The next town we reached was Ruschuk, which is of considerable extent, walled, and surrounded by a ditch. It contains only three thousand inhabitants, though it formerly boasted thirty thousand, but exhibits no symptom of that desolation we had remarked in several other towns on the river. It possesses nine mosques; and its main street is wider and more carefully paved than any in Constantinople. Its principal trade is in salt from Olenitza, sugar, iron, and manufactured goods; its exports are livestock, grain, wool, and timber; and its industry comprises sail-making by the women, and boat-building by the men.
The extreme cheapness of food at Ruschuk struck me so much that I took some pains to ascertain the price of the most common articles of consumption; and I subjoin the result of my inquiries as a positive curiosity. Eggs were two hundred for a shilling—fowls were considered exorbitant; and the high value which they constantly maintained was accounted for by the fact that the market of Constantinople was in a great degree supplied from thence; they were twopence each—ducks and geese, from the same cause, cost two pence halfpenny; turkeys averaged tenpence, being a favourite food with the Orientals; beef three halfpence the oke, of two pounds and three quarters; mutton the same price—the wine of the country one piastre the quart—grapes a halfpenny the oke; melons and pasteks of immense size, three farthings each; bread equally cheap, but bad.
Shortly after leaving Ruschuk, I was amused for a considerable time in watching some cormorants that were diving for fish; while every sand in the shallows of the river was covered with hundreds of blue plover. Wild ducks and geese also flew past the vessel in clouds; and we purchased small sturgeon and sword-fish from a boat with which we came in contact.
The Wallachian coast still continued to present one swampy and uninteresting flat, save at distant intervals, when a scattered and treeless village, built upon the slope of a slight rise, broke for an instant upon its tame monotony. But Bulgaria grew in beauty as we approached its boundary. Noble hills, well clothed with trees gay in all the rainbow tints of autumn, and contrasting the deep rich umber hues of the fading beech, and the bright yellow of the withering walnut, with the gay red garlands of the wild vine, which flung its ruby-coloured wreaths from tree to tree, linking them together in one glowing wreath—Snug little villages, with each its tiny fleet of fishing-boats, and its sandy shore covered with groups of gazers; the better classes clad after the Asiatic fashion—the men wearing their turbans large and gracefully arranged, and the women suffering the yashmac to hang nearly to their feet above the dark feridjhe; and the poorer among them clad in shapeless woollen garments, and high caps of black sheep skin—Herds of horses bounding over the hills in all the graceful hilarity of freedom—Droves of buffaloes lying in the deep mud of the river, basking in the sunshine—Vineyards overshadowed by fruit trees; Fields neatly fenced from the waste, and rich with vegetables and grain, in turn varied the prospect; nor had we wearied of the scene when, at two o’clock, P.M., we arrived at Sistoff, a small, but flourishing town; with the ruin of an old castle perched on a height immediately above it. Here, greatly to our satisfaction, we landed most of our deck passengers; and a little after seven in the evening we found ourselves abreast of Nicopolis; but owing to the darkness we could only trace the outline of the town as it cut against the horizon, and discovered that it was tolerably extensive, and surrounded by high bluff lands.
Having been detained several hours by the fog, which was extremely dense at daybreak, we did not reach Orava until near mid-day. This town, which was destroyed by the Russians during the reign of Catherine, appears to be of considerable extent; but is only partially fortified. It possesses five or six mosques, some of which are scarcely visible from the river, owing to the very high land that intervenes between a portion of the town and the shore. The ruins of an old castle on the summit of a rock, and of a Roman bath on the water’s edge, give a picturesque effect to the locality. Some hours later we anchored on the Wallachian side to take in coals, which were obtained from Hungary, and said to be of very excellent quality; the little enclosure that contained them was situated close to one of the sanatory stations, and we were not permitted to approach within a hundred yards of the white-coated Wallachians. We revenged ourselves, however, by wandering over the plain, gathering wild flowers and blackberries; and giving chase to some of the most beautiful little green frogs that ever were seen—they looked like leaping leaves! Eight pelicans passed us on the wing during the day.
Another dense fog prevented our progress after seven in the evening, as the pilot refused to incur the responsibility of the vessel; and we accordingly anchored until three o’clock the following morning, when we started again in a bright flood of moonlight; and in about four hours we arrived opposite to Widdin, where we anchored. It is a large and handsome town, strongly fortified with a double line of works of great importance. The fortifications are in good order, and extend, as we are told, about twelve hundred yards along the bank of the river; while the lines on the landward side are kept with equal care, and are of similar extent. The walls are protected by four strong bastions; and the guns are all said to be in an efficient state. The Pasha’s Palace, based on the outer walls, looks as bleak and comfortless as a barrack; but its windows command a noble view of the river. The minarets of twelve or fourteen mosques relieve the outline of the picture; and, immediately opposite, on the Wallachian side, stands the low, flat, rambling town of Kalefat, whence the country assumes a new and more interesting character. A graceful curve in the river carried us past the quarantaine establishment; a group of wretched buildings erected close to the water’s edge, and enclosed within a rude wooden paling, backed by a lofty cliff that runs far along the shore, riven into a thousand fantastic shapes; while here and there we had distant glimpses of cultivated valleys and wooded hills.
The aspect of the country improved throughout the whole day; abrupt and precipitous heights, wooded to the very summits—stretches of corn and pasture land—multitudinous herds of cattle—and laughing plains, gay with grass and wild flowers, flitted rapidly by; while the bold cloud-crested mountains above Orsoru formed a noble background to the picture. At noon we were abreast of Florentin, the last Bulgarian village on the bank of the river; and decidedly the most picturesque locality on the Lower Danube. The hamlet was nestled beneath a rock, three of whose sides were washed by the river, while the fourth was protected by a deep ditch; and the tall, bluff, perpendicular rock itself was crowned by a Gothic castle, whose gray outline, apparently nearly perfect, cut sharply against the sky; and completed a tableau so strikingly beautiful as to elicit an universal exclamation of delight.
We ran past Scala Glavoda in the night, from which circumstance I lost the opportunity of seeing Trajan’s Bridge, whose arches may be distinguished beneath the level of the water; and at midnight we anchored at a straggling village about half a league above it. Here we took leave of the Pannonia; and, as the river is not navigable for a considerable distance for any thing but flat-bottomed boats, whose wearisome course against the current is secured by the assistance of oxen, who tow them lazily on their way; we were obliged to proceed to Orsova by land. Custom-house officers came on board to examine the merchandize with which the vessel was freighted, but they did not interfere with the luggage of the passengers; and, as soon as bullock-cars had been secured, we despatched our packages on shore, whither we shortly followed them.
On the opposite shore rose the mountains of Wallachia, just touched upon their summits with the brilliant tints of the newly-risen sun, and clothed with many-coloured foliage. The hills, beside which we had passed during the previous day, had closed upon us in the rear; and the chain which terminates in the Porte de Fer, or Iron Door, a bar of rock that nearly traverses the Danube, and over which its waters toss and boil in impotent violence, shut in the forward view.
In the bottom of the gorge ran the river, whence arose the column of steam escaping from the chimney of the Pannonia; and the Servian shore was scattered over with the multifarious properties of the passengers. The village ran along the bank of the river, and consisted of log huts, most ingeniously constructed, lined with a cement formed of clay, and thatched, like those in Bulgaria, with reeds, and the straw of the Indian corn; interspersed with small tenements of wicker-work raised on poles, and serving as store-houses for fruits and grain.