ships, about four o'clock in the afternoon, and their fire was returned by the Spaniards, with great spirit. Early in the action, the ship San Domingo, of seventy guns, and a crew of six hundred men, was blown up, and all on board perished. Although the night was dark and tempestuous, the pursuit and battle was continued till two o'clock the next morning, when the van ship in the Spanish line struck to Rodney. The admiral's ship of eighty guns, with five of seventy, were taken; but two of them were wrecked on the coast, and the British prize officers and crew were made prisoners. Four, only, of the Spanish ships escaped. After despatching a large portion of his fleet to convoy his prizes to England, under the command of Admiral Digby, and executing his commission at Gibraltar, Rodney proceeded, about the middle of February, to the West Indies. He arrived at St. Lucia on the twenty-seventh of March; and, having learned that Admiral De Guichen, with a fleet of twenty-three sail of the line, and a fifty gun ship, had put to sea, from Martinico, he sailed in pursuit of him, with twenty ships of the line; but the fleets did not meet until the seventeenth of April, when there was a partial engagement, in which several ships in each line sustained injury; and, the French fleet having taken shelter under Guadaloupe, Rodney took a position off Fort Bayol, where he remained for several days, and then returned to St. Lucia; but, receiving intelligence of the approach of Admiral De Guichen's fleet to the windward of Martinico, he put to sea, and got sight of it on the tenth of May; but De Guichen avoided an engagement, and returned to Martinico, and Rodney proceeded to Barbadoes.

A Spanish fleet of eighteen ships of the line, under Don Joseph Solano, arrived off Dominique, in June, and, being joined by Admiral De Guichen on the tenth, with an equal number, their combined force amounted to thirty-six sail of the line.

Admiral Rodney, having been apprised of the approach of the Spanish fleet, had sailed from Barbadoes, for the purpose of intercepting it before it joined the French; but, having failed in that object, he proceeded to St. Lucia, where he was equally well situated for observing and counteracting the movements of the combined fleets, and for self-defence. Admirals De Guichen and Solano, however, remained inactive until the fifth of July, when they sailed in the night; but a misunderstanding between the French and Spanish commanders rendered their junction, and superiority to the British force, inconsequential; and after De Guichen had accompanied Don Solano as far as St. Domingo, he left the Spanish fleet to proceed to Havana, and went to Cape Francois, where he remained until a large convoy was collected from the French islands, and then sailed directly for Europe.

Admiral Rodney, entertaining a mistaken apprehension that De Guichen was bound to North America, to join Admiral Ternay at Rhode Island, he sailed immediately, with eleven ships of the line, and four frigates, for New York.

During these resultless operations of the fleets in the West Indies, the united French and Spanish squadrons in the European seas were more successful. A large convoy, for the East and West Indies, sailed from Portsmouth the latter part of July, under the protection of a ship of the line and two frigates, which was intercepted, on the ninth of August, by the combined fleets, under the command of Don Louis De Cordova. The convoy included, besides merchantmen, eighteen provision, store, and

transport ships, which were destined for the naval service in the West Indies, and five East Indiamen, with arms, ammunition, and a train of artillery, together with a large quantity of naval stores for the supply of the British squadrons in that quarter. The East India ships, and fifty of those bound to the West Indies, including those chartered by the government, were taken, and carried into Cadiz. The prisoners, including twelve hundred soldiers, amounted to two thousand four hundred and sixty-five. The ships of war, and a few of the West Indiamen, escaped.

Admiral Rodney, having returned from the American coast to St. Lucia, towards the close of the year, made an attempt to recover the island of St. Vincent; but after landing a number of soldiers and marines, under General Vaughan, on the sixteenth of December, it was discovered that the French were in such force, and their works so impregnable, it was determined to abandon the expedition, and the troops were re-embarked the next day.

The year 1781 was rendered memorable by the establishment of that important maritime league called the "armed neutrality;" when Russia, which was the last of the European nations that entered the career of navigation, assumed a most commanding attitude, as the projector and head of that formidable and glorious alliance for the vindication of the

FREEDOM OF THE SEAS.

The rapid advancement of the Muscovites from a semi-barbarous, to the exalted position of one of the mightiest sovereignties of modern times, is the most extraordinary and wonderful phenomenon in the annals of the human race. Russia, like Rome, commenced her experiment in marine enterprise by the construction of ships of war; for neither of those immense empires combined commerce with navigation, until they had caused the imperial eagles to be respected on the sea, as well as on the land, by the efficiency of their fleets, and the splendor of their naval victories.

When Peter the Great ascended the throne, in 1696, Archangel was the only seaport in his dominions; but he soon perceived that it was ne. cessary to have squadrons in the Baltic and the Black Sea, to enable him to resist the assaults of Turkey on his southeastern frontier, and Sweden on the northwestern. He had, however, still more enlightened and enlarged prospective views than were included within the means of mere defence against foreign aggression. or for successfully prosecuting offensive wars. He determined to elevate the character of his subjects, and increase the resources and power of his vast domain, by the introduction of letters, science, and the arts; the development of the products of agricul ture and the mines; the establishment of manufactories, and the extension of mercantile intercourse with other portions of the globe. To accomplish those grand objects, he invited literary and scientific instructers to fill the first stations in his public academies, and intelligent navigators and arti ficers from Germany, France, and other kingdoms, to seek employment and honorable rewards in Russia; and in 1698 he went to Holland and England, and labored as a carpenter and blacksmith in the dock-yards of Sardam and Deptford, to acquire a knowledge of naval architecture, and to become personally acquainted with the process of ship-building, in all its multifarious details. Before his return, he visited the colleges, public schools, arsenals, and manufactories of those nations, that he might be enabled to have imitated, in his own realm, whatever he discovered that was best calculated to facilitate the realization, in the most speedy and certain

manner, of the magnificent plans of improvement which he had conceived for the aggrandizement of his empire.

Being involved in a war with Turkey, he established a navy-yard on the river Don; and, in 1705, an eighty gun ship was launched in his presence; and, in 1709, he had the proud satisfaction of beholding two ships of the line and a frigate added to his fleet at Azov,

Having regained the provinces of Ingria and Livonia, and the command of the river Neva, at the commencement of the war with Charles XII., of Sweden, he determined to establish a port on the Gulf of Finland, that he might obtain a share of the commerce of the Baltic; and, in the year 1703, the foundation of the city of Petersburgh was commenced.

Being enabled to put in requisition all the moral and physical resources of absolute power, and eager to accomplish the desired object, Peter prosecuted the work with such a determined and energetic spirit, and such unremitted industry, that, in less than nine years, the seat of empire was transferred from Moscow to the new capital. Merchants from other nations were encouraged to establish themselves there, and a large number of the nobles, traders, artists, and other classes of Russians, having been required to erect palaces, houses, stores, and workshops, St. Petersburgh soon became a place of commercial consequence. Ships of war were built, and a victory having been gained in 1714 over the Swedish fleet, in which the emperor acted in the subordinate capacity of a captain of one of the large ships, under the orders of the admiral, he obtained a commanding influence in the Baltic. In the mean time, every possible exertion was made to increase his marine force in the Black Sea; and, hav. ing discovered the great advantages which his subjects had derived from navigation, and the aid which his naval squadrons in those seas had afforded in the prosecution of the wars with the Ottoman empire, and the fiery genius who swayed the sceptre of Sweden, he became desirous of opening a trade with the East, through the Caspian Sea and the river Volga, which traversed his extensive realm, from Moscow to Astracan.

In conformity to these views, he fitted out a fleet at Astracan, in 1722, in which was embarked a large body of troops, for the ostensible purpose of chastising some of the Tartar and Persian tribes who had committed depredations on his southeastern frontier. This expedition having been successful, a treaty of peace was concluded, and several provinces ceded to Russia, which were highly important acquisitions, in consequence of the commerce which was thus secured with Persia, and all the other oriental nations, even as far as China; and the extensive and very valuable fisheries which were speedily established on the borders of that sea.

As a monarch, Peter I. of Russia has not been equalled in ancient or modern times, in scope of conception, energy of purpose, indomitable perseverance, creative genius, and promptness, skill, and vigor, in execution. In the brief period of thirty years, he enabled Russia to emerge from a state of barbarism, and assume a pre-eminent position among the most powerful nations of Europe. He was, in truth, "an Anachonsis among the Scythians;" but, instead of returning from the modern capitals of learning and refinement, to the uncivilized regions of his nativity, a mere philosopher, as did the unfortunate disciple of Solon from ancient Athens, he appeared a crowned sovereign, invested with ample power to command obedience to his lessons of instruction. The one endeavored to persuade, while the other peremptorily ordered, his ignorant countrymen to become

an enlightened, industrious, prosperous, and mighty people; the future arbiters of the eastern hemisphere.

No such man has ever before lived. With the prescience of a prophet, he clearly discerned the distant future in the vast mirror of past ages; and remembering the confidence of the inspired chieftain of the Israelites, he boldly worked onward, undoubting and sanguine, in the glorious frui tion of all his majestic plans for the advancement of his subjects to the highest point of moral and national grandeur. Other princes have exalted the character of nations which had already reached an elevated position in the progress of civilization. Alexander, Henry IV., of France, Frederick II., of Prussia, and Napoleon, increased the lustre of their realms. by the splendor of their victories, the important seminaries which they founded for the development of genius, the liberal patronage which they extended for the advancement of the industrial arts, and the enlightened measures which they adopted for improving the condition of the people; but the northern Cæsar CREATED an empire in the midst of a wilderness, and reared his magnificent throne on the prostrated customs, ignorance, prejudices, and rude institutions of savage tribes, whose unchanged debasement, from the earliest ages, had rendered the appellation of their common country the synonyme of the lowest state of human degradation. He did not, like Constantine, found a new capital as the last city of refuge for an illustrious race of imperial sovereigns, and the destined tomb of an expiring nation. Instead of fleeing from internal convulsions, civil war, and threatened invasion, and abandoning his native land and the graves of his illustrious ancestors to ruthless conquerors, in search of a place of safety, in a distant region, he erected a modern Rome, even far beyond the fabulous borders of the ferocious Cimbri and Dacians, who had often menaced the destruction of the ancient emporium of the subjugated globe; and this has more effectually perpetuated his name and wonderful achievements than has ever been done by any monument which regal ambition or public gratitude and munificence has reared to commemorate the deeds of man, or the momentous events of nations.

The measures which Peter the Great adopted, and energetically carried into effect, to extend the navigation and commerce of Russia, equally claimed the attention of his imperial successors; but Catharine II. accomplished more than all the others. In the year 1769, while her armies were harassing the Ottomans on the banks of the Pruth, the Danube, and the Dniester, and her fleets were triumphing in the Black Sea, she resolved to attack them in the Levant; and measures were vigorously prosecuted for accomplishing that grand object. The dock-yards of Archangel, Cronstadt, and Revel, were thronged with workmen, and the keels of as many ships laid, as could be simultaneously built at those several naval establishments. Officers and seamen, in the mean time, were collected from England, Denmark, and other maritime nations, and, to the astonishment of all Europe, two squadrons sailed for the Mediterranean, in September, which were soon followed by a third, under Vice-Admiral Elphinstone. The united force consisted of twenty sail of the line, six frigates, a number of bomb-ketches, galleys, and transports, and displayed, for the first time, the naval flag of Russia in the Archipelago.

This fleet was commanded by Admiral Spinidoff; but he was under the orders of General Alexius Orlof. The Turkish fleet, under the Capudan Pasha, Yaffen Bey, had anchored in the harbor of the island of Demnos;

but, on the approach of the Russians, retired to the channel that separates the isle of Scio from Anatolia. The Ottoman ships were superior in num. ber, amounting to over thirty sail, and occupied a strong position behind a number of small islands and ledges. The Russians, however, prepared to attack them on the fifth of July. As they advanced, the Capudan Pasha, whose flag was flying on board the Sultan, of ninety guns, led the van, and offered battle to Admiral Spinidoff. The ships closed, and the efforts of courage were terrible on both sides. Showers of balls and grenades interchangably crossed the decks of the two admirals. The Sultan caught fire, and the Russian commander not being able to disengage himself, they both blew up together. The sea was covered with their smoking fragments. The admirals, and a few of the officers, were the only persons who escaped the disaster. After this awful calamity, the battle was renewed with redoubled fury, until dark, when the fleets separated. The Turks entered the narrow and shoal bay of Tschesme, in the peninsula between the gulfs of Smyrna and Scola Nova, where some of their vessels ran aground, and the others were so crowded together that they could not act efficiently. The next day, Vice-Admiral Elphinstone was stationed at the entrance of the bay, to prevent the Turks from escaping; and a number of fire-ships having been prepared and placed under the protection of a detachment of four ships of the line and two frigates, commanded by Vice-Admiral Greig, he proceeded, about midnight, to the attack. One of the fire-ships having been secured to a Turkish vessel, the whole fleet. was speedily wrapt in flames, and every ship destroyed.

After this unexampled victory, the Russian fleet proceeded to Paros, the most commanding position in the Grecian seas, as a naval station, being situated about midway between the Morea and Asia Minor.

Having conquered the Crimea, and extended the bounds of her empire from the Don to the Dniester, on the northwestern coast of the Black Sea, and to the Kuban on the eastern, Catharine, at last, obtained, by the treaty of peace which was concluded with the Sublime Porte, at Kainandgi, in 1774, the free navigation of the Euxine, and the important right of passing the Dardanelles, which had been closed against all nations for two hundred years. This opened to Russia an immense field for maritime adventure. The cities of Taganrock on the Sea of Azov, Senastapol, in the Crimea, and Cherson, on the estuary of the Dnieper, were successively founded; and, so rapidly did they increase, that the latter, which was com menced in 1778, contained forty thousand inhabitants in 1783. Besides a large naval force, including many ships of the line, the Russians had several hundred sail of merchant vessels, which traded with the Turkish ports of the Black Sea and the Levant.

The internal navigation from the White and Baltic, to the Black and Caspian Seas, was improved, by canals, and the removal of obstructions in the Volga, the Don, the Dnieper, and the northern Dwina; and, ar. rangements having been made with the Persian Court, highly favorable to those new commercial emporiums, the Tigris and Euphrates again became the channels of intercommunication between the ancient Grecian ports of the Euxine, and the Indian Ocean-rivers ever memorable in the history of nations, from the facilities of intercourse which they afforded between the East and the West ;-gave to "Nineveh, that great city," to "mighty Babylon," and magnificent Palmyra, Solomon's "Tadmor in the wilder. ness," their wealth, power, splendor, and ever-during renown.