88 HORTHEBN RUSSIA, 



i 



The Czar Peter, a giant man, with a giant's will, hoots, 

 and walking stick, and with a genius which bordered on 

 insanity, determined, as all the world knows, that here 

 should he built the capital of his Empire. And so, after 

 having learned shipbuilding and other useful handicrafts, 

 while he lived in that small wooden house in Holland 

 which I have visited with all tourists to that wet, flat 

 land of ditches, canals, and windmills the said Peter 

 built a similar hut among the marshes of " the Islands * 

 of the Neva, and began to drive piles, build quays, and 

 accumulate stones, to rear a new Amsterdam. 



Peter determined to have ships, to beat the Swedes, and 

 thus gain the command of the Northern Sea, and open a 

 grand gate to his future empire how much greater since 

 his day ! and also to have always open a back-door to 

 Europe. 



The genial spirit of the great man is well illustrated 

 in his reception of the first ship which entered his new 

 port. 



The story is told how a ship was sailing in the northern 

 seas, loaded with cargo for the market of Revel, at that 

 time a notable and flourishing port. The cargo was 

 valuable, and the time to reach the port for the market 

 was short. 



" If the wind hold fair," said Auke, the owner and 

 helmsman of the ship, to Karl the merchant-owner of its 

 cargo, " we shall make the port before noon to-day. 

 Yonder is the gulf just coming in sight." 



The wind was then doubtful, but soon it rose into a 



