Preliminary Observations - State of Public Affairs - Strange
Conduct of the Emperor-Insolence of the Police-Extraordinary
Phænomenon.

IT has probably happened to others, as to myself, to cast an
eye of wishful curiosity towards the eastern boundaries of
Europe. Above two thousand years ago they were the same
they now are. The Tanaïs, watering the plains of Sarmatia,
separated the Roxolani and the Jazyges from the Hamaxobii
and the Alani. In modern geography, the same river, altered
in its appellation, divides the tribe of Don Cossacks from
that of the Tshernomorski, whose territory extends from the
Sea of Azof to the Kuban. The Greeks, by their commerce
in the Euxine, derived a slight knowledge of the people who
lived on the Palus Mæotis. The wars of Russia and Turkey
directed

B

CHAP. 1.

Preliminary
Observations.

CHAP. I.

directed our attention sometimes to the inhabitants of the same country; but the knowledge of them, both among the antients and moderns, has scarcely exceeded the names of their tribes, and their character in war. With their domestic habits, the productions of their country, the nature of its scenery, the remains of antiquity they possess, we are very little acquainted. By referring to antient history, we find that the same want of information prevailed formerly as at present. This may be accounted for from the wandering disposition of the people, who were seldom settled for any length of time upon the same spot: and with regard to their successors, since the migration of the Poles to the marshes of the Don, and the expulsion of the Kuban Tartars by the Cossacks of the Black Sea, their country has been submitted to very little examination. It was among these people that the political differences of England and Russia drove me a willing exile from the cities of Petersburg and Moscow, in the last year of the eighteenth century. Necessity and inclination were coupled together; and I had the double satisfaction of escaping from the persecution of the enemies of my country, and of exploring regions which, in the warmest sallies of hope, I had never thought it would be my destiny to visit.

In the course of this journey, through extensive plains which have been improperly called deserts, and among a secluded people who with as little reason have been deemed savages, I had certainly neither the luxuries and dissipation of polished cities, nor the opportunities of indolence, to interrupt my attention to my journal. If therefore it fails to interest the public, I have no excuse to offer. I present

it

it to them as similar as possible to the state in which notes taken on the spot were made; containing whatever my feeble abilities were qualified to procure for their information and amusement; and adhering, as far as I am conscious, in every representation, strictly to the truth.

After suffering a number of indignities in common with others of my countrymen during our residence in Petersburg, about the middle of March, 1800, matters grew to such extremities, that our excellent ambassador, Sir Charles (now Lord) Whitworth, found it necessary to advise us to go to Moscow. A passport had been denied to his courier to proceed with dispatches to England. In answer to the demand made by our minister for an explanation, it was stated to be the Emperor's pleasure. In consequence of which, Sir Charles inclosed the note containing his demand, and the Emperor's answer, in a letter to the English government, which he committed to the post-office with very great doubts of its safety.

In the mean time, every day brought with it some new example of the sovereign's absurdities and tyranny, which seemed to originate in absolute insanity. The sledge of count Razumoffski was, by the Emperor's order, broken into small pieces, while he stood by and directed the work. The horses had been found with it in the streets, without their driver. It happened to be of a blue colour; and the count's servants wore red liveries: upon which a ukase was immediately published, prohibiting, throughout the empire of all the Russias, the use of blue colour in ornamenting sledges, and red liveries.

CHAP. I.

State of Public
Affairs.

Strange conduct of the Emperor.

CHAP. I.

liveries.

In consequence of this wise decree, our ambassador, and many others, were compelled to alter their equipage. One evening, being at his theatre in the Hermitage, a French piece was performed, in which the story of the English powder-plot was introduced. The Emperor was observed to listen to it with more than usual attention; and as soon as it was concluded, he ordered all the vaults beneath the palace to be searched.

Coming down the street called the Perspective, he perceived a nobleman who was taking his walk, and had stopped to look at some workmen who were planting trees by the Emperor's order." What are you doing?" said he. Merely seeing the men work," replied the nobleman. "Oh, is that your employment?—Take off his pelisse, and give him a spade!-There, now work yourself!"

When enraged, he lost all command of himself, which sometimes gave rise to very ludicrous scenes. The courtiers knew very well when the storm was coming on, by a trick which he had in those moments of blowing from his under lip against the end of his nose. In one of his furious passions, flourishing his cane about, he struck by accident the branch of a large glass lustre, and broke it. As soon as he perceived what had happened, he attacked the lustre in good earnest, and did not give up his work until he had entirely demolished it.

In the rare intervals of better temper, his good humour was betrayed by an uncouth way of swinging his legs and feet about in walking. Upon those occasions he was sure to talk with indecency and folly.

But