408

ANECDOTE OF GENERAL HOCHE.

of the opinion, a great number of Roman antiquities have been found there. General Hoche, at the head of an immense army, aided by the obscurity of the night, crossed the Rhine at this place in 1797, and astonished the imperial troops the next morning by their presence.

This was the last exploit of that general. Near this tower there are deposited his remains, over which a mausoleum has been erected. This young commander died of an enlargement of the heart at Wetzlar. His funeral was conducted with uncommon military pomp. The procession moved from the place where he died, across the Rhine to the White Tower, amidst the discharge of cannon, which were fired every quarter of an hour.

The trade of the Rhine is here very flourishing, for exclusive of the neighbouring vineyards which produce fine wines, and the basalts of the adjoining mountains. used for building and paving, this city derives considerable wealth from the lapis tophaceus or tuf stone, the harder sort of which form excellent mill-stones; vast quantities are shipped for Holland, to construct or repair its dykes with, and the more friable is used for building, whilst its powder mixed with lime forms the hardest and most durable cement. I saw the cabins of several treckschuyts in Holland covered with it, which were perfectly

impervious to the rain: the Germans also use it to floor their houses with. This stone is considered to be a species of the pumice-stone, or imperfect lava, and of volcanic production.

On the banks leading to this city, I saw part of one of those amazing floats of timber which are formed of lesser ones, conveyed to this city from the forests adjoining the Rhine, the Moselle, the Maine, &c.; these floats are attached to each other, and form a platform generally of the enormous dimensions of eight hundred feet in length, and one hundred and sixty in breadth, upon which a little village containing about eighty wooden houses is erected for the accommodation of those who are interested in, and assist in navigating this stupendous raft, frequently amounting to seven and eight hundred persons, men, women, and children; besides these buildings, there are stalls for cattle, slaughtering houses, and magazines for provisions: the float is prevented from striking against the shores, where the turnings are abrupt, by the application of thirty or forty anchors, which with the necessary cables are conveyed in fourteen or fifteen boats which precede it, and its course is safely directed by German and Dutch pilots, who are hired for the purpose.

After great rains when the current is rapid, the whole is

entrusted to its propelling force, otherwise several hundred persons are employed in rowing, who move their oars at a given word of command. The whole of these wonderful moving masses is under the entire direction of a governor or superintendant, and several officers under him. Sometimes they are months in performing their voyage, in consequence of the water being low, in which case they are obliged to wait till the river is swelled by the rains. In this manner they float from the high to the low countries, and upon their arrival at the place of destination, the whole is broken up, and finds a ready market. About twelve of them annually arrive at Dort, in Holland, in the months of July and August, where these German timber-merchants having converted their floats into good Dutch ducats, return to their own country with their families, to enjoy the produce of their labour and enterprize.

The clergy and monks in Andernach used to be, to use a good-humoured homely expression of a late illustrious statesman, upon an application made to him for a place under his administration "as thick as five in a bed ;” beside six vicars belonging to a large parish church, there were no less than five crouded convents, and the population did not exceed four thousand souls: the convents are now converted into garrisons for French soldiers, and

storehouses for tradesmen. After viewing the city, I set off on the road to Coblentz, with a view of meeting the boat at the place appointed, and after walking about two miles, I lost all traces of the river; however, observing about three parts of a mile the tops of a long semicircular line of poplars, I concluded the river flowed by them, and I accordingly endeavoured to penetrate to the bank through a large willow wood, in which I soon lost myself. At last, however, I succeeded in forcing a way into a little footpath, in pursuing which I suddenly came upon a Frenchman, poorly cloathed in green, with a book in his hand; he courteously addressed me, remarked that I looked rather warm, and conducted me to a recess in the wood, close to the water, where there was a bed of straw and a gun: at first I regarded him as a robber, but he soon gave me to understand that he was a link in a vast chain, composed of forty thousand soldiers, placed in this sort of ambuscade at the distance of a gun shot from each other, by the orders of the government of France, to guard the left bank of the Rhine from smugglers; and that to prevent contraband practices, no boat is suffered to pass either up or down the river after sunset, without being fired upon; that they are always cloathed in a sombre dress, to prevent observation, and are concealed in this manner wherever the sides of the river will admit of it.

3G2

412

THE TOWN OF NEUWIED.

Upon my informing him that I had lost my way and my boat, he politely assured me that it had not yet ascended the river, and hailed a little punt passing by, which enabled me to regain the vessel, then very fortunately just approaching. Notwithstanding the vigilance of the French police, the rafts I have described carry on a considerable contraband trade in the Rhine wines and Seltzer water.

Opposite to the spot where this occurrence took place, at the bottom of a range of hills, is the delightful town and palace of Neuwied, built of white stone, at one end of the line of poplars which I have mentioned, and almost the only town I saw without walls or any sort of fortification on the Rhine. Nothing could exceed the air of happiness and prosperity which seemed to reign in this delectable little capital, which looked perfectly fresh and new, the prince of which receives, because he deserves, the affections of his subjects; every one on board, with great vivacity, spoke of the toleration, the liberal extension of the rights of citizenship to foreigners, and the public spirit of its ruler. The place is enriched by several flourishing iron works, steel, paper, and cotton manufactures (the latter, the first introduced into Germany), printing, watch, and ingenious cabinet-making. Before the last war, in the forges and founderies, and different fabrics, not less than