Higher up, proceeding towards the north, is the province of Archangel, a
country entirely new to the southern nations of Europe. It took its name
from St. Michael, the Archangel, under whose patronage it was put long
after the Russians had embraced Christianity, which did not happen till
the beginning of the eleventh century; and they were not known to the
other nations of Europe till the middle of the sixteenth. The English,
in 1533, endeavouring to find out a north-east passage to the East
Indies, Chancellor, captain of one of the ships fitted out for this
expedition, discovered the port of Archangel in the White Sea; at that
time it was a desert place, having only one convent, and a little
church, dedicated to St. Michael, the Archangel.
The English sailing up the river Dwina,[5] arrived at the midland part
of the country, and at length at Moscow. Here they easily made
themselves masters of the trade of Russia, which was removed from the
city of Novogorod, where it was carried on by land to this sea-port,
which is inaccessible indeed during seven months in the year; but,
nevertheless, this trade proved more beneficial to the empire than the
fairs of Novogorod, that had fallen to decay in consequence of the wars
with Sweden. The English obtained the privilege of trading thither
without paying any duties; a manner of trading which is apparently the
most beneficial to all nations. The Dutch soon came in for a share of
the trade of Archangel, then unknown to other nations.
Long before this time, the Genoese and Venetians had established a trade
with the Russians by the mouth of the Tanais or Don,[6] where they had
built a town called Tana. This branch of the Italian commerce was
destroyed by the ravages of Tamerlane, in that part of the world; but
that of Archangel continued, with great advantages both to the English
and Dutch, till the time that Peter the Great opened a passage into his
dominions by the Baltic Sea.