who, to all these qualities, added at least a consummate knowledge of his art. Wishing to drive away a Turkish fleet which was at anchor in the port, without permitting it to communicate with the Tartars, whose affection for the Russian j)rotection, which the Crimea was then enjoying, was somewhat suspect, he took possession of the heights on either side, and immediately began, favoured by night, to fortify the mouth of the harbour.
This step had its desired effect, and the Turks at once quitted an anchorage which might soon have become a prison; but the lesson was not thrown away, and in 1786 a naval and military station was founded under its present imposing title.
The late Emperor, whose whole reign was occupied in a slow and dissembled but steady pursuance of the hereditary policy of Eussia, conscious of the vast importance of the position in reference to his long-meditated plans upon Turkey, took the greatest interest in its development, and it was under his auspices, and dui-ing the vice-royalty of Prince Woronzoff, that it became that standing menace to the independence of the Porte, which led to the threatening of its own existence.
Sebastopol is thus described by a contemporary author whom we have before had occasion to quote: —
" The roadstead or great harbour, entirely scooped by the hand of nature, is one of the most remarkable in Europe, — a repetition of Malta upon a larger scale, and of Sydney upon a smaller. It extends east and west upwards of four miles, by an average breadth of more than half a mile. The shores are naked, barren, and steep, but gradually flatten towards the upper extremity. There are no dangerous rocks or reefs, and good holdingground everywhere, with a nearly equal depth of water up to the edges of the basin. The entrance, about 1,400 yards across, is wide enough to facilitate navigation, and allow vessels to tack, yet sufficiently narrow to break thp force of the sea and admit of easy defence. The northern side consists of a line of acclivities unbroken by an inlet; the southern, on which the town is placed, has three creeks, forming inner havens, two of which run up into it. These lesser harbours are admirably adapted for the requirements of a naval station and commercial port, being completely sheltered by high limestone cliffs, and having at their extremities a depth of nearly forty feet of water, sufficient for vessels of the largest draught. First, after passing the
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entrance of the roads, is Artillery Bay, the ordinary merchant haven; next is the Admiralty or South Bay (now generally known as Dockyard Creek), the largest of the three, appropriated to men-of-war, the dockyard, and other naval purposes; last, towards the east, is Careening Bay. The town lies principally between and behind the first and second of these bays, on the slope of a hill rising from them, intersected by deep ravines. Outside the entrance of the great inlet, on the same side, is the Quarantine Bay; and five creeks occur between it and Cape Chersonese, the extreme point of land jutting out from the Crimea into the Black Sea. They were all deserted, or used only by vessels driven by stress of weather to seek shelter in them, till the arrival of the Allied Armies, when the French made Kamiesch Bay their port for the landing of stores and troops.
" The seaward defences of the port consist of eleven or twelve forts and batteries, mounting altogether from 800 to 1,200 guns, for accounts of the number vary to this extent. Fort Constantino guards the entrance of the great inlet on the northern side, and Fort Alexander on the southern, while Forts Nicholas and Paul protect the mouth of the central inner haven. These are the strongest points, consisting each of three tiers of batteries. ******
" Sebastopol extends more than a mile in length, in the direction of the port, by about three-quarters of a mile inland. On the land side it was an open town, being only partly defended by a loop-holed wall, entirely useless. The government, only thinking of attacks by sea, confined its attention to making that quarter invulnerable. The public buildings include the Admiralty, vast barracks for troops, and magazines for stores, a cathedral and numerous green-domed churches, an Italian opera, a club-house, a library, and several hotels, with the simple monument of Kosarsky, a naval officer who distinguished himself in the last Turko-Russian War."