Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/74

 rivers Drave and Tisa fall into the Danube. Belgrade lies on the side and at the place where the river Swinie, or Sava, meets the Danube. Here, on the last corner of the promontory as it were, stands the old town, built in the ancient style, with a good many towers, and surrounded by two walls, and the rivers of which I have just mentioned flow up to it on two sides. On the side on which the land is continuous it has a strong castle, upon a tolerably lofty eminence, with many lofty towers built of hewn stone. In front of the city are numerous houses and a large suburb, in which live people of various nationalities, as Turks, Greeks, Jews, Hungarians, Dalmatians, Transylvanians, and others. Indeed, in nearly all Turkish districts the suburbs are always larger than the cities; and both at once exhibit the appearance of large cities. In this town there is nothing particular to see, only the bazaar, in which the merchants keep their wares, is covered with a lead roof, and built square; round and round, below it, are vaulted cellars for the security of the merchants’ goods, and inside, above, galleries run round with rooms and shops everywhere. In the middle of this building is a handsome square and a large cistern, into which water flows through a large round stone like an aqueduct, on which is engraved: “Qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit salvus erit. Anno 1538.” “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” There is also in this city a special house, in which Christian captives are sold. The Christian merchants have no church there, but the