I was now bound for Uibanya, in the Valea Tissovitza, a few miles from Orsova on the Danube.  There is an English firm down there engaged in working the coal mines, and I had an introduction to one of the partners.  I rode from Oravicza to Szaszka—­the place had become quite familiar to me by this time—­and I slept there.  The night was not long, for I left before sunrise.  It is the only way to enjoy the ride; for the middle of the day in July is really too hot for exertion in this part of the world, and I found it was best to rest during the great heat of the day.  From Szaszka I pushed on to Moldova, and judging from my former experience of driving the same road, I must say I prefer the saddle infinitely.  I should observe that on leaving Szaszka I got into a dense mist on the top of the mountain.  Fortunately I knew my bearings.  When it cleared off I had a magnificent view all the way, reaching the Danube about nine o’clock.  Here I spent the day and night at the house of Mr G——­, with whom I was slightly acquainted, and who received me hospitably.  The next morning very early I started for Svenica, a lovely ride along the Szechenyi road.  I had been in the saddle from five to eleven A.M., and reaching Drenkova, I was not sorry to stop on account of the great heat.  It has only a wretched inn, where myself and horse fared very badly.  The Danube steamers are not unfrequently obliged to stop at Drenkova and reship their passengers into smaller boats.  This happens when the water is low, and sometimes when the season is very dry the river has to be abandoned for the road.  When the Eastern Question is settled a vast number of improvements are to be carried out on the Danube it is said.  The first ought to be the deepening of the channel in this particular part of the river.  There would surely be no great difficulty in removing the obstructions caused by the rocks.  But there are always political difficulties creeping up in this part of the world to prevent the carrying out of useful works.

My siesta over, I was off again, soon after three P.M., on my way to Svenica.  I had a splendid view of the river, and stopped my horse more than once to watch the boatmen at their perilous work of shooting the rapids.  Getting to Svenica soon after six o’clock, I made inquiries about the distance to Uibanya.  No two people agreed, but the chief spokesman declared it was a couple of hours’ walk, and he volunteered to show me the way.  The inn was horribly dirty, as one might expect from the appearance of the village, which is inhabited entirely by Serbs, otherwise Rascians.  It appears that a vast number of Slavs from Servia took refuge in Hungary at the end of the seventeenth century.  Some were Roman Catholics, but they were mostly of the Greek Church.  A colony settled at Buda.  Lady Mary Wortley Montague, writing from that town in 1717, says that the Governor of Buda assured her that the Rascian colony without the walls would furnish him with 12,000 fighting men at any moment.  They were always a card in the hands of the Austrians against the Magyars.