PORTRAIT OF PETER THE GREAT.

Makers of History

Peter the Great

BY

JACOB ABBOTT

WITH ENGRAVINGS

NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
1902

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk's office of the District Court
of the Southern District of New York.

Copyright, 1887, by BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ABBOTT, AUSTIN ABBOTT,
LYMAN ABBOTT, and EDWARD ABBOTT.

PREFACE.

There are very few persons who have not heard of the fame of Peter theGreat, the founder, as he is generally regarded by mankind, of Russiancivilization. The celebrity, however, of the great Muscovite sovereignamong young persons is due in a great measure to the circumstance ofhis having repaired personally to Holland, in the course of his effortsto introduce the industrial arts among his people, in order to studyhimself the art and mystery of shipbuilding, and of his having workedwith his own hands in a ship-yard there. The little shop where Peterpursued these practical studies still stands in Saardam, aship-building town not far from Amsterdam. The building is of wood,and is now much decayed; but, to preserve it from farther injury, ithas been incased in a somewhat larger building of brick, and it isvisited annually by great numbers of curious travelers.

The whole history of Peter, as might be expected from the indicationsof character developed by this incident, forms a narrative that is fullof interest and instruction for all.

[Transcriber's note: In the original book, each page had a headersummarizing the contents of that page. These headers have beencollected into introductory paragraphs at the start of each chapter.The headers also contain the year in which the events on the page tookplace. These dates have been placed between the chapter title and theintroductory paragraph, in the form of a date range, e.g., for ChapterI, "1676-1684."]

CONTENTS.