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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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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,

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,

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.

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

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.

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,

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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-

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.

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-

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.

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

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

DRESDEN.

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,"

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

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.

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.

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.

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■

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.

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

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,

PRAGUE.

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

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.

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.

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-

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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,

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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

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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-

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

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

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

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

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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

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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

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-

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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