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COMMERCE OF IBRAIL.

ships from England have arrived here. The annual exports may be estimated at eighty thousand beasts and two hundred and fifty thousand sheep-skins to Hungary and Germany; five hundred cargoes of wheat, barley, and oats, each of two hundred tons, a thousand tons of tallow, four hundred thousand pounds of wool, and a thousand pounds of cantharides, to various countries; besides barrel-staves to England, and wine to Russia. A horse sells for about three pounds, and the prices of other articles are in proportion. Eight horses for a post of twelve miles cost twenty-two piastres, or something less than seven shillings. Accounts are kept in the Turkish coins of paras and piastres forty paras equal a piastre, which is equivalent to about threepence-halfpenny here, though to little more than twopence-halfpenny in Constantinople and Smyrna.

During a voyage of six days from Scala Cladova to Ibrail, we had not received a single new passenger on board. At this place the ispravnik and his wife, accompanied by several officers and ladies, embarked to enjoy a little excursion to Galatz, which seems to afford almost the only variety in their monotonous life. The governor speaks French, as does his lady, a remarkably intelligent woman,

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who travelled last year to England, accompanied by a single servant.

An hour and twenty minutes carried us by the river Sereth, the boundary of Wallachia and Moldavia, into the latter principality, landing us at its chief commercial town Galatz, a place of importance in the country, yet so little known that only one English traveller had preceded us, as we were informed, (though perhaps erroneously,) within the memory of man. Here the steam-navigation of the Danube terminates; but it is hoped that next year the communication between Vienna and Constantinople will be completed.*

In taking a review of our long voyage, we felt that we had not been subjected to more désagrémens than might reasonably have been anticipated on a route wholly untried, and in the infancy of an establishment so novel in the countries embraced by the speculation of the steam-navigation company. It is true, the inconveniences to be encountered are considerable; but then, no one should venture on the excursion who is unprepared for hardships and harassing delays, for it cannot be expected that

This communication is now perfected by means of an additional steamer which plies between Galatz and Constantinople.

192

REFLECTIONS ON THE

a project which has to contend against so many obstacles should be perfected at once. Instead of complaining, a traveller of an enlarged and philanthropic mind will turn with admiration to the enterprise and patriotism which have set on foot so grand an undertaking, and to the important moral consequences likely to be the result, remembering with satisfaction that steam is calculated to prove the precursor of civilization, civilization of education, education of religion, and religion of happiness. The effect of the perfect organization of the existing arrangements will be to bring all the provinces on the banks of the Danube, with those bordering on them, into contact with the arts and sciences, the civil institutions, and the moral, commercial, and religious resources of western Europe; and a brighter, happier day will dawn on Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, Sclavonia, Bosnia, Servia, Bulgaria, Wallachia, and Moldavia. Nor will these countries be a limit to bound the operations of the mighty moral engine. The steam communication now arranged between England, Spain, Malta, Marseilles, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Syria, Constantinople, Crim Tartary, and Odessa, completes the line which may encircle Europe with a zone of

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blessings, and unite it to Asia and Africa by the golden tie of gratitude for benefits conferred it promises to enlarge the empires of science, religion, and happiness; to wave the sceptre of liberty over Afric's injured soil; and, by facilitating the dissemination of the truths of the gospel, to prostrate the crescent at the foot of the cross.

APPENDIX TO THE

VOYAGE DOWN THE DANUBE.

THE following details may prove interesting to those who purpose to make a voyage down the Danube. R and L indicate the right and left banks of the river. The English miles are given, instead of hours, from Moldova to Scala Cladova, because the voyage is made in a row-boat, not a steamer. The time noted throughout the rest of the course includes stoppages of less than an hour, and is that in which the author actually made the voyage. While, therefore, an estimate of ten miles for each hour will, in general, give the distance by approximation, it will sometimes prove very erroneous with reference to two neighbouring towns where it may have happened that long stoppages occurred.