Roumania Past and Present

PART II.. _historical._

HISTORICAL.

IX. FROM THE GETÆ (ABOUT 335 B.C.) TO THE CLOSE OF THE ROMAN DOMINATION IN DACIA (ABOUT A.D. 274) 115

X. FROM THE EVACUATION OF DACIA BY AURELIAN (ABOUT 274 A.D.) TO THE END OF THE BARBARIAN RULE (ABOUT THE CLOSE OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY) 138

XI. FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE PRINCIPALITIES, BETWEEN THE MIDDLE OF THE THIRTEENTH AND OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURIES, TO THE ACCESSION OF MICHAEL THE BRAVE, A.D. 1593 161

XII. THE TIMES AND CAREER OF MICHAEL THE BRAVE 170

XIII. FROM THE DEATH OF MICHAEL THE BRAVE (A.D. 1601) TO THE DEPOSITION OF PRINCE COUZA (A.D. 1866) 199

XIV. FROM THE DEPOSITION OF PRINCE COUZA (1866) TO THE CORONATION OF KING CHARLES (1881) 233

XV. PRESENT ROUMANIAN LEADERS AND THEIR POLICY 258

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX

I. MOVEMENTS AND SETTLEMENTS OF NATIONALITIES AND BARBARIAN TRIBES 272-3

II. THE 'CAPITULATIONS' 274

III. THE ROUMANIAN CONSTITUTION 275

IV. THE PEASANT PROPRIETARY OF ROUMANIA 277

V. LIST OF WORKS (WITH REFERENCES TO TEXT) 278

CLASSIFIED INDEX 281

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

AUTOTYPE PLATES.

CATHEDRAL OF CURTEA D'ARDGES Photograph by Duschek Frontispiece

VIEW OF BUCAREST " " To face p. 40

PORTRAIT OF QUEEN ELISABETH OF ROUMANIA IN After Duschek " 258 THE NATIONAL COSTUME

WOODCUTS IN TEXT.

PAGE

ROUMANIAN PEASANTS IN WORKING DRESS Photograph by Duschek 7

PEASANTS AT A WELL " " " 8

SUBTERRANEAN DWELLINGS WITH PEASANTS " " " 10

ENTRANCE TO CARPATHIAN VILLAGE " " " 12

MEN AND WOMEN ROAD-MAKING " " " 13

TERMINAL PIER OF TRAJAN'S BRIDGE ON Sketch by Author 21 ROUMANIAN SHORE

TERMINAL PIER OF TRAJAN'S BRIDGE ON SERVIAN SIDE " " " 24

PLAN OF BUCAREST Reduced from Original by Prof. Zamphirolu 37

MONK AND NUN After Duschek 39

FRUITSELLER OF BUCAREST " " 48

GIPSY FLOWER-SELLER " " 49

GIPSY MUSICIANS " " 52

ROUMANIAN GIRL " " 53

GIPSY WOMAN " " 53

TRACERY ON SHIELD ON THE EXTERIOR OF Copied from Reissenberger 60 THE CATHEDRAL OF CURTEA D'ARDGES

THE SAME--ANOTHER PATTERN " " " 61

AT THE CABARET ON A HOLIDAY After Duschek 73

ROUMANIAN PLOUGHSHARE Sketch by Author 75

THE HORA, NATIONAL DANCE OF ROUMANIA After Duschek 98

SECTION OF THE TELEGA PENAL SALT MINE Reduced by Author from Plan 107 of M. d'Istrati, Engineer of the Mine

SALT MOUND IN FLOOR OF MINE Sketch by Author 110

DACIAN WARRIOR (initial letter) From Piranese's Etchings of 115 reliefs on Trojan's Column

TRAJAN ADDRESSING HIS ARMY " " " 126

DACIANS SETTING FIRE TO THEIR CAPITAL " " " 129

DACIAN TROPHIES " " " 137

EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF MICHAEL THE BRAVE AT BUCAREST After Duschek 177

STATUE OF MICHAEL CANTACUZENE IN THE COLTZA HOSPITAL " " 200 (initial letter)

DEFENCES OF PLEVNA 244

PRINCE (NOW KING) CHARLES Photograph by Duschek 251 COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, BEFORE PLEVNA taken on the spot

PORTRAIT, WITH AUTOGRAPH, OF M.C.A. ROSETTI After Duschek 264

PORTRAIT OF M. BRATIANO " " 265

MAPS.

GEOGRAPHICAL MAP OF ROUMANIA To face p. 3

HISTORICAL MAP OF ROUMANIA After Kiepert, &c. 115

Errata.

Page 45, note, for p. 202 read initial letter, p. 200.

" 64, note 1, " 7209 " 7029.

" 162, line 19, " west " east.

" 165, " 22, " Bajazet II. " Bajazet I.

PART I.. Roumania, to-Day.

ROUMANIA, TO-DAY.

We love The king who loves the law, respects his bounds, And reigns content within them; him we serve Truly and with delight who leaves us free.

COWPER.

There virtue reigns as queen in royal throne, And giveth laws alone. The which the base affections do obey, And yield their services unto her will.

SPENSER.

CHAPTER I.. Geographical and Descriptive.

GEOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.

Limits, dimensions, and population of Roumania--Comparison with England--Configuration of the surface--Altitudes of towns--Mountains--Appearance of the country--The region of the plains--Plants and agricultural condition--The peasantry--Female navvies--Costumes--Wells--Subterranean dwellings--Marsh fever--Travelling, past and present--Zone of the hills--Plants, flowers, fruits, and cereals--Cheap fruits--Improved dwellings--Wages of labourers--Petroleum wells--Rock-salt--Mines--The Carpathians--Character of the scenery--Alpine trees and plants--Sinaïa--The King's summer residence--The monastery--Conveniences for visitors, baths, &c.--Occupations of visitors--Beautiful scenery--The new palace--The King and Queen--Geology of Roumania--Scanty details--The chief deposits and their localities--Minerals--Salt--Petroleum--Lignite--Ozokerit-- Hæmatite--Undeveloped mineral wealth.

The kingdom of Roumania is situated between 22° 29' and 29° 42' east of Greenwich, and between 43° 37' and 48° 13' north of the equator. Its general boundaries are, on the east and south, the Pruth and the Danube, with the exception of the Dobrudscha south of the latter river, at its embouchures, and on the west and north by the Carpathian mountains, along whose heights the boundary line runs. The limit which separates it from Bulgaria, on the south-east leaves the Danube just east of Silistria, and runs irregularly in a south-easterly direction until it reaches the Black Sea, about nine miles and a half south of Mangalia. (North-east of this line runs the Roumanian Railway from Cernavoda to Constanta or Kustendjie, and south-west of it the Bulgarian line from Rustchuk to Varna.) The kingdom presents the form of an irregular blunted crescent, and it is very difficult to speak of its 'length' and 'breadth;' but so far as we are able to estimate its dimensions they are as follows:--A straight line drawn from Verciorova, the boundary on the west at the 'Iron Gates' of the Danube, to the Sulina mouth of the same river on the east, is about 358 miles; and another from the boundary near Predeal in the Carpathians, on the line of railway from Ploiesti to Kronstadt, Transylvania, to the southernmost limit below Mangalia on the Black Sea, is about 188 miles.

The approximate area of Roumania is 49,250 square miles, and when it is added that the area of England and Wales is nearly 51,000 square miles, the reader will be able to form an estimate of the extent of the country. But having made this comparison, let us carry it a step further. According to the latest estimates of the population there are about 5,376,000 inhabitants in Roumania against 25,968,286 (according to last year's census) in England and Wales; in other words, with an area equal to that of England, Roumania has about one-fifth of its population, or about the same as Ireland.

The general configuration of the surface of the country may be described as an irregular inclined plane sloping down from the summits of the Carpathians to the northern or left bank of the Danube, and it is traversed by numerous watercourses taking their rise in the mountains and falling into the great river, which render it well adapted for every kind of agricultural industry. The character of the gradients will be best understood by a reference to the map, with the aid of the following few figures. The towns of Galatz and Braila or Ibrail, situated on the Danube, are fifteen mètres above the sea-level, a mètre being, as the reader doubtless knows, equal to 1.095, or as nearly as possible 1-1/10 yard. At Bucarest, the capital, which is thirty or forty miles inland, the land rises to a height of seventy-seven mètres; still further inland, where the elevation from the plain to the hill country becomes perceptible, the town of Ploiesti is 141 mètres above the sea, whilst Tirgovistea and Iasi (Jassy), each receding further into the hills, stand respectively at altitudes of 262 and 318 mètres, the last-named city (the former capital of Moldavia) reaching therefore a height of over 1,000 feet above the sea-level. Or again, the plain which stretches along the whole extent of the southern part of the country may be said to occupy, roughly speaking, about a third; then comes a region of hills rising to a height of about 1,500 feet; and beyond these the Carpathian range, forming, as it were, a great rampart to the north and east, reckons amongst its eight or nine hundred peaks many that rise to a height of 6,000 to 9,000 feet above the sea-level. The highest of those summits is either Pionul (in Moldavia) or Caraïman, near Sinaïa (Wallachia), the summer residence of the Court, which are nearly 9,000 feet high; the latter is easily accessible, even to ladies if they are fair climbers, and affords a magnificent view of the surrounding scenery. The aspect of the country, as the traveller moves inland from the Danube to the heights of the Carpathians, is very striking; and as the writer travelled at one time or another along the greater part of the river, both by land and water, and from the bank at Giurgevo to the frontier in the mountains, a brief account of his impressions and observations may be found more interesting than a mere dry geographical description of the different zones.

From Verciorova to the Sulina From Predeal to boundary S. of mouth. Mangalia.

a 355 miles a 185 miles b 356 " b 188 " c 358 " c 189 " d 360 " d 190 "

From Fife-Cookson's map, in his work With the Armies of the Balkans, the measurements respectively are 355 and 186 miles.]

II.

The appearance of the plain on leaving the flat monotonous banks of the Danube is anything but prepossessing. Although the land begins to rise almost immediately, the surrounding scenery is flat and arid. The soil, which is black or dark grey, is chiefly argillo-siliceous, and the plain is overrun with coarse grass, weeds, and stunted shrubs, diversified by fields of maize, patches of yellow gourds, and kitchen vegetables. Here and there the railway runs through or skirts plantations. The chief plants in this region (and this applies to the plains generally) are willows, alders, poplars, and tamarinds, but chiefly willows and poplars amongst the trees and larger plants; maize, wheat, millet, and other cereals, and a variety of fruits and vegetables which will be spoken of in connection with the more elevated regions. The first impression which is made upon the traveller coming from our own beautiful hedgerows and pastures, or from the richly cultivated plains of Transylvania, is that agriculture is slovenly and neglected, and that impression is never wholly lost in whatever direction he may travel; although, as we shall see presently, the higher zones are much more carefully cultivated.

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