No. 26.
Mr. Delaplaine to Mr. Fish.
Vienna, April 27, 1875. (Received May 17.)
Sir: Yesterday at noon the navigation of the Danube rolling over its new bed was publicly opened and authorized.
The largest steamers, as well as other vessels, already traverse this new way-of communication, and are moored at the stone bulk-head recently finished on the southern bank of the river. This important event was inaugurated without public ceremony, or any imposing military or civic manifestations, although it is possible that the Emperor, after his return from Dalmatia, may deem it appropriate to pass over the course of the new stream, and that occurrence may be accounted perhaps as the actual official or state opening. The mighty river, by the action of its own current, had, nearly two weeks ago, quite arbitrarily and to the dismay of the engineers, anticipated the performance of what must be deemed the chief item of the ceremonial programme, namely, the admission of the water into the new bed, which, during several years, thousands of hands had been industriously occupied in excavating. It then burst suddenly through and washed away the upper dam, taking possession of its new bed, and forcing a passage through the lower dam. Against this unexpected occurrence no precautions had been taken by the engineers, and a large inroad was made by the rapid rush of the stream upon the southern bank, which caused some consternation and alarm; but, through the immediate sinking of barges loaded with stone, and other preventive measures, this injury was arrested, and the damages are being now repaired.
The transport of merchandise to and from the Levant which followed this great water-course had been hitherto interrupted at this point, [Page 56] where the Danube, divided into various arms, becomes no longer navigable; and a transshipment is therefore unavoidable. Now, over this space the river forms a wide, majestic and unbroken stream, allowing the passage of vessels of large tonnage. This improvement will doubtless be necessarily followed by the regulation of other portions of its course, especially at the so-called Iron Gate, in Servia, in case that government shall receive material assistance from other powers interested, and in case the Porte shall interpose no obstacle.
The future value of this uninterrupted navigation, if followed by the later improvement referred to in developing the productive resources of this empire, and especially in making Vienna a central point of transit and trade, cannot, perhaps, be too highly estimated, if we may be permitted to draw this conclusion from the past history of the commerce of the Orient. Until now there has not been ascribed to the Danube the importance to which, from its magnitude, geographical position, and course upon this continent, it is entitled; but as the commerce of the world, since the opening of the Suez Canal, gravitates toward the East—a commerce which will undoubtedly increase when the projected railways from the Black Sea are continued to Persia and India—that importance as a channel of water-communication must proportionately advance.
To apprehend the future value of the trade with the Orient, it will suffice to consider its influence, before the discovery of the passage around the cape of Good Hope, upon Venice and other maritime cities of the Mediterranean through which the exchange of the productions of the East and West was effected, and from which the prosperity and wealth of those cities arose, but after that event suddenly fell. In view of the before-mentioned opening of the Suez Canal, through which the voyage between Europe and Eastern Asia is abridged by at least a month, also of the increasing steam-navigation, the exchange of the productions of the two continents is facilitated and augmented to an extent far surpassing that of the most prosperous periods during the Middle Ages.
But attention may be reasonably called not only to the intercourse with India, but also to that with Egypt, now rich in the production of sugar and cotton, and throughout that fertile country, provided hot only with its Nile navigation, but also progressing by reason of the annually increasing extent of railways, which’ are advancing towards the newly acquired provinces of Darfur, lying south. These anticipations of the future are certainly only speculative, but they assume, notwithstanding, an aspect of probability.
I have, &c.,