“To-morr punkt at 'leven wir schiff for St.
Petersburg,” was the polyglot announcement
by which all of us, Swedes, Germans, English,
and one solitary American, were given to
understand at what hour on the ensuing day we
were to commence our voyage from Stockholm for
the Russian capital. With praiseworthy punctuality
the steam was up at the appointed hour
of eleven, and as our steamer shot out into the
Baltic we took our farewell view of Stockholm,
the “City of Piles.” As we steamed northward
we dashed through archipelago after archipelago
of islands, some with bold and rocky shores, and
others sloping greenly down to the tranquil sea.
Having passed the Aland Islands, one of which,
not thirty miles from the coast of Sweden, has
been seized and strongly fortified by her powerful
and unscrupulous neighbor, we turned into a
narrow inlet, and touched Russian soil at Abo,
the ancient capital of Finland.
Here we made our first acquaintance with
those fascinating gentry, whom his Imperial Majesty
deputes to watch that nothing treasonable
or contraband finds entrance into his dominions.
Our intercourse here was, however, brief, our
passports merely being demanded, and permission
granted us to go on shore while the steamer
was detained. At Cronstadt and St. Petersburg
we formed a more intimate if not more agreeable
acquaintance with these functionaries. Setting
out again we coasted eastward up the Gulf of
Finland, passing the grim fortress of Sveaborg,
with its eight hundred guns, and garrison of fifteen
thousand men, and shot up the beautiful
bay to Helsingfors, one of the great naval stations
of Russia. Touching at Revel, on the opposite
shore of the Gulf of Finland, we ran due
east up the Gulf, encountering the great Russian
summer fleet, which was performing its annual
manœuvres, and on the morning after leaving
Helsingfors came in sight of the shipping and
fortifications of Cronstadt. As we crept slowly
up the narrow and winding channel, by which
alone the harbor can be reached, and passed successively
the grim lines of batteries which command
every portion of it, we were forced to confess
that it formed a fitting outpost to a great
military power.
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