Born to a vicar in Braintree, Samuel Collins entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1635, but for some reason took no degree at the university.
In 1659 or 1660 Collins was approached by John Hedben, one of several men in Russian employ assigned the task of recruiting skilled Europeans for service at the court of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich.
Collins practiced such remedies as Deer horns, Moose hoofs and Hare hair (Latin: Cor.cervi, ungul.Al., pil.
His account of Russian life outside of Moscow is, however, grossly incorrect: for example, he described contemporary Ukrainians as "Circassians sic, a people of Tartarian race".
His unforgiving account of muscovite ethics, morality and religion is fully in line with these and other Western reports; modern analysis regards this aspect of his book as generally correct from the Protestant viewpoint of that period.