ODESSA. 
9 
In 1817 it was declared a free port. But as much money, labour, 
and time are required to fulfil several important articles in His 
Imperial Majesty’s ukase, some years must yet elapse before the 
city can reap all the advantages of its abundant situation. Mean¬ 
while, as fortunes have been, and are made, with an astonishing 
rapidity, there is no want of persons to fill the various duties 
attendant on the custom-house, quarantine inspections, &c. 
The salaries of these public officers are not their only emolu¬ 
ment. I was told, the revenue received by the crown in 1803 
amounted to forty-two thousand rubles, and its present produce 
is upwards of one hundred and thirty thousand. Six hundred 
ships have already arrived this season; and the quantity of corn 
exported is calculated at eight hundred thousand chetverts: a 
chetvert is about two English pecks. 
Odessa possesses an admirable quarantine establishment, with 
commodious warehouses, and other conveniences indispensable 
to the comfort of the merchant. The whole is surrounded with 
walls and towers, and vigilantly guarded by a cordon of sentinels. 
Every precaution is taken, both on board the vessels which 
arrive, and with regard to the goods and persons disembarked, 
to prevent the plague being communicated to the town. Yet in 
spite of all this care, the dreadful malady made its appearance in 
the year 1812 ; a year terrible and glorious to Russia : terrible, 
that pestilence and war invaded her at once ; but glorious, that 
in her calamity dawned restored liberty and peace to continental 
Europe. 
Several handsome churches ornament the city; but none of its 
buildings equal the theatre in beauty. The edifice stands in a 
fine situation, on a sort of square, overlooking the sea, and pre¬ 
senting a portico which, at a distance, reminds the spectator of the 
VOL. i. 
c 
