"
The doctor of the place now entered; a very little man with a pale
complexion, and a black braided surtout. He informed me that he had
been for many years a Surgeon in the Austrian navy. On my asking him
how he liked that service, he answered, "Very well; for we rarely go
out to the Mediterranean; our home-ports, Venice and Trieste, are
agreeable, and our usual station in the Levant is Smyrna, which is
equally pleasant. The Austrian vessels being generally frigates of
moderate size, the officers live in a more friendly and comfortable
way than if they were of heavier metal. But were I not a surgeon, I
should prefer the wider sphere of distinction which colonial and
trans-oceanic life and incident opens to the British naval officer;
for I, myself, once made a voyage to the Brazils."
We now went to see the handsome new bridge in course of construction
over the Morava. The architect, a certain Baron Cordon, who had been
bred a military engineer, happened to be there at the time, and
obligingly explained the details. At every step I see the immense
advantages which this country derives from its vicinity to Austria in
a material point of view; and yet the Austrian and Servian governments
seem perpetually involved in the most inexplicable squabbles.
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