EISE OF ST. PETERSBURG. 41 



his kindheartedness in general does much to obliterate the memory of some traits of 

 character which are not to his credit. On leaving England, he " gave the king's servants, at 

 his departure, one hundred and twenty guineas, which was more than they deserved, they 

 being very rude to him," says one plain-speaking historian. To the king he presented a 

 rough ruby which the jewellers of Amsterdam had valued at 10,000 sterling. Peter 

 carried this gem to King William in his waistcoat pocket, wrapped up in a piece of 

 brown paper. The king had treated him in a royal fashion, so far as Peter would allow 

 him, and before he departed induced him to sit to Sir Godfrey Kneller for his portrait, 

 which is now at Windsor. Four yachts and two ships of the Royal Navy were placed 

 at his disposal when he departed once more for Holland. Peter took with him to Russia 

 three English captains who had served in the Royal Navy, twenty-five captains of the 

 merchant service, thirty pilots, thirty surgeons, two hundred gunners, and a number of 

 mechanics and smiths, making a total of little less than five hundred persons, all natives 

 of Great Britain. A letter from one of them to a relative in England shows how much 

 Peter did, almost immediately on his return to Russia, in the interests of his navy. 

 He had already thirty-six ships of war : twenty, ranging from thirty to sixty guns 

 each, were to be launched the following spring; eighteen galleys were being constructed 

 by Italian workmen, and one hundred smaller vessels were on the stocks. The forests 

 of masts he had seen at London and Amsterdam had fired his ambition, and we now 

 find him not merely determined to have a navy, but a port of the first class. Hence 

 St. Petersburg. 



Passing over events in the history of Peter the Great not bearing on maritime 

 subjects, we learn that " Five months had scarcely elapsed from laying the first stone of 

 St. Petersburg, when a report was brought to the Tzar that a large ship, under Dutch 

 colours, was standing into the river. It may be supposed this was a joyful piece of 

 intelligence for the founder. It was nothing short of realising the wish nearest his heart : 

 to open the Baltic for the nations of Europe to trade with his dominions, it constituted 

 them his neighbours ; and he at once anticipated the day when his ships would beat 

 the Swedish navy, and drive them from a sea on which they had long ridden triumphant 

 with undivided sway. When Peter was employed in building his fleet at Yoronitz, 

 Patrick Gordon one day asked him, ( Of what use do you expect all the vessels you 

 are building to be, seeing you have no seaports ? ' ' My vessels shall make ports for 

 themselves/ replied Peter, in a determined tone ; a declaration which was now on the 

 eve of being accomplished. 



" No sooner was the communication made, than the Tzar, with his usual rapidity, 

 set off to meet this welcome stranger. The skipper was invited to the house of Menzikoff : 

 he sat down at table, and to his great astonishment, found that he was placed next the 

 Tzar, and had actually been served by him. But not less astonished and delighted was 

 Peter on learning that the ship belonged to, and had been freighted by his old Zaardam 

 friend, with whom he had resided, Cornelius Calf. Permission was immediately given 

 to the skipper to land his cargo, consisting of salt, wine, and other articles of provisions, 

 free of all duties. Nothing could be more acceptable to the inhabitants of the new 

 city than this cargo, the whole of which was purchased by Peter, Menzikoff, and the 

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