COXE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.

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opening a new channel of commerce*. As a prelude to this undertaking, a fmallbattery was raifed on another ifland of the Neva, upon the fpot now occupied by theAcademy of Sciences , and was commanded by Vaffili Demitrievitch Kotfhmin. Allthe orders of the Emperor fent to this officer being directed Vaffili na Oflrof.\ ToVaffili upon the ifland, this part of the town was called Vaffili Oflrof, or the ifland ofVaffili.

The fprtrefs was begun on the 16th of May, 1703 ; and, notwithftanding the ob-ftrudlions arifing from the inarffiy nature of the ground, and the inexperience of theworkmen, a fmall citadel, furrounded with a rampart of earth, and ftrengtheeed withfix baftions, was completed in a ffiort time. An author f, who was in Ruffia at thatperiod, informs us, “ that the labourers were not furniffied with the neceffary tools,as pick-axes, fpades and ffiovels, wheel-barrows, planks and the like; notwithliandingwhich, the work went on with fuch expedition, that it was furprifmg to fee the fortrefsraifed within lefs than five months, though the earth, which is very fcarce thereabouts,was, for the greater part, carried by the labourers in the fkirts of their clothes, andin bags made of rags and old mats, the ufe of wheel-barrows being then unknown tothem.”

Within the fortrefs a few wooden habitations were erected. For his own immediaterefidence, Peter alfo ordered, in the beginning of 1703, a fmall hut to be raifed in anadjacent ifland, which he called the ifland of St. Peterfburgh, and from which the newmetropolis has derived its name: this hut was low and fmall, and is ftill preferved inmemory of the fovereign who condefcended to dwell in flt. Near it was foon after-wards conftrufted another wooden habitation, but larger and more commodious, inwhich Prince Mentchikof refided, and gave audience to foreign minilters. At a fmalldiftance was an inn, much frequented by the courtiers and perfons of all ranks; towhich Peter frequently repaired on Sundays after divine fervice, and caroufed withhis fuite and others who happened to beprefent, as fpectators of the fire-works and di-verfions exhibited by his orders.

On the 30th of May, 1706, Peteir demolifhed the fmall citadel, and began the found-ation of the new fortrefs on the fame fpot. In 1710, Count Golovkin built the firftedifice of brick, and in the following year the Tzar , with his own hand, laid the founda-tion of a houfe, to be erected with the fame materials J. From thefe fmall beginningsrofe the prefent metropolis of Ruffia; and in lefs than nine years, the feat of empire wastransferred from Mofcow to Peterfburgh.

The defpotic authority and zeal of Peter for the improvement of the new capital,will appear from his mandates. In 1714 he enjoined, that all buildings upon the iflandof St. Peterfburgh, and in the Admiralty quarter, particularly thofe on the banks of theNeva, fhould be conflru&ed after the German manner, with timber and brick; thatthe nobility and principal merchants ffiould be obliged to have houfes in Peterfburgh;that every large veffel navigating to the city, fhould bring thirty Hones, every fmall oneten, and every peafant’s waggon three, towards the conftru&ion of the bridges andother public works ; that the roofs of the houfes fhould be no longer covered with birchplanks and bark, fo dangerous in cafe of fire, but with tiles or clods of earth. In 1716a regular plan § for the new city was approved by Peter; the principal part of the newmetropolis was to be fituated in the ifland of Vaffili-Oflrof; and, in imitation of the

* See Hift. Geog. and Top. Befchreibung der'Stadt, S. Pet. in the Journal of St. Pet. for 1779.

f Perry’s State of Ruffia, vol. i. p. 300. f Journal of St. Peterfburgh, 1799.

§ The reader will find a delineation of this plan in Perry’s State of Ruffia.

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