The city of Poltava stands on an elevation on the banks of the Vorskln, by the side of a ravine, into which a part of the city descends. Tlie little old town still occupies the same ground that it did in Peter the Great's time, and is separated by a large ojicn space from the newsubiirlis that have grown up aroimd, and arc now of much greater extent than Uie city itself. The field of battle lies to the north-east. It is a perfectly level plateau, about two leagues long and one league broad, terminating to wards the city and towards the river, in abrupt precipices 150 feet ii height. In the centre of the field stands now a small hillock, 60 feet high, and loO paces in circumference, under which lie interred the remains of those who perished in that memorable battle. On the summit stands a cross with the following inscription : " But of Peter know ye, that life was of little moment to him, if Russia but lived glorious and prosperous." These words are said to have been uttered by Peter to some of his generals who came to congratulate him on the issue of the battle.
From the summit of this hill the whole field may be easily surveyed. There is not another inequahty in any part of the ground, if we except tlie remains of the intrenchments that surrounded tlie Russian camp. Upon the whole field there stands neither a house nor a tree. At the extremity of the field lies a convent which the Swedes occupied during the battle. On the northern verge is a deep ravine, through which winds a slow dirty tributary of the Vorskla, and to their ignorance of the existence of this ravine, the Swedes may ascribe the loss of the day. The beginning of the battle went quite in their favour, the whole Russian cavalry was flying before that of the Swedes, and had the latter pursued the fugitives 'a few hundred paces farther, the whole Russian cavalry must have been precipitated into that ravine where they would never have been able to rally ; but the Swedes knew nothing of the ravine, and desisted from the pursuit when they had arrived within a few hundred yards of its brink. The Russians were allowed to recover from their panic, and finished by winning the battle.
To the Ukraine and Little Russia, the battle of Poltava was followed by the most decisive consequences. Their hopes of independence were crushed, and Peter proceeded with relentless barbarity against those of their nobles who had manifested a wish to throw off the Moscovite yoke. The Swedish and German officers who fell into his hands were entertained •with princely magnificence, while the whole field was covered with the bodies of the Cossacks and Malorossians who perished by the hand of the executioner. Some were impaled, some hanged, and others, after having had - all their limbs broken on the wheel, were left to writhe in hopeless agony about the instruments of torture. These executions were succeeded by confiscations, and by the withdrawal of privileges. To this day, the battle of Poltava is remembered throughout Little Russia, with feelings similar to those with which the battle of the "White Mountain is remembered in Bohemia.
Within the city stands a monument of the battle. It consists of a metal column, forty feet high, made of the Swedish arms taken on the occasion. The pedestal is of granite, and on each of the four sides are planted three Swedish cannon, which would not seem to speak much for the acciuacy of Voltaire, who gravely tells us that Charles XII. had only four guns left when he arrived before Poltava. This monument was erected in 1809, in celebration of the centenary of the battle.