10 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1653 conceit that this fellow had brought me out of the way, and intended to
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
10 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1653
conceit that this fellow had brought me out of the way, and intended to
lead me into that wood, and there to murtlier me for my cloaths, or any-
thino- also he thought to find by me. This conceit of myn strongly encreas-
ing wee came to a little house, where he asked me if I would drink any
beer. I told him I had no money ; so he calling for beer, I took out my
purse, wherein were seven or eight grosses, all in small shillings, which I
on purpose shewed him, telling him it was all I had to bring me to Dant-
zick. I called for small beer for two shillings, which, haveing drunk, my
guide and fellow traveller, whom I would have very faine been ridd of if I
could, brought me on a way towards the left hand, and by and by to a
village.
Wee went into the inne, where my fellow traveller called for beer, and
I for small beer ; wherat the landlady wondering, was satisfyed at last by
the information she received from the fellow that cam with me. At my
comeing in, I saw, in the other roome, a fellow standing befor a pack,
measuring of lawn ; and haveing heard m Brawnsberg that there were
diverse Scottishmen who used this kind of trade in Prussia, I began to
suspect this w^as a countreyman. The landlady understanding that I
could speak no Dutch, nor Polls either, called out this packman, who have-
ing asked me something in Dutch, and receiving my usuall answer, that I
understood no Dutch, he asked me what contreyman I was. I told him a
Scotishman. Then asking me, very confidently, from whence I came,
whither I was going, what course of life I intended to take, and why I
travelled in company of that fellow (whom he knew, as he said, to be a
robber, and wondring that I had travelled so farr with him unrobbed), he
told me, if I had a mind for Dautzick, I should go along with him to his
house, which was but a mile off, and stay three or foure dayes, and he would
take me upon a waggon to Dantzick. I answered to every thing as circum-
spectly as I could, and thanked him for his kind profer, telling him I must
be precisely in Dantzick the next day. He urged my going along with him,
and the mor he urged, the mor jealous I was that he had some designe upon
me ; and so, shifting him fairely off, I made ready to be gone. My coun-
tryman diswaded me from going any farther with that fellow, but 1 told
him that I had found nothing in him as yet, and intended at night to hire a
waggon for the next day.
So wee went away together, and came to a house called Wcyershoffe,
and being sett downe in the inne, which is hard by, my fellow traveller told
Gordon was brought up and remained a lifelong Roman Catholic, at a time when the Church was being persecuted in Scotland. At age of fifteen, he entered the Jesuit college at Braunsberg, East Prussia, then part of Poland. In 1661, after many years experiences as a soldier of fortune, he joined the Russian army under Tsar Aleksei I, and in 1665 was sent on a special mission to England. After his return, he distinguished himself in several wars against the Turks and Tatars in southern Russia. In recognition of his service he was promoted to major-general in 1678, was appointed to the high command at Kiev in 1679, and in 1683 was made lieutenant-general. In 1687 and 1689 he took part in expeditions against the Tatars in the Crimea, being made a full general. Later in 1689, a revolution broke out in Moscow, and with the troops under his command, Gordon virtually decided events in favor of Peter the Great against the Regent, Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna. Consequently, he was for the remainder of his life in high favor with the Tsar, who confided to him the command of his capital during his absence from Russia. In 1696, Gordon's design of a "moveable rampart" played a key role in helping the Russians take Azov. One of Gordon's convinced the Tsars to establish the first Roman Catholic church and school in Muscovy, of which he remained the main benefactor and headed the Catholic community in Russia until his death. For his services his second son James, brigadier of the Russian army, was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1701. At the end of his life the Tsar, who had visited Gordon frequently during his illness, was with him when he died, and with his own hands closed his eyes. General Gordon left behind him a uniquely detailed diary of his life and times, written in English. This is preserved in manuscript in the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow. Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries (1635–1699) was printed, under the editorship of Joseph Robertson, for the Spalding Club, at Aberdeen, Scotland, 1859.