48 M. Beudanfs Travels in Hungary. 



had been taken, so as to lay open the composition of the inte- 

 rior soil. I remarked there, in prodigious quantities, the re- 

 mains of plants and vegetables, that had changed their nature 

 and become a carbonaceous substance. 



One object of my staying a little longer at and about Vienna, 

 was to make preparations for my journey into Hungary. I 

 wished to procure such maps and descriptive notices as were 

 not to be had in Paris. I expected to find in the learned 

 bodies and their collections, new documents respecting the 

 country I intended to visit. But herein I was greatly disap- 

 pointed ; at Vienna the information was as defective as at 

 Paris, and, besides, strong prejudices existed against the 

 people and country. Many were for prepossessing me with 

 groundless apprehensions for my personal safety, but I had 

 formed my resolution, and could account, from history, for a 

 kind of national antipathy in the Austrians, Ihe result of so 

 many ages of incessant wars. To this I also attribute certain 

 incivilities, on the part of the police, when I made known my 

 intentions of proceeding into Hungary. Recent circumstances 

 might have inspired some distrust of the French name, but all 

 difficulties vanished on addressing myself to the higher officers, 

 and I met with nothing but complaisance and facilities. M. 

 le Comte de Cararnan, French ambassador at Vienna, demand- 

 ed himself the passports I should require, at the Hungarian 

 chancelry, and procured also, from the chamber of mines, the 

 necessary orders for my entering and inspecting the mines of 

 the state. 



CHAPTER II. 



JOURNEY FROM VIENNA. 



I quitted Vienna, May 26, 1818, but difficulties lay in my 

 way in passing through the barriers. A clerk stopped the car- 

 riage, and asked a number of questions, and when, in reply, I 

 assured him that I had come from Paris, and meant to travel 

 through Hungary, he repeatedly exclaimed, striking his head 

 in astonishment, " Von Paris, nach Ungarn ! From Paris to 

 Hungary !" To the Austrians, Hungary is tantamount to Si- 

 beria. The clerk, after examining my ample papers, added, 

 " How learned this gentleman must be !" and after asking if 

 Dominus Magnificus, in the passport, was my Christian name, 

 to which I gravely answered in the affirmative, I was allowed 

 to proceed on my journey. 



