tially a warrior. When summoned by his hetman, he left home on a foray to get himself a new coat; on his bosom he carried a handful of native soil, to which, if slain on the battlefield, he pressed his dying lips, and sent it by his companions to his wife; if victorious, he returned laden with spoil, and abandoned himself to joviality without thought of the mor row.* Such warlike neighbors were too dangerous to be overlooked by the sovereigns of the nations in their vicinity. At an early period Stephen Bathory, one of the ablest kings of Poland, succeeded in establishing a league with the Cossacks of the Ukraine, constituting them the guards of the Polish frontier, and giving them a regular military organization under hetmans. But the successors of this king did not govern with his wisdom. The Cossacks were distressed by the extortions of Polish officials, and exasperated by the encroachments of Polish kings who sought to curtail their liberties, and by persecutions of Polish Jesuits who claimed the right to impose on them their own faith. The Cossacks who, with all their half-heathen habits, retained a bigoted attachment to the Greek church, at last rose under their hetman, Kheminsky, into open insurrection. In this they were supported by Alexei, Emperor of Russia, who saw the advantages of attaching them to his empire so strongly as to declare war against Poland on their account. The allegiance of the Ukrainean Cossacks was, as a result of this war, transferred to Russia, in 1654.† It is probable that the Don Cossacks had become subjects of Russia at a much earlier period; for in the year 1579 they are mentioned as serving in the Russian army. And about the same time the Cossack adventurer, Yermak, flying with a troop of six or seven thousand men from the severity of Ivan the Terrible, roved over the vast plains of Siberia, drove out or subjugated its inhabitants, and presented it to the Emperor * Polewoy's Hist. of the Russian Empire. Karamzin, vol. viii., p. 127. Tooke, vol. ii., p. 25. Storch, tome i., p. 68. for his pardon.* Thus Russia is indebted to the Cossacks for the bulk of her Asiatic possessions. But the reception of their brethren of the Ukraine was the signal for the revolt of the Cossacks of the Don. In the war between Russia and Poland a Cossack officer had been sentenced to death with what the people considered undue severity. His brother, Stanko Radzkin, accordingly revolted, and established his headquarters at Astrachan.† Allured by the spirit of licentiousness and the hope of plunder, numbers of Cossacks as well as of inferior Russians flocked to his standard. This army, amounting to nearly two hundred thousand men, was, however, only formidable in numbers. Ill armed and undisciplined, Radzkin did not venture to confront with it the army of the emperor, but contented himself with predatory excursions through the surrounding country. He even went so far as to open negotiations with the emperor, offering to deliver himself up with his troops if assured of pardon. The answer which he received was ambiguously worded, but Radzkin, construing it favorably to his wishes, set out with a retinue of his soldiers for Moscow. That capital he was never destined to see; for on the road he encountered a cart containing a gibbet, on which he was immediately hanged and quartered.‡ Astrachan was surrounded by the Czar's troops, the insurgents taken prisoners, and twelve thousand of them hung on gibbets by the highways; while a female Cossack, a nun by profession, who had quitted her convent and fought in male attire at the head of a rebel corps, was burned alive in the public square of Arsamas. The suppression of the revolt among the Don Cossacks was succeeded by an insurrection among those of the Ukraine, which resulted fatally for the liberties of the latter. From their first annexation to Russia, these Cossacks had been turbulent and unruly subjects. In 1685 they were sent with the army of Prince Galitzin, the favorite of the regent Sophia, * Clarke's Travels, vol. i., p. 375. + Tooke's History, vol. ii., p. 23. ‡ I., p. 26. to invade the territories of the Tartar khan. The disastrous failure of this expedition was attributed to treason on the part of their hetman, Samuelowicz, who was banished to Siberia, and his lieutenant Mazeppa appointed in his place. Mazeppa was devoted to his Cossacks, and, having succeeded in acquiring the favor of Peter the Great, on the disgrace of Sophia and Galitzin, obtained for his people such extended privileges that the portion who had hitherto adhered to Poland crossed the Dnieper in a body and declared themselves subjects of Russia. But a brutal threat, uttered by Peter in one of his fits of intoxication, so incensed Mazeppa that he privately stimulated his Cossacks to throw off the Russian yoke. When Charles XII. advanced in the direction of the Ukraine, the hetman openly renounced his allegiance, and with 5,000 Cossacks joined the standard of the Swedish king. But the hopes of Charles and Mazeppa were extinguished by their defeat at Pultowa; and, although the defection of the Cossacks had been but partial, the vengeance of the Czar was visited on the whole race. Thousands were dragged in chains to the shores of the Baltic to labor on the public works; and the new hetman who succeeded Mazeppa was subordinated to Menzikoff who assumed the vice-royalty of the Ukraine. Thenceforth the liberties of the Ukrainean Cossacks were at an end. † The Don Cossacks, habituated to the sway of Russia, and surrounded on all sides by Russian provinces, were not objects of the same suspicion to the Czar as their brethren of the Ukraine. They retained their independent organization and many of their immunities until the reign of Catherine II., when their rebellion under Pugatchef afforded the empress a pretence for reducing their privileges. By her their troops were deprived of their independent organization and formed into regular regiments under officers appointed by the crown; a fixed period of military service was required of the Cossacks as the tenure of their lands and fisheries; and the appointment of their chief hetman was arrogated by the *Tooke's History, vol. ii., p. 56. † Ib., p. 80. Russian Government.* This was in the first instance rendered more palatable to them by the appointment of Platoff, whose personal popularity reconciled them to the change. It was under this hetman that the Cossacks rendered such distinguished services against the army of Napoleon. They have been amply compared to a cloud hovering around the French army, heading off its advance, destroying its supplies, cutting off its stragglers, and breaking into its ranks with charges that proved irresistible. Clad in a grotesque, foreign garb unlike that of any European nation, flourishing tawdry banners emblazoned with figures of the saints, mounted on poor-looking but swift and untiring horses, armed each with a lance borne upright from the saddle, a sabre, pistols, and a kamtschu or whip of twisted leather, their appearance, equipment, and mode of attack, alike contributed to the confusion of their enemies. They did not undertake to meet the foe in a pitched battle; but, when the French army rallied and confronted them, the Cossacks dispersed, spreading out like a fan suddenly flung open, and then joining in a loud hourra! rushed from all sides at once on the demoralized foe.† The Cossacks of the Don, who, under Platoff, achieved such signal successes against the army of Napoleon, under the domestic administration of the same hetman, attained a degree of internal prosperity and civilization entirely at variance with the characteristics commonly imputed to them. Their towns are well supplied with luxuries; education is not neglected among them; and in cleanliness and comfort their homes compare most favorably with those of the Russians. Their costume, consisting of a blue jacket edged with gold and fastened by hooks across the chest, a silk waistcoat, large and long trousers, generally of white dimity, and a sash of yellow, green, red, or black, with a helmet of black wool terminated by a crimson sack with plume and white cockade, renders their appearance singularly martial and picturesque. Polished in manners, lively in deportment, frank and hospi *Storch, tome i., p. 73. + Scott's Life of Napoleon. * table, fond of amusement, but violent when their passions are aroused, the contrast to their Russian neighbors impresses every traveller. Distinguished above all people for activity in time of war, the Cossacks at home devote themselves to enjoyments. They have a national dance not unlike the can-can of the Parisians † in its principal characteristics, and are fond of feasting and social amusement. Order, however, is steadily maintained among them; and, in singular contrast to their former predatory habits, it is said that a trunk may be sent unlocked through their territory for a distance exceeding five hundred miles without risking the loss of any of its contents.‡ In their religious observances the Cossacks are very devout, though not without some singular superstitions. Before retiring to rest they cross themselves four times, facing consecutively the four quarters of the globe. During a thunder-storm, in like manner, they cross themselves, and bow the head at each clap, uttering solemn invocations. But the most remarkable of their ceremonies is one known as the Benediction of Bread, which takes place every Saturday evening in all their churches. Upon this occasion five white loaves are placed in the middle of each church-a symbol of those with which Christ fed the multitude. The people then pray that, "as with five loaves He fed five thousand, He will vouchsafe a sufficiency of corn in the country for the bread of its inhabitants and bless it for their use." § The country of the Cossacks, though little cultivated, is distinguished for its natural fertility and beauty. The herbage, rising as high as the knee, and abounding in wild flowers, is never cut, and the steppe presents the appearance of a flowery wilderness. Although, by no means thickly peopled, it is far from being so desolate as it appears to the traveller. The Cossacks prefer fishing to agriculture as a means of livelihood; consequently their villages, and even their isolated dwellings, are all built along the borders of the rivers, while * Clarke's Travels, vol. i., pp. 301, 591. Ib., vol. i., p. 273. + Ib., p. § Ib., vol. i., p. 368. 306. |