A Battue missed.--Proceed to Alexinatz.--Foreign-Office
Courier.--Bulgarian frontier.--Gipsey Suregee.--Tiupria.--New bridge
and macadamized road.
The Natchalnik was the Nimrod of his district, and had made
arrangements to treat me to a grand hunt of bears and boars on the
Jastrabatz, with a couple of hundred peasants to beat the woods; but
the rain poured, the wind blew, my sport was spoiled, and I missed
glorious materials for a Snyders in print. Thankful was I, however,
that the element had spared me during the journey in the hills, and
that we were in snug quarters during the bad weather. A day later I
should have been caught in the peasant's chimneyless-hut at the foot
of the Balkan, and then should have roughed it in earnest.
When the weather settled, I was again in motion, ascending that branch
of the Morava which comes from Nissa. There was nothing to remark in
this part of Servia, which proved to be the least interesting part of
our route, being wanting as well in boldness of outline as in
luxuriant vegetation.
On approaching a khan, at a short distance from Alexinatz, I perceived
an individual whom I guessed to be the captain of the place, along
with a Britannic-looking figure in a Polish frock. This was Captain
W----, a queen's messenger of the new school.
While we were drinking a cup of coffee, a Turkish Bin Bashi came upon
his way to Belgrade from the army of Roumelia at Kalkendel; he told us
that the Pasha of Nish had gone with all his force to Procupli to
disarm the Arnaouts. I very naturally took out the map to learn where
Procupli was; on which the Bin Bashi asked me if I was a military
engineer! "That boy will be the death of me!"--so nobody but military
engineers are permitted to look at maps.
For a month I had seen or heard nothing of Europe and Europeans
except the doctor at Csatsak, and his sage maxims about Greek masses
and Hungarian law-suits. I therefore made prize of the captain, who
was an intelligent man, with an abundance of fresh political
chit-chat, and odds and ends of scandal from Paddington to the Bank,
and from Pall-mall to Parliament-street, brimful of extracts and
essences of Athenaeums, United-Services, and other hebdomadals.
Formerly Foreign-Office messengers were the cast-off butlers and
valets of secretaries of state. For some time back they have been
taken from the half-pay list and the educated classes. One or two can
boast of very fair literary attainments; and a man who once a year
spends a few weeks in all the principal capitals of Europe, from
Madrid to St. Petersburg and Constantinople, necessarily picks up a
great knowledge of the world. The British messengers post out from
London to Semlin, where they leave their carriages, ride across to
Alexinatz on the Bulgarian frontier, whence the despatches are carried
by a Tartar to Constantinople, via Philippopoli and Adrianople.
On arriving at Alexinatz, a good English dinner awaited us at the
konak of the queen's messenger. It seemed so odd, and yet was so very
comfortable, to have roast beef, plum pudding, sherry, brown stout,
Stilton cheese, and other insular groceries at the foot of the Balkan.
There was, moreover, a small library, with which the temporary
occupants of the konak killed the month's interval between arrival and
departure.
Next day I visited the quarantine buildings with the inspector; they
are all new, and erected in the Austrian manner. The number of those
who purge their quarantine is about fourteen thousand individuals per
annum, being mostly Bulgarians who wander into Servia at harvest time,
and place at the disposal of the haughty, warlike, and somewhat
indolent Servians their more humble and laborious services. A village
of three hundred houses, a church, and a national school, have sprung
up within the last few years at this point. The imports from Roumelia
and Bulgaria are mostly Cordovan leather; the exports, Austrian
manufactures, which pass through Servia.
When the new macadamized road from Belgrade to this point is
finished, there can be no doubt that the trade will increase. The
possible effect of which is, that the British manufactures, which are
sold at the fairs of Transbalkan Bulgaria, may be subject to greater
competition. After spending a few days at Alexinatz, I started with
post horses for Tiupria, as the horse I had ridden had been so
severely galled, that I was obliged to send him to Belgrade.
Tiupria, being on the high road across Servia, has a large khan, at
which I put up. I had observed armed guards at the entrance of the
town, and felt at a loss to account for the cause. The rooms of the
khan being uninhabitable, I sent Paul with my letter of introduction
to the Natchalnik, and sat down in the khan kitchen, which was a
parlour at the same time; an apartment, with a brick floor, one side
of which was fitted up with a broad wooden bench (the bare boards
being in every respect preferable in such cases to cushions, as one
has a better chance of cleanliness).
The other side of the apartment was like a hedge alehouse in England,
with a long table and moveable benches. Several Servians sat here
drinking coffee and smoking; others drinking wine. The Cahwagi was
standing with his apron on, at a little charcoal furnace, stirring his
small coffee-pot until the cream came. I ordered some wine for myself,
as well as the Suregee, but the latter said, "I do not drink wine." I
now looked him in the face, and saw that he was of a very dark
complexion; for I had made the last stage after sunset, and had not
remarked him.
_Author_. "Are you a Chingany (gipsy)?"
_Gipsy_. "Yes."
_Author_. "Now I recollect most of the gipsies here are Moslems; how
do you show your adherence to Islamism?"
_Gipsy_. "I go regularly to mosque, and say my prayers."
_Author_. "What language do you speak?"
_Gipsy_. "In business Turkish or Servian; but with my family
Chingany."
I now asked the Cahwagi the cause of the guards being posted in the
streets; and he told me of the attempt at Shabatz, by disguised
hussars, in which the worthy collector met his death. Paul not
returning, I felt impatient, and wondered what had become of him. At
length he returned, and told me that he had been taken in the streets
as a suspicious character, without a lantern, carried to the
guard-house, and then to the house of the Natchalnik, to whom he
presented the letter, and from whom he now returned, with a pandour,
and a message to come immediately.
The Natchalnik met us half-way with the lanterns, and reproached me
for not at once descending at his house. Being now fatigued, I soon
went to bed in an apartment hung round with all sorts of arms. There
were Albanian guns, Bosniac pistols, Vienna fowling-pieces, and all
manner of Damascus and Khorassan blades.
Next morning, on awaking, I looked out at my window, and found myself
in a species of kiosk, which hung over the Morava, now no longer a
mountain stream, but a broad and almost navigable river. The lands on
the opposite side were flat, but well cultivated, and two bridges, an
old and a new one, spanned the river. Hence the name Tiupria, from the
Turkish _keupri_ (bridge,) for here the high road from Belgrade to
Constantinople crosses the Morava.
The Natchalnik, a tall, muscular, broad-shouldered man, now entered,
and, saluting me like an old friend, asked me how I slept.
_Author_. "I thank you, never better in my life. My yesterday's ride
gave me a sharp exercise, without excessive fatigue. I need not ask
you how you are, for you are the picture of health and herculean
strength."
_Natchalnik_. "I was strong in my day, but now and then nature tells
me that I am considerably on the wrong side of my climacteric."
_Author_. "Pray tell me what is the reason of this accumulation of
arms. I never slept with such ample means of defence within my
reach,--quite an arsenal."
_Natchalnik_. "You have no doubt heard of the attempt of the
Obrenovitch faction at Shabatz. We are under no apprehension of their
doing any thing here; for they have no partizans: but I am an old
soldier, and deem it prudent to take precautions, even when
appearances do not seem to demand them very imperiously. I wish the
rascals would show face in this quarter, just to prevent our arms from
getting rusty. Our greatest loss is that of Ninitch, the collector."
_Author_. "Poor follow. I knew him as well as any man can know another
in a few days. He made a most favourable impression on me: it seems as
it were but yesternight that I toasted him in a bumper, and wished him
long life, which, like many other wishes of mine, was not destined to
be fulfilled. How little we think of the frail plank that separates us
from the ocean of eternity!"
_Natchalnik_. "I was once, myself, very near the other world, having
entered as a volunteer in the Russian army that crossed the Balkan in
1828. I burned a mosque in defiance of the orders of Marshal Diebitch;
the consequence was that I was tried by a court-martial, and condemned
to be shot: but on putting in a petition, and stating that I had done
so through ignorance, and in accomplishment of a vow of vengeance, my
father and brother having been killed by the Turks in the war of
liberation, seven of our houses[15] having been burned at the same
time, Marshal Diebitch on reading the petition pardoned me."
The doctor of the place now entered; a very little man with a pale
complexion, and a black braided surtout. He informed me that he had
been for many years a Surgeon in the Austrian navy. On my asking him
how he liked that service, he answered, "Very well; for we rarely go
out to the Mediterranean; our home-ports, Venice and Trieste, are
agreeable, and our usual station in the Levant is Smyrna, which is
equally pleasant. The Austrian vessels being generally frigates of
moderate size, the officers live in a more friendly and comfortable
way than if they were of heavier metal. But were I not a surgeon, I
should prefer the wider sphere of distinction which colonial and
trans-oceanic life and incident opens to the British naval officer;
for I, myself, once made a voyage to the Brazils."
We now went to see the handsome new bridge in course of construction
over the Morava. The architect, a certain Baron Cordon, who had been
bred a military engineer, happened to be there at the time, and
obligingly explained the details. At every step I see the immense
advantages which this country derives from its vicinity to Austria in
a material point of view; and yet the Austrian and Servian governments
seem perpetually involved in the most inexplicable squabbles. A gang
of poor fellows who had been compromised in the unsuccessful attempts
of last year by the Obrenovitch party, were working in chains,
macadamizing the road.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 15: Houses or horses; my notes having been written with
rapidity, the word is indistinct.]