Valiant Dreamers

Book excerpt: In the 17th and 18th centuries the great powers of the world were concentrating energy, wealth, and ingenuity on the expansion of their empires far beyond the historical examples of Rome, Greece and Egypt. The Empire of Russia, expanding her borders under Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, was pressing toward the development of a Russian North America in the reign of Tsar Alexander. His weapon, unlike the military conquests of Spain, Portugal, France and England, was trade and commerce like the Dutch. Along with the giants of the North, Pribylov, Bering, Golikov and Shelikhov, Count Nikolai Rezànov earned fame and fortune as an intrepid explorer of the 18th Century. This is his story, and the story of the valiant men and women who adopted his dream of an Empire stretching from St. Petersburg to San Francisco.