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7
one of the two postillions set out for the post in
quest of a reinforcement: he returned about daybreak
with a 3d postilion, & 5 supplemental horses in addition
to the 6 we had before. The same scene of whipping,
and shouting and lifting recommenced
and with the same success. The additional cattle
seemed rather to have diminished than augmented
our effective strength. Big whips composed of
a short stick and a piece of flinder
pack thread
such as you would tie up half a dozen books
with, no impression capable of lasting beyond
the moment could be made. If then the three postillions
had been perfect timists, with Dr Burney
to lead them, instead of honest Ludwig (which
is my Polish servants name) the effective strength
to be collected out of 11 horses would have
been equal to that of 3: but as it was seldom
that any two hor were struck together or when
struck, pulled in the same direction, how many
fractions of a horse our total effective strength
amounted to for a constancy, is a problem which
I must leave to the Royal Society to solve. Of the sleevelessness
and stupidity and ignorance manifested
upon this and all other similar occasions by these
honest Moldavians, no man whose travels have
been confined to England and the countries which
come next to England, can form a tolerable idea
of all which, having neither implements to operate
with no tongue to speak with, I was obliged
to be an inactive spectator, and, as impatience
would have been useless, I chose to be
a patient one. The country, though bare
and wild and unenclosed, is not so desert as
not to afford here and there a miserable hovel
with a good stock of stout horned cattle:
some such habitations, though not in sight
were fortunately at no great distance. Fortunately
also the experience of the superior virtue
of oxen at a dead pull had made its
way into Moldavia: in process of time 4
of these cattle were procured, and these added
to two of our best horses at the first effort
drew me out of limbo. I reached the post-house
at about 10 or 11 o'clock of the Tuesday
morning (Jan. 10) Here I eat a morsel
of bread, and made a dish of milk-less Coffee in
a tin pot tin pot I had bought at Bucharest: the only
refreshment
8
refreshment I had taken except a slender meal
of the same sort, since Sunday about noon,
and what I was much more in want of, I got
a recruit of hot water for my feet in an earthen
bottle I had brought from Jassi. Please to
understand in a parenthesis, that in all the
shops of that metropolis (though populous enough to contain no such implement
between 3 & 400 places of worship of which about 70 parachies was to be purchased as a cork. I was obliged
to have recourse to the Vice-Consul's generosity
who gave me 4 of different sizes, but so expensively,
though clumsily fitted up with ring
and caps and buttons and wires, aping at
an immense distance our English ones, that
I was ashamed to take them. What made the
hot water expedient the more necessary is, that
in this part of the world since I have left Bucharest H I have found the
hearths every where raised a foot or two above
the ground, as if on purpose to prevent the
application of artificial heat to the lower extremities, the only part which with
me stand essentially in need of it.
A little before dusk I arrived without any
material accident at Belch: the post house offering
wretched accommodation and diseased inhabitants,
I went a little out of the road in
quest of a private house; much against the
will of honest Ludwig, who though very studious
to serve me in his own way, has proved a constant
enemy to every kind of eccentricity. By bad accommodations
take care you do not understand
as in England want of a separate room or bad provisions or even none, for
none are even expected did I expect or wish for but a smoaking chimney,
or an imperfect door, a ad door
opening immediately upon the fire-place,
in the one room, which constitutes the house
I was shewn to the house which appeared to be
the best, and which proved to be occupied by a
Jew: Dealer and Chapman as all Jews are, but
in what particular articles I could not learn: for
Ludwig is an enemy to all impertinent curiosity
and with him all curiosity is impertinent.
In this palace, for such it was in comparison of
the ordinary Moldavian houses, I was as well
received as I could have been at a post-house.
And now, would I fain to you this Jewish house
and this Jewish family, as I would every house &
every family I have visited since I left Constantinople,
and so I could, if I had time, but I shall
ruin you in postage, and at this rate we shall never
reach even Soroka. Here I made an Anti-Jewish
meal of Yassi sausages, Christian neighbours furnished
a plate to put them in. I left Belch about 7 at night
and after an exact repetition of the former nights scene
the oxen excepted, reached Soroka Wednesday morning (11th Jany)
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Identifier: | JB/540/241/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 540.
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1786-01-16 |
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540 |
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241 |
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002 |
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Correspondence |
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Samuel Bentham |
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