, the Swedes, having observed that the wind blew across
from their side of the river to the other, made great fires on the bank,
and covered them with wet straw, so as to cause them to throw out a
prodigious quantity of smoke. The smoke was blown over to the other side
of the river, where it so filled the air as to prevent the Russians from
seeing what was going on.

[Illustration: Stratagems of the Swedes.]

It was about a year after the first breaking out of the war that the tide
of fortune began to turn, in some measure, in favor of the Russians.
About that time the Czar gained possession of a considerable portion of
the Baltic shore; and as soon as he had done so, he conceived the design
of laying the foundation of a new city there, with the view of making it
the naval and commercial capital of his kingdom. This plan was carried
most successfully into effect in the building of the great city of St.
Petersburg. The founding of this city was one of the most important
transactions in Peter's reign. Indeed, it was probably by far the most
important, and Peter owes, perhaps, more of his great fame to this
memorable enterprise than to any thing else that he did.

The situation of St. Petersburg will be seen by the map in the preceding
chapter. At a little distance from the shore is a large lake, called the
Lake of Ladoga. The outlet of the Lake of Ladoga is a small river called
the Neva. The Lake of Ladoga is supplied with water by many rivers,
which flow into it from the higher lands lying to the northward and
eastward of it; and it is by the Neva that the surplus of these waters is
carried off to the sea.

The circumstances under which the attention of the Czar was called to the
advantages of this locality were these. He arrived on the banks of the
Neva, at some distance above the mouth of the river, in the course of his
campaign against the Swedes in the year 1702. He followed the river
down, and observed that it was pretty wide, and that the water was
sufficiently deep for the purpose of navigation. When he reached the
mouth of the river, he saw that, there was an island,[1] at some distance
from the shore, which might easily be fortified, and that, when
fortified, it would completely defend the entrance to the stream. He
took with him a body of armed men, and went off to the island in boats,
in order to examine it more closely. The name of this island was then
almost unknown, but it is now celebrated t