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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 61
cheap in Bavaria, as hardly to pay the farmer for the trouble of raifing it: one hundred
and {feventy pounds of rye are frequently fold for about two florins,
Navigation is by no means fo well underftood in this country as it is upon the upper
Rhine; they do not yet underftand how to fail according to the direction of the river.
Moft of the veffels which go by here come from Ratifbon and Uim: they are without
decks or malts ; they are built only of fir boards, and are fold again either at Vienna or
elfewhere. ‘The Emperor has promifed great rewards to fuch mailers of veffels as will
build their veffels like thofe on the Rhine; but in this as in every thing elfe, it it
difficult to make the mechanical part of the public tread the track they have not been
accuftomed to.
As the navigation of the upper parts of the river is not yet eftablifhed, there is often
a want of horfes at particular ftages, fo that you are frequently obliged to hire horfes
for the whole journey, though there are feveral places in which you might do very well
without them. The veffels on the Rhine have the convenience of being able to go fome-
times with two and fometimes with fix horfes, according as the wind and {treams happen
to be favourable. They are obliged for this to the con{tant navigation of the river, which
enables the people who inhabit the fhore to have hackney horfes at fmall diflances from
each other. Some of thefe obftacles will fall away of themfelves as foon as the com-
merce of the country about the Danube grows more confiderable ;_ the largeft thip
which goes from this place to Vienna carries 2000 quintals, which. is about the load:
of a two-maited veflel. Farewell.
LETTER XVII.
Lintz..
I WAITED at Paffau for the veffel that goes every week from Ratifbon, and meant
to have gone as far as Vienna in her ; but the people ftopt fo often in the calmeft wea-
ther, under pretence of fearing an approaching ftorm, that my patience was quite worn
out. Icould very well fee that their true motive in ftoppiffe thus often, was to get rid
of fome of their contraband goods in the {mall places on the coaft. Befides this, my
company had but fmallcharms for me; it confifted of a number of mechanics, who
worked their paflage, and of farmers’ daughters who were going to Vienna for a fervice.
Many of thefe were obvioufly with child, and feemed to have left their country in order
to be delivered, with lefs fhame and expence, in the hofpital at Vienna. Auttria is ge-
nerally fupplied with a plentiful number of recruits of this kind from this fide. Such
fociety not being at all to my mind, and on the other hand the city of Lintz, with the
country round, prefenting a fair profpect of amufement, I could not refift the temptation
of giving up a few days to become better acquainted with it. ;
At Engellhaftzell our baggage was fearched. Every thing was conduéted in the beft
order poflible, and witha great deal of gentlenefs; the putting the cultom-houfe feals
to the merchandize of our veffel took up a whole day. It is ftill a riddle to me how
the fhip’s company contrived to pafs their contraband commodities (of the exiftence of
which I was well aflured); for the cuftom-houfe officers did not appear to me to be of a
fort to fuffer themfelves to be bribed: as for me, the fearchers directed their whole at-
tention to my books; they took away from me Young’s Night Thoughts, which I hat
purchafed out of compaflion from a poor ftudent at Saltzburg, but fuffered Gibbon’s
Works to pafs. Youknowthe laft. The firft is an excellent chriftian, but his invec-
‘tive, not againft the catholics in general, but againft thofe only who would not allow-
him to buryhis child, has placed him amongft the Machiavels, Spinozas, and Bolingbrokes.
How.
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