Deák Antal András: A Duna fölfedezése

Tartalom - III.A DANUBIUS PANNONICO-MYSICUS, 1726

T II E DISCOVERY OF THE DANUBE could be done most easily. I obtained a graduated astronomical quadrant with a radius of 2 1/2 feet (ca. 80 cm), made from brass. However, he was not able to stop wherever he needed and wished. Military service deprived me of everything that was needed for making precise observations, he complained in his Danube monograph. His commissions as a delegate were not free from excitement and he played with his life by taking notes and making sketches in Turkish controlled territories. The poor data and details in the XVI -XVIII Danube sections must be related to this fact. Typically for the atmosphere of those times, the high vizier had the corpses of beheaded Hungarian soldiers laid out in front of his tent at the site of the peace negotiations in Belgrade with the intention of intimidating him. From there he proceeded, together with the English envoy to Constantinople, through Szendrő, Vidin, Nikapol and Drinapol. In this way, Marsigli accumulated political experience in his negotiations with the Turks. During the campaigns he became thoroughly acquainted with the water and land-based transport roads in the southern part of the country, roads that were not roads, the swamps and floods blocking travellers. It is unlikely that there was anybody in Hungary at that time who had such a broad view of the political, ethnic, military, transport and road systems of the region, and it was not by chance that he was given an important role in the peace negotiations at Karlovic that ended the war as well as in the demarcation of the borders after the ratification of the peace treaty. FRONTIER DEMARCATION Karlovic, 1699 The above-mentioned peace negotiations got underway at Karlovic on November 13, 1698. Representatives from Venice, England, the Netherlands and the Russian Empire were present as well as Leopold Schlick

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3 on Leopold I's side with L. F. Marsigli as his secretary while the high chancellor and inner counsellor of the empire represented the Turkish Sultan. Hungary was not represented. By this omission, Emperor Leopold wanted to declare that he considered the country a province, a quasi colony, that he had conquered by force. The negotiations progressed very slowly, although the delegates were anxious to leave for home. It was winter and Karlovic did not offer many comforts for the delegates. The situation was further aggravated by the fact that the negotiations were conducted in tents from ten to half past two in the afternoon. John Paget, a delegate from England, having had enough of being cold, established a final deadline for the ratification of the treaty

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4, which happened in due time, on January 26, 1699.

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5 With this, blessed peace returned to Hungary for the next 25 years. The ruling principle was uti possidetis, ita possidentis (that is: as you have possessed, you will possess), and both sides tried to interpret it to their own advantage. The treaty also dealt with the trading interests of the two sides. The decrees can definitely be called trade friendly. They, namely, banned the building of any kind of fortification along the banks of the boundary rivers: the Maros, the Tisza, the Sava and the Unna, while it declared that the inhabitants of the two empires had equal rights to use the rivers. And since ... the cargo-boats sailing from the upper territories either on the Maros to the Tisza or on the Tisza to the Danube are not to be held up either down stream or on their way back by any IMAGE No. 5 on page 18: Coat-of-arms on one of Marsigli's astronomical instruments 4

3 Schlick (Schlik), Leopold Adam Joseph (1663 -1727), lieutenant general and diplomat. By the time of the peace treaty of Karlovic he was the envoy of emperor Leopold. 4

4 Ignácz Acsády: Magyarország története I. Lipót és I. József alatt. (The History of Hungary under Leopold I and Josef I) Budapest, 1898. 4

5 An agreement was reached with Venice, only later. 103