The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

LITHUANIA. 207interior. It was visited in the fourteenth century by German and even Englishtraders, and although afterwards ruined by the wars, it has since recovered.More than half of the population are Jews, whose synagogues are here as numerousas churches in an Italian city.Vitebsk, capital of the government of Vitebsk, occupies the site of an oldpagan sanctuary at the junction of the Drina and Yitba. It was at one timethe residence of the independent Lithuanian rulers, and carried on a large tradewith the Ilanseatic towns. Although lying in a poor district, it still does a localtraffic in agricultural produce.Lower down the Dvina, at its confluence with thePolota, stands Polotzl-, at one time the independent centre of the Krivichi Slavs,and the rival of Kiev and Novgorod. After its incorporation in the LithuanianFig. 127.— Di'naburg.Scale 1 :1SO.00O.E OF PP4°5'E Of G26° S5principality in the thirteenth century it continued to flourish as one of theadvanced Ilanseatic entrepots towards the interior of Russia. When the Jesuitswere suppressed in the west of Europe during the latter half of the eighteenthcentury, they selected Polotzk as the capital of the order. Here resided theirgeneral, and their academy enjoyed University privileges.Below Polotzk follow the towns of Diana, Drissa, and Diinaburg, the last mentionedcommanding the course of the Middle Dvina, and the junction of the mainlines of railway connecting Warsaw and St. Petersburg, Biga and Libau, withMoscow and Samara. In 1582 Stephen Bathory, King of Poland, built a castle12 miles higher up the river, and the fortress of Diinaburg, on the right bank, isat present one of the chief strategical points in West Eussia.