Chapter IX

Hussein Pacha--Hussein’s son--Group at the interview--Commencement of conversation--Conversation prolonged--Steam expedition--Cool reception--Pacha’s harem--Wallachia and Moldavia--Treaty of Adrianople--Silistria--Boat aground--New delays--Zantiote boat-- Adventurous changes--Separation--Ionian luxuries--A grave mistake.

The vice-governor was a fat, sickly-looking man, about fifty years of age, and grave even to stupidity. He could not hold out his curiosity beyond the ordinary question, whence we had come, what we wanted, and whither we were going. Having exhausted these topics he sunk again into a sort of Sybarite dreamy torpor, as if the odour of his tobacco were the perfume of Paradise. It was certainly very fragrant, and his coffee was the best I ever tasted. The physician was still a young man, but he looked also pale, haggard and nervous. He complained much of the air of Vidin, as peculiarly unwholesome; it was, he said, extremely cold, as compared with that of Stamboul, where he had lived for thirteen years. The town, and especially the palace, were exposed on one side to the vapours of the Danube, which here presents an extensive surface to the rays of the sun, and on the other to the freezing blasts which rush down from the Balkan mountains, He was assuredly much discontented with his lot, and confessed with an involuntary pang, which flung a strong expression of remorse athwart his forehead, that he had adopted the Mahometan faith.

♦ HUSSEIN PACHA ♦

At length the rattle of a carriage was heard driving into the courtyard below: it was immediately announced that the pacha had returned, and in a few minutes we were summoned to his presence. Passing through a line of twenty or thirty shabby officers, some of whom were dressed in turbans and flowered silk pelisses, we entered a large plain saloon, covered with a blue carpet, and containing no other furniture, except a divan, or bench, hung with yellow damask, which extended all round the room close to the walls. In a dark corner, seated in the usual Turkish attitude, was Hussein, apparently about fifty-five years old, his face deeply marked by the smallpox, swarthy and tremulous, as if he had not been unaccustomed to opium. His eye beamed with the light of superior intelligence experienced in the exercise of authority. He wore a dark olive cloth pelisse, edged with sable fur, and the red Greek cap with its blue silk tassel. He was smoking when we entered, and continued to smoke while we remained.

♦ HUSSEIN’S SON ♦

On his right-hand was seated, also in the Turkish fashion, his son by his favourite consort, about ten years old, dressed precisely like his father, beyond all comparison the most beautiful boy I ever beheld. A high forehead, dark well defined eyebrows, long black lashes, brilliant hazel eyes, downy oval cheeks glowing with the blush of health, lips red as the rose and pregnant with the consciousness of high station, but at the same time pensive, combined with other features of more than Italian perfection to exhibit a model for one of Raphael’s angels. The contrast between this boy and his father will be understood by those who have seen the statues of Prudence and Justice in St. Peter’s at Rome, or who can imagine Winter furrowed by storm and mantled in cloud, coming back to look at the joyous Spring.

♦ GROUP AT THE INTERVIEW ♦

The tone of Hussein’s voice, naturally rough, was evidently softened by the influence which the presence of this lovely youth exercised over him. He desired us, in a very kind manner through the physician, to be seated, our own stools having been brought in for that purpose. We formed a strange group altogether--the pacha smoking on the divan, his son near him with a small riding-whip in his hand headed by a silver whistle; the Count in his Hungarian costume seated in front of the pacha; Mr. Tasner and myself in black, our hats on, seated on the left of the Count; the three quarantine officers standing in a line with us; immediately behind the Count his groom in rich livery, and his gamekeeper dressed in “Lincoln green,” cocked hat and green feathers, each with a double-barrelled fowlingpiece in his hand, mounted in silver; and at the back of these a train of officers and domestics without either slippers or shoes, their toes peeping through their stockings, arrayed in every variety of European and Eastern habiliments, extending from the angle occupied by the pacha to the door.

♦ COMMENCEMENT OF CONVERSATION ♦

The preliminaries of presentation having been gone through, the Count stated, through the Florentine, that as he was passing by Vidin on his way to Bucharest, he felt it incumbent on him to pay his respects to the pacha: that he was a nobleman of Hungary appointed by the Emperor of Austria to direct the improvements which were necessary to facilitate the navigation of the Danube by steam-boats from Presburg to the Black Sea, whence they might then proceed to Stamboul. The enterprise, when completed, would be equally advantageous to Turkey as to Hungary, and he availed himself of that opportunity to recommend it to the pacha’s protection. Hussein bade the Count welcome, and said that he was very glad to see him, but made no allusion to the enterprise, which he did not appear to comprehend. A pause of nearly a quarter of an hour then ensued, during which we seemed all conscious of being employed in conjecturing how this oppressive silence was next to be broken.

♦ CONVERSATION PROLONGED ♦

At length, the pacha having exhausted his pipe, inquired if the emperor was much beloved in Hungary. The Count answered in the affirmative, adding that it was impossible for any man to know the emperor without esteeming him for his great personal virtues. An effort was then made to prolong the conversation by an allusion to the relations of peace which were now happily established between the Turks and the Hungarians, who had been so long engaged in hostilities; but Hussein cut it short by the maxim, that it was always better for men to be at peace with each other than at war. This truism having been pronounced with great self-complacency, and admitted on all hands, a second quarter of an hour elapsed in solemn taciturnity, which was really very embarrassing.

The assigned period for the generation of another idea having been fully accomplished, the pacha delivered himself of an observation, that the emperor had several officers of distinguished talent in his service. The Count confirmed the justness of this remark. Silence again resumed her wand, and we were all spellbound. In the mean while, pipes with splendid amber mouthpieces, were brought by the attendants, and presented to us; after which, another set of domestics came round with a japanned tray, on which sweetmeats were served in glasses. But as it would be necessary for us to use silver spoons, which were on the tray, and silver is supposed to be a conductor of the plague, our quarantine friends interposed and prohibited the luxury, much to my annoyance, as beside the sweetmeats were arranged glasses of sherbet. Hussein smiled, not pleased however, at the scrupulousness of our guards, which he must have felt as a sort of imputation upon his country.

♦ STEAM EXPEDITION ♦

Small china coffee-cups were then brought in upon a gold tray; they were turned down, with silver filagree cups placed over each. Coffee was next produced in a japanned pot, and the tray and coffee-pot having been placed on the floor by the attendants, one of them presented a cup to our chief officer, who removing it from its silver case, filled it with the fragrant beverage, and placed it in the Count’s hand. In this way Mr. Tasner and I were also served. The pacha and his son took some sherbet. This ceremony being concluded, the pacha inquired whether the steam-boat was going to Stamboul. The Count replied that the steam navigation so far was not yet completed, but that when another boat, which was daily expected from Trieste, should arrive at Galacz, it would be possible to make the voyage from Presburg to Stamboul in eight days. This intelligence produced an exclamation of surprise from Hussein. His officers and domestics held up their hands in amazement. But it was clear that Hussein was no friend to this sort of expedition, which he evidently thought predicted no good for Turkey.

♦ COOL RECEPTION ♦

The Count finding that the interview had already lasted long enough, rose, and we took our departure. As we came out he gave one of the servants ten gold ducats to be distributed amongst them, according to the Turkish custom, which permits no person of rank to visit another without levying this kind of tax for the benefit of the domestics. In most cases it forms the only wages they receive. The Count had intended to present the two fowling pieces to the pacha, but he came away without effecting his purpose, as the medical adventurer’s interpretation was really so loose and blundering, that it would have been impossible to have performed the ceremony with that degree of gracefulness, which would alone have given value to the gift. Perhaps, too, the Count felt that his reception was cool.

♦ PACHA’S HAREM ♦

It was our wish to have walked through Vidin, and made ourselves acquainted with the features of that important town, but our quarantine officers would not hear of such a thing. We were even directed to get rid of the dust of Vidin on the soles of our boots by dipping them in the river. Upon returning to our boat we were therefore obliged to content ourselves with all that we could see through a telescope of its fortifications and mosques, bounded in the distance by the Balkans. The pacha’s harem formed a striking object in the scene, but we could discern no bright eyes peeping through the lattices by which every window was guarded. We were told, indeed, that two ladies, dressed in black long cloth pelisses, and closely veiled, who stood on the bank of the Danube under the harem, were its principal inmates. But beyond this supposition our curiosity was destined to meet no gratification.

The Wallachian officers dined with us. In the course of conversation I learned that the quarantine establishment, which gave full employment to the only troops the hospodar possessed, was entirely under the control of the Russian consul at Bucharest. I took the liberty, therefore, to remark that our guests were in fact Russian officers much more than Wallachian, inasmuch as the regulation of the quarantine in any country is the peculiar attribute of sovereign authority. This remark, far from being contested, was on the contrary immediately acceded to: the gentlemen appeared rather pleased at being recognised as imperial servants, in which character they also considered the hospodar. Indeed, they added, how could any doubt exist upon the subject, seeing that the prince, when he was invested with the office of hospodar by the sultan at Constantinople, was arrayed in the Russian uniform?

♦ WALLACHIA AND MOLDAVIA ♦

The political condition of the two provinces, Wallachia and Moldavia, is very little known in England. They are occupied chiefly by a Sclavonian population, to which the Greeks also belong, professing the Greek Catholic religion, actuated by an indelible hatred to the Turks, and intimately connected with Russia by religious as well as national sympathies. Though compelled by conquest to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Porte, the provinces which are separated from the Russian empire by the Pruth and mere geographical lines, were governed for many years by two hospodars, native princes, selected by the Porte, and continued in authority during the sultan’s pleasure. Vexatious imposts, and great irregularities in the administration of justice, produced incessant discontent among the people, who demanded the protection of the emperor against the exactions and abuses of Turkish authority. The emperor listened willingly to their complaints, and under the pretext of securing them the free exercise of their religion, which was in truth never disturbed, interposed in their favour. The treaty of Bucharest, which was concluded in 1812, gave a direct sanction to that interposition so far as the interests of religion were concerned. The treaty of 1829, concluded at Adrianople, at the end of the late war, may be considered as handing over the provinces to Russia altogether.

♦ TREATY OF ADRIANOPLE ♦

By that treaty, or the articles subsequently added to it, it is stipulated that the hospodar shall be appointed by the sultan for life, and not for a term as before, from a list of native princes elected by persons possessing a certain amount of property in the provinces. A small annual tribute is to be paid to the sultan, who retains, under the title of _suzeraineté_, the nominal supremacy of those districts. A rigid quarantine, under the control of Russia, whose extensive empire would be most endangered by the introduction of the plague from Turkey, is to be observed along the whole of the Wallachian bank of the Danube, thus establishing, in fact, an armed line of separation between the Ottoman empire and its northern _dependencies_!

♦ SILISTRIA ♦

On the opposite bank of the Danube, Silistria, the strongest fortified town in Turkey, which commands all Bulgaria, and opens the road to Constantinople, is given up for ever to Russia. I say “for ever,” because Turkey engaged to pay an enormous sum by way of indemnity for the expenses of the late war to Russia, and it was arranged that until the whole of that indemnity was discharged Silistria should be garrisoned by Russian troops. But all the various stipulations upon this subject are so framed, as to leave the _time_ of payment entirely at the discretion of the emperor, who will probably adjourn his demand for the last instalments _sine die_. By this truly Russian diplomacy he may retain Silistria as long as he pleases, which places in his hands the moral sovereignty of Turkey.

In order to complete his encroachments in that quarter, it has been further provided in the treaty of Adrianople, that besides the Bessarabian embouchure of the Danube, which he had already gained by the treaty of Bucharest, the whole of the Delta of that river should be ceded to him, and that with a view to prevent his sovereignty over that part of the Danube from being disturbed, the Bulgarian side of the Delta should remain for ever uninhabited, to the distance inland of six miles. By these arrangements, the navigation of the Danube, so far, at least, as intercourse with the Euxine is concerned, is subjected exclusively to Russian control; and Wallachia and Moldavia, really separated from Turkey, are as really added to the Russian empire. The _suzeraineté_ of the sultan, and the nomination of the hospodars are mere diplomatic contrivances for “throwing dust” in the eyes of Europe.

♦ BOAT AGROUND ♦

After dinner we proceeded on our voyage; but found the river so shallow, that we stopped for a while, and sent out men to sound for a deeper channel. Under their guidance, and rubbing occasionally over sandbanks, we kept on until the evening, and stopped for the night at Argugrad. On the following morning we again proceeded on our way; but about nine o’clock the boat penetrated a sandbank, where it remained as firmly fixed as if it had grown up from the bottom of the river. Anticipating an accident of this kind, we had brought with us from Argugrad a flat-bottomed vessel, for the purpose of lightening the steamer of its cargo: but upon sounding the river from bank to bank, it was discovered, to our dismay, that even if the cargo, boiler, engine and all, were removed, we had not the slightest chance of moving beyond the spot, where we were fixed as by the spell of an enchanter. Indeed, we had the agreeable prospect, about a mile before us, of three country boats, laden with “fruit,” planted also like so many rocks, in the bed of the Danube.

♦ NEW DELAYS ♦

The paddles of the engine were backed, with the view at all events of getting the steamer afloat, but they revolved in vain. The boiler was then emptied of its contents: still she remained imperturbable. Anchors were thrown out to shift her from her ground; but after breaking all our ropes, and exhausting every contrivance, we were obliged to give up the task in despair. The Count made up his mind to remain on board the rest of the day, and if no chance of liberation should offer itself, to send for horses to Kalefat, and to proceed by land to Giurgeva, and Bucharest. He obligingly proposed to take me with him in his carriage, saying, that I could have no difficulty in crossing from Giurgeva to Rutschuk, where I could procure horses for a journey over the Balkans to Constantinople. I calculated that it would take a day to go to Kalefat for the horses; a second day, probably, to find them; a third to return, and get the carriages ashore, and that after all it was not certain that a carriage road could be found practicable as far as Giurgeva, without first going to Bucharest. I looked forward with no very pleasant feelings to this delay, seeing that the season for travelling was rapidly drawing to a close.

♦ ZANTIOTE BOAT ♦

Towards evening, while I was walking alone on deck, impatient of the obstruction which my voyage had encountered, an Italian ship carpenter, whom we had taken on board at Gladova, came to announce to me that a boat was in sight, which he knew to belong to some Zantiotes, with whom he had been employed in constructing the two frigates we had seen at Semendria. The boat, he added, was certainly on its way to the Black Sea, where they would coast it down to the Bosphorus, and so on by the Hellespont and the Archipelago, to Zante.

♦ ZANTIOTE BOAT ♦

I had already learned from the captain that beyond Rutschuk, the banks of the Danube were low, marshy, and wholly destitute of interest, especially for one who had passed through the splendid scenery between Moldava and the Iron Door. I was informed, moreover, that if I went as far as Silistria, I should have very little chance of finding horses there, and would run the risk of being even inhospitably treated by the Russians, who might suppose that I had some political purpose in view, in paying their garrison a visit. I therefore resolved to take a passage in the Zantiote boat to Rutschuk. The Italian informed me that the men to whom it belonged were perfectly trustworthy and civil, and that as I was an Englishman, and in some degree a fellow-subject of theirs, I might depend upon the best accommodation they could afford me.

♦ ADVENTUROUS CHANGES ♦

It was no very welcome change to pass from the comparative luxuries of the steamer--from a good mattress, excellent dinners, champagne, and the fascinating society of the Count, to an open boat, manned by Greek carpenters, with whose conversational language I was wholly unacquainted. But my anxiety to “go on,” superseded all other considerations; and there was, moreover, an adventurous character about the transition, which was not without its influence upon a mind fond of examining the phases of human character in every shade of society. The Servian Jew we had left at Vidin; the Moldavian poet had been for some days laid up with a nervous fever. But when he heard of my resolution, he crept up on deck to take leave of me.

♦ SEPARATION ♦

As the Zantiote boat, which to me, at first, appeared like a little black speck in the distance, approached, I desired the Italian to hail it, and inquire whither they were bound. His former companions immediately recognised him, and they pulled up, within quarantine distance, of the steamer. They said that they were on their way home; that they had two Turkish passengers; one for Nicopolis, the other for Rutschuk; that they would be very happy to afford me a passage, if I would accept it, as far as I pleased, and that I might depend upon their utmost attention. The goodhumoured look of these Ionian islanders confirmed me in my determination, and I much surprised the Count, who with Mr. Tasner, was busily engaged in writing, when I went to communicate to him my plans, and to bid him farewell. Though not prepared for so sudden a separation, he saw at once that the opportunity of so soon pursuing my voyage to Rutschuk ought not to be thrown away, as he confessed that he was not very certain of being able to go overland to Bucharest or Giurgeva. Having already made the journey to Constantinople from Semlin, he gave me some useful instructions as to the mode in which I should proceed, and directed the captain, who was acquainted with the Wallachian language, to furnish me with a letter to the agent of the Steam Navigation Company at Rutschuk.

♦ IONIAN LUXURIES ♦

Having taken leave of my friends, I descended into the Ionian boat, and was instantly separated from them by the bar of quarantine. The crew of the steamer assembled, and cheered us as we departed, and the Count, whose kindness to me I shall never forget, waved his handkerchief until we were veiled from his view by the increasing dusk of the evening. The vessel in which I found myself seated was a large, strong, open boat, in which there was a company of seven hardy well-looking men, who occasionally relieved each other at the oars and the helm. Three hoops were stretched over the centre of the vessel, and over these was spread a thick mat formed of dried reeds, which served as an awning. Beneath this canopy my Turkish fellow-passengers were seated on carpets. They received me with the utmost civility, and made room for my portmanteau and carpet-bag, which I converted into a sofa. Near me was a sack of walnuts, which offered no mean apology for a pillow.

♦ A GRAVE MISTAKE ♦

My new friends immediately offered me some grapes and bread, which I declined, but which reminded me that I had committed a grave mistake in not having provided myself for the remainder of the voyage from the larder of the steam-boat. One of the crew, who seemed to be their captain, opened his chest, and took out of it a large thick blanket, which he wrapped carefully around me. The night was cold, and the moon in its first quarter gleamed on the swarthy faces of my Turkish companions; one of whom, a military officer, was an extremely handsome man. The stars were all out, and we had so much light that we pursued our way until ten o’clock, when we stopped for the night near a Turkish village.