The Consolidator

Consolidator, The

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Title: The Consolidator
Author: Daniel Defoe
Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7089] [This file was first
posted on March 9, 2003]

Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE
CONSOLIDATOR ***

Produced by Lance Purple and Andrew Sly.

The Consolidator: or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions From the World
in the Moon.
Translated from the Lunar Language, By the Author of The True-born
English Man.
It cannot be unknown to any that have travell'd into the Dominions of
the Czar of Muscovy, that this famous rising Monarch, having studied
all Methods for the Encrease of his Power, and the Enriching as well as
Polishing his Subjects, has travell'd through most part of Europe, and
visited the Courts of the greatest Princes; from whence, by his own
Observation, as well as by carrying with him Artists in most useful
Knowledge, he has transmitted most of our General Practice, especially
in War and Trade, to his own Unpolite People; and the Effects of this
Curiosity of his are exceeding visible in his present Proceedings; for by
the Improvements he obtained in his European Travels, he has Modell'd
his Armies, form'd new Fleets, settled Foreign Negoce in several
remote Parts of the World; and we now see his Forces besieging strong
Towns, with regular Approaches; and his Engineers raising Batteries,
throwing Bombs, &c. like other Nations; whereas before, they had
nothing of Order among them, but carried all by Ouslaught and Scalado,
wherein they either prevailed by the Force of Irresistible Multitude, or
were Slaughter'd by heaps, and left the Ditches of their Enemies fill'd
with their Dead Bodies.

We see their Armies now form'd into regular Battalions; and their
Strelitz Musqueteers, a People equivalent to the Turks Janizaries,
cloath'd like our Guards, firing in Platoons, and behaving themselves
with extraordinary Bravery and Order.
We see their Ships now compleatly fitted, built and furnish'd, by the
English and Dutch Artists, and their Men of War Cruize in the Baltick.
Their New City of Petersburgh built by the present Czar, begins now to
look like our Portsmouth, fitted with Wet and Dry Docks, Storehouses,
and Magazines of Naval Preparations, vast and Incredible; which may
serve to remind us, how we once taught the French to build Ships, till
they are grown able to teach us how to use them.
As to Trade, our large Fleets to Arch-Angel may speak for it, where we
now send 100 Sail yearly, instead of 8 or 9, which were the greatest
number we ever sent before; and the Importation of Tobaccoes from
England into his Dominions, would still increase the Trade thither, was
not the Covetousness of our own Merchants the Obstruction of their
Advantages. But all this by the by.
As this great Monarch has Improved his Country, by introducing the
Manners and Customs of the Politer Nations of Europe; so, with
Indefatigable Industry, he has settled a new, but constant Trade,
between his Country and China, by Land; where his Carravans go twice
or thrice a Year, as Numerous almost, and as strong, as those from
Egypt to Persia: Nor is the Way shorter, or the Desarts they pass over
less wild and uninhabitable, only that they are not so subject to Flouds
of Sand, if that Term be proper, or to Troops of Arabs, to destroy them
by the way; for this powerful Prince, to make this terrible Journey
feazible to his Subjects, has built Forts, planted Collonies and Garisons
at proper Distances; where, though they are seated in Countries intirely
Barren, and among uninhabited Rocks and Sands; yet, by his continual
furnishing them from his own Stores, the Merchants travelling are
reliev'd on good Terms, and meet both with Convoy and Refreshment.
More might be said of the admirable Decorations of this Journey, and