Together with several other passengers, I intrusted myself to this diligence, for conveyance to Riga, in the beginning of April, 1834. The road between Mitau and Riga was still in the same imsophisticated condition as in the time of the Knights ; that is to say, it was excellent in midwinter, when December and January, the most useful and active roadmenders of Russia, had paved it with firm ice, but very different in April, when this pavement was completely torn up, and where, though good provision was made for the overturned passenger, the mud furnishing a soft commodious bed for his reception, he who A\'ished to proceed quickly fared but ill.
The halfway station of St. Olai is well known to every inhabitant of Mltau and Riga, and is certainly well dedicated to the patron saint of deserts, forests, marshes, dirt, and bad weather. It stands on the border between Courland and Livonia ; for though the Dwina generally forms the boundary line, Livonia here projects somewhat and claims a part of the left bank.
If we compare the country round the mouth of the DAA^na, with that around the mouths of the other great rivers of the Baltic, we shall find some similarities, but many differences. The Dwina delta-land is the most barren of any. The delta lands of the Niemen, Vistula, and Oder have become fruitful, populous and luxunant places. That this is not the case with the Dwina is probably the fault of the inhabitants, wlio are not so industrious in constructing canals, dikes, and other works of the kind, as the inhabitants of those districts. The delta of the Dwina, though a desert to the agriculturist, is a land of plenty to the sportsman ; in spring it is crowded with Innumerable waterfowl ; the lakes are alive with swans and wild geese, the marshes with storks, snipes, plovers, and cranes.
From St. Olai to Riga the great marsh of Tyrul lay on our right and the marsh of Kangerkals, which vies with it in gloom and desolation, on our left. It was evening ; the lanterns of our coach were lighted, and we were thus perhaps the only enlightened people in the whole gloomy wilderness around us. People were enjoying their tea in the " Mitau Vorstadt^^ of Riga, when, after unnumbered bruises of side, back, and ribs, we at length rolled into the courtyard of our inn. The ice of the Dvvina was just breaking up, and it was therefore impossible to enter Riga itself that night. I met a few burghers of the city at the inn, who had been returning to their warm hearths at Riga, from an excursion into the gloomy wilderness. I shared a room with them, and we conversed for some time on those events of times gone by, which had raised a crowded capital on the spot from which a few faint lights gleamed dimly before us, through the thick darkness that rested on the broad waters of the Dwina.
In the year 1158, some merchants and seamen of Bremen were thrown out of their course by a storm, while on their way to Wisby. Having been driven round the northernmost point of Courland, and past the little island of Runoe in the midst of the gulf of Riga, and having successfully avoided the peninsula of Gretengrund, they landed at the mouth of the Dwina, which was then as unknown a land as that of the copper-coloured savages of America.
Their first treaties with the Livonians, their first undertakings on the Dwina, their settlement upon the little island of Kirchholm, the building of the castle of Hexkull, their cunning treachery towards the simple goodnatured aborigines, who were all subjected to slavery, remind us forcibly of the conduct of Columbus and other discoverers. Meiiihard of Bremen became the first bishop of Livonia, Berthold the second, and Albert the third. They were all brave, skilful, wise men, and are now honoured throughout Livonia, as the gardeners who sowed the seeds of the widebranching tree of tliis German colony on the Baltic.
New emigrants flocked continually thither. Albert built the city of Riga in 1200, and founded the order of the " Schwertbrilder,^^ wliich soon subjugated the whole country. The first bishops appear to have ruled as sovereign princes, but their dominion over the city and the order gradually slipped from them. The citizens of Riga gave themselves a free constitution, modelled on that of Bremen, and the Scliwcrthr'ddcr constituted themselves an independent power, first under a superior of their own, and afterwards in union with the Teutonic knightly order in Prussia, under one supreme grand-master. For some time afterwards the free citizens of Riga, the bishops and archbishops of the town, and the Schwertbriider had perpetual feuds among themselves, in which the citizens usually sided with the spiritual powers, though the knights, who were the most skilful soldiers, and were in possession of the open country, generally retained the upper hand.