April xx.
We stay at this place, employed in the care of transporting his Excellency’s equipage on the other side of the water; and in the mean time cannot but reflect with pleasure on the agreable tract of ground, which for five days we had passed thro in Moesia Inferior. A country, which (however decried by Ovid, and disparaged by our modern geographers) for the richness of its soil, variety of rising and falling ground, elegancy of prospect, and a competent provision of wood and water, is perhaps not to be paralleled by any other spot in the universe. But tho the whole tract of this country, which descends gradually from the foot of the Haemus to the banks of the Danube, is rich both in arable and pasture ground; yet the inhabitants seem excessive poor, and are defended from the injuries of the weather by houses very meanly built.