After dinner, small plays, “proverbs,” as they were called, were performed in the empress’s cabin or bedroom; Kobenzel was inexhaustible for these amusements, pleasantly diversifying his leisure time. In general, fun reigned in this cheerful society. “I have never seen the empress more amiable than on the first day of our voyage,” says Segur; “at dinner it was very cheerful; we were all glad that we left boring Kyiv, where the lls kept us for a whole 3 months. Spring rejuvenated our minds. Beautiful weather, larger than our fleet, a majestic river, movement, joy the spectators crowding along the shore - all this excited and incited the imagination"... “If we had been asked at the time when we were boarding the ships,” the Prince de Ligne wrote to his friends in Paris, “what do they want to do in these galleries? - we could answer: have fun at all costs; for never has there been such a brilliant and pleasant voyage,”
The voyage, however, went quite smoothly. “The Dnieper made every possible effort to slow down the journey,” complained Catherine; “instead of 9 days, we were on it for 2 weeks.” Sometimes due to bad weather we had to stop for an entire day. The empress’s galley was once pressed against the shore, another time she ran aground. “Everything happened to us,” wrote de Ligne, “even the storm, from which three galleys ran aground.” Still, sailing was a pleasure, and Catherine expressed regret that Petersburg was not built here.
Segur recorded the conversations he had with the empress during this voyage. "In our conversations," he says, "we constantly moved from one to another. We compared old times with new ones, France with Grescha, England with Kareagen, Prusa with Macedonia, Catherine's empire with the Kirov Empire, told jokes old and new; the Empress told us several incidents from the life of Peter the Great and Elizabeth. One day they started talking about the qualities of the empress herself. “I know,” she said, “you generally like me, and you praise me entirely, but, analyzing me in more detail, you condemn a lot of things in me. I constantly make mistakes in language and spelling. Segur knows that I sometimes have a stupid head, because he could not force me to compose 6.” verses. Without joking, I think, despite your praises, that if I were a private woman in France, your lovely Parisian ladies would not find me courteous enough to dine with them.” “I ask you to remember, madam,” Segur objected, “that I am Franchi’s representative here, and should not allow slander about her.”
But the Empress, who was in good spirits, continued in the same tone: “What do you think I would be like if I had been born a man and a private person?” In response to this, Fitz Herbert said that she would be wise
As a lawmaker, Kobenzel believed that she would be appointed by a great minister, but I assured her that she would be elected by a famous commander. “This time you are mistaken,” she objected: “I would have dared to do anything for glory, and in the rank of lieutenant in the first campaign I would not have blown my head off”;
"In another context, they talked about the assumptions that were then made in Europe about her trip. We were all of the same opinion and assured that everywhere they would think that she and the emperor (Tusif P) wanted to conquer Turshya, Persia, even maybe India and Japan, and finally, that Catherine’s traveling office was occupying and disturbing everyone other offices.
“So this St. Petersburg office, which is now on the waves of the DNFPR, seems very significant, if it worries DrumMe so much?”
“That’s right, madam,” de Ligne said then, “and in the meantime I don’t know a single one that would be so small: all of it is just a few inches, because it extends from one temple to the other and from the bridge of the nose to the hair.”
One day there was talk about the empress’s inability to write poetry. She said “pocket” to her ministers; "You see, gentlemen! you praise me in general for everything; but if you look in more detail, you will of course begin to scold me. Please note, I owe part of my glory to Prince Orlov. He advised me to send a fleet to the Archipelago. For Taurida and for the expulsion of the Tatars who threatened my state, I must thank Prince Potemkin. I I take into account only what I formed these gentlemen For the victories, I owe gratitude to Field Marshal Rumyantsev. Believe me, I am only “happy if they are at all satisfied with me, this is because I am somewhat firm and uniform in my rules." She also said: “I am sure that people in Europe speak badly of me. They constantly repeat that I am ready to go broke, that I spend a lot. There is no need, my small economy is going on in its own order.”