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Updated: June 16, 2025
He went to Zaandam to see the Greenland whaling fleet, visited the celebrated botanical garden with the great Boerhaave, studied the microscope at Delft under Leuwenhoek, became intimate with the military engineer Coehorn, talked with Schynvoet of architecture, and learned to etch from Schonebeck. An impression of a plate made by him, of Christianity victorious over Islam, is still extant.
This was soon forgotten, however, when Greta discovered what pleasant companions the boys were, and that they could put the Dutch words together almost as correctly as Greta herself. Will Chester, who had reached the dignified age of thirteen, had felt much troubled at the thought that he would have "only girls" to play with at Zaandam, especially as Greta was a year younger than himself.
In the evening I went with M. Pels to Zaandam, in a boat placed on a sleigh and impelled by a sail. It was an extraordinary, but at the same time an amusing and agreeable, mode of travelling. The wind was strong, and we did fifteen miles an hour; we seemed to pass through the air as swiftly as an arrow.
At five o'clock in the morning the party took a steamer for Zaandam, or Sardam. Leaving the shore, they had a fine view of the city. The harbor is enclosed by two rows of piles, with occasional openings to admit the passage of vessels, which are closed at night with booms armed with iron spikes.
Early in January, 1698, Peter, having passed nine months at Zaandam, left for the Hague. King William III. sent his yacht to the Hague, to convey the tzar to England, with a convoy of two ships of war. Peter left the Hague on the 18th of January, and arrived in London on the 21st. Though he attempted here no secrecy as to his rank, he requested to be treated only as a private gentleman.
"Give me the jug," said he laughing, "and then I can drink as much as I please, and no one can tell how much I have taken." He hastened to Zaandam, where he was received with the utmost joy by his old friends from whom he had parted nineteen years before. An old woman pressed forward to greet him. "My good woman," said the tzar, "how do you know who I am?"
The three embassadors rode first, followed by a long train of carriages, with servants in rich livery on foot. The tzar, dressed as a private gentleman, was in one of the last carriages in the train of his embassadors. The eyes of the populace searched for him in vain. From this fête he returned eagerly to his work, with saw, hammer and adz, at Zaandam.
"No, the peat answers their purpose much better," said Will. "It burns slowly, and gives out a good deal of heat for a long time." "And the smell of it is so delicious," added Greta. A little further on; the children came out on an open space, which gave them a good view of the surrounding flat country, and of the wind-mills that stand about Zaandam a forest of towers. It was a marvelous sight.
"My ship is aground on that island," said Will, willing to change the subject. "I have no way of getting her off. I wonder if the boat we came in is too large to be got up here." "The boat was taken back to Zaandam," said Hildegarde, "and our boat is away, too." "The 'America' will have to stay where she is, then," said Will, trying to speak cheerfully. "Pretty ship is lost!
He persisted in living like the rest of the workmen, rising early, building his own fire, and often cooking his own meals. One of the inhabitants of Zaandam thus describes his appearance at that time: "The tzar is very tall and robust, quick and nimble of foot, dexterous and rapid in all his actions.
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