It was now time for me to quit the happy valley, and I bade adieu to my kind friends near Hatszeg.  I believe if I had remained to this day, I should not have outstayed my welcome.  I had come to pay a morning visit, and I stopped on more than a fortnight.

The Hungarian has a particularly pleasant way of greeting a stranger under his own roof.  He gives you the idea that he has been expecting you, though in reality your existence and name were unknown to him till he read the letter or the visiting-card with which you have just presented him.

I now sent my portmanteau, &c., on to Herrmannstadt, packed my saddle-bags to take with me, and once more rode off into the wilds.  My destination this time was Petroseny.

[Footnote 13:  Vol. v., The Birds of Transylvania.]

CHAPTER XIV.

On horseback to Petroseny—­A new town—­Valuable coal-fields—­Killing fish with dynamite and poison—­Singular manner of repairing roads—­Hungarian patriotism—­Story of Hunyadi Janos—­Intrusion of the Moslems into Europe.

The history of the town of Petroseny is as short as that of some of the western cities of America.  It began life in 1868, and is now the terminus of a branch railway.

Before the wicked days of dynamite, and as long ago as the year 1834, a fisherman was leisurely catching salmon-trout up the Sil; he had time to look about him, and he noticed that in many places the rocks had a black appearance.  He broke off some pieces and carried them home, when he found that they burned like coal; in fact he had discovered a coal mine!  Those were simple-minded days, for instead of running off with these valuable cinders under his arm, fixing on an influential chairman and a board of directors for his new company, this good man did nothing but talk occasionally of the black rock that he had seen when fishing.  Many years elapsed before any advantage was taken of this valuable discovery.  At length a more careful search was made, and it proved that coal existed there in abundance!  In 1867 mining was commenced on a large scale by the Kronstaeder Company.  The next year a town was already growing up in the neighbourhood of the mines, and increased in a most surprising manner.  In 1870 the railway was opened from Petroseny to Piski, on the main line from Arad.  The growth of the place, however, received a check in the financial crisis of 1873.

The town itself is in no way remarkable, being a mere collection of dwellings for the accommodation of the miners and the employes; but the scenery in the neighbourhood is simply magnificent.  In approaching Petroseny the railway rises one foot in forty, no inconsiderable gradient.

The coal-fields are partly in the hands of Government, and partly owned by the before-named Kronstaeder Company.  Between these separate interests there is not much accord.  The Kronstaeders say that Government has not behaved fairly or openly, but has secured to itself so many “claims” as to damage considerably the prospects of the private speculators.