C H A P . IV.
journey from Peterjburgh to Riga— Hijiory of Livonia— Narva—
Dorpt—Riga— Anecdotes of General Brown.
lV /TAY 8, 1785. On quitting St. Peteriburgh, we purfued
-*• our journey through part of Ingria, Efthonia, and Livonia,
provinces conquered from the Swedes by Peter the Great.
As the ground was in many parts covered with fnow, and
as we travelled night and day, we could not fufficiently obferve
the produdtions of the country j and as the incidents of the
journey were in no wife remarkable, I ihall chiefly confine my
account to the hiftory o f Efthonia and Livonia, and to a Ihort
defcription of Narva, Dorpt, and Riga, the only places through
which we palled, in any degree worthy of notice.
As Efthonia and Livonia, bordering upon Ruflia, Sweden, and
Poland, and reciprocally claimed and poflTefled by thofe three powers,
were, during a period of more than two centuries, a conftant
fource and a perpetual fcene of the moft bloody wars, it may
not be unneceflary to ftate briefly their hiftory, and to trace the
caufes which rendered them obje&s of fuch contention to thofe
three powers.
In 1158, fome merchants of Bremen, bound to Wilby, in the
J lilc
iile of Gothland *, being drove by ftrefs of weather, landed at the c h a p .
IV.
mouth of the Duna, and trafficked with the natives. Drawing 1 . - - »
confiderable advantage from this trade, the merchants returned
in great numbers, and gradually eftabliffied a fettlement. A
German monk of the Auguftine order, who accompanied the
new colonifts, acquired the language of the country, converted
feveral of the natives to Chriftianity, and perfuaded them to be
baptized.
According to the cuftom of that barbarous era, an order of
knighthood, firft called the Knights of Chrift, and afterwards
with more propriety the Knights of the Sword, was inftituted
for the propagation of Chriftianity by fire and fword. Thofe
military miffionaries, equally fanatic and fanguinary, gradually
overran the country, and reducing the antient inhabitants, rendered
them at the fame time Chriftians and Haves.
In 1231, thefe knights, being incorporated in the Teutonic
order, ftiled themfelves Knights and Lords of the Crofs, and pur-
chafed Efthonia, in 1521, from the king of Denmark. Walter
Plettenberg their chief, or general of the order, having obtained
from the grand mafter of the Teutonic order the chief jurifdic-
tion of Livonia, was confidered as independent, and admitted
foon afterwards by Charles the Fifth among the princes of the
empire.
The knights continued in pofleffion of Efthonia and Livonia,
until the weaknefs and impolitic condudl of their mailers, and
* Nachrichter von Liefland, S. R . G . v. 9. p. 263.
civil