Chapter 6 Chapter Six
From an administrative point of view, the European part of Turkey was divided into provinces ruled by "wari" or governors appointed by the Sultan.The province is further divided into "Sangyak", which is the administrative region, which is managed by a "Must Sarif"; the administrative region is further divided into "Kaza", which is the district, which is managed by a "Kaimacon"; Subdivided into "Nathier".That is, a commune, governed by a mudir or elected mayor.So its administrative management system is similar to that of France.
In short, the road from Constantinople to the frontier passes through Rumeria, and Lord Kerabon should have had little or no relationship with the authorities there.This road is the closest to the coast of the Black Sea, and the distance can be shortened as much as possible.
It was fine weather for a trip, and the sea breeze blew unhindered across the flat area, keeping the temperature pleasantly cool.Corn, barley and rye grew in the fields, and vineyards flourished in the southern part of the Ottoman Empire.Then came some oak woods, fir woods, beech woods, birch woods; then patches of plane trees, jews, laurels, figs, carobs, and especially near the sea patches of pomegranates and olives. The tree is exactly the same as that of the low-lying areas of the same latitude in Europe.
From the Iene Gate, the carriage took the road from Constantinople to Shumla, from where it branched off to Andri Noble through Kirke-Kiliseh.The road is next to the railway, and even crosses it, and Andri Noble, the second capital of European Turkey, is connected to the capital of the Ottoman Empire by this railway.
Just as the carriage was going along the track, the train came.A visitor quickly poked his head out of the carriage door and caught a glimpse of Lord Kerabong's party being drawn galloping by powerful horses.
This tourist is none other than Yaud, the captain of Malta.He was on his way to Odessa, and due to the speed of the train, he would arrive much earlier than Ahme's uncle.
Van Mettain could not help showing his friend the steaming train.
The latter shrugged his shoulders according to his habit.
"Hey! My friend Kerabong, how fast you're getting there!" said Van Metertaine.
"Let's talk about it later!" Lord Kerabong replied.
On the first day of the trip, it should be said that there was no delay for an hour.There is never any difficulty at the inn with money to help, and the horses are as happy to be harnessed as the coachman is to carry a lord who pays so generously.
They went through Chattarja, Biyuk Khan, on the sides of all the slopes that lead the river to the Sea of Marmara, through the valley of the Chorlu, the village of Yenikyi, and then through the valley of the Galata, where legend has it that once A number of underground canals were dug across this valley to bring water to the capital.
As night fell, the carriage only stopped in the small town of Serai for an hour.The food in the box is mainly for those areas where even a normal meal is hard to come by, so it is best to save.So they ate a careless supper at Serai and started on the road again.
Bruno might have found it difficult to spend the night in a small compartment, but Nisib took the unusual situation calmly and slept so deeply that his companion fell asleep with him.
To avoid the steep slopes and marshes of the valley, they took a long winding road near Weese, so the night was safe.Van Mittern deeply regretted not taking a look at this small city of only 7,000 inhabitants, which was almost entirely occupied by the Greeks, and which was also the seat of an Orthodox bishop.But he wasn't there for inspection, but with the domineering Lord Kerabong, who didn't care much about collecting travel impressions.
Near five o'clock in the evening, the travelers had passed through the villages of Bunar-Isan, Ieuskup, etc., and rounded a grove full of graves, where the remains of the victims were buried. Killed by a gang of brigands that used to roam the area.Then they went to a relatively important city, Kirke-Kilisse with 1,600 inhabitants.The name means "40 churches", indicating that there are a large number of religious buildings in the city.Van Mittern took Bruno to investigate for several hours. To be honest, this is just a small river valley, and the houses are built on the bottom and sides of the river.
The carriage was parked in the yard of a well-kept hotel, and Lord Kerabon and his companions set off again at dawn after spending the night.
On the day of August 19, the coachmen crossed the village of Karapurnar and arrived very late at the village of Bulgaz, which was built on the Bulgaz Bay.For the night they slept in a "carney," a sort of rough inn, apparently inferior to their stagecoach.
The next morning the road left the coast of the Black Sea and brought them to Aydos, and in the evening they reached Paravadi, a station of the small railway from Shumla to Varna.They were crossing the Bulgarian province at the southern tip of Dobruja, below the last foothills of the Balkan Mountains.
They encountered great difficulties here, sometimes walking in the middle of the muddy river valley, sometimes passing through large areas of unusually lush aquatic plants. Pintail ducks, woodcocks, and snipes all flew in shock.
It is well known that the Balkans form an important mountain range.It opens into the Black Sea between Rumeria and Bulgaria, and branches off many ridges from the northern slopes almost as far as the Danube.
Lord Kerabong is there to get the chance to see his patience will be sorely tested.
When it is necessary to cross the end of the mountain in order to go down to Dobroja, the hillside is so steep that it is almost impossible to approach. The sharp turn at the turn prevents the horses from pulling the cart at the same time. pass.This takes a lot of time and creates bad feelings and blame.On several occasions the horses had to be unloaded and the wheels chocked in order to get the wagons out of the way - especially the large amount of piastres which fell into the pockets of the coachmen who threatened to go back .
what!Lord Kairabang has every reason to curse the current government, because the road conditions in the empire are so bad, it doesn't care whether vehicles can pass smoothly in various provinces!But the government has no qualms about taxes, fees and oppression of all kinds, and Lord Kerabong knows all about these things!10 barras to pass through the Bosphorus!He always thinks about it like he's stuck in one fixed thought, 10 balas! 10 balas!
Van Mettaine was very careful about what he said in reply to his traveling companion. Public rebuttals would cause quarrels, so in order to appease his anger, Van Mettaine also laughed at the Turkish government so much that all The government has become the object of his ridicule.
"However it is impossible," said Kerabon, "that there would be such absurdities in Holland!"
"On the contrary, there are, my friend Kerabon," replied Van Mettaine, who had first to silence his companion.
"I tell you no!" Kerabong said again. "I tell you that only in Constantinople can there be such injustice! Has it never occurred to the Dutch to tax boats?"
"We have no boats!"
"What does it matter!"
"Why, it doesn't matter?"
"Ah! You will have boats, and your king will never dare to tax them! The government of these new Turks is the worst government in the world, and you will support me now?"
"Worst of all, of course!" replied Van Mettaine, in order to end at once a controversy which had begun.
To bring this brief conversation to a successful conclusion, he brought out his long Dutch pipe, so that Lord Kerabong would also like to be intoxicated by the smoke from the hookah.Immediately the compartment was filled with smoke, and the windows had to be lowered to let it out.But at last the narcotic stupor overcame him, and the obstinate traveler became silent and quiet again, until some accident brought him back to reality.
There was no place of rest in this desolate region, so they passed the night of August 20-21 in stagecoaches.It was not until late in the morning that they emerged from the last branch of the Balkan Mountains to the vehicle-friendly land of Dobruja beyond the Romanian border.
The region resembles a peninsula formed by a broad bend of the Danube, which, after flowing northward to Galati, turns eastward and flows into the Black Sea through several outlets.In fact this isthmus, which connects this peninsula to the Balkans, is part of the province between Cernavoda and Kusdanje.There is a small railway from Chernavoda, 15-16 kilometers at most.But to the south of the railroad the topographical point of view is exactly the same as to the north, and the plain of Dobroja may be said to have formed again on the last spurs of the Balkan Mountains.
"Good place," as the Turks call this fertile land.The land here belonged to the first occupier.Nomadic Tatars traveled, if not inhabited, the place, and Wallachians lived by the river.Here the Ottoman Empire possessed a vast area, the valleys of which were barely level with the ground, with little elevation, and which appeared more like a continuation of a plateau that ended in patches of forest at the mouth of the Danube.
The roads in this land have no steep slopes, and the carriage can go faster.Postmasters had no right to complain when they saw their horses being harnessed, or if they murmured it was only out of habit.
So they went quickly and smoothly. At noon on August 21, the carriage changed for a stage horse at Koslica, and arrived at Bazarkik that evening.
Lord Kerabong decided to spend the night here and give everyone a break.This was exactly what Bruno wanted, but he said nothing out of caution.
Early the next morning, the carriage put on the new horses and drove towards Lake Karasu.The lake is like a huge funnel, the water from the underground springs flows into the Danube when the water level is lowered. After walking about 24 kilometers in 12 hours, at nearly eight o'clock in the evening, the travelers stopped in front of the railway from Kosdangje to Chernavoda, facing the Mekidier station, which is a newly formed city, but already has 20,000 people, and it will become more prosperous.
The road here is occupied by a train, and it takes a full quarter of an hour to pass.Lord Kerabong was displeased that he could not immediately cross the railroad to the caravanserai, where he was supposed to spend the night.
Hence all the complaints and accusations against the railroads, for not only wearing out the passengers who foolishly boarded them, but delaying those who refused to take them.
"At any rate," he said to Van Mettaine, "I shall never have a railway accident!"
"No one knows!" answered the respectable Dutchman, perhaps carelessly.
"But I know! Me!" Lord Kerabong retorted in an indisputable tone.
At last the train left the Mechdiere station, the bars were opened, and the carriage passed.Travelers rested in one of the rather comfortable caravansels in the city, which was named in honor of Sultan Abdul-Mejid.
The next day, they crossed a deserted plain without hindrance, and reached Barbada, but it was so late that it seemed better to travel through the night.About five o'clock in the evening of the next day they stopped in Turca, one of the most important cities in Moldavia.
Thirty to forty thousand people live in the city: Kyrgyz, Nogays, Persians, Kurds, Bulgarians, Romanians, Greeks, Armenians, Turks and Jews mixed together, Lord Kerabong is here It was not difficult to find a more comfortable hotel, and he did.With his permission, Van Mittern found time to visit Tulza, its picturesque basin-shaped terrain unfolding on the northern slope of a small mountain range, with a bay formed by the widening of the river in the background, almost It is facing the city of Izmail which is divided into two parts.
The next day, August 24, the carriage crossed the Danube ahead of Tulza, venturing across the delta formed by the river's two tributaries.The first, for steamships, is called the Turza tributary; the second, still farther north, passes through Izmail and Kiria, and divides into five channels into the Black Sea, which is known as the mouth of the Danube.
Beyond Kiria and the border is Bessarabia, which stretches about 15 kilometers to the northeast and forms part of the Black Sea coast.
It goes without saying that the question of the origin of the name Danube, which has given rise to much scientific controversy, also led to a purely geographical discussion between Lord Kerabon and van Mettaine.In times the Greeks called it the Ister or Histor; the Roman army brought the word "Donauvius," and it was Caesar who first called it the Danube; It means "cloudy" in the language of Sidney; it comes from Celtic, Sanskrit, Old Persian or Greek; and Professors Popper and Wendy Schman, when arguing about this origin, have a reasonable argument , and the other was also true; only Lord Kerabong, who said that the word Danube came from the old Persian "Asdanu," meaning "rushing river," at last silenced his opponent as ever.
But no matter how fast, the current is not strong enough to carry away all the water, but keeps the river in the sunken river bed, so the flood of this large river must be taken seriously.However, Master Kairabang is stubborn by nature, and he ignores these opinions of others, and catches a carriage to cross the vast delta.
He is not alone in this remote place. There are many wild ducks, wild geese, swans, herons, swans, and pelicans on this road, just like a team accompanying him.But he forgot this. The reason why nature created these waders or webbed aquatic birds must have rubber webs or stilts to enter and exit this area, because during the period of high water after the rainy season, It is often flooded here.
The land has been muddy from recent floods, and we admit the horses pulling the carts are uncomfortable walking.On the other side of this tributary of the Danube from Sulina, which flows into the Black Sea, there is only a vast swamp, and one of the roads is almost impassable.Despite the advice of the coachmen, and the assent of Van Mettaine, Lord Kerabon ordered to proceed, and to him there was nothing but obedience.And so it happened that towards evening the carriage naturally sank into the mud, and it was impossible to pull it out by horses.
"The roads in this area are not well maintained!" Van Mittain thought it right to point this out.
"That's what they look like!" Kerabong replied. "With such a government, that's the only way they can be!"
"Maybe it's better for us to step back and go the other way?"
"On the contrary, we had better go on and never change our course!"
"But how?"
"There is a way," replied the obstinate man, "to find some supplementary horses in the nearest village. Whether we sleep in a car or in a hotel, it doesn't matter!"
There is nothing to say about him.The coachman and Nisib were sent to find the nearest village, which must have been quite far away, and they would probably not return until sunrise.Lord Kelabon, Van Mittern and Bruno can only spend the night in this vast wilderness, as if they were abandoned in the depths of the desert in central Australia.It was very fortunate that although the carriage sank into the hub in the mud, it was not in danger of sinking again.
But the night was dark.Large clouds gathered low and flew across the sky under the blowing of the Black Sea wind.Although there was no rain, a strong damp rose from the water-soaked soil and drenched everything like an arctic fog.You can't see anything 10 steps away.Only two headlights glowed dimly in the thick swamp, and it might have been better to turn them off.
Indeed, this bit of light might attract uninvited guests.But after van Mettain had pointed it out, his obstinate friend thought it worth discussing, and after the discussion van Mettain's opinion never followed.
Yet the wise Dutchman had his point, and had he been a little trickier, he might have advised his companions to keep the lights on: so that Lord Kerabong might well have put them out.
Notes:
Notes: