tlvity *. When the fortune of the houfe of Vafa declined, and Ruffia gained the af=cendancy, Courland became almoft a province of Rufiia ; the Dukes were elefted anddepofed by the influence of the court of Peferlburgh, and its dependence on Poland wasa mere formality. But as Ruffia has lately loft her influence in Poland , the Duke ofCourland has emancipated himfelf from his abfolute dependence on the court of Peterf-burgh. Whether this emancipation is temporary or permanent muft depend on the fateof the prefent war, and the ifliie of the pending negotiations f.
The prevailing religion is the Lutheran , but ail other perfuafions are tolerated ; andthe Roman catholics are capable of holding all military and civil offices, that of chan-cellor and a few others excepted.
The language is a dialed!: of the Livonian or Lettilh, the fame which is fpoken, with alittle variation, by the Livonians and Efthonians, and is probably derived from the Fin-nilh. The nobles and gentry, being deficended from German fettlers, fpeak German ,and that tongue is always ufed in the debates of the diet.
From Ivlittau we traverfed the duchy of Courland , a country fwelling into gentle hills,and fertile in corn, hemp, and flax. The inhabitants export thofe commodities from theport of Libau on the Baltic, the only commercial town of Courland , and import inreturn coffee, tea, wines, cloth, fait, and other foreign merchandize, which fupply theinterior confumption. The country is moftly open ; but in fome parts clothed withforefts of pine and fir, dotted with occafional groves of fine oak, and fprinkled withmuch under-wood. The villages are neat, the fcattered cottages and gentlemen’s featsprettily fituated amid clumps of trees, and the inns provided with beds, a great luxuryto travellers juft come from Ruffia. The roads are extremely indifferent, and in thisfeafon of the year fcarcely paffable.
Ghap. XI. —Of Catharine.—Her Origin and early Adventures. — Married to a SwedijhDragoon.—Captured by the Ruffians. — Becomes the Mijlrefs , Confort , and Succejfor ofPeter the Great.—Hijlory of her Elevation to the Throne.—Death and Character.
MANY authors have expreffed great furprize at the contradictory reports relative tothe origin of Catharine I. But to expeCt that the hiftory of a perl'on of low extraction,who gradually rofe to the molt exalted ftation, fhould contain no uncertain and difeor-dant accounts, is to expeCt impoffibilities. All that remains, therefore, is, without pre-
* James Duke of Courland, taken prifoner in 1458, by Charles X. King of Sweden .
•f Courland is now a province of-the Ruffian empire. Soon after the conqueftand final divifion of Po-land, Peter, Duke of Courland , repaired to Peterffiurgh ; he had an audience of Catharine the Second, onthe 12th of March 179?, and was received with the higheft honours. About the fame time, the diet ofCourland affembled, and after fome trifling oppofltion, but much violent altercation, declared the twoduchies of Courland and Semigallia feparated from theft feudal dependance on Poland , and fubmittedtliemfelves to the dominion of Ruffia. (March 18, i/ 95 - d
On the 2.8th, the Duke iflfued an aft of renunciation, and Courland was erefted into a government, di-vided into nine circles, under a Ruffian governor, refldent at Mittau . The falaries were continued to theofficers offlate, and perfons holding places under the former government; and the Duke himfelf wan amplygratified for the refignation of his dignity. He had been long at variance with his fubjefts, and fcarcelyever refided at Mittau ; he had alfo forefeen the lofs of his dominions, and had fecured large fums of money,with which he purchafed the duchy of Sagau, and the counties of Wartenberg, Belin, and Gofchutz, inSilefia, and eftatesin Brandenhuvgh. He ftill retains the title of Duke of Courland and Semigallia . PeterWas born in 1724, and has by his wife, Anne Charlotte Dorothea, daughter of John Frederick Count ofMedem, feveral daughters. His brother Prince Charles was born in 1728, and has by the Princefs Appol-lonia Poninlka feveral fons.
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