SHORT TOUR TO THE EAST 51 



river ran strongly. I witnessed boats of no large size 

 being towed up stream by the longest teams of men 

 and horses that I have ever seen. If my memory 

 does not play tricks, I counted no less than ninety-six 

 horses hauling a single boat. I drove as far as time 

 allowed among the Carpathians towards Mehadia, a 

 then secluded watering-place, in the company of two 

 Hungarians, with one of whom a Kaunitz I had 

 struck up a travelling friendship, and who told me 

 much about Hungary. 



The position of Belgrade was imposing. It was 

 then in Turkish occupation, and the Turks still wore 

 turbans. The town being in quarantine, we were not 

 allowed to land. The flat shores of Wallachia were 

 most uninteresting and looked fever-haunted. The 

 only human life visible for miles together was that of 

 an occasional coast-guardsman perched in a crow's 

 nest on the top of a pole, to prevent smugglers from 

 crossing the Danube unseen. At one place we cut 

 through a shoal of water snakes crossing the river, 

 with their heads out of water and their bodies 

 wriggling horizontally. It was a sight upon which 

 a horrible nightmare might have been founded. 



At length we arrived at our journey's end, where 

 light waggons awaited us, which were drawn across 

 the open country. I walked the greater part of the 

 distance, and so reached the Black Sea at Kustendji. 

 The steamer started in threatening weather, and parti- 

 cularly rough seas ensued. We rolled so badly and 

 so briskly that a square chest containing seamen's 

 things, which stood on the deck, was toppled over. 

 In the morning, the historical Symplegades were in 

 sight, and certainly the superstitious Greeks might 



