LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 25 



in China, and returned to Russia bringing back most 

 valuable information and many rich presents given 

 him by the Emperor of China. 



All this had excited the jealousy of the Muscovite 

 courtiers ; they took advantage of the coincidence 

 between the death of the Tsar and Spatar's return to 

 deprive him of his treasures and to have him exiled 

 to Siberia. But, when Peter the Great ascended the 

 throne, Spatar succeeded in making a letter reach him 

 relating his misfortunes, and the Tsar recalled him, 

 gave him back his property, and showered honours 

 upon him. Spatar again became interpreter of the 

 Embassy ; Peter consulted him in all Far-Eastern 

 questions, and gave him confidential documents to 

 translate into foreign languages. 



Spatar's literary activity was vast and varied. 

 He translated the Bible from the Greek into Rouman- 

 ian ; he wrote a chronicle on the origin of Roumania, 

 articles on theology, a Greco-Latin-Russian dictionary, 

 and a work entitled Arithmetic, in which he discussed, 

 by means of numbers and figures, questions of Theo- 

 logy, Philosophy, and Ethics. He dealt in his writings 

 with Art, Archaeology, and History; described his 

 Siberian travels, China and the Amour river, and made 

 numerous translations of diplomatic documents. His 

 erudition was such that his contemporaries appealed 

 to his knowledge as they would have consulted an 

 encyclopaedia. 



He had married a Muscovite and had several sons 

 and grandsons. Three of his nephews came from 

 Moldavia to join him and entered the Russian army. 

 He died in 1714 at the age of 80. Such is the history 

 of the " Great Spatar." 



The following notice is to be found in Brockhaus 



