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58 RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY,
LETTER XVII.
Paffait..
I SAILED hither from Saltzburg, on the Saltza andInn. Water journies have great
allurements for me, from the variety of company one generally meets with in them.
‘The veflel was very full as far as Burghaufen. _ Herea great part of my companions got
out to go on a pilgrimage to the neighbouring Ottingen. ‘The pilgrims confifted of a
great number of young perfons of both fexes, who feemed to have far other purpofes
than thofe of explating their old offences. As we {pent the night together at the innat
Burghaufen, I had opportunity enough to fee that there would be a great weight added
to the former load.
There {till remained company enough on board for my entertainment. I met with no
great entertainment from fome Auftrian recruits, and fome {ftudents who were going
away for the vacation ; but a gnadige frau*, from Saltzburg, who was going to Vienna,
with a view of getting into a cook’s or chambermaid’s place, which her rank did not
fuffer her to accept of in her own country, made up to me, and was very good company.
This good girl fo entirely won my heart by her ingenuity, her tafte, her good heart, and
her variety of knowledge, that I defired fhe would call upon me at Vienna, and let me
know in what I could ferve her. A young woman, who leaves home for the firft time,
mutt feel herfelf fadly diftrefled in the midft of a large city.
We pafled the boundaries that part Auftria and Bavaria. The fmall part of Bavaria
to our right, which has lately come into the pofleffion of the Auftrians, does not make
more than thirty-eight German miles, and hardly contains fixty thoufand men. The re-
venue it furnifhes is about 18,000 rix-dollars, fo that it hardly feems worth the eighth
part of the expence which Auftria has been at in the attempt to gain it. The views, how-
ever, which this court had in this undertaking, are far more extenfive than was thought
by the court of Verfailles, where the whole was confidered as a difpute about.a nutfhell,
This is not the firft time that the King of Pruffia has been obliged to apprife our. wife
minifter of the confequences which the fteps of certain courts would draw after them,
confequences which would otherwife certainly have been overlooked. When the Court
of Auftria found the King of Pruffia as formidable an adverfary with his pen.as with his
Iword, and were compelled by the light given to Ruflia, to have recourfe to negociation,
they pretended that they wanted to make the Inn under Waffenburg the limit betwixt
Bavaria and their dominions, and from thence to penetrate into Bohemia by the Ifer,
the Danube, and the Upper Palatinate; and in return for this they propofed to cede
fome of their poffeffions in Suabia, to the Court of Munich. Our minilter the Baron
de Breteuil would gladly have confented to this exchange; but the accurate knowledge
which the King of Pruffia had of the advantages and fituation of thefe countries, enabled
him to open the eyes of our court and of Ruflia. He fhewed them that Auftrian Suabia
could be no equivalent for a great part of Bavaria, becaufe the income which the Auf-
trian country yielded was already the higheft that could be got from it; whereas the
lands in Bavaria, confidering the bad cultivation of them at that time, might eafily be
made capable of producing much more than what they were eftimated at. He fhewed
them that Auftria would be a confiderable gainer by the exchange, which would effectu-
* Titled woman,
ally.
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