408 



BRANDENBURG. 



Branden- 

 burg. 



Uanals. 



another river named Aland near Schnackenburg, and 

 last of all the tributary stream of Elde, in the conn- 

 1 try of Mecklenburg. The Havel issues likewise 

 from the country of Mecklenburg, forming, in a cer- 

 tain part of its course, the boundary between the 

 duchy of Mecklenburg, and the Ukraine Mark, and 

 is navigable to large wherries from Furstenberg to 

 Tchelenich. At Spandau it is swelled by the Spree 

 and the Dos?e, and thus becomes navigable to ves- 

 sels of considerable burden till it falls into the Elbe. 

 Its tributary river Spree, issuing from Lusatia, is 

 large enough at Krasnich to bear rafts and floats, 

 and becomes navigable at Cos^cubliidt. It receives 

 another stream, named Wendische Spree, at Kope- 

 nich, and loses itself, as we have already mentioned, 

 on'the Havel at Spandau. In its course it traverses 

 several lakes, and is divided at different places, into 

 several branches. The Oder, a fia2 navigable river, 

 flowing from Silesia, penetrates the New Mark ; re- 

 ceiving in the circle of Crossca the tributary river 

 Ober, which issues from Poland ; the stream Bober, 

 below the town of Crossen; and above Kiutrin, 

 the Waste, which is itself swollen by the waters of 

 the Notze and the Drague. Below Writgen it is 

 joined by the Old Oder, which takes its rise in the 

 circle of Lobus ; next by the Finow, and last of all 

 by the Welze, after which it penetrates into the 

 country of Pomerania. 



Brandenburg enjoys, also, the advantage of many 

 excellent canals. One of these, named the canal 

 of Planen, was executed by Mahistre, a celebrated 

 engineer, at the command of Frederic II. By this 

 canal, which was begun and completed in the inter- 

 val, between the first of June 174'3, and the fifth of 

 June 17i5, the navigation from Berlin to Madge- 

 burg is shortened by one half. It commences near 

 Parei, upon the Elbe, and crossing the rivers Ihle 

 and Stremna, proceeds to join the Havel near Planen, 

 over a line of 8655 perches. This canal is twenty- 

 two feet wide at the bottom of its channel, twenty- 

 six at the surface of the water, and from forty to 

 fifty between its banks. It has nine bridges at vari- 

 ous intervals ; and three sluices, which keeping the 

 water at the height of twenty-one feet, give a singu- 

 lar facility to navigation from the Elbe to the Havel. 



A similar navigation has been effected between the 

 Spree and the Oder, by means of a small canal, by 

 order of the elector Frederic William, whose name it 

 re-tains. It is about three German miles in length, 

 and its depth is five Rhenish yards. At Miilrose, a 

 town near the middle of the canal ; the stream of 

 Schulabbe falls into a lake, from which the cc.nal is 

 supplied with water. It passes thtough ten sluices 

 placed at regular intervals, and its fall, throughout 

 its whole length, is supposed to be not less than sixty- 

 two feet. Another canal, called the canal of Finow, 

 unites the Havel with the Oder, taking its direction 

 from Licbenwalde towards Oderberg, after having 

 crossed the river Finow : it has thirteen sluices, and 

 was cut by order of king Frederic II., about the same 

 time with the canal of Planen. In a course of about 

 twelve thousand Rhenish miles, it has a fall of 130 

 feet. 



Another canal was made in the year 1753, called 

 the new canal of the Oder. It draws its waters from 



Bran 



b 11 



that river near Gustebiese, and pours them into it 

 again about a mile below Oderberg. There are 

 likewise in the Marquisate of Brandenburg a number 

 of lakes, some of which are united by canals, or na- 

 tural channels. Neither the Elbe nor the Oder 

 abound so much with fish as the Havel, the Spree, and 

 the other small rivers : and the same analogy holds 

 with regard to the lakes. 



Brandenburg is said to have been occupied by the Histo 

 ancient Suevi, of whom there were several colonies or 

 subdivisions. This country must have been known 

 to the Romans, who, about the commencement of 

 the Christian ara, pursued their conquests as far as 

 the Elbe. Their progress in this direction was check- 

 ed by the barbarous but valiant inhabitants, by whom 

 it continued to be occupied till the fifth century, 

 when they pushed farther to the south, abandoning 

 their own country to the Vencti or Wendi, a Srfnna- 

 tian tribe, whose language con espouds to that of thr 

 Poles, Russians, Bohemians, and other Sclavoniau 

 nations, and who, under the general name of Sclavi, 

 occupied not only Brandenburg, but the whole tract 

 of country situated between the Elbe and the Vistula. 

 With these people, who were inveterate enemies to 

 the Chribtian religion, the kings of the Franks waged 

 perpetual war ; and to reduce them to subjection was 

 always a grand object with Charlemagne and his 

 successors. They maintained an obstinate st 

 for their independence till the year 927, when they 

 were finally subdued by Henry the Fowler, who 

 compelled them to adopt the Christian religion, and 

 bestowed their country on his brother-in-law Sigef- 

 rid, a Saxon Count, with the title of Margrave or 

 lord warden of the marches or borders. Sigefrid new- 

 peopled his dominions from the Netherlands, West- 

 phalia, Franccuia, and Saxony ; and soon after this 

 conquest, the Saxon emperors established the four 

 Margraviatcs of AUSTRIA, of the EAST, (or Misnia 

 and Lusatia) of the NORTH, and of SCHLESWIG, to 

 defend the frontiers of Germany against the Huns, 

 Sclavonians, ar.d Danes. The Margraviate of the 

 north was established for the purpose of opposing 

 the Sclavonians of Brandenburg ; and the dignity of 

 Margrave continued to be conferred by the emperors 

 at pleasure, till Albert, of the house of Anhalt, sur- 

 nanicd the Bear, obtained possession of Brandenburg 

 the capital, about the beginning of the twelfth cen- 

 tury, and as a reward of his valour, was made by 

 Conrad II., hereditary Margrave of the kingdom, 

 which he had subdued. Albert conquered all the 

 country between the Elbe and the Oder, converted 

 the Sclavonian inhabitants to Christianity, peopled the 

 country with a numerous colony of Germans, whom 

 a great inundation had compelled to emigrate from 

 Holland, and thus became the true founder of this 

 Margraviate, which was possessed by his descen- 

 dants till the year 1310, when the family became ex- 

 tinct. The emperor Louis of Bavaria, then reign- 

 ing, conferred the Margraviate of Brandenburg on 

 his son Louis. It remained in the house of Bavaria 

 only till the year 1373, when Otto of Bavaria sold it 

 for 100,000 florins of gold to the emperor Charles 

 IV., king of Bohemia, of the house of Luxemburg, 

 The emperor of Sigismu.id, the son of this Charles, 

 after having alienated the New Mark and other 



