A steam voyage down the Danube, vol. 1 of 2 : With sketches of Hungary,…
"A steam voyage down the Danube, vol. 1 of 2" by Michael J. Quin is a travel narrative written in the early 19th century. It chronicles a pioneering descent by steamboat along the Danube toward the Black Sea, blending vivid sketches of Hungary, Wallachia, Servia, and Ottoman territories with notes on the new steam navigation, local customs, and politics. The opening of the work follows the narrator’s embarkation at Pesth, introducing a
lively, multinational passenger list: Tyrolese emigrants bound for Transylvania, a charming but newly impoverished countess, a captivating Moldavian raconteur, and a Servian Jew and his daughter who speak Spanish. Quin contrasts the elegance of Pesth and Buda with river life—floating mills, lumber and fruit boats, wicker carriages—and details early challenges: low water, sandbanks, and a captain out of his depth. Stops at Tolna and Mohacs yield scenes of crowded inns, tireless market women loading fuel, and a groom’s blunt portrait of Hungarian petty nobility and brigandage, while onboard evenings turn to card games and Tyrolese choral singing. Near Peterwardein and Semlin he observes forts and a Greek church, and hears mixed reports about plague in Constantinople. Passing Belgrade, Semendria, and broad, lake-like reaches speckled with wooded islands, he revels in sunsets and river vistas. At Moldava the Danube’s shallows force a plan to continue in a fisherman’s flat-bottomed boat to Orsova, and Quin closes this opening section with fresh vignettes—a statuesque Wallachian spinner, a boy herding obstinate geese, a quarantine “plank market” for onions, and the first embrace of the mountain chain that will frame the coming journey. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Quin, Michael J. (Michael Joseph), 1796-1843 |
|---|---|
| Title | A steam voyage down the Danube, vol. 1 of 2 : With sketches of Hungary, Wallachia, Servia, and Turkey, &c. |
| Original Publication | London: Richard Bentley, 1835. |
| Credits | Richard Illner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | DB: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia |
| Subject | Europe -- Description and travel |
| Subject | Danube River |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78133 |
| Release Date | Mar 7, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 306 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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