The whole day I had felt exceedingly unwell.  A violent headache, accompanied by nausea and fever, made me fear the approach of a fit of illness which would interrupt my journey.  These symptoms were probably a consequence of the painful excitement of parting with my friends, added to the change of air.  With some difficulty I gained my modest chamber, and immediately went to bed.  My good constitution was luckily proof against the attacks of all enemies, and waking the next morning, on

March 24th,

in tolerable health, I betook myself on board our new steamboat the Galata, of sixty-horse power:  this boat did not, however, appear to me so tidy and neat as the Marianna, in which we had proceeded from Vienna to Pesth.  Our journey was a rapid one; at ten o’clock in the morning we were already at Feldvar, a place which seems at a distance to be of some magnitude, but which melts away like a soap-bubble on a nearer approach.  By two o’clock we had reached Paks; here, as at all other places of note, we stopped for a quarter of an hour.  A boat rows off from the shore, bringing and fetching back passengers with such marvellous speed, that you have scarcely finished the sentence you are saying to your neighbour before he has vanished.  There is no time even to say farewell.

At about eight o’clock in the evening we reached the market-town of Mohacs, celebrated as the scene of two battles.  The fortress here is used as a prison for criminals.  We could distinguish nothing either of the fortress or the town.  It was already night when we arrived, and at two o’clock in the morning of

March 25th

we weighed anchor.  I was assured, however, that I had lost nothing by this haste.

Some hours afterwards, our ship suddenly struck with so severe a shock, that all hastened on deck to see what was the matter.  Our steersman, who had most probably been more asleep than awake, had given the ship an unskilful turn, in consequence of which, one of the paddles was entangled with some trunks of trees projecting above the surface of the water.  The sailors hurried into the boats, the engine was backed, and after much difficulty we were once more afloat.

Stopping for a few moments at Dalina and Berkara, we passed the beautiful ruin of Count Palffy’s castle at about two o’clock.  The castle of Illok, situate on a hill, and belonging to Prince Odescalchi, presents a still more picturesque appearance.

At about four o’clock we landed near the little free town of Neusatz, opposite the celebrated fortress of Peterwardein, the outworks of which extend over a tongue of land stretching far out into the Danube.  Of the little free town of Neusatz we could not see much, hidden as it is by hills which at this point confine the bed of the river.  The Danube is here crossed by a bridge of boats, and this place also forms the military boundary of Austria.  The surrounding landscape appeared sufficiently picturesque; the little town of Karlowitz, lying at a short distance from the shore, among hills covered with vineyards, has a peculiarly good effect.  Farther on, however, as far as Semlin, the scenery is rather monotonous.  Here the Danube already spreads itself out to a vast breadth, resembling rather a lake than a river.