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PREFACE.
Amongst the nations of Europe most given to letters, none have so largely contributed to the general list of publications, relating to the condition and progress of the different countries of the world, as the English; and no travellers possess to the same degree as they do the love of describing them, however numerous the accounts that have preceded the period of their own experimental observations. Their journals, nevertheless, hardly ever fail to create interest, and the least share of novelty in form or matter induces the less travelling class of their countrymen to read them with pleasure.
Turkey and Egypt in particular have long been favourite themes; and indeed the Ottoman empire in every point of view, whether topographical, historical, administrative, religious, moral, political, military, or commercial, offers an inexhaustible subject for investigation, and an endless excitement to curiosity. No regular and minute description has, however, yet been undertaken of two of its most important and curious provinces, those which divide the principal part of the ancient kingdom of Dacia, under the modern denomination of Wallachia and Moldavia, although in the renewed existence of Greek governments exercising most of the prerogatives of independency, in the struggles of two nations between a strong remnant of Dacian barbarism and the influence of modern civilisation, and in a country comprehending within its own boundaries all the productive resources which fall but separately to the share of other countries, sufficient matter may be found to render them a subject by no means unworthy of notice.
These considerations have encouraged me to write the following pages with the view of laying them before the public. An official residence of some years in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, afforded me the most ample opportunities of observation on every thing they contain most interesting, and I have endeavoured to make an accurate and satisfactory description of them. With regard to their history, I have only dwelt upon the most remarkable events, and have merely given it that extent to which its degree of importance seems entitled. I was apprehensive that longer and more minute details might be found tedious and unnecessary.
I regret, however, that at the time I wrote this account, I was not sufficiently prepared to enter into further particulars with respect to the minerals with which those countries abound; I intend, if I return to them, to bestow as much attention as possible to that particular object, and to make it the subject of a future separate treatise.
I am aware that my present undertaking is deserving of an abler pen; but as the character of nations can only be properly understood after some length of residence among them, I trust that the circumstances which place it to my lot, will make the apology of my intrusion, and become a motive of indulgence to its deficiencies in literary merit.
As Wallachia was the country of my fixed residence, I naturally chose it for the principal scene of my observations; and indeed the history of the two principalities is throughout so intimately connected, the form of their respective governments, the language, manners, and customs of the inhabitants, have ever been so much alike, that a description of the one renders a distinct account of the other superfluous.
The political importance to which these two provinces have risen since the reign of the ambitious Catherine, has given them a place of no small consequence in the general balance of Europe. Most of the European cabinets keep an eye upon them from the same motives, though with different views; but politics alone have hitherto brought them into notice, and philosophically or philanthropically speaking, it must be confessed that a share of attention, directed by common justice and humanity, was equally due to their definitive fate.