The English fleet joined that of the Swedes, but did not yet commit any
hostilities, as there was no open rupture between the courts of Russia
and England, and admiral Norris even offered his master's mediation
towards bringing about a peace; but as this offer was made with arms in
hand, it rather retarded than facilitated the negotiations. The coasts
of Sweden, and those of the new Russian provinces in the Baltic, are so
situated, that the former lay open to every insult, while the latter are
secured by their difficult access. This was clearly seen when admiral
Norris, after having thrown off the mask, (June 1720.) made a descent in
conjunction with the Swedish fleet on a little island in the province of
Esthonia, called Narguen, which belonged to the czar, where they only
burnt a peasant's house; but the Russians at the same time made a
descent near Wasa, and burnt forty-one villages, and upwards of one
thousand houses, and did an infinite deal of damage to the country round
about. Prince Galitzin boarded and took four Swedish frigates, and the
English admiral seemed to have come only to be spectator of that pitch
of glory to which the czar had raised his infant navy; for he had but
just shewn himself in those seas, when the Swedish frigates were carried
in triumph into the harbour of Cronslot before Petersburg.[112] On this
occasions methinks the English did too much if they came only as
mediators, and too little if as enemies.
Nov. 1720.] At length, the new king of Sweden demanded a cessation of
arms; and as he found the menaces of the English had stood him in no
stead, he had recourse to the duke of Orleans, the French regent; and
this prince, at once an ally of Russia and Sweden, had the honour of
effecting a reconciliation between them. (Feb. 1721.) He sent Campredon,
his plenipotentiary, to the court of Petersburg, and from thence to that
of Stockholm. A congress was opened at Nystadt,[113] but the czar would
not agree to a cessation of arms till matters were on the point of being
concluded and the plenipotentiaries ready to sign. He had an army in
Finland ready to subdue the rest of that province, and his fleets were
continually threatening the Swedish coasts, so that he seemed absolute
master of dictating the terms of peace; accordingly they subscribed to
whatever he thought fit to demand. By this treaty he was to remain in
perpetual possession of all that his arms had conquered, from the
borders of Courland to the extremity of the gulf of Finland, and from
thence again of the whole extent of the country of Kexholm, and that
narrow slip of Finland which stretches out to the northward of the
neighbourhood of Kexholm; so that he remained master of all Livonia,
Esthonia, Ingria, Carelia, with the country of Wybourg, and the
neighbouring isles, which secured to him the sovereignty of the sea, as
likewise of the isles of Oessel, Dago, Mona, and several others: the
whole forming an extent of three thousand leagues of country, of unequal