As they were riding quietly along upon this dike on the return to Amsterdam, Rollo had the opportunity of imparting to Mr. George some valuable information in respect to Peter the Great.
"I am glad that I have had an opportunity to see the workshop of Peter the Great," said Mr. George. "It is very curious indeed. But I don't know much about Peter the Great. The first opportunity I get I mean to read an account of his life, and I advise you to do the same."
"I have read about him," said Rollo. "I found a book about him in a steamboat that we came in, and I read all about his coming to Holland."
"Then tell me about it," said Mr. George.
"Why, you see," said Rollo, "he was at war with the Turks, and he fought them and drove them off to the southward, until at last he came to the Sea of Asoph. Then he could not fight them any more, unless he could get some ships. So he made a law for all the great boyars of his kingdom, that every one of them must build or buy him a ship. What are boyars, uncle George?"
"I thought it must be something like that," replied Rollo.
"The old nobility of those Russian countries are called boyars," said Mr. George; "but I don't know why. Most of the common people are slaves to them."
"Well, at any rate," said Rollo, "he made a law that every one of them, or at least all that were rich enough, should build or buy him a ship; but they did not know how to build ships themselves, and so they were obliged to send to Holland for ship builders. They built more and better ships in Holland in those days than in any country in the world."
"The boyars did not like it very well to be obliged to build these ships," continued Rollo. "And there was another thing that they disliked still more."
"Why, the emperor made them send off their sons to be educated in different foreign countries," replied Rollo. "You see, in those days Russia was very little civilized, and Peter concluded that it would help to introduce civilization into the country, if the sons of the principal men went to other great cities for some years, to study sciences and arts. So he sent some of them to Paris, and some to Berlin, and some to Amsterdam, and some to Rome. But most of them did not like to go."