8 M. Beudant's Travels in Hungary.^ 



which, when we add that they are destitute of arts and civili- 

 zation, their condition must evidently be abject, and we need 

 not wonder if the Hungarians, as well as other nations, treat 

 them like slaves. They dwell chiefly in Transylvania and on 

 the frontiers of Wallachia, but they are tolerated merely, and 

 are not considered as forming a part of the nations that possess 

 the country. Several, indeed, from some signal merits, have 

 become members of these nations, and there are distinguished 

 families among them, of Wallachian origin. The famous John 

 Corvin Hunniades was of their race ; history records his great 

 actions in warring with the Turks, and his son, Mathias Cor- 

 vin, was elevated to the throne of Hungary. 



Exclusive of Transylvania, we find a great number of Wal- 

 lachians in the Banat, where they are the most ancient in- 

 habitants ; we meet with them also along the frontiers of 

 Transylvania, in the comitats of Arad, Bihar, Szathmar, and 

 Marmaros. In general, the number of Wallachians is very 

 considerable, and but little inferior, perhaps, to that of the 

 Hungarians or Slowacks. In 1790 they rated their number, 

 in Transylvania alone, at one million; at that time they were 

 soliciting a participation in the privileges of the other nations. 

 In Hungary, properly so called, they occupy 1024 villages along 

 the frontiers of Wallachia and Transylvania. Their fecundity 

 is very great, and in places where they inhabit, in common 

 with the Servians, they supplant the Ir-tter, just as the Sclavoni- 

 ans do the Germans and Magyares. There are now among 

 them, families of Russniacs, of Servians, and Bulgarians, which 

 have lost every trace of their primitive language. 



Next to the Sclavonians, the Germans undoubtedly form the 

 most ancient nation of Hungary. In fact, many tribes of Ger- 

 mans settled in the western parts of the country, prior to the 

 invasion of the Magyares, and especially after the destruction 

 of the Awares. At the arrival of the Magyares, all the western 

 part of the country, included between the Danube and the 

 Save, had been subjected to the emperor Arnulph, and al- 

 though that part was quickly wrested from him, a great 

 number of the inhabitants would doubtless remain. But 

 subsequently to the establishment of the Magyares, the num- 

 ber of Germans increased considerably. King, or Sainted 

 Stephen, the primitive legislator of Hungary, feeling the neces- 

 sity of augmenting the population, granted privileges to invite 

 German colonists, which were carefully preserved by his suc- 

 cessors. And thus, from the eleventh century, the Germans 

 possessed settlements in different parts of Hungary. But it 

 was more especially in the twelfth century, under king Geysa 

 II., that they arrived in numerous bodies, so as to fill entire 



