or something of that sort, for a present.  Their dress is very primitive, being only a plain sheep’s skin, and a cap and boots of the same stuff.  You may easily imagine this lasts them many winters; and thus they have very little occasion for money.  The twenty-sixth, we passed over the frozen Danube, with all our equipage and carriages.  We met on the other side general Veterani, who invited us, with great civility, to pass the night at a little castle of his, a few miles off, assuring us we should have a very hard day’s journey to reach Essek.  This we found but too true, the woods being very dangerous, and scarce passable, from the vast quantity of wolves that hoard in them.  We came, however, safe, though late to Essek, where we stayed a day, to dispatch a courier with letters to the bassa of Belgrade; and I took that opportunity of seeing the town, which is not very large, but fair built, and well fortified.  This was a town of great trade, very rich and populous, when in the hands of the Turks.  It is situated on the Drave, which runs into the Danube.  The bridge was esteemed one of the most extraordinary in the world, being eight thousand paces long, and all built of oak.  It was burnt, and the city laid in ashes by count Lesly, 1685, but was again repaired and fortified by the Turks, who, however, abandoned it in 1687.  General Dunnewalt then took possession of it for the emperor, in whose hands it has remained ever since, and is esteemed one of the bulwarks of Hungary.  The twenty-eighth, we went to Bocorwar, a very large Rascian town, all built after the manner I have described to you.  We were met there by colonel ——­, who would not suffer us to go any where but to his quarters, where I found his wife, a very agreeable Hungarian lady, and his niece and daughter, two pretty young women, crowded into three or four Rascian houses, cast into one, and made as neat and convenient as those places are capable of being made.  The Hungarian ladies are much handsomer than those of Austria.  All the Vienna beauties are of that country; they are generally very fair and well-shaped, and their dress, I think, is extremely becoming.  This lady was in a gown of scarlet velvet, lined and faced with sables, made exact to her shape, and the skirt falling to her feet.  The sleeves are strait to their arms, and the stays buttoned before, with two rows of little buttons of gold, pearl, or diamonds.  On their heads they wear a tassel of gold, that hangs low on one side, lined with sable, or some other fine fur.—–­They gave us a handsome dinner, and I thought the conversation very polite and agreeable.  They would accompany us part of our way.  The twenty-ninth, we arrived here, where we were met by the commanding officer, at the head of all the officers of the garrison.  We are lodged in the best apartment of the governor’s house, and entertained in a very splendid manner by the emperor’s order.  We wait here till all points are adjusted, concerning