No further efforts were made at concealment, though Peter was often very much annoyed by the crowds who followed his footsteps and watched all his actions.  He was persuaded to change his lodgings to more suitable apartments, though he still wore his workman’s dress and toiled in the ship-yard with energy, and also with skill which no one could surpass.  The extraordinary rapidity of his motions astonished and amused the Dutch.  “Such running, jumping and clambering over the shipping,” they said, “we never witnessed before.”  To the patriarch in Moscow he wrote,

“I am living in obedience to the commands of God, which were spoken to father Adam:  ‘In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread.’”

Very many anecdotes are related of Peter during this portion of his life, which, though they may be apochryphal, are very characteristic of his eccentric nature.  At one time he visited a celebrated iron manufactory, and forged himself several bars of iron, directing his companions to assist him in the capacity of journeymen blacksmiths.  Upon the bars he forged, he put his own mark, and then he demanded of Muller, the proprietor, payment for his work, at the same rate he paid other workmen.  Having received eighteen altins, he said, looking at the patched shoes on his feet,

“This will serve me to buy a pair of shoes, of which I stand in great need.  I have earned them well, by the sweat of my brow, with hammer and anvil.”

When the embassadors entered Amsterdam, Peter thought it proper to take a part in the procession, which was arranged in the highest style of magnificence.  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 fete he returned eagerly to his work, with saw, hammer and adz, at Zaandam.  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.  His face is plump and round; fierce in his look, with brown eyebrows, and short, curly hair of a brownish color.  He is quick in his gait, swinging his arms, and holding in one of them a cane.”

The Dutch were so much interested in him, that a regular diary was kept in Zaandam of all he said and did.  Those who were in daily intercourse with him preserved a memorandum of all that occurred.  He was generally called by the name of Master Peter.  While hard at work in the ship-yard, he received intelligence of troubles in Poland.  The renowned king, John Sobieski, died in 1696.  The electors were divided in the choice of a successor.  Augustus II., Elector