In this flourishing situation of his affairs, scarcely a day passed without being distinguished by new establishments, either in the navy, the army, or the legislature: he himself composed a military code for the infantry. Nov. 8.] He likewise founded a naval academy at Petersburg; dispatched Lange to China and Siberia, with a commission of trade; set mathematicians to work, in drawing charts of the whole empire; built a summer's palace at Petershoff; and at the same time built forts on the banks of the Irtish, stopped the incursions and ravages of the Bukari[96] on the one side, and, on the other, suppressed the Tartars of Kouban. 1715.] His prosperity seemed now to be at its zenith, by the empress Catherine's being delivered of a son, and an heir to his dominions being given him, in a prince born to the czarowitz Alexis; but the joy for these happy events, which fell out within a few days of each other, was soon damped by the death of the empress's son; and the sequel of this history will shew us, that the fate of the czarowitz was too unfortunate, for the birth of a son to this prince to be looked upon as a happiness. The delivery of the czarina put a stop for some time to her accompanying, as usual, her royal consort in all his expeditions by sea and land; but, as soon as she was up again, she followed him to new adventures. CHAP. XXVI. New travels of the czar. Wismar was at this time besieged by the czar's allies. This town, which belonged of right to the duke of Mecklenburg, is situated on the Baltic, about seven leagues distant from Lubec, and might have rivalled that city in its extensive trade, being once one of the most considerable of the Hans Towns, and the duke of Mecklenburg exercised therein a full power of protection, rather than of sovereignty. This was one of the German territories yet remaining to the Swedes, in virtue of the peace of Westphalia: but it was now obliged to share the same fate with Stralsund. The allies of the czar pushed the siege with the greatest vigour, in order to make themselves masters of it before that prince's troops should arrive; but Peter himself coming before the place in person, after the capitulation, (Feb. 1716,) which had been made without his privacy, made the garrison prisoners of war. He was not a little incensed, that his allies should have left the king of Denmark in possession of a town which was the right of a prince, who had married his niece; and his resentment on this occasion (which that artful minister, de Gortz, soon after turned to his own advantage) laid the first foundation of the peace, which he meditated to bring about between the czar and Charles XII.