74 STOPPAGE OF DAGENHAM BREACH PART I. 



empire. Perry was engaged by tlie Czar at a salary 

 of 300/. a year, and shortly after accompanied him to 

 Holland, from whence he proceeded to Moscow to enter 

 upon the business of his office. 



One of the Czar's grand designs was to open up a 

 system of inland navigation, to connect his new city of 

 Petersburg!! with the Caspian Sea, and also to place Mos- 

 cow upon another line, by forming a canal between the 

 Don and the Yolga. In 1698 the works had been begun 

 by one Colonel Breckell, a German officer in the Czar's 

 service. But though a good military engineer, it turned 

 out that he knew nothing of canal making ; for the first 

 sluice which he constructed was immediately blown up. 

 The water, when let in, forced itself under the founda- 

 tions of the work, and the six months' labour of several 

 thousand workmen was destroyed in a night. The 

 Colonel, having a due regard for his personal safety, im- 

 mediately fled the country in the disguise of a servant, 

 and was never after heard of. Captain Perry entered 

 upon this luckless gentleman's office, and forthwith 

 proceeded to survey the work he had begun, some 

 seventy-five miles beyond Moscow. Perry had a vast 

 number of labourers placed at his disposal, but they 

 were altogether unskilled, and therefore comparatively 

 useless. His orders were to have no fewer than 30,000 

 men at work, though he seldom had more than from 

 10,000 to 15,000 ; but one twentieth the number of skilled 

 labourers would have better served his purpose. He 

 had many other difficulties to contend with. The local 

 nobility or boyars were strongly opposed to the under- 

 taking, declaring it to be impossible ; and their obser- 

 vation was, that God had made the rivers to flow one 

 way, and it was presumption in man to think of at- 

 tempting to turn them in another. 



Shortly after the Czar had returned to his dominions, 

 he got involved in war with Sweden, and was de- 

 feated by Charles XII. at the battle of Narva, in 1701. 



