This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 Excerpt: ...The site--one of the most extraordinary ever selected--was in a pestilential swamp, where winter lasted eight months in the year, and where a storm from the west was sure to drive back the waters of the Neva and engulf the place. But Peter was not to be daunted in his new enterprise. Workmen were brought from various parts of the empire to assist in building the new city, and before a year had expired about thirty thousand houses and huts were raised. But the hardships and exposure to which the laborers were subjected carried them off with frightful rapidity, no less than one hundred thousand, it is said, perishing the first year. St. Petersburg is built on piles sunk in the marsh, and this foundation extends as far beneath the surface as the church spires and palace domes tower above it. The energy and perseverance of Peter and his successors have raised this city, whose very existence is almost a miracle, to a rank among cities of the first class in Europe. 1704. Capture of Gibraltar by the English. The rocky promontory of Gibraltar, which stands like nature's monument at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, was known to the ancients as Mons Calpe, one of the Pillars of Hercules. None of the ancient writers mention that it was inhabited during their time, and it was not until the Mohammedan invasion of Spain that Gibraltar first occupied a place in the history of the world. On this rock the first footsteps of the great Moslem host were planted, and from this place streamed the mighty armies which established an infidel dynasty in Spain for upwards of eight hundred years. Excepting for an interval of twenty-four years the Moors retained possession of the fortress of Gibraltar until 1462, when it was successfully besieged by the Spaniards. For many years ...