8o

THE RUSSIAN FLEET

of the imperial administration. This is his justcharacter, and the result of my personal observation,though I am sensible a different account has beengiven in some less momentous points ; and, perad-venture, in some few instances, when his spirit hasbeen exhausted by an intense application to amultiplicity of weighty affairs, and his temper ruffledby an importunate address, he may have receivedsome persons with incomplaisance ; and he has beentaxed with a misapplication of public moneys, theepidemical vice of the Russian nation.

\Here the Digression ends.~\

From thence the Tsar went to Viborg, and theships into haven. The three Russ snows com-manded by Captain Villebois and Captain-Lieu-tenants Apraxin and Lopakin that wintered atDanzig, being obliged to depart, in consequence of acapitulation betwixt that city and the commander ofa Swedish squadron, wherein likewise the Swedeswere restrained from pursuing them, made the bestof their way to Riga, to avoid the British and Swedishfleets then lying before Revel.

XVIII. PROCEEDINGS IN 1721 .

The greatest part of the galleys, wintering atAbo, Helsingfors and Viborg, rendezvous’d in thespring under General Galitzin, commander of thearmy in Finland for some years past ; though tillthis season the General-Admiral Apraxin had thesupreme direction in carrying on the conquests onthat side; and would by no means suffer thisgeneral, a bold daring man, to undertake anythingof moment. But now he readily consented to his