schools, &c. The town is divided into two pari«, the division of the Commandant and that of the Admiralty : in the latter there is a summer garden, which hoasts of some flowers, said to have been planted by Peter the Great.
Cronstadt is the chief station of the Russian fleet. The fleet (like all Russia, the creation of Peter) originated on the Httle river Yausa, near Moscow, where Peter, with his Dutch friend, Brand, used to sail up and down in an English sloop which had been discovered near Ismailof, and which the Dutchman had repaired and equipped. The water in the Yausa is not always high, and in summer the river is almost dry. Peter caused the sloop to be carried to the little lake of Pereyiaslavl, and there he cruised daily with Brand about the creeks of the lake, learned to set the sails, to steer, and to avail himself of opposing winds. The thing pleased the Czar so much, that Brand was obliged to build two more small yachts. Brand was the admiral of the fleet, the emperor pilot, and the crews amounted to about a dozen seamen. At that time there were no other Russian sailors, and for cannon, they had two small guns, scarcely large enough to be heard on the other side of the wood that surrounded the lake. But the play in time became earnest. In 1694 Peter had decided on his plan ; he would have a Russian fleet, and Le Fort was named admiral of the fleet that was yet to be created.
From the small lake of Pereyiaslavl the fleet passed to the great lake of Peipus ; there enemies were found, and engagements took place between the Swedes and Russians. In 1 702, the flag taken from a Swedish vessel on the lake of Ladoga, the first trophy of the infant marine of Russia, was carried in triumph into Moscow, and lodged in the Kremlin.
From the lake of Peipus, whose circling coasts had all become Russian, and from the lake of Ladoga, the fleet appeared upon the Baltic ; the marine plant, thus carefully niu-tured in the interior of the empire, and transported from lake to lake, developed itself with extraordinary rapidity, and spread over the whole surface of that sea. After the first prize had been taken from Sweden, the Russian fleet was kept in action almost exclusively by that power. The disputes of the Swedes and Russians in the gulf of Finland, where both considered themselves legitimate masters, are as old as the existence of the two people Early powerful on the sea, and at different periods of their history masters of the Baltic, the Swedes remained masters also of the coasts for cantmies. On Peter's appearance on the sea, the leaf was turned, and a series of naval battles have at last secured the Baltic provinces to Russia and by degrees driven the Swedes from every bay and corner of the Gulf of Finland. .The first important fight took place in 1715, after the annihilation of the Swedish army at Pultava. From 1703, Peter had sent one vessel after another to sea, gun-boats, galleys, frigates, and even ships of the line of sixty ginis and more. By a bold manoeuvre, conducted by the Czar himself, he passed his small galleys and cutters over the isthmuses of Angut and Ratzaburg, which separated him from the Swedish fleet, attacked it unexpectedly, captured the admiral himself. Von Ehrenschild, and his ship, forced twelve large vessels to strike, and sailed to the island of Aland, spreading terror to the very heart of the Swedisli capital. The battle of
Tn at least oifflit Kussian towns they show some such sacred flowers, said to have been planted by Fetcr with his own hands.
Angut made the Russian fleet of age in less than twenty years after its birth, and Peter sailed back in triumph to his new capital, to be promoted to the rank of vice-admiral, and to address the following speech to the sm'rounding nobles :