Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/77

 courier for any sum that we offered. My lord the ambassador was, therefore, very angry with him, and threatened that, if he did not immediately supply us with better provisions, he would complain of him at the court of the Turkish emperor. The kapigi, fearing this, promised to set all to rights, and supply us with provisions with which we should be well contented.

On Oct. 27, after preparing in this city everything necessary for the journey by land, our Vienna coachmen started in good time with the horses and carriages out of the boats, and we seated ourselves in the carriages, and travelled, without intermission, by land from Belgrade to Constantinople. The same day, leaving on the left hand the castle of Smederow on the banks of the Danube, which had formerly been the abode of the despot of Servia, we arrived at our first stopping place for the night. Isanlak, or Little Palanka, a miserable village, and passed the night there.

On Oct. 28 there met us on the road a new courtofficial belonging to the pasha of Buda, called by the Turks a defterdar, whose office it is to take charge of his lord’s money, and lay it out for necessaries, according to his order. Beside him rode some Turks on horseback, and behind him five pages, who carried his lances and shields. Some camels and mules followed, and a carriage containing his wives. In the evening we arrived at Great Palanka, and then for the first time spent the night in a Turkish inn, by the side of our horses; for in the more simple inns they have no other rooms.

Here it seems to me requisite to give some account of these inns or caravanserais, which we made use of on this journey, and which are most peculiar to Turkey.