724 COXe’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA .

judice or partiality, to compare the various hiftories of Catharine I. and to colled fromthe whole the moft probable narrative.

Catharine was the natural daughter * of a country girl, and was born at Ringen, afinall village upon the lake Virtcherve, near Dorpt , in Livonia. The year of her birth

is

* I fliall make a few remarks concerning the authors from whom I have principally extracted this ac-count of Catharine I. The firft and moft authentic is Weber,

Weber was the Hanoverian refident at Peterlburgh during part of the reign of Peter I. and took extra-ordinary pains to obtain the beft information relative to the origin of Catharine. He learned the Ruffianlanguage of Wurmb, who was tutor to Gluck’s children when Catharine was in that minifter’s houfe atMarienburgh : from him, therefore, he was able to obtain the moft authentic intelligence. Weber mayhave been rniftaken in a few trilling incidents, but his narrative upon the whole js to be depended upon. SeeVerandertes Rufsland, vol. iii. p. 7 —10.

La Motraye, in his Travels, has given a Ihort account of her family, &c. Among other intelligence,he collected much information from a Livonian girl, who had been fold by the Ruffians to the Turks, andwhom he bought of the Janizaries : this girl knew Catharine at Marienburg, and told him feveral particu-lars relating to her, which were afterwards confirmed to him in Livonia. The account of La Motrayecorrefponds with that of Weber in the principal events, differing only in a few trifling points.

Bruce has alfo given an account of her origin, which he relates as he heard it told by thofe who knewher from her infancy. His narrative correfponds, upon ihe whole, with that of Weber in all effentialcircumftances.

Thefe three perfons are the principal authors who were in Ruffia towards the beginning of this century,and collefted information on the fpot: we may therefore rely on them with more fafety than upon laterwriters; and they all agree in confirming the lownels of her birth, and her marriage with the Swedilhdragoon.

Voltaire , in his life of Peter 1 . has flightly paffed over the early adventures of Catharine ; he mentionsnothing of her birth, her marriage with the Swedilh foldier; as circumfiances derogatory from the honourof the Emprefs Elizabeth, by whofe defire he wrote the life of Peter the Great . But willing to ennoblethe family of Catharine I. he records a ilrange ftory, which has all the air of romance, concerning a brotherof Catharine, named Scavroniki, who was found to be the foil of a gentleman of Lithuania. Voltaire citesfor his authority “ le manufcrit curieux d’un homme qui etait alors au fervice du czar, & qui parle commetemoin but without mentioning his name.

from Voltaire many fucceeding authors have.advanced that Catharine was of the family of Scavronfki;and it is certain that the Emprefs Elizabeth acknowledged that family as her relations, and conferredhonours upon its members.

This anecdote concerning Scavroniki is pofitively contradicted by a paflage in Baffevitz, who affiftedMentchikof in railing Catharine to the throne, and who muft have known if any brother of Catharine hadbeen at Peterlburgh during the life of Peter . He afferts, that Catharine did not produce any of her rela-tions during Peter ’s life ; that after his death a perfon made his appearance at Peterfburgh as her brother,under the name of Count Hendrikof; that he lived in obfcurity during the reigns of Peter II. and Anne,and that Elizabeth made his fon a chamberlain. Bufching, ix. p. 2 g$.

Weber alfo upon this head relates, “ that a near relation of Catharine came to Peterlburgh with his fa-mily, confifting of three fons and two daughters. He was called Count Ikavoror.lki (certainly the fame asScavroniki) ; the eldeft daughter, Sophia, was appointed by the Emprefs maid of honour ; the other chil-dren were educated by their father. The arrival of thefeJlrangers gave rife to many reports concerning theorigin of Catharine ; that her father, whofe name was faid to be John Rabe, was a quarter-mafter in aSwedilh regiment; and that her mother was the daughter of a town-fecretary of Riga . The widow, afterher hulband’s death, went to her relations at (Riga ; but foon dying, Gluck took the foundling into hisfamily. Thefe reports, which began to circulate, occafioned a public decree, forbidding all perfons, uponpain of death, from uttering difrefpeClful expreffions againft the late Emperor , or the reigning Emprefs andher family.” Ver. Ruff. vol. iii. p. 76.

We may indeed take it for granted, that if Catharine’s family had been nobly deicended, the fecret wouldhave been difcovered during the life of Peier, and have been favourably received by that Emperor , who wasprevented, from the obfcurity of her birth, from carrying her with him to Paris , not being willing to expofeher to infult : “ 11 ne vouloit pas l’expofer, dft on, aux rebuts qu’il craignait pour elle vu I'obfcurite de fanaiffanct, de ladelicateffe Fran$aife.” Baffevitz in Buf. Mag. ix. p. 316.

An Anttrian envoy, who was at Peterfburgh in 1725, and wrote an account to his court of her acceffionto the throne, fays, “ that file was a natural daughter'of a Livonian nobleman, whofe name was Alvendhel;that her mother afterwards married a rich pea&tut, by whom Ihe had a Ion and a daughter ; that the former

was