CHAPTER VII.

WALLACHIA-MOLDAVIA.

"Who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest?"-Jer. xv. 5.

EARLY in the morning of Aug. 26, the steamer from Smyrna arrived in the harbour of Constantinople, and, with heartfelt gratitude and joy, we found Mr. M'Cheyne on board, wonderfully recovered, and able to proceed on the voyage. A few hours after, we took farewell of our kind American brethren, who had made their house our home, and sailed for the Danube. The steamer in which we sailed was named "Ferdinando Primo," and though belonging to an Austrian company, was commanded by a kind, intelligent Englishman. The wellknown Prince Piccolomusci was on board, on his way home to Germany from Abyssinia, from which country he had brought a ransomed female slave, and several Nubian boys. As we left the harbour, we enjoyed our last view of this wonderful city. The marble towers and dark green cypresses of the Seraglio, the ample dome of St. Sophia, the towering mosques, and the crescent* on at least ninety minarets that rise over the red-tiled houses of the city, were all glowing beneath the rays of a noonday sun. We were able to sit on the deck, and enjoy the scenery all the way up the Bosphorus; but soon after entering the Black Sea, a head-wind sprung up, and we experienced something of the storms that led the ancients to call it "ağevos," "the inhospitable sea." We did not, however, experience any of those thick dark fogs which often envelope its bosom, and are said to have suggested the modern name. We forgot to look for the famous rocky islands about two miles north of the entrance,

May not this emblem of Turkish power be derived from the horn, so common as a figure of strength and dominion in Eastern countries? The crescent would thus be like the two horns in 1 Kings xxii. 11

BLACK SEA-VARNA.

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known to the ancients by the name of Cyaneae or Symplegades. It was fabled by the unskilful, and therefore timid navigators, of those days, that these rocks used to dash on each other; and the renowned ship Argo ran no small risk in passing between them. Our vessel, however, knew none of these dangers, although, in search of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, we were traversing the same dangerous seas which Jason and his band explored, when they sought the Golden Fleece. These shores used to be thickly set with altars, and other devout tokens of gratitude for deliverance, which seamen erected in honour of their gods.

Next morning the sea was like a sheet of glass, and we found ourselves rapidly sailing along the western shore. The coast was low, and the country nearly flat, so that the eye wandered over plains partially wooded, without any marked object to arrest it. We passed Cape Emineh Bourun, which is the termination of the range of the Balkan,-the renowned Homus of ancient days. Between this range and the Danube lay the country called Masia. At noon, we anchored opposite the town of Varna, which occupies the site of the ancient Odyssus. It is 128 miles from the Bosphorus, and stands on the flat shore of a fine bay. The houses are all of wood, low-built and red-tiled, with eight minarets rising over them; and a white wall, with musket loop-holes, surrounds the town. We landed, and after going through the ceremonies of fumigation for a few minutes, entered the town, and wandered through its half-deserted streets. There was pointed out to us the pass in the neighbouring hills where the Russian army was attacked by the Turks. In the streets we met some Jewish children, and a little after three German Jews, one of whom was bitterly complaining of having been left here by the captain of the last steamer, contrary to promise. "The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!" *

At three o'clock we re-embarked and left the bay of Varna. It was a fine calm evening, and the eye could see to a great distance. No land appeared to the east, but a few distant sails lay on the line of the horizon. The western coast now became elevated and picturesque. A range of bold white cliffs overhung the sea, terminating in Cape Kalacria, the ancient Tiristria; and the

* Lam. iv. 2.

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BANKS OF THE EUXINE-RIVER DANUBE.

highest point of the promontory was surmounted by the ruins of an old Genoese castle. The bay is called Kavarna, and this is the course of that Pontus which the Roman poet Ovid has made famous by his letters. We must have passed soon after near the place of the same poet's exile, Tomi in Sarmatia; and by this time we were prepared to understand the description of his voyage, given in his Elegies.*

Next morning (Aug. 28,) the Euxine was still calm like an inland lake. Multitudes of porpoises were playing in the water near the vessel, no doubt the dolphins described by Ovid. About seven o'clock the Five Mountains came in sight. They are situated about thirty miles from the coast and south of the Danube, are of a regular shape, and stand in a line, not unlike a few porpoises following one another. A little further on we passed the south-west mouth of the Danube, and soon after another of its mouths, marked only by the deep woods upon its banks. The sea now exchanged its clear deep blue for a clay colour, being tinged by the muddy waters of the river; and the depth was only five fathoms. The coast was flat and low, marked by nothing but the tall reeds that skirted it, and the trees beyond. Two large flocks of pelicans were dipping themselves in the water. About midday our vessel entered the Danube by the mouth called Seluna. A Russian village was near, at which several vessels were anchored. The rapidity of the stream and the shallowness of the channel make the navigation at the entrance very dangerous, so that many vessels are wrecked here. Indeed, it is said that the chief dangers attending the navigation of the Black Sea are to be attributed to the rivers that flow into it. There are nearly forty rivers which empty themselves into it, and these are continually altering the channel by the large deposits of mud which they carry down. Here the "dark-flowing" Danube appeared to be about the breadth of the Forth immediately above Alloa, but much more rapid. The territory on the right hand was Bessarabia, under the dominion of Russia. A few wretched huts of reeds, plastered over with mud, appeared on the bank, before which some Russian sentinels were patrolling to guard the frontier. A vessel lay at anchor near, bearing the Russian flag. As we sailed slowly up the river, the banks continued flat and uninteresting, covered with reeds and bordered by marshes. Before sun* Trist. i. 10. + Trist. iii. x. 43.

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set we got a near view of the Five Mountains, which, after all, owe the notice taken of them chiefly to the level plains which surround them, for they are not very high.

We anchored for half an hour at Tultsha, a Turkish town on the Bulgarian or southern bank, fixing the anchor to a tree. The vessel was now in the branch of the river called the St. George's branch, which forms the limit of the Russian dominions, and there expands into a lake. The vapours from the river made the full moon appear very large, and its rays fell with a peculiar glare upon the water. Mosquitoes became every hour more harassing; indeed, one of the most painful trials in sailing up the Danube is occasioned by the myriads of these annoying insects. The veils which we had brought with us for the purpose, failed to answer the end of keeping out these unwelcome visitors, and sleep was driven from our eyes.

During this voyage, we had many interesting conver sations with the captain of the vessel and with the Prince. The latter told us that he had been educated when a boy at a Moravian seminary, and that he used to weep at the story of the sufferings of Jesus; but he had afterwards attended one of the Neologian Universities of Germany, where the seeds of infidelity were sown in his heart. And now he had cast off the authority of the Bible, seemed scarcely to believe in a God, and held Pythagorean notions as to the transmigration of souls. We were enabled to bear an honest testimony to this bewildered man, showing, chiefly from what we had so lately witnessed of fulfilled prophecy, that the Bible was the Word of God, and proving from that Word his ruined condition and the great salvation.

(Aug. 29.) Before daybreak we had reached Galatz, the part of Moldavia near which we intended to perform our quarantine. We were not allowed to land, but, leaving the steamer, sailed down to the quarantine station, two miles below. Here, in an elevated situation, we found a large enclosure of wood, with many wooden cottages in the centre, one of which was to be our place of confinement for a week. It formed a striking contrast to our quarantine at the foot of Carmel, but the atmosphere was cooler, and we felt that we were on European ground. The only objects visible around were the low dusty hills between us and Galatz, and on the west, the hills of the Little Balkan, and the Five Mountains on the opposite side of the Danube.

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GALATZ-QUARANTINE-VICE-CONSUL.

As night came on, we were at a loss how to procure necessary articles of food; no guardiano had been yet appointed to serve us, and the keeper of the locanda or store, where provisions are supplied to those in quarantine by means of a board on which they are placed, could speak no language but Romaic and Wallachian. Besides, not being aware of the difficulty of procuring articles of comfort in a quarantine station, we had provided nothing for such an emergency, except mats for the night, which we brought from Constantinople. We now found the benefit of being inured to the rude life of those who dwell in tents.

Next morning, however, we were visited by a countryman of our own, Charles Cunningham, Esq., British Vice-Consul at Galatz, who, with the utmost kindness, procured for us all we needed. We, and all that we had, underwent a thorough fumigation, our clothes being suspended in the smoke for twenty-four hours. We were then removed into a more comfortable apartment, and a guardiano was appointed to take charge of us, a poor Russian named Constandi, very devout in observing the usages of the Greek Church.

We had now leisure to look around and think upon the region which we had entered. We had entered the ancient Dacia; the river before us was the Ister, and the people who were driving along their clumsy vehicles, dressed in linen frock-coats, with broad leathern girdles, and Roman sandals of skin on their feet, uncombed hair hanging over brow and neck from under broad-brimmed black hats, are descendants of the barbarians who so often troubled the Empire of Rome. We saw large herds of dun cattle on the wide pasture land, and on the roads clumsy carts, drawn by oxen, creaked loudly as they went along.* Occasionally ships coming up the river gave a pleasant variety to the scene. A soldier guarded the quarantine, wearing a European coat and trousers of clean white fustian, with a black belt and black cap, his musket on his shoulder. Between us and the town lay the rude tents of a company of Zingans or Gipsies, engaged in making bricks. Before sunset some heavy drops of rain fell, the first that had refreshed us since we left the moist shores of England. It was accompanied with loud thunder.

* Ovid. Trist. iii. 10, 59, has noticed these features of this region:Ruris opes parvæ, pecus et stridentia plaustra."