with fourfcore thousand warriors, on board of two thoufand veffels.

Thefe navigations were very different from thofe of polished nations. They cannot be compared even with thofe of the ancient Normans who dwelt upon the fea-coaft. The Ruffians

At

could only enter the Euxine by the Dniepr or Boryfthenes. They fell down that river with fufficient eafe, till they came to the seven rocks which embarrass its courfe for the space of fifteen leagues; there began fuch perils, labours, and fatigues, as none but barbarians were able to brave. They were obliged to unload their barks and flide them over the rocks, by pushing them with their arms, and with the help of poles. the fourth rock they carried the baggage for the distance of fix thousand paces, crouching beneath the burden, and at the hazard of being every moment attacked by the Petchenegans, who were almost perpetually at war with them. At length having paffed all the rocks, they were obliged to go with the ftream, which, contracting its bed, interrupted their course, and expofed them to the attacks of their enemies. Being arrived at the mouth of the Borysthenes, they reached an ifle which lies between the point of Otchakof and that of Kinburn, where they refitted their frail veffels, fhattered by fo difficult

a navi,

a navigation, and lay waiting for a favourable wind. They refitted them again when they had gained the mouth of the Dnieftr. In this manner they entered the Danube when they wanted to make war upon the Bulgarians; it was thus they carried on their commerce; it was thus that, following always the eastern fhore of the Euxine, Oleg came up before Conftantinople.

He arrived at that ftrait on which was feated the imperial city, called by the Ruffians Tzargrad, the city of the Cæfars. On hearing of his approach, to prevent his landing, they had here drawn a maffy chain across the harbour: a vain obstacle against barbarians, incited to a novel fpecies of induftry by the hopes of plunder. They drew ashore the vessels, or rather the light barks that had brought them. They made wheels which they fitted to their flat bottoms, and forced them, fays the chronicle, to proceed by the help of fails along a road and on an element for which they had not been contrived; and they arrived in this ftrange kind of vehicle. under the walls of the town. If it fhould feem doubtful that the troops of Oleg thus failed by land, yet the horrors they committed are unhappily not fo contrary to probability. The whole country round was ravaged; the houses were forced, pillaged, demolished or delivered a

prey to flames; the inhabitants of the country were loaded with irons, the women violated, children murdered at the breaft of their mothers. The earth that had been fertilized by the sweat of the husbandman, was now drenched with their blood, and the sea, as one vast grave, received at once both the carcaffes of the dead, and the bodies of the living.

Leo, who was called the philofopher, because he applied himself to idle ftudies, and was employed in abftrufe questions of theology, instead of fulfilling the duties of a fovereign, at that time reigned in Conftantinople. It is pretended that he at first attempted to poifon Oleg in fome refreshments presented to him; but this not fucceeding, he was obliged to purchase a peace at a stipulated price. He bound himself to pay 12 grivniks to each veffel belonging to Oleg, others fay to each foldier, to maintain for fix months fuch merchants as fhould come to trade in the empire; to furnish them on their return with provisions and neceffaries for the voyage, and to exact no duties from them. The conqueror condefcended to agree that those who were not engaged in commerce, should not have the right to demand the payment of their expences by the Greeks. Thus even the second sovereign of Ruffia made himself as formidable to the grecian,

yet

yet a christian empire, as in our days the ruffian fleets and armies have proved more than once to the fultans of Conftantinople.

The emperor Leo was moreover obliged to raise contributions in behalf of feveral cities of Ruffia, governed by princes feudatory to Oleg.

The conquerors, fatisfied with their spoils, returned to their country; and the cæfars of Conftantinople, by this exorbitant purchase of a peace, invited the enemy to renew his visits for seeking an easy fortune in their empire. Oleg made his entrance into Kief laden with the wealth acquired by his victory; and the people, dazzled with fuch fplendid objects, could not regard these fucceffes as natural; but, imagining their prince to be endued with fupernatural powers, they looked up to him with a reverence approaching to adoration.

Oleg, thinking that the treaty of peace he had concluded with the Greeks might have been made ftill more to his advantage, a few years af terwards fent deputies to the emperor with a treaty for him to fign, containing fome articles of importance, which he pretended had been omitted through hafte. This treaty being preserved in the old chronicle of Neftor, the reader will not be displeased to see the substance of it here. It is of value, as presenting to us fome customs of

the

the times in which it was negotiated, and as proving that the Ruffians had already laws. Thofe hiftorians, therefore, are in an error, who attribute their first laws to a prince, a century pofterior to Oleg.

Here follow fome of the articles that were refpectively figned by the fovereigns of Conftantinople and of Kief.

II." If a Greek commit any outrage on a "Ruffian, or a Ruffian on a Greek, and it be "not fufficiently proved, the oath of the accu"fer fhall be taken, and justice be done.

III." If a Ruffian kill a christian, or a chrif"tian kill a Ruffian, the affaffin fhall be put to "death on the very spot where the crime was "committed. If the murderer take to flight "and be domiciliated, the portion of his for"tune, which belongs to him according to law, "fhall be adjudged to the next of kin to the "deceased; and the wife of the murderer fhall "obtain the other portion of the estate which, by "law, fhould belong to him.

IV. "He who ftrikes another with a fword, "or with any other weapon, fhall pay three "litres of gold, according to the ruffian law. If "he have not that fum, and he affirm it upon "oath, he fhall give the party injured all that he has, to the garment he has on.

V. "If