A Visit to the Holy Land, Egypt, and Italy | Page 4

morning we continued our journey at six o'clock. Immediately
below Presburg the Danube divides into two arms, forming the fertile
island of Schutt, which is about forty-six miles long and twenty- eight
in breadth. Till we reach Gran the scenery is monotonous enough, but
here it improves. Beautiful hills and several mountains surround the

place, imparting a charm of variety to the landscape.
In the evening, at about seven o'clock, we arrived at Pesth.
Unfortunately it was already quite dark. The magnificent houses, or
rather palaces, skirting the left bank of the Danube, and the celebrated
ancient fortress and town of Ofen on the right, form a splendid
spectacle, and invite the traveller to a longer sojourn. As I had passed
some days at Pesth several years before, I now only stayed there for
one night.
As the traveller must change steamers here, it behoves him to keep a
careful eye upon the luggage he has not delivered up at the office in
Vienna.
I put up at the "Hunting-horn," a fine hotel, but ridiculously expensive.
A little back room cost me 45 kreutzers (about one shilling and
eightpence) for one night.
The whole day I had felt exceedingly unwell. A violent headache,
accompanied by nausea and fever, made me fear the approach of a fit
of illness which would interrupt my journey. These symptoms were
probably a consequence of the painful excitement of parting with my
friends, added to the change of air. With some difficulty I gained my
modest chamber, and immediately went to bed. My good constitution
was luckily proof against the attacks of all enemies, and waking the
next morning, on
March 24th,
in tolerable health, I betook myself on board our new steamboat the
Galata, of sixty-horse power: this boat did not, however, appear to me
so tidy and neat as the Marianna, in which we had proceeded from
Vienna to Pesth. Our journey was a rapid one; at ten o'clock in the
morning we were already at Feldvar, a place which seems at a distance
to be of some magnitude, but which melts away like a soap- bubble on
a nearer approach. By two o'clock we had reached Paks; here, as at all
other places of note, we stopped for a quarter of an hour. A boat rows
off from the shore, bringing and fetching back passengers with such

marvellous speed, that you have scarcely finished the sentence you are
saying to your neighbour before he has vanished. There is no time even
to say farewell.
At about eight o'clock in the evening we reached the market-town of
Mohacs, celebrated as the scene of two battles. The fortress here is used
as a prison for criminals. We could distinguish nothing either of the
fortress or the town. It was already night when we arrived, and at two
o'clock in the morning of
March 25th
we weighed anchor. I was assured, however, that I had lost nothing by
this haste.
Some hours afterwards, our ship suddenly struck with so severe a shock,
that all hastened on deck to see what was the matter. Our steersman,
who had most probably been more asleep than awake, had given the
ship an unskilful turn, in consequence of which, one of the paddles was
entangled with some trunks of trees projecting above the surface of the
water. The sailors hurried into the boats, the engine was backed, and
after much difficulty we were once more afloat.
Stopping for a few moments at Dalina and Berkara, we passed the
beautiful ruin of Count Palffy's castle at about two o'clock. The castle
of Illok, situate on a hill, and belonging to Prince Odescalchi, presents
a still more picturesque appearance.
At about four o'clock we landed near the little free town of Neusatz,
opposite the celebrated fortress of Peterwardein, the outworks of which
extend over a tongue of land stretching far out into the Danube. Of the
little free town of Neusatz we could not see much, hidden as it is by
hills which at this point confine the bed of the river. The Danube is
here crossed by a bridge of boats, and this place also forms the military
boundary of Austria. The surrounding landscape appeared sufficiently
picturesque; the little town of Karlowitz, lying at a short distance from
the shore, among hills covered with vineyards, has a peculiarly good
effect. Farther on, however, as far as Semlin, the scenery is rather

monotonous. Here the Danube already spreads itself out to a vast
breadth, resembling rather a lake than a river.
At nine o'clock at night we reached the city of Semlin, in the vicinity of
which we halted. Semlin is a fortified place, situated at the junction of
the Save with the Danube; it contains 13,000 inhabitants, and is the last
Austrian town