book « There are-eight regiments o f thefe Coffacs : each regi-
v*‘ . << ment confifts o f five fquadrons, and each fquadron o f an
<< hundred men,- befide officers. There are alfo fix. other
u regiments o f horfe, called regular pikemen, fimilar in
“ their arms and accoutrements to the Coffacs, and diftin-
“ guiihed ffom themonly by a trifling difference of drefs.”
CHAPC
H A P . III.
Rife and progrefs o f the Engliih trade into Ruffia.— .
Commerce o f the Britiih FaSiory o/ St. Peteriburgh.— E x ports
and imports.
TH E commercial intercourfe between Ruffia and the chap.
northern parts o f Europe was begun and carried o n , m' ,
by the Hanfeatick towns, which, in 12 76 , eftabliihed factories
at Novogorod and Plefcof*, and for a Confiderable
period entirely engroffed the trade o f this empire.
The accidental difcovery o f Archangel, in 15 5 3, deprived
the Hanfeatick towns o f a great part o f this lucrative commerce,
and transferred it to the Engliih. On the n t h o f
May, in the above-mentioned year, three ihips failed from
Deptford, in order to explore the Northern Seas, under the
command o f Sir. Hugh Willoughby. Two o f thefe Yeffels
penetrated as high as the 7 2d degree o f latitude to the Coaft
of Spitzbergen; and being afterwards forced by ftrefs o f
weather into the bay o f the river Arzina in Ruffian Lapland,
both their crews were frozen to death. Richard Chanceller,
who commanded the other Ihip, called the Bonaventure, dif-
covering the country bordering upon the White Sea, landed
near the mouth o f the Dvina in a bay, which he denominated
the Bay o f St. Nicholas, from a convent o f that name, near
* t h e merchants o f H am b u rgh and L u - th ro u g h D o rp t to P le fc o f and N o vo go rod .
heck, and o f th e o th e r H an fe a t ick tow n s , S . R . G . V . p . 418 ; and Bu f. Hift. M a v .
in ca rryin g on this tra ffick , nfu k lly failed to X . a g i .
Revel o r N a rv a , and from thence palled
H h 2 the