•ADVENTURES, DISCOVERIES, EXPERIMENTS, 



AND 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



"However agreeable it may be to return home after an 

 'Absence of many years, and after having escaped many 

 'dangers and endured many toils, to tread again the soil of 

 one's native country, enriched with knowledge and ex- 

 perience ; still, it is net without a feeling of emotion, that 

 we recall those scenes of danger and fatigue to our recoHec- 

 'tion. They flit past us like dissolving views, which appear 

 only to vanish, yet still leave behind th^m deep traces of 

 the past. 



It was a secret impulse, an inward voice, which urged me 

 towards the East, where the first man lived of whom history 

 makes mention, where culture was first practised, and 

 where arts and sciences flourished ; where religion — that 

 heavenly light — began to spread its rays. Patriam fuger-e, 

 pet eg* e proficisci, 



I left my native town of Kronstadt, in Transylvania, in 

 the spring of 1815. After having crossed Bukovina, Mol- 

 davia, and Walachia ( where I remained above a year ), I 

 arrived, in the autumn of 18 16, at Varna, on the Black Sea, 

 whence I embarked for Constantinople. This was my first 

 voyage. Being aware that the distance from Varna to 

 Constantinople was short, I did not apprehend it could be 

 attended with danger. On arriving at Varna, I was informed 

 that several Turkish vessels were bound for Constantinople, 

 lon one of which I embarked. Besides seventeen Arnauts 

 '(Albanian-Turkish soldiers) a pretty French lady (from Jassy) 



