TAGANROG. 
431 
miles 3 , where Peter the Great projected the c ^p. 
canal which it was Paul’s intention to have com- v — 
pleted. A draught of the intended communi- canal of 
cation between the Euxine and the Caspian Sea, catimTb''.-' 
by means of this canal, was first published by 
Perry the English engineer, who was employed lUack 
by Peter for the undertaking 1 . A part of Perry s 
Narrative, concerning the conduct of the Russian 
Government towards himself, is very interest- 
ing, because it betrays the false glare around 
the greatest sovereign that Russia ever knew. 
Peter the Great shuffling with his engineer, to 
evade the payment of a few roubles, is a faith- 
ful archetype of all the Tsars, Tsarinas, Princes, 
and Nobles of the empire ; many of whom would 
not scruple to defraud their own valet de 
chambre ; having the meanness of their heroine 
Dashhof, who, after losing thirty roubles to Segur 
at cards, sent him thirty of the Royal Academy's 
OiJ The canal of communication between the Volga and the Don, 
according to Perry, (p. 3.) would have been 140 versts, because it would 
have followed the course of two other small rivers ; the Lavla, which 
falls into the Don, and the Camishinha, which falls into the Volga; 
but the section for the canal would not much exceed two miles. 
Upon these small rivers says Perry, “ sluices were to be placed, to 
niahe them navigable; and a canal of near four Russian miles (equal to 
2-J miles English) to be cut through the dry land, where the said rivers 
come nearest together." A work like this would not long be in agita- 
tion in England. 
(4) See the Vignette to this Chapter ; also Perry’s Stale of Russia, 
Loud. 1716. 
