COXe’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.

6 55

Mofcow, and other towns ; and fecured the Kremlin of Novogorod with flrong walls ofbrick. Notwithftanding the defpotifm to which the inhabitants were fubjeft, and theoppreffion which they experienced from Ivan and his fucceffors, yet Novogorod ftillcontinued the larged and mod commercial city in all Ruffia, as will appear from thedefcription of Richard Chanceler, who palled through it in 1554 in his way to Mofcow.“ Next unto Mofcow the city of Novogorod is reputed the chiefed of Ruffia ; foralthough it be in rnajePiie inferior to it, yet in greatneffe it goeth beyond it. It is thechiefeft and greateft marte towneof all Mofcovie ; and albeit the-Emperor ’s feate is notthere, but at Mofco, yet the commodioufneffe of the river, falling into that gulfe whichis called Sinus Finnicus, whereby it is well frequented by merchants, makes it morefamous than Mofco itfelf

Its population, during this period, was fo great, that in 1508, above fifteen thoufandperfons died of an epidemical diforder t; more than double the number of the prefentinhabitants. In its mod flourifliing condition it contained at lead four hundred thoufandfouls J. Under the reign of.Ivan Vaffilievitch II. the profperity of Novogorod experi-enced a fatal downfall; that monarch having, in 1570, difcovered a fecret correspon-dence between forne of the principal inhabitants and' Sigifmond Augudus King of Po-land , relative to afurrender of the city into his hands, punifhed them in the mod inhu-man manner. He repaired in perfon to Novogorod, and appointed a court of inquiry,judly denominated the tribunal of blood. Contemporary hiftorians relate that its pro-ceedings continued during the fpace of five weeks, and that on each day of this fatalperiod more than five hundred inhabitants fell viffims to the vengeance of incenfed def-potifm. According to fome authors, twenty-five thoufand, according to others, morethan thirty thoufand perfons periffied in this dreadful carnage. Thofe writers, whowere the Tzar ’s enemies, have probably exaggerated the number of thefe executions;and it is but judice to add, that fome circumdances in their relations are unquedionablyfalfe: but though we ought not to give implicit credit to ail the accounts recorded byhis adverfaries; yet, even by the confeffion of his apologids, there dill remains fuf-ficient evidence of his favage ferocity in this barbarous tranfaclion, which equals if notfurpaffes in cruelty, the maflacre at Stockholm under Chriftlan II.

This horrid cataftrophe and the fubfequent oppreffions which the town experiencedfrom that great though fanguinary Prince, impaired its ftrength; and it is described asa place of defolation by Uhlfield, the Duniffi Ambaffador. But although the fplendourof this once flouriffiing town received a confiderable diminution ; yet it-was not totallyobfcured until the foundation of Peterfburgh, whither Peter the Great transferred allthe commerce of the Baltic, which before centered in Novogorod.

The prefent town isfurrounded by a rampart of earth, with a range of old towers atregular didances, forming a circumference of fcarcely a mile and an half; and eventhis inconfiderable circle includes much open fpace, and many houfes which are notinhabited. As Novogorod was built after the manner of the antient towns of thiscountry, in the Afiatic dyle, this rampart, like that of the Semlainogorod at Mofcow,probably enclofed feveral interior circles: without it was a vad extenfive fuburb, whichreached to the didance of fix miles, and included all the convents and churches, the

* Hackluyt, vol. I. p. 2.51. t S. R. G. vol. v. p 494.

J According to Heym, Novogorod in 1783 contained lixty two churches fix convents, and exclufive oftwelve public buildings, one thoufand five hundred and twelve houfes, of which only thirty-nine were ofbrick. -The population amounted to three thoufand three hundred and forty-two mates, and three thou-fand feven hundred and eighty four females.

antient