera, and communicated these disas- 
 trous tidings. Orders were immediately sent by the Reis 
 Effendi to the Pasha at Burgas, to take instant measures against 
 the murderers, and to recover, if possible, the dispatches and 
 property taken from Mr. Wood. In a few days some half dozen 
 heads were duly forwarded in a sack to the Porte, together 
 with some very trifling articles of baggage, but none of the 
 papers or dispatches were ever forth-coming ; this, joined to 
 some other circumstances of a suspicious nature, led to a belief 
 that the robbers had been hired to waylay Mr. Wood and Dossess 
 
MURDER OF MR. WOOD. 22.5 
 
 themselves of his papers, but that the murder was accidental, 
 and was chiefly brought on by his own impetuosity of character. 
 Be that as it may, the mystery, up to the hour of my quitting 
 Constantinople, was never developed, and the members of the 
 Russian mission continued to utter half sentences against those 
 of the French, while these more openly accused Italinski, the 
 Russian minister, of being stained with the blood of this unfor- 
 tunate young man. 
 
226 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A Picture of Constantinople. — Greek Hospodars. — Mustapha Bairactar. 
 — Selim Effendi. — Count Froberg. — Prince Italinski. — Monsieur 
 Ruffin. — Baratariats. 
 
 It would be difficult for any imagination, even the most romantic 
 or distempered, to associate in close array all the incongruous 
 and discordant objects which may be contemplated, even within 
 a few hours' perambulation, in and around the Turkish capital. 
 The barbarous extremes of magnificence and wretchedness ; of 
 power and weakness ; of turpitude and magnanimity ; of profli- 
 gacy and sanctity ; of cruelty and humanity, are all to be seen 
 jumbled together in the most sublime or offensive combinations. 
 The majesty and magnificence of nature, crowned with all the 
 grandeur of human art, contrasted with the atrocious effects of 
 unrestrained sensuality, and brutalising inherent degeneracy, fill 
 up the vacant spaces of this varied picture. 
 
 The howlings of ten thousand dogs re-echoing through the 
 deserted streets all the live-long night, chace you betimes from 
 your pillow : approaching your window you are greeted by the 
 rays of the rising sun gilding the snowy summits of Mount 
 Olympus, and the beautiful shores of the sea of Marmora, the 
 point of Chalcedon, and the town of Scutari : midway your eye 
 ranges with delight over the marble domes of St. Sophia, the gilded 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 227 
 
 pinnacles of the Seraglio glittering amidst groves of perpetual 
 verdure, the long arcades of ancient aqueducts, and spiry mina- 
 rets of a thousand mosques. While you contemplate this superb 
 scenery, the thunders of artillery burst upon your ear, and, direct- 
 ing your eye to the quarter whence the sound proceeds, you may 
 behold, proudly sailing around the point of the Seraglio, the 
 splendid navy of the Ottomans, returning with the annual tributes 
 of Eo-ypt. The curling volumes of smoke ascending from the port- 
 holes play around the bellying sails, and hide at times, the en- 
 signs of crimson silk, besprinkled with the silvery crescents of 
 Mahomet ! The hoarse guttural sounds of a Turk selling kaimac 
 at your door, recall your attention towards the miserable lanes of 
 Pera, wet, splashy, dark, and disgusting ; the mouldering wooden 
 tenements beetling over these alleys, are the abode of pestilence 
 and misery. You may mount your horse and betake yourself to 
 the fields, rich with the purple fragrance of heath and lavender, 
 and swarming with myriads of honied insects : in the midst of your 
 progress your horse recoils from his path, at the loathsome object 
 occupying the centre of the highway; — an expiring horse, from 
 which a horde of famished dogs are already tearing the reeking 
 entrails ! Would you behold his unfeeling master, look beneath 
 that acacia, at the hoary Turk performing his pious ablutions at 
 the sacred fountain. — If we retrace our steps, we are met by a 
 party passing at a quick pace towards that cemetery * on the 
 right: they are carrying on a bier the dead body of a Greek, the 
 pallid beauty of whose countenance is contrasted with the fresh- 
 ness of the roses which compose the chaplet on his head. A few 
 
 * The field of the dead, near Pera. 
 GG 2 
 
228 CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 hours only has he ceased to breathe : but see ! the grave has 
 already received his corse, and amidst the desolate palaces of 
 the princes of the earth, he has entered an obscure and name- 
 less tenant. 
 
 Having returned to the city, you are appalled by a crowd of 
 revellers pressing around the doors of a wine-house ; the sounds 
 of minstrelsy and riot are within. You have scarcely passed when 
 you behold two or three gazers around the door of a baker's 
 shop, — the Kaimakan has been his rounds, the weights have been 
 found deficient, and the unfortunate man, who swings in a halter 
 at the door, has paid for his petty villany the forfeiture of his 
 life. The populace around mui'mur at the price of bread, but 
 the muezzins from the adjoining minarets are proclaiming the 
 hour of prayer, and the followers of Mahomet are pouring in 
 to count their beads and proclaim the efficacy of faith. In 
 an opposite coffee-house a group of Turkish soldiers, drowsy with 
 tobacco, are dreaming over the chequers of a chess-board, or lis- 
 tening to the licentious fairy tales of a dervish. The passing 
 crowd seem to have no common sympathies, jostling each other 
 in silence on the narrow foot-path ; women veiled in long caftans, 
 emirs with green turbans, janissaries, Bostandjis, Jews, and Arme- 
 nians encounter Greeks, Albanians, Franks, and Tartars. — Fa- 
 tigued with such pageantry, you observe the shades of evening 
 descend, and again sigh for repose ; but the passawend with their 
 iron-bound staves striking the pavement, excite your attention to 
 the cries ofyanga var from the top of the adjoining tower, and you 
 are told that the flames are in the next street. There you may be- 
 hold the devouring element overwhelming in a common ruin 
 the property of infidels and true believers, till the shouts of the 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 229 
 
 multitude announce the approach of the Arch despot *, and the 
 power of a golden shower of sequins is exemplified in awakening 
 the callous feelings of even a Turkish multitude, to the sufferings 
 of their fellow-creatures, and of rendering them sensible to the 
 common ties of humanity. — The fire is extinguished — and dark- 
 ness of a deeper hue has succeeded to the glare of the flames ; 
 the retiring crowd, guided by their paper lanthorns, flit by thou- 
 sands, like ignes fatui, amidst the cypresses of the Champ des 
 Morts; and, like another Mirza, after your sublime vision, you 
 are left, not, indeed, to contemplate the lowing of the oxen in the 
 valley of Bagdad, but to encounter the gloom and cheerless soli- 
 tude of your <own apartment. 
 
 Such is the exterior of this wonderful microcosm, but what 
 Asmodeus can unveil the inner recesses of their domestic circles, 
 or describe the hallowed confines of those harems, to enter which 
 is death ? Since the days of the accomplished Lady Mary W. 
 Montague, no foreigner who has hitherto penetrated those hal- 
 lowed precincts, has given details of them at all comparable with 
 those of that entertaining and authentic writer ; and although 
 the members of my profession are generally supposed to be best 
 acquainted with such subjects, my time at Constantinople was 
 much too short, and too painfully occupied by my attendance on 
 a beautiful and accomplished sufferer, now no more, to admit of 
 my attaining any information on that head at all interesting to the 
 
 public. 
 
 In the families of a few Greek princes at Terapia, I found much 
 to interest me in the affectionate harmony and simplicity of man- 
 
 * Or Arch slave — take which title you will ; both are appropriate. 
 
230 
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 ners in their domestic circles ; much to bewail in the ignorance 
 in which their children were educated ; and I sincerely lamented 
 the greedy thirst of place which appeared totally to absorb all 
 other ideas. " Mon frere etoit le prince de la Valacliie," said 
 old Caugierli, more than once to me, " mais on lid a coupe la 
 tete." Yet this man with his three sons was assiduously en- 
 gaged in intrigues to obtain the government of one of the 
 two fatal principalities ; and after having succeeded in his 
 aim, his grey head has, like that of his brother, been affixed 
 to the gate of the Seraglio. Indeed, the certainty of a Turkish 
 courtier's disgrace can only be equalled by the astonishing rapi- 
 dity of his rise, in a country where no honours are hereditary, 
 where the lowest peasant is as noble as the Vizier Azem, where 
 ignoble birth and vulgarity of manners are unknown even in 
 appellation, and where the hewers of wood, burners of charcoal, 
 and planters of cabbages, throw down their axes or spades, and 
 ascend almost at once to the command of armies, or the direc- 
 tion of the resources of a kingdom of two-and-twenty millions of 
 subjects. " What," says the Prince de Ligne, " would become 
 of the nations of Europe, if a vender of soap were to be made 
 prime minister, a gardener grand admiral, and a lacquey com- 
 mandant of armies ? Where else shall we find men fit, at the 
 same time, to fight on foot, on horseback, or on shipboard — 
 adroit at every thing they undertake, and individually always 
 intrepid? Ranks being confounded, no person being classed, 
 each has equal claims to every thing, and expects that place 
 which fortune may destine for him." The history of Mustapha 
 Bairactar is a striking exemplification of these assertions. His 
 name was perpetually quoted at Constantinople, and I had the 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 231 
 
 satisfaction of meeting this noted and extraordinary character, 
 in a village near Ruschuk. His whole life seems like a splendid 
 dream, for he was first a pirate on the Danube in a small boat 
 manned with nine desperadoes whose lives and fortunes he com- 
 manded. The courage and energy he displayed in this avocation, 
 proved an introduction to the Grand Seignor's favour, who 
 appointed him Bairactar, or standard bearer of Mahomet's green 
 ensign, and finally Pacha of Ruschuk, with an income of about 
 12,000/. sterling per annum. The duties attached to his Pacha- 
 lik, were to exterminate his old associates the pirates on the 
 lower Danube, and to keep in check his neighbour the Pacha of 
 Widdin, the far-famed Paswin Oglou. For this purpose he had 
 disciplined and kept in pay a corps of 40,000 Janissaries, chiefly 
 Albanians. Gratefully attached to Selim, he, on the deposition of 
 that ill-fated Prince, marched to Constantinople to replace him 
 on the throne. The cruel murder of Selim frustrated his gene- 
 rous intentions, but he had the satisfaction of deposing Musta- 
 pha the Fourth, and of elevating to the throne Mahmoud the 
 Second, and of being himself appointed Prime Vizier. He died 
 the death of a hero, by blowing himself up in a powder maga- 
 zine, after having been betrayed at the disastrous feast of recon- 
 ciliation with the Janissaries at Kiat Hane, on the 12th Novem- 
 ber 1808. But to return. To supply the defects of so extraordinary 
 a system, it has been the constant policy of the Turks to encou- 
 rage scientific Christians to embrace their religion and enter 
 their service. Renegadoes of this kind were formerly much more 
 numerous than in later times. But their places have been 
 supplied by a class of adventurers chiefly French, like the Baron 
 de Tott, who, without undergoing circumcision, or abjuring their 
 religion, have rebuilt their fortresses and organised their dock- 
 
232 
 
 CON STANTINOPLE. 
 
 yards. The only renegado who was at Constantinople in 1805, 
 was an Englishman named Baillie, whose Moslem title was 
 Selim Effendi. This gentleman was, I believe, a native of 
 Reading in Berkshire, and had been in the service of the East 
 India Company. During the embassy of Sir Robert Ainslie, 
 Baillie and another gentleman, on their return overland from 
 India, arrived at Pera and took up their residence at the inn. 
 It was soon afterwards made known by their landlord to the 
 Ambassador, that being in very distressed circumstances, they 
 had entered into a negotiation with the Porte, to embrace 
 Mahometanism, and enter the Turkish service. Sir Robert 
 Ainslie had no sooner satisfied himself of the truth of this state- 
 ment, than he sent for them, and very humanely extended to 
 them the pecuniary assistance they needed, together with many 
 hospitable attentions, warning them, at the same time, against 
 the fatal consequences that might attend such precipitancy. 
 They promised to renounce their intentions, and in fact soon 
 after embarked for England. But, within twelve months, 
 Baillie returned to Smyrna, and having embraced Mahometan- 
 ism in due form, assumed the name of Selim. Repenting soon 
 after the step he had taken, he returned to England, but 
 his friends now refused to acknowledge him, and finding himself 
 an outcast in society, he retui'ned once more to Turkey. Selim 
 behaved kindly to him, created him EfFendi and afterwards an 
 Emmera-Hor or Equerry, and employed him as a civil engineer 
 in the construction of paper mills and barracks. He then presented 
 him with a young Turkish wife ; but the poor man was miserable, 
 and his unhappiness was increased by the neglect he experienced 
 after the death of the Sultan. In fine, being overtaken by bad 
 health, and narrowly watched by his Turkish attendants, during 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 233 
 
 the severe fasts of the Ramazan, his indisposition took a fatal 
 turn, and lie died a martyr to his new faith, and the reproaches) 
 probably, of his own conscience ; leaving his name and memory 
 as a fatal monument and warning to his countrymen to avoid 
 such a career. The fate of another adventurer, who was very 
 intimate with Baillie at that time, is also remarkable. This 
 accomplished man, whose real name I have since learned was 
 Montjoye, passed himself upon the British government as the 
 German Count Froberg, and under that title had the address to 
 procure himself the appointment of Colonel to a regiment, which 
 he was to raise in the Albanian and Christian provinces of 
 Turkey. For this purpose he had employed crimps at Venice, 
 Trieste, Galatz, and various places near the Turkish frontiers, 
 while he himself resided at Constantinople and directed their 
 manoeuvres. The most unprincipled deceit and falsehood were 
 employed to obtain recruits, many of whom were sent to him at 
 Constantinople, then transferred to the Prince's Islands, and from 
 time to time forwarded to their head-quarters at Malta. Finding 
 themselves deceived, the regiment mutinied, murdered some of 
 their officers, and blew up one of the Maltese forts. — A court 
 martial was assembled afterwards at Sicily, by Sir John Moore, 
 to investigate the grievances complained of by the survivors : 
 when it appeared in evidence that most of the privates were 
 young men of good families in their own country, who had been 
 enticed to enter as ensigns and captains, and on arriving at 
 Malta had been forced to do duty as privates. Sir John 
 Moore disbanded the regiment, and sent back the men to 
 their own country. Count Froberg was then at the Russian 
 head-quarters, and finding his conduct detected, and being 
 
 H H 
 
234 CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 indebted 30,000/. to government, he deserted to the French, 
 but being afterwards surrounded in a village by a troop of 
 Cossacks, he placed his back to a wall, and, sword-in-hand, sold 
 his life as dearly as he could, being literally cut to pieces. This 
 singular man had visited every country in Europe, from Gibral- 
 tar to the banks of the frozen ocean, whither he had accompanied 
 the present Duke of Orleans, and had traversed all North Ame- 
 rica. He had an extraordinary facility in acquiring languages, 
 speaking with the utmost fluency Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, 
 English, German, French, Latin, and Sclavonian. His amiable 
 manners, and his talents for conversation, his perfect good 
 breeding and delicacy of tact, rendered him a welcome guest 
 at all the diplomatic tables of Pera : it was not without much 
 surprise, mingled with deep regret, that his acquaintances were 
 apprised of the facts which occasioned so dreadful a termination 
 of his career. 
 
 Besides Count Froberg, Pera then contained two other cele- 
 brated linguists, the Russian ambassador Italinski, and the French 
 minister Ruffin. 
 
 The former had been educated as a physician, at the university of 
 Edinburgh, and had returned to his native country with the inten- 
 tion of exercising his profession at Petersburgh, but having been 
 attacked with a spitting of blood, he found himself incapacitated 
 from following the laborious and ungrateful trade of physic. 
 He was then appointed Secretary to the Russian Legation at 
 Naples, and after many years of faithful service, ascended to the 
 highest rank which it had to confer. From Naples he was 
 transferred to Constantinople, where his knowledge of Oriental 
 literature, his cool, crafty, and dispassionate mind, and his per- 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 935 
 
 petual command of temper, gave him great advantages over his 
 rival diplomatists, whose foibles and irritability of temper con- 
 stantly offered him advantages, of which he seldom failed to 
 avail himself. In him it was difficult to say, which was most to 
 be admired, the powers of a bodily frame that had withstood a 
 constant haemorrhage from the lungs for forty years, or the vigour 
 of those mental powers that in such a dilapidated tenement had 
 mastered the difficulties of twelve languages.* 
 
 As to Ruffin, he was a character of another stamp, bold, impe- 
 rious, overbearing ; with a spirit unbroken by the miseries of 
 three long periods of confinement within the Seven Towers, 
 disdaining the cold formalities of Turkish diplomacy, or the 
 softening intervention of a dragoman's courtly speeches, he was 
 in the habit of daily bearding the ministers of the Turkish Divam 
 and of making them tremble at the redoubted name of the Empe- 
 ror and King. 
 
 To further his intrigues he employed all available means ; and 
 while the British Minister was refusing to grant the usual 
 patents of Baratariats, the subtle Frenchman employed them to 
 extend the influence of his nation throughout the wide extent of 
 Turkey. 
 
 These Baratariats are among the most extraordinary wheels 
 in the machine of Turkish diplomacy. Ever since the European 
 powers have sent envoys to the Turkish court they have had per- 
 mission to grant patents of protection to a certain number of 
 Rayahs or Christian subjects of the Porte. Each nation possess- 
 ed this privilege, in a degree proportioned to her relative influ- 
 
 * The peculiar circumstances to which I apprehend he owed his life, were great 
 temperance, and a pulse which never exceeded forty pulsations in a minute ! 
 
 H H 2 
 
236 CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 ence at Constantinople ; thus, France and England being the 
 most powerful maritime and commercial states, had the privilege 
 of creating forty or more Barataries ; the smaller powers were 
 allowed an inferior number 5 according to their several degrees of 
 political importance. These protections being most advantageous 
 to rich Armenians, Jews, and Greeks, were always eagerly covet- 
 ed by the native merchants, bankers, and others, who wished to 
 secure their lives and property from the oppressive gripe of 
 Turkish laws. Great prices were of course paid for them, and 
 the emoluments thence accruing, were considered as fees of 
 office, belonging to the Ambassador of the day. But as the 
 commercial rayahs in the Levant are generally the most faith- 
 less, intriguing, and unprincipled of men, instead of using their 
 protections in self-defence, they oftener availed themselves of 
 their immunities to screen their own villainies. Thus the time 
 and patience of the Ambassador was constantly exhausted in de- 
 ciding on their petty squabbles and fraudulent transactions. The 
 barataries, however, knowing the Minister had been individually 
 paid for his protection, presumed on commanding his favour in 
 all cases and upon all occasions. No man, therefore, with nice 
 feelings of honour, could plead for the continuance of such a sys- 
 tem ; but the French, taking advantage of this plan, had dispers- 
 ed barataries as spies and hirelings in every corner of Turkey ; and 
 if they wished a dispatch to be sent to Poonah or Seringapatam, 
 they had only to employ a Jewish baratary, who, under the 
 pretext of some commercial business, concealed the dispatches in 
 his bosom, and set out to Bagdad, where he handed them over to 
 another Jew, who carried them to a third, by whom they were 
 sent to Bussorah, whence the French Consul forwarded them on 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 237 
 
 to Poonah, or Seringapatam ; the first mentioned Jew returned 
 quietly to Pera, and no persons but the French Minister and 
 himself were acquainted with the transaction. On the contrary, 
 if the British Ambassador had occasion to send off a dispatch, 
 half a dozen dragomans knew of the firmaun being made out, 
 and every minister in Pera could calculate the stages and time 
 required for the journey, so that the interception and robbery of 
 the courier was a matter of little difficulty. The political wisdom, 
 therefore, which dispensed with British barataries, may be ques- 
 tioned, however dignified or honourable were the feelings which 
 suggested it, unless, indeed, all the other powers had followed the 
 same course, and had concurred in discountenancing the usage. 
 
238 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Turkish Navy. — Views of the Russian Cabinet. — State of the defences 
 of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus. — Ancient Walls of Constantinople. 
 
 Ever since the memorable defeat of the Turkish fleet, at Te- 
 hesme, (7 July, 1 770,) the Porte, by the aid of French engineers 
 and ship builders, have been attempting to improve their marine 
 establishments ; but such is the wretched nature of their govern- 
 ment, that there seem very slight grounds for believing that 
 they will ever ultimately succeed. Amongst the captains of 
 Caravels composing the Turkish navy, there is scarcely an in- 
 dividual who has any knowledge of navigation, far less of naval 
 tactics ; for as it is only by means of bribery that they can ever 
 obtain the command of a ship, the man who bids highest, what- 
 ever may be his ignorance, obtains the post. Every means is 
 then employed by the successful candidate to reimburse himself 
 with the sum expended in bribery, and the most common is 
 that of putting ashore one half of the crew whenever the ship loses 
 sight of the towers of the Seraglio. The captain then appro- 
 priates to himself the amount of the provisions and pay, which 
 would have accrued during the cruise to the dismissed part of the 
 crew. But this step, joined to their inexperience and want of 
 skill, would, in bad weather, expose them to almost infallible 
 
TURKISH NAVY. 
 
 shipwreck. To avoid such calamity, they run their vessel into 
 the nearest port, where they can remain for a month or more, 
 until a wind right-astern shall spring up, which will carry them 
 to their final destination, without the necessity of manoeuvring 
 or tacking. Their Greek pilots have no knowledge beyond 
 that obtained by sailing within sight of the shore ; and whenever 
 they lose sight of land, the compass becomes entirely useless 
 to them. Hence whenever a Caravel is sent to Egypt or Syria, 
 the captain most commonly runs into Smyrna or Rhodes in 
 search of some Frank vessel going the same voyage, that he 
 may follow her track. On board their ships there is neither 
 order nor discipline : all ranks are confounded, the provisions 
 are unequally distributed, every individual cooks and messes 
 separately, eating when and whatever he chooses, so that the 
 commander can never have any knowledge of the amount of 
 his stock of provisions, or calculate upon the time it will hold out. 
 As to their guns, they are of every size and calibre ; balls of 
 six pounds weight are frequently placed by the side of forty- 
 eight pounders ; and as the crew are seldom if ever practised 
 in firing, the confusion that takes place during an action may 
 be more easily conceived than described. Such was the state 
 of the Ottoman navy before the late Sultan Selim succeeded 
 to the throne. Convinced as he very soon became that reform 
 or ruin was inevitable in the then existing situation of Turkey 
 with relation to Russia, every measure for re-modelling the naval 
 department was immediately adopted, with the advice and as- 
 sistance of the French ambassador, who obtained from Toulon 
 two French engineers, Messrs. Rhodes and Benoit, to establish 
 a school for naval cadets, at Tershane. Instructions in ship- 
 building and navigation were given to these cadets j and so great 
 
240 TURKISH NAVY. 
 
 was the activity infused by them into the dock-yard, that a line- 
 of-battle ship of three decks and 120 guns, a frigate, a corvette, 
 and a brig, all copper-sheathed, were launched in one day during 
 the year 1797 ; and many others followed in the succeeding 
 years. Of these, however, Sir Sidney Smith, during the passage 
 of the Dardanelles, destroyed one 64, together with four frigates, 
 and several corvettes ; and the Turkish admiral, Seid Aly, in 
 an action with the Russians, off Tenedos, the same year, lost 
 seven ships of the line ; so that at this time probably the Turkish 
 navy, as well as the army, may be considered nearly at as low 
 an ebb as before Selim's accession to the throne. The present 
 Grand Seignor has five thousand troops trained and disciplined 
 according to European tactics, and about 400,000 Janissaries, 
 an armed rabble. In considering dispassionately the actual de- 
 ficiency of moral energy in the Ottoman Empire, one cannot 
 but be astonished how such an unwieldy mass has held together 
 after the frequent attacks which the Russians have lately made 
 upon it. The wonder, however, will diminish when we consider 
 that the Russians have been wasting their efforts on the ex- 
 tremities of the giants when they might have aimed their blows 
 at his heart ; for, if instead of exhausting their armies on the 
 swampy banks of the Danube, or battering the old ramparts 
 of Ruschuk and Schumla to reach the intricate defiles of the 
 Balcan, they had only seized on Ihe promontory of Eneada, and 
 there formed an intrenched camp, they would have taken all 
 these defences in reverse, and might have marched upon the 
 capital itself, after one general engagement. 
 
 It is more than probable, that by these tactics, they would 
 have speedily succeeded in driving the Turks across the Bospho- 
 rus of Thrace. The fate of the unfortunate Selim, the destruction 
 
TURKISH NAVY. 241 
 
 of all his plans, and the overthrow of the Nizami-Ghedid, must 
 have convinced England and France, the natural allies of Turkey, 
 that without more effectual assistance than has yet been afforded 
 her, all the efforts which her ministry have yet made to place 
 their navy, army, and finances on a respectable footing, will be 
 unavailing. The grand obstacle towards all amelioration in 
 Turkey, is " the spirit of rapine," which, like an inveterate dry- 
 rot, has diffused itself through every crevice and cranny of the 
 whole political edifice. The love of gold bartered away to the 
 armies of France those posts and fortresses so perpetually yielded 
 up to them during the war in Austria, until, by the surrender of 
 Ulm, they were enabled to gain the field of Austerlitz. The 
 love of gold has placed the provinces of Wallachia and Molda- 
 via within the gripe of Russia, and if not checked, will at length 
 open the free passage of the Bosphorus to her fleets, demolish the 
 batteries of De Tott, and finally plant the Black Eagle on the 
 minarets of the mosque of Eyoub. The perseverance and con- 
 stancy with which the court of Petersburg have pursued their fa- 
 vourite plans of aggrandizement towards Turkey, are worthy of 
 admiration. The luckless defeat of Peter the Great, on the 
 banks of the Pruth, undid all the efforts of his reign ; but the 
 armies of Catherine, having achieved the conquest of the Cri- 
 mea, opened at once the Black Sea to the fleets of Russia ; and 
 the manoeuvres of diplomacy, having ably seconded the invading 
 armies of Alexander, in advancing towards the Danube, on one 
 side, and the valleys of Teflis on the other, have placed the 
 Porte at this moment, between the vortices of Scylla and Charyb-- 
 dis. A few short years must now determine her fate, and upon 
 the ruins of her empire, may be then established the greatest 
 power which has appeared in Europe, since the downfal of the 
 
 i i 
 
242 TURKISH NAVY. 
 
 throne of Constantine. But England and France have it yet 
 in their power to impede this appalling catastrophe. During 
 the residence at Pera, of that able French diplomatist, the Count 
 de Choiseul Gouffier, three French engineers, Messieurs Dumas, 
 De la Fitte Clare, and Bonera, made a military reconnoisance of 
 all the assailable points in the neighbourhood of the capital, and 
 recommended a plan of fortifying the Bosphorus, which would 
 have rendered the passage of it almost a moral impossibility to a 
 Russian fleet. Their memoir, a MS. copy of which is now be- 
 fore me, bears date the 22d April, 1784, but up to March 1806, 
 not a single step had been taken to carry this plan into effect. 
 Happily for Turkey, instead of attempting the passage of the 
 Bosphorus, the Russian armies advanced into Bulgaria, and were 
 baffled in their attempts to cross the Balcan, although the pas- 
 sage of our own fleet, under Admiral Duckworth, through the 
 Dardanelles, might have proved the facility of Ibrcing the corres- 
 ponding passage of the Bosphorus ; most fortunately, however, 
 our example was lost to them ; and the Turkish emperor, it may 
 be presumed, now holds his capital in consequence of this 
 very oversight. The difficulties, however, which the British 
 fleet surmounted, on that memorable occasion, were sufficient 
 to have discouraged any hearts less undaunted than those of 
 British seamen, and have never yet been fully made known. To 
 judge of them, it will be sufficient to consider the amazing 
 strength of the defences of the Dardanelles. On that narrow 
 channel, there are two fortified positions, the first at the entrance, 
 between Cape Janissary and Koum Kale ; and the second, at what 
 may be properly termed the Dardanelles, twelve miles higher up, 
 at the narrowest part of the straits of Sestos and Abydos. The 
 former are called the New Castles, the latter having been built 
 
THE DARDANELLES. 
 
 243 
 
 by Mahomet the Fourth, in 1659, are called the Old Castles. 
 There is also a fifth castle or fort, on the European side, between 
 that of the entrance and the Dardanelles, which is that built by 
 De Tott. 
 
 The two first or New Castles, at the mouth of the straits had 
 so little effect on the British fleet, that Sir J. Duckworth, in his 
 passage upwards, did not think it necessary even to return their 
 fire. 
 
 The Old Castles are constructed at the narrowest part of the 
 passage, where the width is only about 1040 French toises, and 
 the currents are extremely rapid. The castles consist of a 
 strong battery, level with the water's edge, flanked by round 
 towers, and crowned by a strong keep in the centre. That on 
 the European side stands on the declivity of a mountain ; the 
 Asiatic castle is placed on a sand-bank, at the mouth of a small 
 marshy river. The great battery of the European castle has 
 three faces, and contains the following cannon. 
 
 Eighteen brass guns, (with cylindrical chambers,) ten feet long 
 and 22 inches calibre, for discharging stone balls of twenty-two 
 inches diameter, with a range of 1200 yards. One similar gun, 
 twenty feet long, twenty inches calibre ; another, called the 
 Buynk, or Giant, twenty-eight inches calibre. These guns are 
 laid upon stone beds, under stone archways ; but in 1 784 the 
 French engineers found six of them totally unfit for use. Be- 
 sides these, there are eleven brass guns, twenty-four pounders, 
 and eight guns, eight and four pounders, mounted on ship car- 
 riages. These guns are distributed on the whole three faces of 
 the battery ; but the twenty-four pounders, placed in front of the 
 Cyclopean guns, are not under archways, and are generally used 
 in saluting. The opposite castle contains (or did contain) fifty- 
 
 i i 2 
 
244 THE DARDANELLES. 
 
 three pieces of cannon, thirty-four of gigantic dimensions, the 
 others twenty-four and eighteen pounders ; and seven twelve-inch 
 mortars. So that the British fleet had to run the gauntlet of not 
 fewer than 100 pieces of cannon, in a narrow channel, against a 
 rapid current ; then to oppose the Turkish fleet, strongly moored, 
 backed by a battery of thirty guns, on the point called " The Bar- 
 bers." How the fleet escaped total destruction would seem almost 
 miraculous, were it not for the unmanageable nature of the stone 
 guns, which being placed on beds, cannot be fired above once during 
 the transit of a fleet. The discharging of such guns must be a 
 duty both of great difficulty and danger. De Tott informs us 
 that one of the bullets, weighing 1100 pounds, required 330 
 pounds of powder to send it across the Hellespont, and, but for 
 strong flanking buttresses to the walls, and a ramp of fascines 
 behind the breech of the guns, each discharge would shake down 
 the loose masonry of the walls. Even as it is, the concussion 
 is so great as nearly to kill the Turkish artillery-men, forcing 
 the blood from their nose and ears, and almost suffocating them 
 with the smoke of their own powder. In aid of the like tre- 
 mendous batteries on the Bosphorus, the French engineers pro- 
 posed batteries en barbette along the heights at certain distances, 
 and floating batteries moored on the water. 
 
 The ancient land defences of the city are in a complete state 
 of decay, and are only to be regarded as the most magnificent 
 piles of mural ruins to be seen in Europe. Of all the ancient 
 structures at Constantinople, these are certainly the most impos- 
 ing and sublime. Across the neck of the Isthmus, from the sea 
 of Marmora, to the top of the harbour, for an extent of five miles 
 and a half, runs a triple wall, flanked alternately at intervals of 
 150 yards by square and round towers. The second wall is dis- 
 
WALLS OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 245 
 
 tant from the first about thirty feet, and is about twenty feet 
 high, or ten feet lower than the inner wall, which is thirty feet 
 in height. The towers in the second wall, placed midway 
 between the towers of the first, are chiefly in ruins, and project 
 a little from the wall. The third line of wall is only twelve or 
 fifteen feet high ; it lines the inner side of the ditch, and is 
 distant about eighteen feet from the second ; the ditch itself is 
 about thirty feet wide, and is faced externally by a low wall or 
 counterscarp, in some places of fifteen, in others only four or six 
 feet deep. Traversing this ditch at intervals of 150 yards, are 
 walls about six feet high supported by buttresses, and having 
 small arches beneath, through which creeps a stream of water : 
 it formerly filled the ditch, being supplied from large cisterns. 
 The masonry of these walls is massive and rich, composed of 
 alternate layers of brick and stone, such as are found in Roman 
 buildings. All these walls, as well as the counterscarp, have been 
 shaken by earthquakes, and exhibit terrific gaps, covered with 
 ivy, or crowned with trees, planted by the fowls of the air, 
 or by the agency of the elements, their roots creeping down in 
 snaky folds over the surface in search of moisture. Here and 
 there disjointed fragments of rock and ruins have filled the 
 ditch, and the industry of man, taking advantage of the accident, 
 has converted them into gardens : but the country around is 
 rocky and sterile, covered with extensive cemeteries, and shaded 
 by gloomy cypresses. When wandering beneath these immense 
 towers, the admiring beholder can observe nothing to connect 
 his ideas with the present race of mankind. The howlings of 
 jackals and wolves from the tombs, and the screams of owls 
 and vultures from the turrets of the abandoned walls, are the 
 
246 WALLS OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 only sounds of animation which meet his ear. Like the Pyra- 
 mids of Cheops and Saccaroth in Egypt, or the ruins of Stone- 
 henge in our own island, they exist the awful monuments of a 
 race whose memory our imagination loves to dwell upon, but 
 who have long since and for ever been swept from the face of the 
 earth. ' 9 
 
247 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Beiram. — Illumination of the Mosques. — Popular remedy for Con' 
 sumption. — Mosque of the reigning Sultan at Scutari. — Turkish Chart 
 of the Black Sea. — Peramidias. — Invasions of the Don Cossacks. — 
 Navigation and Commerce of the Black Sea. — Conjectures as to the 
 Etymology of the Bos-poros and Hellespont. — Bosporean Kiosks and 
 Villas. — Beautiful Cameo and sculptured Horn of Rhinoceros. — Anec- 
 dotes of Sorcery. — The Salii of the Romans, and Seicks of the Turks. 
 
 At no time is the spectacle of Constantinople more striking to 
 a stranger, than during the nights of the Turkish festival called 
 the Beiram, or Easter of the Mahometans. 
 
 No sooner have the inhabitants of the village of Tapu Chandy i, in 
 Asia, observed the rising of the moon, from behind the summit of 
 Mount Olympus, which terminates the Ramazan, than the intelli- 
 gence is conveyed by the firing of guns and the ascension of rockets. 
 Millions of lamps, covering in long festoons, the cupolas and mina- 
 rets of the mosques, flash at once, as if by magic, into streams of 
 light, and illuminate, like fiery meteors, the vast extent of the city. 
 Some of the Cyclopean artillery, before mentioned, lying on the 
 shore of the point, near the seraglio, are then fired, to announce, 
 that the irksome period of fasting has expired, and that all the 
 race of true believers may testify their joy and orthodoxy, by 
 drinking and feasting day and night, for three days. The dan- 
 
248 THE BEIRAM. 
 
 gers attending such a transition from spare to full diet are un- 
 heeded ; apoplexy and sudden death, for a time, fill the ceme- 
 teries, not less certainly than the plague. The same result at- 
 tends, in Catholic countries, the conclusion of Lent ; and, as the 
 Lisbon physicians can well attest, and indeed the frequent fu- 
 nerals, the " Subitce mortes intestaque senectus," which happen 
 among " the porcine brethren" of the numerous convents, I can 
 vouch for, from my own observation. Like that of the Catholics 
 too, the religion of the followers of Mahomet, consists more in the 
 external observance of forms, than in the practice of moral duties; 
 and indeed, so unjustly and ungratefully had an Italian physi- 
 cian found his patients behave towards him, at these times, that 
 he told me, he made a rule of never attending the hasty sum- 
 mons of a rich gormandizing Turk, unless the messenger brought 
 at the same time, the usual equivalent of golden sequins. Still 
 Turkey is a country in which instances of longevity are com- 
 mon. The use of the vapour bath, if not too frequently re- 
 peated, repels the approaches of old age : abstinence from wine 
 and spirits preserves the vigour and tone of the stomach, and 
 gout, rheumatism, cutaneous diseases, and most other chronical 
 complaints, are comparatively very rare. Consumptions are 
 not unfrequent, and generally they are as fatal as elsewhere ; al- 
 though the Turks have a popular remedy, which, in some in- 
 stances, I have observed to be beneficial, namely, a few grains of 
 pitch, made into pills, and administered several times a day. 
 A similar mode of cure has, I understand, been long employed 
 by the Scottish peasantry. The decoction of the sprouts of the 
 young pine has been strongly recommended by the late Dr. 
 Porterfield, of Eden, who is said to have been very successful 
 in the exhibition of this simple medicine. Oriental nations 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 249 
 
 have at all times put great faith in the juices of terebinthinate 
 and balsamic shrubs ; the balsam of Mecca or Gilead is still 
 considered by the Turks as a sort of panacea in stomachic and 
 chronic visceral affections. The difficulty of obtaining it pure 
 and unadulterated, and its high price, are perhaps the real 
 reasons why, like other vaunted remedies, it still maintains so 
 high a reputation. On the warm baths, mosques and other 
 public buildings, as they have been already so ably described, 
 I shall not enter into detail. I was much disappointed both in 
 the exterior and interior of the mosque of St. Sophia, and thought 
 many of the other royal mosques more worthy of admiration, 
 particularly those of the Sultans Soliman and Ahmet. At Scutari, 
 we visited a small mosque which had been recently erected by 
 the reigning monarch, the unfortunate Selim : it is built of grey 
 marble, and the interior being entirely covered with finely 
 polished slabs of that material, and adorned simply with tablets 
 bearing golden inscriptions from the Koran, struck me as very 
 beautiful. At the printing-press of Scutari we saw some of 
 the first efforts of the Turks in chart-engravings, particularly 
 one of the Black Sea, then just finished, the most accurate pro- 
 bably yet produced. On that occasion, we dined, as I well 
 remember, at a Turkish coffee-house ; our dinner consisted of 
 kiabob or roasted mutton, bread, sherbet, and grapes, for which 
 we were charged four-pence a piece, including a couple of 
 aspers to the waiter ! The same dinner at a London tavern 
 would have been certainly fifteen times the amount ! In all 
 excursions around this city, the stranger can avail himself of 
 the beautiful pyramidias or wherries which, to the number 
 of 6000, cover the harbour of the Bosphorus, and ply for fares 
 like the gondolas of Venice. These boats which, in form and 
 
 K K 
 
250 CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 lightness resemble Indian canoes, being pointed at both extre- 
 mities, are beautifully carved, and richly gilt : the keels are 
 sharp, and they are so narrow in their beams, that you are 
 obliged to recline in the " stern sheets" to prevent their upsetting. 
 The handles of the oars are shaped like skittles, and heavy enough 
 to balance the other extremities : they play upon a single thole 
 with a grummet, and the boatmen use them so dexterously 
 that I have frequently been rowed from Pera to Terapia, a distance 
 of 10 miles, against the current, within the hour. The sailing boats 
 called Kerlanguishes or swallows, flit along the surface of the water 
 almost with the rapidity of the birds whose name they bear. 
 It was in such boats that formerly the Cossacks of the Don and 
 Dnieper used to cross the Black Sea, plundering the villages on 
 the banks of the Bosphorus, and insulting even the capital. 
 One instance of this kind occurred in 1623, during the reign of 
 Murad the Fourth, when these pirates arrived in a little fleet 
 of one hundred and fifty boats ; and not meeting any effectual 
 resistance, continued their depredations for several days ; and 
 it was to prevent a repetition of such aggressions, that the Grand 
 Seignor first ordered two castles to be constructed at the mouth 
 of the Black Sea, against which the Ambassador of Poland pro- 
 tested as an act contrary to the capitulations of peace then con- 
 cluded. (See Rycaufs History of the Turks.) At that time 
 England possessed the liberty of navigating the Euxine, in 
 virtue of a treaty made during the reign of James the First ; 
 but this concession was afterwards cancelled, and it was not 
 until the year 1799 that Great Britain regained her privilege, 
 twenty-five years after the treaty of Kainargih, which had thrown 
 open the Bosphorus to the merchant-ships of Russia and Austria. 
 This sea had been most despotically closed upon all the civi- 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 251 
 
 lised nations of Europe, for the long period of three hundred 
 years ; namely, from the time when the Turks wrested Kaffa from 
 the Genoese, in 1476. The circumstance is the more extraordinary, 
 when we reflect that this sea had been in early ages the scene of the 
 most active commerce to the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Mile- 
 sians, and that the traffic and fisheries pursued on its shores had 
 been sources of immense wealth to all these maritime people. 
 The value indeed of this trade has been amply proved since the 
 establishment of the Russian port of Odessa; for, in 1802 their 
 coasting trade alone gave employment to 36 square rigged vessels 
 and 266 small craft, including kaiques, voliks, &c, while in 1805 
 the Russian exports from the port of Odessa alone, amounted to 
 seven millions four hundred thousand roubles ; and the vessels 
 which cleared out from the same port in 1803, the year succeed- 
 ing the peace of Amiens, amounted to no fewer than eight 
 hundred and fifteen sail. 
 
 Of no part of Europe has the early history been involved in 
 greater obscurity than that of Constantinople and the Bosphorus 
 of Thrace. The honour of founding Byzantium has been by 
 different early writers attributed to Milesians, or Athenians, 
 or Lacedemonians ; and coins, medals, and inscriptions have been 
 produced and quoted to prove the existence of a fabulous hero 
 called Byzas of Megara, who first founded a colony of Greeks on 
 " the golden horn." 
 
 The poets, the most early but unfortunately the least authentic 
 of the Pagan historians, have contributed to involve us in still 
 greater mistakes. Jupiter, according to their accounts, crossed the 
 straits in the form of a white bull, and carried off the nymph 
 Europa, who was plaiting garlands of flowers on the shores. *" 
 
 k k 2 
 
252 
 
 THE BOSPHORUS. 
 
 These straits, therefore, were called Bos-poros, or the Passage 
 of the Bull ; and the Hellespont, or Sea of the nyrnph Helle *, 
 obtained that denomination from a similar fable. 11 The truth, 
 however, I believe to have been, that one of these straits was 
 entitled the Passage of the Persians, and the other the Sea or 
 Passage of the Babylonians. From the researches of Mr. Rich, 
 and other late travellers, we have ascertained that the tower of 
 Babel was constructed at a place called Hella ; after the grand 
 dispersion, therefore, of mankind, the sea of Marmora and its 
 straits were called Hellespont, or the Sea of Hella. But when 
 Darius Hystaspes, and other kings of Persia, entered Europe at 
 the head of armies composed of the inhabitants of Mount 
 Taurus, they crossed the Bosphorus, and then first brought into 
 Europe those huge unknown animals since called elephants, but 
 for which the Greeks and Thracians, having then no other appel- 
 lation, called them white bulls, [bos leucos,) and the Romans on 
 seeing them for the first time in Italy, in the army of Pyrrhus, 
 gave them the same title. Thus Ennius, the most aniccnt of the 
 Roman poets, says, " Atque locusta bovem lucum pariet prius ;" 
 and Lucretius, " hide boves lucos turrito corpore tetros." The 
 fable, therefore, of Jupiter and Europa may be thus solved : 
 The Kings of Persia entering Europe with white bulls, or ele- 
 phants, carried off into captivity the virgins of Europe ; thence 
 the passage was called Bos-poros, the Passage of the Elephants. 
 Hella was the site of ancient Babylon, but hela was death, or a 
 valley ; thus the word redoubled was " the valley of death," so 
 often recurring in sacred writings. The Persians were over- 
 whelmed in recrossing the Hellespont ; the sea itself, therefore, 
 
 * The whole plain of Shinaar was called Hella. 
 
THE BOSPHORUS. 253 
 
 was the fatal sea, the deadly passage, the passage of death, or 
 sea of Hella. 
 
 The banks of this "enchanted current" are still, as in the 
 days of Europa, covered with flowers, and are the resort of beau- 
 tiful nymphs ; for the villas of all the richest inhabitants of Con- 
 stantinople extend for miles along the water's edge, affording 
 the most delicious retreats from the tainted atmosphere of those 
 bazars and bezesteins in which the jewellers and merchants 
 carry on their daily traffic. In this particular the capital of Con- 
 stantine had the greatest advantage over that of Romulus, where, 
 in order to escape from the morbid miasmata of the Pontine 
 Marshes, the Roman senators were obliged to undertake a tedious 
 and dangerous journey to reach the shores of Baise ; while in the 
 eastern metropolis, after gliding for a few minutes along the 
 azure current, the luxurious Byzantine could attain his seques- 
 tered villa, remote from the crowded forum of the city, and the 
 splendid miseries of the palace. Nor do the sums daily lavished 
 on the erection of these marine pavillions fall far short of those 
 expended of old by the Romans on their villas of Naples and 
 Portici. In many situations near Terapia I have observed scores 
 of labourers excavating the perpendicular rocks to procure areas 
 and terraces for houses and gardens. The adamantine trap or 
 basalt * was next to be covered with vegetable mould brought 
 from a distance to serve as soil for a multitude of flowers and 
 shrubs. Workmen of every nation and religion were employed 
 of necessity in this new creation ; and as the sabbath and holidays 
 of all these workmen fell on different days of the week, thebuild- 
 
 * De Tott found porphyry in digging the foundations of his Asiatic castle. Both 
 basalt and porphyry are volcanic products. 
 
254 THE BOSPHORUS. 
 
 ing encountered all the difficulties experienced at the Tower of 
 Babel. The Turkish carpenters were absent on Fridays, the 
 Jewish labourers on Saturdays, and the Armenian masons on 
 Sundays. The Greek plasterer had a holiday on Monday, and 
 the Catholic whitewasher on Tuesday ; so that a villa which in 
 England would have been completely finished in a few weeks, 
 occupied in Turkey several years in building. Moreover, ere it 
 was well completed, the luckless owner, if for instance a rich 
 Armenian banker, might have been strangled by order of the 
 Grand Seignor, his fortune confiscated, and his Bosphorian villa 
 appropriated as a gift to some greedy Pacha, or as the dowry of 
 a favourite slave from the seraglio. But the swallow will still 
 return to build her nest on the Gothic pinnacle in spite of the 
 ruin occasionally caused by the merciless hurricane : the Nea- 
 politan still founds his palace on the glowing embers which have 
 covered Pompeia and Herculaneum ; and man, true to his own 
 fatal instincts, unwearied in his search after happiness, untaught 
 by past experience, and still trusting to the flatteries of delusive 
 Hope, builds his nest, halcyon like, on the surface of the main, 
 or 
 
 " Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast, 
 Ready with every nod to tumble down 
 Into the fatal bosom of the deep." 
 
 The commerce of the Levant being now chiefly carried on at 
 Smyrna, Constantinople is not much resorted to by British tra- 
 vellers ; and even those few who visit it, stay too short a time, 
 or are too much engaged in the pursuits either of business or 
 pleasure, to investigate all its resources. English artists know 
 little of the rich fund of studies, with which a residence of even 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 255 
 
 six months at that capital, would furnish them. Mr. Aston 
 Barker is the only English painter, I believe, that has availed 
 himself of these advantages, and the beauty and accuracy of his 
 panoramas cannot be forgotten by those who have seen the spots 
 from whence he made his sketches. To an historical painter, 
 the opportunities of there filling his port-folio with drawings of 
 the finest characters, of physiognomy and masculine beauty, can- 
 not be too much recommended. Titian, Bellino, and other Ve- 
 netian painters, profited by them in former days, and the reader 
 need only cast his eye over the masterly etchings of Denon, in 
 the Voyage de l'Egypte, to be convinced, that the mine is still 
 unexhausted To the antiquary also, Constantinople might af- 
 ford a rich treat ; the Bezesteins and Jewellers' shops contain, 
 constantly, a large quantity of coins, cameos, and other objects 
 of archaeological research, most of which find their way into the 
 hands of persons who are too ignorant to deduce any knowledge 
 from them. I recollect having seen, in the collection of M. De 
 Viscues, a merchant at Pera, two antiques of great value. One 
 was a beautiful cameo, with about fifteen or twenty figures, re- 
 presenting the shipwreck of the hero of the Odyssey, beautifully 
 executed ; and the other, the horn of a rhinoceros, admirably 
 sculptured in low relief, the subjects being boar and stag hunts. 
 The latter was purchased, as the proprietor told me, from a 
 Janissary, who said he found it among the sands of Egypt. Its 
 form was scaphoid, resembling that of the double-headed pa- 
 terae, in use amongst the ancients, for pouring libations on the 
 altars of the gods ; some of which, of pure gold, have been found 
 of late in the bogs of Ireland. The intemperate Thracians were 
 accustomed to empty them in their drinking matches, at a single 
 
256 
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 draught, a practice which the Highland chieftains of the present 
 day still observe. * It was probably owing to such a heroic ex- 
 ploit, that Alexander the Great owed his sudden death. For 
 although Quintus Curtius seems to hint at the effects of ooison, 
 it is more than probable, that apoplexy was the real cause of his 
 decease. He was in the very act of emptying a drinking horn, 
 called the Cup of Hercules, when he fell back, as if transfixed by 
 a weapon, and soon after expired. " Nondum Herculis scypho 
 epoto repente velul de telo confixo ingemuit" says the historian. 
 The horns of the rhinoceros, or unicorn, were particularly se- 
 lected by the ancients for these patera?, from a received opinion, 
 that, by an extraordinary occult and magical quality, no poison- 
 ous beverage could be poured into them, without its being in- 
 dicated by a cold dew, instantaneously distilling from the pores 
 of their surface. Mithridates, therefore, whose whole life, like 
 that of Cromwell, was spent in hourly dread of such a fate, 
 never drank from any other vessel than the horn of a rhinoceros. 
 Nor is the belief in occult qualities or necromancy, at all ex- 
 ploded amongst the lower orders in Turkey, even at this hour. 
 In Knollis's History, may be found occasional notices in proof 
 of this assertion, particularly the stealing, during the night, the 
 feet and head of one Simon Dobbins, a servant of the English 
 ambassador's, who had been hanged for killing a Turk in a 
 drunken fray, which Knollis says, it was suspected they intended 
 to use in some sort of sorcery. A short time before my arrival 
 in Turkey, several young men, Christian rayahs, had disappeared 
 in a mysterious manner at Pera. Soon afterwards, suspicion 
 
 * A quoif, is the Scottish appellation, corrupted from scyphus. 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 25*7 
 
 happening to fall upon an old Zingani woman, the wife of a 
 Janissary, the police entered their dwelling, and found concealed, 
 in an underground cellar, the body of a lusty young Armenian, 
 recently strangled, and exactly in the situation that the Italian 
 painters are accustomed to pourtray St. Bartholomew. It then 
 appeared in evidence, that this Turkish " Canidia," had been 
 for a length of time in the habit of preparing a very admirable 
 cosmetic, a sort of " Pommade Divine," which she sold at a high 
 price to the Scheherazades of the seraglio, to preserve their 
 beauty, and the chief ingredient in which was fresh human 
 fat, procured in this diabolical manner. The wretched couple 
 soon after were empaled alive. 
 
 Monsieur Grelot, architect to Louis the Fourteenth, who tra- 
 velled in Turkey, during the reign of Mahomet the Fourth, in 
 speaking of the villages on the shores of the Dardanelles, says, 
 that these old hags, called Striglais or sorceresses, were common 
 there, and thus describes their incantations. " This same race 
 of Circe, having a design to revenge themselves upon any one 
 that has perhaps but given them cross language in the street, 
 do it in this manner. They rise about midnight, and take three 
 flint stones, over which they mumble certain words, which they 
 teach to none but their scholars ; which being done, they put the 
 stones in the fire till they are red hot, at which time they take 
 them out again, to light a little wax candle at each, which they 
 place upon the three feet of a three-legged stool, in a kind of 
 imitation of the trikirion of the Greek bishops ; this done, they 
 place the three-legged stool across upon their heads, take up the 
 three flints, by this time cold, and sally forth, in this equipage, 
 into the street, where the party lives, and being come to the 
 first place where three ways meet, they throw the stones into 
 
 L L 
 
258 CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 the different passages, believing that by the help of certain words 
 uttered at the same time, those fascinations will produce the in- 
 tended mischief." Even the noted kettles, which are always car- 
 ried in solemn procession at the head of each company of the 
 Janissaries, seem to have a close alliance to these magical cere- 
 monies. Whenever a mutiny of this soldiery happens, they 
 carry their stewpans or kettles, into the Etmeidan, and turn 
 them upside down, leaving them in that situation, until they 
 have deposed their Sultan, or obtained the heads of such of the 
 Divan as are obnoxious to them. The classical reader may find 
 many strong analogies in the processions of these kettles, with 
 that of the Ancilia, which were borrowed from the religion of 
 the Etruscans, and adopted by the Romans, amongst their farrago 
 of religious solemnities. These ancilia were always guarded in 
 the temple of Mars, and annually carried in procession by the 
 salii, their priests. At this hour, the corps of Janissaries have 
 their salii, who being always specially employed as bearers of 
 the Grand Seignor's dispatches, are also sometimes called 
 Peichs, and who, on setting off at full gallop, through the streets, 
 call out constantly, " Sauli! Sauli!" or take care. An old French 
 writer on Turkey, thus describes them : " Les Peichs, sitost quits 
 ont refu son commandement, partent de la main, sautans et bondis- 
 sans parmi le peuple, crians Sauli ! Sauli ! cest comme on dit 
 entre nous gare ! gare ! et ainsi galopans jour et nuict sans prendre 
 reldche, jusques a ce quits soient arriv s au lieu de leur commission." 
 Even in Scotland, the mutes, who precede funeral proces- 
 sions, and usually carry on staves the armorial bearings of the 
 deceased, are still called Saulies, very probably from the same 
 origin. But the Roman poets, ignorant of the mother languages 
 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 259 
 
 of Asia, derived their name * a saliendo, from leaping. While 
 treating on this subject, I may be allowed to mention, that 
 Busbequius alludes to a mode of calling together the armed 
 Servians, by sending l-ound an arrow dipt in blood, from village 
 to village, exactly similar to that so lately in use amongst the 
 clans of the Highlands of Scotland. " (See notes to Scott's Lady 
 of the Lake.) 
 
 * " Et saliis lecto portat ancylia collo." Lucan. 
 " A saltu nomina ducunt." Ovid. 
 " Esultantes salii." Virgil. 
 
 L L 2 
 
260 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Departure from Pera. — Fanaraki. — Voyage across the Black Sea. 
 
 — Midiah. — Eneada. — Agatopoli. — Sizeboli. — Rites of Circe. — 
 Aiouli. — Zingani. — Mesembria, now Missouri. — Varna. — Tur- 
 kish Khan. — Arabats. — Dafac. — Bulgarian dwellings and peasan- 
 try. — Yeni. — Bazar. — Rusgrade. — Torlaqui. — Denises. — Pi- 
 zanza. — Ruschuk. — Giaorgoi. — Bucharest. — Fokshani. — Ancient 
 Dacians. — Birlat. — Jassi. — Botussani. — Czernowitz. — Dr. Fleisch. 
 
 — The Sivvens of the Transylvanian Mountains. — Native Cinnabar. 
 
 In March 1806, I quitted Pera in a Greek kaique, purposing to 
 cross the Black Sea, and as the state of the weather might per- 
 mit, either to land at Varna or Galatz, and thence proceed to 
 England. The wind however being variable, and having shifted 
 to the westward when we were abreast of Buyukdera, we were 
 detained there for several days, and during that interval, the 
 Greek reis having been attacked with fever, I was obliged to 
 procure another vessel. To make amends, however, for this 
 vexatious delay, I had the pleasure and good fortune, when at 
 the table of Count JLudolph the Neapolitan Ambassador, (whose 
 hospitality and attentions I in common with many other British 
 travellers have every reason gratefully to remember,) to meet 
 with a gentleman who spoke Turkish fluently, and who was, like 
 myself bound to Varna ; we accordingly agreed to make our 
 
MIDIAH. 261 
 
 boatmen " keep company" during the voyage, to alleviate in 
 some measure the irksomeness of crossing this gloomy sea. The 
 wind having become favourable, we left Buyukdera in the after- 
 noon, but put into the village of Fanaraki, built under the 
 tower of the European light-house, where we passed the night in 
 the house of a Turkish officer — a miserable wooden tenement 
 on a rock overhanging the waves, the open trap stairs of which 
 were in such a state of decay, that we had nearly broken our 
 legs in ascending them. Next morning, with a fair wind and 
 clear weather, we bade adieu to the Cyanaean islands, and the 
 towering promontories of that glorious channel, and sometimes 
 sailing, at other times rowing, we stretched along the shore 
 towards Midiah. 
 
 Between Fanaraki and Cape Cara Bouron, (the Black Cape,) 
 the land ascends gradually from the margin of the sea, excepting 
 in some places where the shore seems to have been precipitated 
 into the deep by earthquakes, and then the perpendicular faces 
 of the cliffs, showing their internal stratifications, discover hori- 
 zontal beds of limestone, alternating with rich veins of coal, so 
 advantageously situated, that shafts might be opened into it al- 
 most at the water's edge. These beds of coal stretch for many miles 
 beneath the forest of Belgrade, " cropping out," as the miners 
 term it, in various places, and pursuing a direction from south- 
 west to north-east. It is more than probable that the spon- 
 taneous decomposition of the pyrites usually accompanying this 
 formation, gives rise to the violent earthquakes with which Con- 
 stantinople is so frequently visited. At Midiah, the ancient 
 Salmydessus, are the ruins of an old tower on a low cliff jutting 
 over the waves, and near it our boatmen dropt anchor, in front 
 
262 SIZEBOLI. 
 
 of an open sandy beach. They declined going on shore, and, 
 weighing anchor at day-break on the following morning, pro- 
 ceeded towards Mesembria, still running close in with the land, 
 passing in succession the promontory of Eneada with its basaltic 
 columns, and Agatopoli distinguished by a host of small wind- 
 mills with eight vanes. In the afternoon we reached the village 
 of Sizeboli, the ancient Apollonia, where we procured some 
 fried eggs, bread, and Haemean honey, for a few aspers. A 
 Greek produced for sale, ancient coins in a leathern bag, from 
 which we selected a few of Istropolis, Apollonia, and Byzan- 
 tium. Those of Istropolis have been before mentioned. That 
 of Apollonia is of brass, and represents three women with joined 
 hands dancing around a flaming cauldron, performing theCircean 
 orgies of Hecate the infernal Diana, the Diva triformis. 
 
 " sparsis Medea capillis 
 
 Bacchantum ritu Jlagrantes circuit aras." 
 
 Senec Medea. 
 
 The obverse is a female head bound with a fillet. 
 
 All the interior of Moesia, says D' Anville, was more anciently 
 called Dardania, from the name of a people known to be savage 
 in an early age 5 and indeed the inhabitants of this line of coast 
 were ever held infamous for the practice of sorcery, which was 
 called the Dardanian art, 
 
 " At si nulla valet medicina repellere pestem 
 Dardania veniant artes." 
 
 Apud Columellam De Re Rust. 
 
 Near Sizeboli is Aiolu the ancient Anchiale, whence it is pro- 
 bable the sacred shields (called Ancylia) were brought into Italy, 
 
Missouri. 263 
 
 by the ancient Etruscans. The Scythians were remarkable for 
 large brazen vessels. " Between the rivers Borysthenes and Hy- 
 pania, there is a place called Exampus," says Herodotus, " where 
 there is a copper vessel six times larger than a similar vessel at 
 the mouth of the Euxine sea, which was consecrated by Pausa- 
 nias son of Cleombrotus ; it contains about 6400 gallons, and is 
 six inches in thickness. The inhabitants of those parts say, 
 that it was made from the heads of arrows or spears of the 
 Scythians ; that Ariantus their king being desirous of know- 
 ing the number of his subjects, demanded that every Scythian 
 should, on pain of death, bring him the point of an arrow or 
 spear." 
 
 After quitting Sizeboli we crossed the little bay of Foros, at 
 the bottom of which is situated the town of Tchingane, the 
 head-quarters and capital of the Zinganies of Mount Haamus. 
 Next we passed Aiolu, the ancient Anchiolus, then Missouri, 
 anciently Mesembria. I may here notice that Dr. Clarke, follow- 
 inc the authority of Strabo and D'Anville, has been misled into a 
 belief, that Briga is the ancient Thracian appellation of a city, 
 synonymous with the Greek polls, for it was in fact the Phrygian 
 ox Celtic appellation of a bridge or brig, which meaning it still 
 retains in the Scottish dialect, and was added to the proper 
 names of such ancient towns as could boast a bridge. Thus we 
 still say Ferrybridge, Uxbridge, Knightsbridge, Tunbridge, 
 Borouohbridge, &c. 4nd on collating on the map the names of 
 two-and-tliirty ancient cities terminating in briga, I find that 
 they all had bridges joined to them ; as for example Conimbriga, 
 Coimbra in Portugal ; Miro-briga, Ciudad Bodrigo in Spain ; 
 Durobriga, Rochester in Kent. 
 
264 odessus. 
 
 Near Missouri the mountains of Hasmus rise boldly in a pro- 
 montory called Emine-bouroun, from the water's edge, and the 
 coast continues very steep and rocky, till it recedes to admit the 
 river of Varna. The high ruins of some quadrangular towers, 
 announced at some distance the importance of the ancient city 
 of Odessus, celebrated in history as the earliest sea-port of the 
 Milesians, on the Euxine, and in modern times, for the defeat 
 and death of Ladislaus, king of Hungary, whose army was 
 totally destroyed in the adjoining valley, by the Turkish Empe- 
 ror Amurath the First. There is now a ruinous wooden pier 
 projecting into the bay, but so shallow is the water, that our 
 boats grounded before we reached it, and we landed by stepping 
 from the deck on a bullock's wain, which was driven into the 
 water to receive our luggage and the crew of the kaique. Here 
 for the first time we were lodged in a Turkish Caravanserai, the 
 various discomforts of which are hardly to be imagined. It was 
 a ruined quadrangle, with some rotten staircases leading to 
 dormitories without doors or shutters, the floors of which were 
 covered with fragments of brick tiles, and mortar rubbish, rags 
 which swarmed with vermin, and decaying straw, the beds of 
 preceding occupants. The area of the building was covered with 
 baggage and horses, and in a corner there were some Turks 
 squatted on a carpet, near a heap of expiring embers, calmly 
 smoking their long tchibouques, and listening with apparent satis- 
 faction to the wiry tinkling of a balalaika, to which some miserable 
 Zingani children, half naked, were distorting their famished and 
 tawny limbs. Nevertheless, as a strong gale arose, fraught with 
 snow-storms during the night, we found that bad as our lodging 
 was, it was better than the open deck of a kaique moored under 
 
BULGARIAN PEASANTS. 265 
 
 the rocks of the Black Sea. Next morning we hired some 
 arabats, for the accommodation of ourselves and Janissaries, and 
 proceeded towards Ruschuk. These arabats are light covered 
 waggons, drawn by two horses, which travel at the rate of five 
 miles an hour. The drivers were Turks, fierce-looking ruffians, 
 armed with pistols, yatagans, and cartridge-boxes, and whose 
 equipments were sufficiently indicative of the state of the country 
 through which we were to pass. After a tedious day's journey, 
 ascending by deep roads, slate hills, covered with hazel copses, 
 we reached a hamlet on a steep, commanding a distant view of 
 the Black Sea, where our drivers told us we should pass the 
 night. This hamlet is called Dafne. We were lodged in the 
 house of a Bulgarian peasant, and were most agreeably surprised 
 by finding it remarkably clean and warm. This, like all the 
 other Bulgarian cabins which we entered, was built of wood and 
 mud, or pisa, well thatched and surrounded with a broad portico 
 supported by pillars, which, by throwing off the rain from the 
 walls, kept the foundations close and dry. The principal apart- 
 ment is always well matted and surrounded by a low divan with 
 cushions. A small three-legged stool for holding the dinner 
 tray is the only furniture, and there is a large fire-place, with a 
 good wood fire, warming while it enlightens the room, which is 
 often without any window. The faces of the women are not 
 veiled, their head-dresses are composed of lofty tiaras of muslin, 
 ornamented with long strings of paras, piastres, and other coins, 
 while their necks, arms, and ears, are loaded with necklaces, 
 bracelets, and ear-rings of gold or silver, of barbaresque form 
 and workmanship. Their dialect is Sclavonian, and they affect 
 to follow the ritual and observances of the Greek church, but 
 they, as well as their religious instructors are so ignorant, that 
 
 M M 
 
266 
 
 YENI-BAZAR. 
 
 all their devotions are generally confined to repeating one or two 
 prayers, making the sign of the cross, observing fast and saint 
 days, and worshipping little images of fantastic shapes, which 
 they call saints, more frequently resembling the rude images or 
 lares of the ancients. Each papas or village priest performs 
 the duties of officiating at the funerals, marriages, or baptisms of 
 the inhabitants of two or three villages, who join in paying him 
 a miserable stipend. The Bulgarians are generally a humane, 
 kind-hearted people, hospitable to such strangers as come under 
 their humble roofs. 
 
 After leaving Dafne, our subsequent stages were Yeni-bazar, 
 Zahunas, Kioui, Rasgrade, Torlaqui, Pizanza, and Ruschuk. 
 
 Yeni-bazar (the new market), is a small town, containing a 
 mixed population of about three hundred families, of which, per- 
 haps, fifty only, are Bulgarians. The town, as its name imports, 
 is modern, and owes its rise chiefly to the emigration of poor 
 families from Wallachia and Moldavia, who pass over the Danube, 
 and take refuge in Bulgaria, to avoid the tyranny and extortion 
 practised by Greek tax-gatherers, and their native Boyars, choosing 
 to live even under all the misei'ies of Turkish tyranny, rather 
 than to endure the fallacious freedom of such a representative 
 system as they are oppressed with at home, a truth, by the way, 
 not a little in favour of honest despotism, and confirming the 
 assertion of a celebrated writer, that Turkish domination is most 
 fatal to the great, but merciful to the poorer classes of the 
 empire. At this place we lodged in the house of a Turk, who 
 had retired from the corps of janissaries, and lived upon a military 
 fief, or timariot. The old man received us with much kindness 
 and hospitality, ordering an excellent pillau to be prepared for us, 
 giving us a warm sleeping room, and good mattrasses. 
 
RASGKADE. 
 
 267 
 
 We found the face of the country through which we passed so 
 veiled in snow, that its more prominent features only could be 
 perceived. It seemed, for the most part, open and fertile, but thinly 
 peopled, and, of course, exhibiting but little tillage, although 
 reputed the best wheat country in European Turkey. Thickets 
 of oak appeared from time to time, and the lofty mountains of 
 Hgemus occasionally glittered in the sun-beams at a great dis- 
 tance on the left of our road. We met no travellers, excepting 
 between Rasgrade and Torlaqui, when we encountered a caval- 
 cade of nearly a thousand Turkish spahis descending a steep hill 
 escorting the warlike Pacha Mustapha Bairactar, then on a tour 
 through the towns of his Pashalik, collecting his revenue, and 
 redressing grievances. 
 
 He was a dark good-looking man, apparently under forty, 
 with a bushy black beard, well mounted on an Arabian stallion, 
 and cloathed in a superb pelisse, with an Indian shawl co^ 
 vering his turban. The Albanian janissaries who accom- 
 panied him, were arrayed in all the splendour of Asiatic war- 
 fare; their rich-coloured costume and silver-mounted pistols 
 (yatagans), and sabres chosen without any regard to uniformity ; 
 the ruffian fierceness of their deportment, and the neighino- of 
 their stallions gave an air of novelty to the scene which was 
 very imposing. 
 
 Rasgrade, or Laz-garad, a corruption of Lazigorod, or city of 
 the Lazi*, is a town of some magnitude. It seems to have been 
 founded, as the name imports, by the Lazi, one of the vagabond 
 tribes from the valleys of Caucasus, and if we can suppose its 
 foundation as remote as the period of the Argonautic expedition, 
 
 * Lazi, slingers. 
 M M 2 
 
268 RASGRADE. 
 
 it may be the identical settlement of the pursuers of Jason and 
 Medea, mentioned in ancient history. Its present popula- 
 tion may be estimated at 10,000 souls, one- third of whom are 
 Greek Christians, the remainder Jews and Turks. It contains 
 two small mosques, and is surrounded with mud walls, in a ruin- 
 ous state. The country around is an open plain, abounding with 
 Scythian barrows, probably the monuments of that expedition of 
 Alexander the Great against the Triballi, which is mentioned in 
 the Supplement of Quintus Curtius. The supposition is the more 
 probable, as this plain is in the direct route which the army of 
 Alexander must have taken in issuing from the defiles of Mount 
 Haemus, after he had defeated the Thracian Autonomi, who had 
 ineffectually opposed their carrago of waggons to their Mace- 
 donian invaders. " Insiderant montis verticem (says the historian) 
 curribus pro vallo, qua patebat aditus utebantur, inde pugnaturi si 
 necessitas postulasset. * 
 
 Syrmus, king of the Triballi, had fled with all his riches, 
 women and children, to the island of Peuce in the Danube ; a 
 body of troops headed by one of his generals was left behind 
 to retard the progress of Alexander, who defeated them with 
 great slaughter, and continuing his pursuit to the banks of the 
 river, crossed it in the night-time on a bridge of boats ; and 
 on finding the capital deserted, levelled it with the ground. It 
 was then that he received the memorable embassy of that proud 
 and independent race, who, when asked what they most dreaded, 
 replied, they feared nothing except the fall of the heavens 
 above. " Illi hoc se in primis timere responderunt, ne forte in 
 sese aliquando ccelum rueret." This lofty sentiment is still pre- 
 
 * Supplement, Quint. Curt. lib. ii. 
 
PIZANZA. 
 
 269 
 
 served amongst the Scots, who in answer to any improbable 
 or cowardly supposition, reply ; " And if the lift should fa' and 
 smoor the lav' rock !" * 
 
 This brave and generous people, the Triballi, afterwards 
 perished in a body in the waters of the Danube, by the sudden 
 yielding of the ice under the weight of their waggons. 
 
 At Torlaqui, five leagues from Rasgrade, the population irj 
 principally Turkish. A sect of Dervises take their origin 
 here, who live by roaming over Turkey, and subsisting on the 
 superstitious terrors which they infuse into the minds of the 
 peasants. They carry with them in these peregrinations an old 
 man, whom, like the Xamolxis of the ancient Getge, or the Lama 
 of the Tartars, they impose upon the credulous as a living 
 incarnation of the Divinity, affecting always to hold him in the 
 highest veneration. They have an establishment for him in the 
 greatest state at the best house in the village. " Ever and anon" 
 this old Lama prognosticates some impending public calamity, 
 such as earthquake, pestilence, or famine ; which is only to be 
 averted by sending him rich gifts. The terrified peasantry hasten 
 to propitiate the divine wrath, by laying at the feet of the holy 
 man all their little wealth, and the threatened danger ceases for 
 a time to appal them. 
 
 We passed a night at Pizanza, which is a poor village of 
 straggling rude huts, covering in a picturesque manner the side 
 of a steep slate rock. Here our Janissary did to us, that which 
 Busbequius complains as having happened more than once to 
 himself, for he roused us at the crowing of the cock, assuring us 
 
 * What if the heavens should fall and smother the lark ! 
 
270 
 
 BUCHAREST. 
 
 it was day-light. We dressed ourselves in haste, believing the 
 positive assertions of the augur. It brought forcibly to my 
 recollection one of my native ballads, and with it the pleasing 
 remembrance of Mrs. Jordan's singing, 
 
 " The lassie thought it day, 
 
 " When she warn'd her love away ; 
 
 " But it was but a blink of the moon." 
 
 We left Pizanza in a drizzling cold rain, and getting to the 
 top of a hill, hailed with heartfelt delight the white minarets and 
 towers of Ruschuk, and the wide expanded waters of the 
 " dark flowing Danube." After procuring a cup of muddy 
 coffee at a Turkish inn, we lost no time in entering a flat-bot-- 
 tomed boat, and soon reached the opposite shore of Wallachia. 
 In our journey through " the infamous Bulgaria," our convoy had 
 been increased by four Armenian merchants well armed, so that 
 altogether we amounted to at least twenty persons. To our 
 numbers it is probable that we owed our safety, for at a village 
 near Laz-grade, on stopping to halt for an hour, eight Albanians 
 well mounted and still better armed, entered the court of the 
 inn, and if one might be permitted to judge of their intentions 
 by the villainy of their scrutinising looks, their visit was not 
 without a motive of the worst kind ; however they seemed to 
 regard our party as too strong to be attacked, and after 
 putting a few questions to our Janissaries set off at full 
 speed, certainly not accompanied with our regrets at their de- 
 parture. 
 
 After sleeping at Giaourkioi, we reached Bucharest next day, 
 where I purchased a berline, and having dismissed with presents, 
 
FOKSHANI. 
 
 271 
 
 the faithful Janissary who had accompanied me from Constan- 
 tinople, I left the hospitable roof of Mr. Summerer, the English 
 Consul, who very obligingly gave me letters both to the Greek 
 Spravenich, at Fokshani, and to Mr. KuchanofF, the Russian 
 Consul at Jassi. My journey from Bucharest to Fokshani, was 
 of the most painful nature ; the cold was so intense, and the 
 country so deeply covered with snow, that it was with much dif- 
 ficulty the post-boys could get the poor starved horses to drag the 
 vehicle through the ruts. Often were they obliged to alight and 
 put their shoulders to the wheels, and rub the ears of the horses. 
 As to my own ears, they were frost-bitten long ere I reached 
 Jassy, in spite of the ten-fold covering of a red Turkish shawl 
 and a thick calpac of Astracan fur. The ferries were frequent, 
 and at these we found wine huts ; but it was necessary to thaw 
 the liquor before we could drink it, and then it tasted as weak as 
 sour small beer. Never before had I suffered so much from cold, 
 and I could perfectly sympathise with Ovid, in execrating the 
 horrors of a Scythian winter in Dacia. To crown our miseries, 
 in descending the muddy precipice leading to a frozen rivulet, 
 the post-boys jerked the horses through a mass of ice, and snap- 
 ped one of the springs of the carriage, which detained us at Fok- 
 shani, while a smith put together the fragments. The population 
 at this place speak pure Latin. " Dominatio vestra advena est 
 in hue nostra terra" was the salutation of a person who sold 
 me a few spices in the market place.* The well pronounced 
 
 * The Poles and Sclavonians, in speaking Latin, rejecting Tu, always use the 
 third, instead of the second person singular, which destroys the beautiful simplicity 
 of the language. 
 
272 
 
 JASSY. 
 
 language, and tall muscular figure of the speaker, seemed to 
 vindicate his presumptive origin from the Roman legionaries of 
 Dacia. 
 
 At length I reached Birlat, and recognised the Moldavian 
 scenery I had passed in the preceding autumn ; but what 
 a change had a few months produced on the surrounding 
 objects ; those very plains which I had seen covered with herds 
 and flowers, were now a dreary waste, buried in snow, blasted 
 by the northern winds, silent and depopulated. The indivi- 
 duals who had charge of the post-houses had retired in many 
 instances under ground, and they emerged in wolf-skins from 
 their caves ; the extensive stables displayed a few worn-out 
 and famished horses, while the hides suspended from the roof 
 by scores, plainly told the havoc that hunger, winter, and 
 hard usage had caused amongst these unfortunate animals. 
 In crossing the mountains, which impend over Jassy, we 
 were forced to have recourse to " the race of Apis," to drag 
 my crazy vehicle through the torrents occasioned by the melt- 
 ing snows. At Jassy, I met with the kindest reception from 
 Prince Alexander and his consort, who again received me 
 with every demonstration of gratitude and kindness, and pre- 
 sented their little child to me, who had completely recovered 
 from the rickets, and was now a fine healthy boy. I found 
 the old Hospodar equally polite, and delighted with having 
 got into his new palace. It was then that I learnt for the 
 first time that the Prince had written to his brother the 
 Dragoman at the Porte, mentioning the benefit his child 
 had received from my prescriptions, and that my visit to 
 the Sultana Valide had been in consequence of this recom- 
 mendation. 
 
THE SIVVENS. 
 
 273 
 
 On taking leave, the Prince charged me with letters to his 
 kinsman, the Spravenich Frangopoli, at Botushany, at whose 
 house I spent a night, and prescribed, in passing, for two of 
 his children, affected with rickets. This gentleman was a 
 Greek of Naxos, and if I mistake not, the same mentioned by 
 Dr. Clarke, as having, with Prince Alexander, accompanied that 
 traveller and the Turkish Ambassador in their journey across 
 Mount Haemus. 
 
 When I reached Czernowitz, I visited an Austrian physician 
 there, named Dr. Fleisch, to deliver a letter from the Prince's 
 physician, Dr. Lorenzo, of Jassy. 
 
 Dr. Fleisch communicated to me the result of some researches 
 in which he had been engaged by order of the Austrian chan- 
 cery, for the purpose of investigating a singular contagious dis- 
 ease which is very prevalent amongst the mountaineers of Tran- 
 sylvania. This disorder is similar to that known in Galloway, 
 and some other counties in Scotland, by the name of sivvens, 
 and not very dissimilar to the yaws of the West Indies. The 
 mountains themselves are called Sieven-bergen, but whether the 
 malady gives name to the mountains, or the mountains to the 
 malady, I could not discover. Sivva in the Gaelic tongue signi- 
 fies a wild raspberry or a sieve, and Sivva was also the name of 
 Venus amongst the Vandalic tribes. The malady is propagated 
 by contact, and is dispersed through whole districts by drinking 
 from the cup of an infected person, or smoking from the same 
 tobacco-pipe. It destroys the lips, cheeks, palate, and uvula, 
 by deep ulcerations which are often fatal. Dr. Fleisch had 
 discovered that these poor people were in the habit of curing 
 each other by fumigations of native cinnabar, thrown on a heated 
 
274 
 
 THE SIVVENS. 
 
 iron, and that they also pounded the same mineral, and having 
 mixed it with butter, spread it on their bread, and ate it in large 
 quantities. As this is perhaps the most primitive method of 
 using this valuable specific, I have thought that the brief state- 
 ment of the fact might not prove uninteresting to the medical 
 world ; and perhaps, short as it is, it may be the means of calling 
 the attention of my professional brethren to this subject. 55 
 
275 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Lemberg. — Salt Mines of Wieliczka. — Conjectures as to the Origin of 
 Fossil-salt. — The Ocean the Parent of Salt. — Cracow. — Silesia. — 
 Miseries of War. — Bielitz. — Jagersdorjf. — Newstadt. — Neisse. — 
 A Family of Irish Exiles. — Conclusion. 
 
 At Czernowitz, I dismissed the Albanian Janissary, whom I had 
 hired at Bucharest, and pushed on towards Lemberg. Rainy 
 weather, melting snows, and deep clayey roads continued to 
 render my journey not the most agreeable. After quitting 
 Lemberg, I met hourly, on the roads of Galitzia, large parties of 
 wounded Russians, returning in rags and upon crutches, from 
 the military hospitals of Austerlitz. What a contrast did their 
 wretched appearance form to that of the gallant troops I had 
 seen in autumn, when " hope told its flattering tale," and the 
 anticipation of victory lighted up every eye ! 
 
 A fracture of one of my wheels having detained me some hours 
 at Wieliczka, I eagerly seized that opportunity of descending 
 into the celebrated salt mine. 
 
 There are several shafts leading to different districts of this 
 immense series of excavations ; that which I entered is called 
 Jan in a. We were lowered into the abyss by means of a large 
 cable, to which we were made fast by slings and buckles : when 
 all the party had descended, torches were lighted, and we found 
 
 N N 2 
 
276 SALT MINE s. 
 
 ourselves at the entrance of a chapel, hollowed out of the salt- 
 rock containing altars, columns, and statues. 
 
 From thence we descended by spacious galleries and winding 
 passages from one chamber to another, to the depth of 900 feet, 
 where we found our farther progress terminated by a large lake 
 formed from the accumulated water of the springs issuing from 
 the sides of the mine : these springs dissolve large quantities of 
 salt in their passage, and when at rest, deposit it in beautiful 
 cubical crystallizations at the bottom of the lake, from whence 
 they are raked up by means of instruments with long iron prongs. 
 The extent of these excavations is about 6000 feet in their 
 longest diameter, which is from north to south, and about 2000 
 feet from east to west ; the greatest depth to which they have 
 yet gone is 900 feet, but even below that level they have 
 ascertained the existence of immense strata of salt extending 
 from east to west to an unknown distance. In descending from 
 the earth's surface, the following order of strata has been found ; 
 first, loose vegetable mould ; next clay, argillaceous earth or 
 marl ; thirdly, a fine sand mixed with water, which the workmen 
 call zye ; fourthly, a black and very compact clay, immediately 
 under which they come upon the fossil salt. The salt found 
 nearest the surface is distributed in immense detached masses, 
 but lower down it is found like fossil coal, in continuous strata, 
 and of such hardness that the workmen are obliged to employ 
 highly tempered pickaxes and wedges, and to blast it with gun- 
 powder. The masses thus detached are generally oblong squares 
 of 30 or 50 feet : these again are formed into parallelopipeds, and 
 inclosed in small firkins, in which packages they are sent to the 
 most remote extremities of Poland, Austria, and Russia. The 
 larger fragments are rolled along like masses of Portland-stone, by 
 
SALT MINES. 
 
 277 
 
 means of wooden rollers to the bottom of the shafts, and then 
 elevated by large windlasses moved by twelve horses. There 
 are ten such shafts, from four to five yards in diameter, some 
 appropriated to elevating the produce, others to the admission of 
 the workmen, or discharge of the waters. The chambers scooped 
 out in various directions, resemble in extent the aisles of a 
 cathedral. We entered one that contained a large table, at 
 which, on solemn occasions, (such as the visits of the members 
 of the Imperial family,) three hundred persons have been accom- 
 modated. Occasionally, in blasting the rock, the workmen lay 
 open collections of water, which rushing out leave the cavities 
 they occupied covered with the finest groupes of large crystals. 
 Pebbles too, rounded by the action of water, are often found, 
 together with petrified shells and other marine productions, in the 
 midst of the blocks of salt. Bitumen, and forest trees pervaded 
 with salt and bitumen, are to be met with in considerable quan- 
 tities. The workmen call this wood Wagh-Solin, or the charcoal 
 of salt. It often approaches to the lustre and hardness of jet, and 
 emits a strong and very disagreeable odour, incommoding the 
 miners, in those places which are not well ventilated. Such spots 
 emit carbonated hydrogen gas, in large quantities, which rushes 
 suddenly from the fissures of the rocks, and catching fire, ex- 
 plodes, and destroys the miners around. These inflammable ex- 
 halations are particularly dangerous after holidays, when there 
 has been a cessation of working, and it is then dangerous to enter 
 particular galleries with a light. Sometimes even, without ex- 
 ploding, this gas has killed the workmen, by producing asphyxia ; 
 but accidents are much more frequent in the neighbouring mines 
 of Bochnia than at Wieliczka. One of the shafts contains a 
 wooden staircase, of 470 steps ; and shafts, as well as passages, 
 
278 
 
 SALT MINES. 
 
 are lined with wood, to prevent the falling in of the sides. The 
 workmen employed generally amount to 450, and in one of the 
 mines, there is a stable containing 50 horses. No women are 
 ever permitted to enter them. The galleries and shafts are per- 
 fectly dry, and even dusty ; for the salt, imbibing all moisture, 
 like a sponge, robs even the human body in its passage, and 
 makes the mouth and throat feel hot and dry. The intricacy of 
 the numerous passages is such, that they sometimes mislead even 
 those best accustomed to them. The mines of Bochnia em- 
 ploy 250 workmen ; their extent from north to south is only 
 750 feet, and from east to west 10,000 feet. The superincum- 
 bent strata have also a similar arrangement, but there are no de- 
 tached masses above the continuous strata. The richness of these 
 two mines is such, that it has been calculated that their contents 
 might suffice for the population of Europe. Every year there are 
 dug up six hundred thousand quintals ; and although they have 
 now been worked above five hundred and sixty years, (having 
 been discovered in 1251,) there is at present no appearance of 
 their contents being exhausted. 
 
 The origin of fossil salt has been a subject of conjecture and 
 controversy to naturalists and chemists. Count Marsigli and 
 others, have imagined, that the ocean has acquired its saltness 
 by coming in contact with masses of salt, which its waters have 
 dissolved ; whilst others, with more probability conceive, that salt 
 is produced by the ocean itself, and that strata of it have been 
 deposited by the receding and evaporation of its waters. The 
 latter opinion seems much the most tenable, from the innume- 
 rable evidences of the various revolutions which this our slobe 
 has undergone in past ages, and which we may presume it is still 
 undergoing from the agency of volcanoes and subterraneous fires 
 
SALT MINES. 
 
 279 
 
 evaporating the aqueous fluids, and leaving the salts in a dry 
 and crystallized form. At Pozo, near Burgos, in Castile, amine 
 of rock salt has been found occupying the crater of an 
 extinct volcano, and Mr. Fernandez there found pumice-stones, 
 puzzuolain, and other volcanic products, mixed with the salt 
 itself. 
 
 In illustration also of the latter opinion, an ingenious lecturer 
 on natural philosophy has lately suggested, that marine plants 
 may be constantly emitting chlorine gas, just as terrene plants 
 are giving out oxygene gas, and that their decomposition fur- 
 nishes soda, which unites with chlorine after it has absorbed a 
 sufficiency of oxygene from the water to become muriatic acid 
 gas. Thus the sub-marine vegetation, constantly going on in 
 the bosom of the ocean, supplies all the elements necessary to 
 the production of fossil salt. In support also of this theory, it 
 may be added, that in such lakes or inland seas, as produce no 
 marine vegetables, the waters are sweet. For in the Black Sea 
 there are no plants of marine growth ; and there, the waters are 
 scarcely brackish, yet the shores of the Black Sea, in all di- 
 rections, abound with fossil salt, which fact proves that the sea does 
 not receive its saltness from the fossil salt rocks in its vicinity* 
 Nevertheless, it must be conceded, that as no human ingenuity 
 has as yet succeeded in making marine plants vegetate any where 
 but in the bed of the ocean itself, it will be most difficult to bring 
 the hypothesis to the test of experiment, the only touchstone of 
 truth. 
 
 Within a few miles of Wieliczka are a range of low hills, in 
 which are found both sulphur and pumice-stone, as well as 
 springs impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen, all which are 
 strong proofs of the former agency of volcanic fires. The beds 
 
280 
 
 SILESIA. 
 
 of salt into which the excavations of Bochnia and Wieliczka 
 penetrate, dip with an angle of 40 degrees from the horizon, and 
 are found to extend on the southern as well as the northern sides 
 of the Carpathian mountains, for a space of six hundred miles, 
 that is to say, from Wieliczka, in the north-west, to Fokshani 
 and Rymnich, in Moldavia, in the south-east. The beds on the 
 southern side have been excavated to double the depth, for at 
 Eperies, in Hungary, is a salt mine 1800 feet below the surface 
 of the earth. 
 
 From Wieliczka, I proceeded to Cracow, with the intention of 
 prosecuting my journey in a direct line from thence to Breslau ; 
 but I found, on arriving there, to my mortification, that I had 
 been deceived by my map of the roads ; for they were absolutely 
 impassable for a carriage ; I was therefore obliged to make a 
 considerable detour to the left, and again pass through Silesia. 
 Cracow was still in the same forlorn and dilapidated state, in 
 which Wraxall has described it, in 1778.* 4 Its subsequent oc- 
 cupation, by the Russian, Prussian, and Polish armies, has of 
 course tended rather to increase the misery and depopulation of 
 that ill fated city, once the capital of Poland. 
 
 On entering Silesia, it was most melancholy to observe the 
 consequences which had resulted from the short but fatal cam- 
 paign of Austerlitz. Although the enemies' troops had never 
 entered the province, yet their barbarous auxiliaries the Cossacks 
 and Russians seemed to have visited the Silesians with all the 
 calamities of war. Houses unroofed and destroyed, — despoiled 
 of the thatching, pulled down to feed and litter the cavalry ; 
 whilst the beams and floorings had been converted into fuel. 
 Misery and famine appearing in every countenance, while 
 putrid petechial fevers, raging with all the fury of pestilence, 
 
SILESIA. 
 
 281 
 
 seemed to have converted each dwelling into an hospital ; for 
 in every village I was surrounded with famished convalescents, 
 like crawling skeletons, covered with rags, and further disfigured 
 with the matted locks of Plica Polonica. Such heart-rending 
 spectacles were then new to me ; but the years I have since 
 spent in the Peninsula have made warfare and its train of horrors 
 but too familiar. 
 
 Bielitz, that town, once so beautiful, happy, and peaceful, 
 the " very Auburn of the province," I found a heap of ruins. 
 The stables of the post-houses were untenanted; for the in- 
 cessant passage of couriers and estafFettes had exterminated the 
 luckless cattle, and although my errand was pressing, and delay 
 was more than irksome, I was constrained at times to wait for 
 hours at the stages before three or four wind-galled animals could 
 be collected from the neighbouring farm-houses to forward me on 
 my journey. On an occasion of this kind I was detained one 
 evening at Jagersdorff a post-town in the mountains between 
 Trappau and Neustadt ; the place was silent and depopulated, 
 and suggested the idea of a Turkish cemetery, rather than that of 
 a Christian hamlet. I had seated myself at a ruined casement, 
 awaiting with impatience the return of a messenger sent to col- 
 lect horses, whilst a centinel, pacing the opposite side of the 
 market-place, commenced singing to a well-known Austrian 
 air, the stanzas of 
 
 " Kennst du das Land wo blumchen leibe bluht," &c. 
 
 The stilly coldness of the night, the echo of the deserted streets, 
 the remembrance of all the circumstances of the time and place 
 when I had last listened to the same melody, aided by the thrill- 
 ing effect of the chorus, " Dahin ! Dahin !" produced a deep 
 
 o o 
 
282 
 
 IRISH EXILES. 
 
 emotion ; and upon the arrival of the horses I participated in all 
 the nostalgic feelings of a Swiss recruit on hearing the " Ranz des 
 Vaches" of his native village ; I threw myself back in my vehicle, 
 and bribed the postillion to urge his horses towards Neustadt. 
 From thence to Neisse, a fortified town of some note, though 
 the distance is but short, and the country beautiful, the stage 
 seemed long and irksome : but a clean, well-built town, with a 
 good inn, a decent furnished room, a snow-white table-cloth, and 
 healthv viands, were objects to which I had of late been unac- 
 customed ; and, after taking some refreshment, I was about to 
 renew my journey homewards with renovated animation, when 
 the waiter announced a stranger who wished to speak to me. 
 Immediately a female entered the room, followed by two chil- 
 dren ; she was dressed in the clean simple costume of the 
 country, and I of course expected to be addressed in the German 
 tongue, but my surprise was great when, with the genuine Hi- 
 bernian accent of the province of Connaught, she exclaimed, 
 '■• God bless your Honour, when I heard at the guard-house your 
 name was 0" 1 Neil, I thought you wouldn't be sorry to see some 
 of your own country-folks in this strange country ; and sure 
 enough it's a poor country too, God knows, and poor Pat and 
 myself are often almost breaking our hearts just when we look at 
 our two bairns there, God bless them, and thinking that if we die 
 here, there's small likelihood of their ever seeing poor Ireland ; 
 and, what's worse than all, that they can speak little else but that 
 vile Prusshen. God knows, your Honour, how it vexes both Pat 
 and myself. And so Pat's on guard now, or the poor boy would 
 come and see your Honour himself, so I just made bold to bring 
 the bairns to spake to your Honour." When she at length gave 
 me an opportunity of putting a few questions to her, I found 
 
IRISH EXILES. 
 
 283 
 
 her tale was as short and simple as it was affectingly told. Her 
 husband had been a private in the militia of the county of 
 , and during the rebellion of the year 1798, being im- 
 plicated in " the suspicion of guilt," had been thrown into 
 prison, and afterwards embarked with many hundreds of his luckless 
 countrymen, and transported to the Prussian port of Embden, 
 whence they had been marched up the country, and distributed 
 in different regiments belonging to His Prussian Majesty. It had 
 been the lot of this poor couple to be placed in a regiment at 
 Neisse, and here they had remained upwards of seven years, 
 without once passing the drawbridges of the town. She was 
 anxious to vindicate her husband's character, proclaiming his 
 innocence, and saying that he only left his regiment for a night 
 to visit her at her father's, and that he never intended to desert 
 to the rebels. When I endeavoured to comfort and reconcile her 
 to her lot, praising the decent cleanliness of her own attire, and 
 that of her children, she acknowledged that the linen of " Prusshi 
 was almost as good as poor Ireland," but although she always 
 thought Ireland poor, " Prusshi was much poorer, God knows." 
 She lived servant, she said, to a Prussian officer's wife, who had 
 taken a fancy to her, because she was a better laundress than the 
 other women of the regiment ; and then in her rapid, and artless 
 way, drew, in a few words, a true yet ludicrous * picture of the 
 miserable shifting sort of life which the married officers of the 
 Prussian army lead ; their miserable and inadequate pay being 
 insufficient to support their families. She was employed, she 
 said, " one half of the week in carrying their duds of cloaths to the 
 pawnbroker's, and the other half in taking them out." This I 
 
 * " Nullum durius in se habet paupertas 
 Qiiam quod homines ridiculosj'acit," 
 
 o o 2 
 
284 
 
 IRISH EXILES. 
 
 believed to be no caricature, for I had heard at Berlin, that even 
 the officers of the Royal Guards employed their men to purloin 
 the baggage of strangers from their carriages, when entering the 
 gates, that they might share the plunder, and gratify their taste for 
 gambling and luxury. After giving the children a rix-dollar, I 
 begged to see her husband, who obtained leave from the officer 
 on guard to come to the door of the inn. Neither of the 
 two could read or write, but they wished much to have their lot 
 and present state made known to an uncle named M'Manus, 
 who, they said, lived in London, and was a man of great note 
 and wealth. They had never seen him, — had only heard their 
 friends in Ireland tell about him ; but they were certain he was 
 a man of good property, and lived somewhere about Bow-street. 
 They wished to write him a letter, but the only Irishman in the 
 regiment who could write had two days before received his dis- 
 charge, and was gone to Berlin ; " and sure his departure was at 
 this present time a great loss." Some eight or nine more of 
 these luckless exiles soon gathered around my carriage, amongst 
 whom I could not do less, as a true O'Neil, than distribute a 
 few rix-dollars, and in return they accompanied my carriage with 
 smiling lips and watery eyes to the gates of Neisse, where the 
 double line of drawbridges and barriers separated us for ever, 
 and in silence I prosecuted my journey through Breslau to 
 Berlin. 
 
285 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Note 1. Page 2. Chapter I. 
 
 " In commune Herthum, id est, Terram Matrem colunt, eamque intervenire 
 " rebus hominum, invehi populis, arbitrantur. Est in Insula Oceani castum 
 " nemus, dicatum in eo vehiculum, veste contectum, attingere uni sacerdoti con- 
 " cessum. Is adesse penetrali deam intelligit, vectamque bobus foeminis multa 
 " cum veneratione prosequitur. Lseti tunc dies, festa loca, quaecumque adventu 
 " hospitioque dignatur. Non bella ineunt, non arma sumunt, clausum omne 
 " ferrum ; pax et quies tunc tantum nota, tunc tantum amata, donee idem sacerdos 
 " satiatam conversatione mortalium deam templo reddat ; mox vehiculum et vestes, 
 " et si credere velis, numen ipsum secrete- lacu abluitur. Servi ministrant, quos 
 " statim idem lacus haurit. Arcanus hinc terror, sanctaque ignorantia, quid sit 
 " id, quod tantum perituri vident." — Tacitus de Moribus Germanorum. 
 
 Rhea, or the Earth, was called also Ops ; Cybele ; Masuer Mater Deorum ; 
 Berecvnthia ; Idaea ; Dyndymene. She was painted as a matron, crowned with 
 towers, and sitting in a chariot, drawn by lions or oxen. — Ovid thus describes her 
 religious rites : — 
 
 " Est locus, in Tiberim qua lubricus influit Almo, 
 Et nomen magno perdit ab amne minor. 
 Illic purpurea canus cum veste sacerdos 
 
 Almonis, Dominam sacraque lavit aquis. 
 Exululant comites furiosaque tibia flatur ; 
 
 Et feriunt molles taurea terga manus. 
 Claudia praecedit, laeto celeberrima vultu ; 
 
 Credita vix tandem teste pudica Ded. 
 Ipsa sedens plaustro porta est invecta Capena : 
 Sparguntur junctse flore recente boves." 
 
 Ovid. Fast. lib. iv. v. 337. 
 Ceres was also another appellation of Rhaea, and to her was sacrificed a preg- 
 nant sow. 
 
 " Accipiat gravida cur suis exta Ceres?" — Ovid, de Panto, lib. ii. v. 30. 
 
286 NOTES. 
 
 Diana was also the same deity worshipped at Ephesus in Asia Minor. Di, God- 
 dess — Ana, Mother, (Turkish) — thus, Di-ana — Anaitis — the Goddess Mother, 
 the Mother of Itys, or Atys, fate — Ates signifies fire in Turkish. All these differ- 
 ent appellations appear to have been applied to signify Nature clothed in her various 
 
 attributes — thus, Rhe-a is tlie Celtic for Regina Undarum, or Queen of Waters 
 
 Ops, the great Cycle, or great Serpent, which Saturn is represented holdino- in his 
 right hand — Phoseta seems to be Vestaphos, signifying light. 
 
 " Having been informed of a curious piece of Antiquity called the temple of 
 Anaitis, in Dunvegan, we set out after breakfast. The first thing we came to, was 
 an earthen mound or dyke — a little farther was a strong stone wall, &c. &c. The 
 sacred spot contains more than two acres — within it are the ruins of many houses, 
 a cairn, and many graves, marked by clusters of stones. I was assured that the 
 ruin of a small building, standing east and west, was actually the temple of the 
 Goddess Anaitis, "where her statue was kept, and from whence processions 
 we?-e made, to wash it in the brooks. The country is a black dreary moor on all 
 sides," &c. &c. &c. — BosvoeU's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. 
 
 There is an island, says Artemidorus, near Britain, in which the sacred rites of 
 Ceresand Proserpine are observed, as in Samothrace. — Art. apud Strabo, lib. iv. p. 191. 
 
 Horace alludes to the worship of Herthus in the first epistle, book 2d. 
 " Agricolae prisci, fortes, parvoque beati, 
 
 Condita post frumenta, levantes tempore festo 
 Corpus et ipsum animum spe finis dura ferentem 
 Tellurem porco, Sylvanum lacte piabant." 
 
 Note 2. Page 22. Chapter III. 
 
 " Pawning. — It appears from the first week's Report of the Visiting Association 
 of the Poor in St. James's Parish, that the families then inspected were 2204, con- 
 sisting of 161-2 individuals, who had in their possession duplicates for articles pawned 
 by them to relieve their pressing wants, to the amount of five thousand eight hun- 
 dred and twenty-one pounds ! ! !" — Star Newspaper, January 9, 1817. 
 
 The reader may calculate the profits of pawnbrokers from the above paragraph. 
 
 Note 3. Page 27. Chapter III. 
 
 That the idea of divine retribution had occurred to Hugo Grotius, is evi- 
 dent from the following passage in his celebrated work, " De Veritate Religionis 
 Christiana:." After noticing the free agency of man, « Deus hominem ei mentes, 
 
NOTES. 287 
 
 sublimiores homine, creavit cum agendi libertate ; quae agendi libertas vitio'sa non 
 est, sed potest sua vi aliquid vitiosum producere." — " Et hujus quidem generis 
 malis, quae moraliter dicuntur mala, omnino Deum adscribere autorem nefas 
 est." He says, " At sunt quae alio sensu dicuntur mala, quia certse personae doloris 
 aut danini adferunt aliquid, quae a Deo proficisci, puta ad emendationem hominis, 
 aut etiam in ■peenam delicto respondentem, nihil vetat." 
 
 Note 4. Page 38. Chapter III. 
 
 Barrieco or Baraeco. Mentioned also by Masdeu in his " Historia Critica de Es- 
 pana," vol. v. p. 44, as a divinity unknown to the Romans. In the territory of 
 Lisbon, was found the following inscription : 
 
 Amminus 
 
 Andiattite. F. Bandiar. Bariaico. 
 
 Votum L. M. S. 
 
 And at Ruanes in Gallicia this 
 
 Ravveana. Baraeco 
 
 Afer 
 
 Albini. F. Turolus 
 
 V. S. L. M. 
 
 Masdeu laments that he can throw no light on these inscriptions, the Baraeco 
 
 being, he says, the most obscure article of the ancient mythology of Spain. It might 
 
 seem, however, to have been to this divinity that the Romans applied the name of 
 
 Numen Porcinum. 
 
 " Judaeus licet et porcinum numen adoret 
 Et coeli summas advocet auriculas 
 Ne tamen et ferro succidcret inguinis oram 
 Et nisi nudatum solveret arte caput." 
 
 Petronii Arbitri Fragment a, Edit. Joan. Maire, Lugdun. p. 101 . 
 The peasantry of Exmoor in Devonshire, still call a Sow a Baarge, which is a 
 corruption of Baraeco, or rather the latter word is derived from the former, which 
 is Celtic. 
 
 Note 5. Page 40. Chapter IV. 
 
 Prussia as well as Hanover is covered with sands. The Cimbri of old were 
 certainly so called from this circumstance — Koum-berri, or the dwellers in sand — 
 Koum being sand in Turkish. Cham — Chem — Koum. Thus, Chemia — sands — 
 
288 NOTES. 
 
 Egypt. CYwmierian Bosphorus also sandy — Coimbra, or Koum-bra, Portugal 
 the bridge upon the sands. 
 
 Note 6. Page 91. Chapter VII. 
 
 Caesar alludes to these Carragos frequently. " Alteri ad impedimenta et carros 
 suos se contulerunt. Ad multam noctem etiam ad impedimenta pugnatum est: prop- 
 terea quod pro vallo carros objecerent, et e loco superiore in nostros venientes tela con- 
 jiciebant, et nonnulli inter carros rotasque mataras ac tragulas subjiciebant, nos- 
 trosque vulnerabant." {Casar, lib. 1. cap. 26.) " Helvetii cum omnibus suis 
 carris secuti, impedimenta in unum locum contulerunt ." {Ccesar, lib. 1. cap. 24.) 
 " Omnemque aciem suam rhedis et carris circumdedcrunt, ne qua spes in fuga relinque- 
 retur. E6 mulieres imposuerunt." (Cces. lib. 1. cap. 51.) " Venerant eo sagitta- 
 rii ex Ruthenis, equites ex Gallia, cum multis carris magnisque impediments, ut fert 
 Gallica consuetudo." (Ctes. lib. 1. cap. 51.) 
 
 Note 7. Page 109. Chapter VIII. 
 
 When Mr. "Wraxall visited Vienna, he found all their great men of that day 
 occupied in discovering the philosopher's stone. — A Servian Count, named Zauno- 
 wick, who published some Letters at Pera in 1776, under the title of Lettere Turcke, 
 with the signature of Osman, thus describes them : " Un Signor della Corte di 
 Monaco di Baviera mi diede nel moinento della mia partenza per .... una let- 
 tera, assicurandomi che trovero appresso la persona a cui era diretta tutte le 
 qualita le piu interessanti. In fatti quando fui solo restai bonamente persuasissimo 
 di quanto mi disse avendo la lettera questa soprascritto. 
 
 " A Sua Excellenza, 
 " II Signore Massimiliano d'Orendorff, 
 Signore delle Terre de Tonibandorff, 
 Barone del Castello di Ravendorff, 
 
 Colonello di S. A. S. 
 
 Cavaliere dell Ordine e Intendente 
 
 Onorario delle Mine d'Argento nei Cercoli 
 Dell' alta Germania, &c. &c. &c. &c. 
 
 " In consequenza di si superbi titoli non ho dubitato che giunto alia Citta subito 
 fossi per ritrovar il Palazzo di Residenza di questo Magnifico Tedesco. Ma quel 
 
NOTES. 
 
 289 
 
 non fix la mia sorpresa quando dopo una ricerca di piii settimana ritrovai questo 
 Signore in un Granajo, nudo come el Precursor di Gesii-Christo, circondato da 
 venti, e trenta Pentole, e sucido di Carbone, e di fumo intorno ad un forno Chi- 
 mico con la pazza protensione di far dell' oro ! Piii che in fretta gli lasciai la sua 
 lettera, e mi precipitai giu per le scale per timore che vedendomi con il Tur- 
 bante, ed il Chaiftan, non mi credesse potabile come l'oro e non Hi venisse in 
 testa di mettermi come un ingrediente necessario alia grande Opera, in un Lambico. 
 
 Lett. 43, p. 206. 
 
 Notes. Page 11*. Chapter IX. 
 
 The Baron Van Swieten died in an apartment in the palace of Schoenbrun, in 
 consequence of a mortification of the toes, on the 18th day of June, 1772, and 
 was interred in the Augustine church. His Commentaries on the Aphorisms of 
 Boerhaave, and his work on Army Diseases, are the best monuments of his know- 
 ledge as a Physician. He was the RadclifFe of Austria. 
 
 Sec Eloy. Diet. Hist, de Medicine. 
 
 Note 9. Pace 1 63. Chapter XIII. 
 
 for he 
 
 Must serve who fain would sway — and soothe — and sue 
 
 And watch all time — and pry into all place — 
 
 And be a living lie — who would become 
 
 A mighty thing amongst the mean." — Manfred, by Lord Byron. 
 
 Note 10. Page 186. Chapter XIV. 
 
 See Philostrat. Heroic, in Achill. c. 16. Maxim. Tyr. Orat. 27. Strabo. lib. vii. 
 Pomp. Mela, lib. ii. cap. 7. Plin. lib. iii. c. 12. Dionys. Per. v. .541. Arrian. Peripl. 
 Pont. Eux. Ammian. Marcell. lib. xxii. Ptolem. Hcephestion apud Photium. Pau- 
 sanias, lib. iii. Tertullian de Anima, c. 46. Leon. Annotat. de Patria Homeri. 
 
 Note 11. Page 187. Chapter XIV. 
 
 To these I may add Tenedos, a small but fertile island in the Egean Sea, distant 
 about 12 miles from Sigaeum, and 56 from Lesbos — sacred to Apollo, as ap- 
 
 P P 
 
290 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 pears from Horace, who intreats that Divinity, not only to inspire him, then about 
 to celebrate Augustus in lyric verses, but to be with him entirely, 
 
 " Divina Tenedo veniens." 
 It was also celebrated for being the retreat, during the Trojan War, of the Greeks, 
 who there concealed themselves so effectually, as to make the Trojans believe that 
 they had returned home, without finishing the siege 
 
 Note 12. Page 192. Chapter XIV. 
 
 I enter most cordially into the miseries of being obliged to guess at the meaning 
 of an author, from the obscurity of his expression. And I well remember the as- 
 tonishment of a young classical friend, at his meeting with the expression of 
 " Hercle" in the " Amphitryon" of Plautus. It is needless to point out the glaring 
 absurdity. 
 
 Note 13. Page 193. Chapter XIV. 
 
 Horace alludes to the " gementis littora Bosphori," — and the beautiful 
 lines — 
 
 " Night fell ; and dark and darker grew 
 
 That narrow sea, that narrow sky, 
 
 As o'er the glimmering waves we flew, 
 
 The sea-bird rustling, wailing by, 
 
 And now the grampus half descried, 
 
 Black and huge, above the tide, 
 
 The cliffs and promontories there, 
 
 Front to front, and broad and bare, 
 
 Each beyond each, with giant feet, 
 
 Advancing, as in haste to meet." 
 Might have been written by Rogers, on the banks of the Bosphorus, as truly as 
 upon the savage shores of Lough Long. 
 
 Note 14. Page 199. Chapter XV. 
 
 It would appear from a passage in one of Horace's Satires, that the ancient 
 Roman Matrons were not at all more prudent than the Ottoman devotees. The 
 
NOTES. 
 
 291 
 
 poet introduces an old lady promising Jupiter, that if her son should recover from 
 his quartan, he should fast and stand naked in the Tiber. — 
 " Frigida si puerum quartana reliquerit illo 
 
 Mane die, quo tu indicis jejunia, nudus 
 
 In Tiberi stabit. Hor. Sat. 3. 1. 2. 
 
 Note 15. Page 203. Chapter XV. 
 
 The death of the Sultana Validc happened in October, 1805. She was then in 
 her 73d year. She was a native of Georgia, and her parents were Christians* 
 Selim was her only child. She had formerly been the slave of a Mussulman, named 
 Velizade EfFendi, and was brought up in the society of Murad Bey, the celebrated 
 Mameluke Chief. When only nine years old, she was presented by Velizade Effendi 
 then Mufti, to the reigning Sultan Mustapha; and being in the very flower of her 
 beauty, she became a great favourite of the Emperor, and the mother of a Prince. 
 As the Sultanas always suckle their own children, their maternal affection is very 
 strong, and the Valide was a woman both of great powers of mind, and an af- 
 fectionate disposition. She evinced her gratitude to the Mufti, by promoting Veli 
 his son, to the highest honours of the empire. She detested the Russians, and until 
 the invasion of Egypt, had been attached to the French ; but latterly she promoted 
 the English interests in preference. 
 
 Yusouf Pacha was in his sixty- second year. He had been Grand Vizier, and had 
 commanded the Turkish army in Egypt, against General Kleber. He had acci- 
 dentally lost an eye, while amusing himself with one of his attendants at the o-ame 
 of Djeridd, or throwing the javelin. Yusouf sent him away from his person but 
 continued to promote his interests ever afterwards : — no small instance of generosity 
 in a Turk. At the time of Selim's deposition, he was in a sort of banishment as 
 Pacha of Erzerum in Asia. — See Hobhouse's Travels in Albania ; and Journal 
 d'uTi Voyage dans la Turquie en Asie et Perse. — Paris, 1 809. 
 
 Note 16. Page 215. Chapter XVI. 
 
 Dr. Puguet, one of the physicians of the French army, gives the following in- 
 stances of pestilential contagion — " Eight Frenchmen at Caipha communicated the 
 germ of this disease in succession to each other, by one pelisse; five or six at Gaza 
 in disputing for a cloth coat, the spoils of one of their comrades ; four at Jaffa, from 
 making use of some neck-handkerchiefs, that a dispenser of medicines of the third 
 class, >who died, had brought with him from Italy. These four heirs were attacked 
 
 P P 2 
 
292 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 at the same time with buboes, about the neck, and perished from the third to the 
 sixth day." — See Bancroft on Fever, p. 583. 
 
 Note 17. Page 218. Chapter XVI. 
 
 Caviare is made of the roe of sturgeon and tunny fish. A sturgeon furnishes 
 from 10 to 30 pounds weight of Caviar, and a tunny fish 120 pounds. As five 
 eo-gs of a tunny fish and seven of a sturgeon only weigh a grain, we may thence 
 form a computation how many millions of eggs these fish contain. In 1 793, Russia 
 exported Caviar to the value of 188,000 roubles, of which the greatest part went to 
 Italy. The inferior kind is called poutarge or pressed Caviare, and the best is called 
 Kneaded Caviar, which is only composed of entire eggs. 
 
 Note 18. Page 222. Chapter XVIII. 
 
 Turbith — turpethum repens — indicium foliis Althaea;. C B. P. A violent 
 hydragogue, the root of an Indian plant, which brings on inflammation in the 
 throat, stomach, and intestines. It is never used in English pharmacy. Scammony, 
 however, is the juice of a similar plant. 
 
 Note 19. Page 246. Chapter XX. 
 
 Faltaron con el tiempo riguroso 
 
 La torre a Faro, a Babylonia el muro, 
 
 A Grecia, aquel milagro, en marmol duro, 
 
 Del Jupiter Olympico fanioso. 
 
 A Caria aquel sarcofago amoroso, 
 
 Ya Mcmphes del Egypto mal seguro, 
 
 Las Colunas que oy cubre olvido escuro 
 
 El templo a Ephcsia, a Rhodas cl Coloso. — Lope de Vega. 
 
 Note 20. Page 251. Chapter XX. 
 
 One of the most beautiful sonnets penned by Lope de Vega, is upon this fable. 
 Pasando el mar el enganoso toro 
 
 Volviendo la cerviz, el pie besava, 
 
 De la lloroso ninfa, que mirava 
 Perdido de las ropas cl decoro : 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Entre las aguas y las hebras de oro, 
 
 Ondas el friesco viento levantava, 
 
 A quien con los suspiros ayudava, 
 Del mal guardado virginal tesoro 
 
 Cayeronsele a Europa de las faldas, 
 Las rosas, al dezirle el Toro amores 
 
 Y ella con el dolor de sus guirnaldas, 
 Dizen, que lleno el rostro de colores 
 
 En perlas convirtio sus esmeraldas, 
 Y dixo, ay triste yo, perdi las flores. — Sonnet 87. 
 
 293 
 
 Note 21. Page 252. Chapter XX. 
 
 There is another similar incident in mythology, namely, that of Proserpine being 
 carried off by Pluto, while culling flowers with her Nymphs on the plains of 
 Enna. Ovid has celebrated this circumstance in some very beautiful verses. 
 
 Note 22. Page 259. Chapter XX. 
 
 " -Twas all prepared, and from the rock, 
 A goat, the patriarch of the flock, 
 Before the kindling pile was laid, 
 And pierced by Roderick's ready blade. 
 Patient the sickening victim eyed 
 The life-blood ebb in crimson tide 
 Down his clogged beard and shaggy limb, 
 Till darkness glazed his eye-balls dim. 
 The grisly priest, with murmuring prayer, 
 A slender crosslet formed with care, 
 A cubit's length in measure due ; 
 The shaft and limbs were rods of yew, 
 Whose parents in Inch Cailliach wave 
 Their shadows o'er Clan Alpine's grave ; 
 And answering Lomond's breezes deep 
 Soothe many a chieftain's endless sleep. 
 The cross thus formed, he held on high, 
 With wasted hand and haggard eye, 
 
294 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 And strange and mingled feelings woke 
 
 While his anathema he spoke — 
 
 ' Woe to the clansmen who shall view, 
 
 ' This symbol of sepulchral yew,' &c. &c. &c. 
 
 The shout was hushed on lake and fell, 
 The monk resumed his muttered spell. 
 Dismal and low its accents came, 
 The while he scathed the cross with flame ; 
 And the few words that reached the air, 
 Although the holiest name was there, 
 Had more of blasphemy than prayer." 
 
 Scott's Lady of the Lake. 
 
 Note 23. Page 274. Chapter XX. 
 
 Sibbens, or Sivvens, was described first by Dr. Gilchrist, a physician of Dumfries, 
 in 1771, in the third A^olume of the Edinburgh Medical Essays, and subsequently 
 by Dr. Freer and Dr. Adams. See Essay on Morbid Poisons. It seems to me to be 
 the first form of Syphilis, and is probably coeval with the deluge. Whether the 
 researches of Dr. Fleisch have ever been published by the Austrian Government, I 
 know not ; they would certainly be most valuable. 
 
 Note 24. Page 280. Chapter XXII. 
 
 In the lettere Turche before quoted, is this passage relative to the state of Po- 
 land in 1 776. " La Polonia, da che Poniatowschi e sul Trono, sembra Gerusalemme 
 in disordine dopo l'omicidio di Christo. Versavia, che nel tempo d'Augusto III. era 
 l'emporio della richezza, e del buon gusto ; ora non e che Asilo degli avanturieri di- 
 gioco, delle donne di Teatro, del Pittori d'osce?iitd, e degli usurai. II dennaro non cir- 
 cola, e la specie e cosi rara, ch'i gran Signori del Regno vendono dei Feudi interi 
 per un vilissimo prezzo. U cducazione, che mancha ai Polacchi in generate e la causa 
 della loro decadenza. Hannfc ultimamente poi trovato una maniera d'instruirsi senza 
 rompersi la testa con i maestri dell'arti, che e il mezzo il piu sicuro della loro rovina. 
 Non contend di perdere i giorni alia Corte, dove il Lusso, il Gioco, e la Lussuria 
 regnano da tiranni, se ne vanno a Parigi dove trasportano i dennari contanti, e dove 
 imparano a distruggere in un anno la grandezza, e beni che in un seculo acquistarono 
 i loro antenati." — Letter a 31. p. 157. 
 

 NOTES. 295 
 
 The same writer, speaking of Naples says, — Vi regna communemente un appetito 
 cli lussuria per tutti i vicoli della citta a segno che le Donne Vergini sono rare como 
 un Ebreo che non eserciti l'usura. Null-ostante la populazione non corresponde 
 alia prolificita del clima, per le supersfizioni, e gliabusi della legge che osservano i 
 Cittadini. Vi sono delle Bolteghe che hanno per frontispizio : — Qiii si castrano i 
 Ragazzi a bon mercato ! ! 
 
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