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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 661
opening a new channel of commerce *. As a prelude to this undertaking, a fmall
battery was raifed on another ifland of the Neva, upon the fpot now occupied by the
Academy of Sciences, and was commanded by Vaflili Demitrievitch Kotfhmin. All!
the orders of the Emperor fent to this officer being direéted Va/ili na Ofrof, ‘To
Vafili upon the ifland, this part of the town was called Va/ili Ofrof, or the ifland of
Vafhili.
‘The fortrefs was begun on the 16th of May, 1703; and, notwith{tanding the ob-
ftructions arifing from the marfhy nature of the ground, and the inexperience of the
workmen, a {mall citadel, furrounded with a rampart of earth, and ftrengthened with
fix baftions, was completed in a fhort time. An author t, who was in Ruffia at that
period, informs us, ‘‘ that the labourers were not furnifhed with the neceflary tools,
as pick-axes, fpades and fhovels, wheel-barrows, planks and the like; notwithftanding
which, the work went on with fuch expedition, that it was furprifing to fee the fortrels
raifed within lefs than five months, though the earth, which is very fcarce thereabouts,
was, for the greater part, carried by the labourers in the ikirts of their clothes, and
in bags made of rags and old mats, the ufe of wheel-barrows being then unknown to
them.”
Within the fortrefs a few wooden habitations were erected. For his own immediate
refidence, Peter alfo ordered, in the beginning of 1703, a {mall hut to be raifed in an
adjacent ifland, which he called the ifland of St. Peterfburgh, and from which the new
metropolis has derived its name: this hut was low and f{mall, and is ftill preferved in
memory of the fovereign who condefcended to dwell in it. Near it was foon after-
wards conftructed another wooden habitation, but larger and more commodious, in
which Prince Mentchikof refided, and gave audience to foreign minifters. Ata {mall
diftance was an inn, much frequented by the courtiers and perfons of all ranks; to
which Peter frequently repaired on Sundays after divine fervice, and caroufed with
his fuite and others who happened to be prefent, as {pectators of the fire-works and di-
verfions exhibited by his orders.
On the 30th of May, 1706, Peter demolifhed the fmall citadel, and began the found-
ation of the new fortrefs on the fame fpot. In 1750, Count Golovkin built the firft
edifice 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{. From thefe fmall beginnings
rofe the prefent metropolis of Ruffia 5" and in lefs than nine years, the feat of empire was
transferred 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 ifland
of St. Peterfburgh, andin the Admiralty quarter, particularly thofe on the banks of the
Neva, fhould be conftruéted after the German manner, with timber and brick; that
the nobility and principal merchants fhould be obliged to have houfes in Peterfburgh ;
that every large veflel navigating to the city, fhould bring thirty ftones, every fmall one
ten, and every peafant’s waggon three, towards the conftru€tion of the bridges and.
other public works ; that the roofs of the houfes fhould be no longer covered with birch
planks and bark, fo dangerous in cafe of fire, but with tiles or clods of earth. In 1716
a regular plan § for the new city was approved by Peter; the principal part of the new
metropolis was to be fituated in the ifland of Vaflili-Oftrof; and, in imitation of the
* See Hift. Geog. and Top. Befchreibung der Stadt. S. Pet. in the Journal of St. Pet. for 1779.
+ Perry’s State of Ruffia, vol. i. p. 300. t Journal of St. Peterfburgh, 1799.
§ ‘The reader will find a delineation of this plan in Perry’s State of Ruflia.
Dutch
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