838
dous. The origin of thefe Coffacs is thus traced by the Ruffian hiftorians. In thebeginning of the 15th century, a tribe of the Coffacs, of the Ukraine , who inhabitedthe territory between the Bog and the Dnieper , were known under the denominationof Zaporogian*, from the fituation of their fetcha f, or principal fettlement near thecataracts of the Dnieper .
This fetcha was a fortrefs furrounded with a wooden wall, and at firft merely intendedas a place of affembly, to deliberate on the method of carrying on their cuitomarydepredations, or for the purpofe of elefting a chief. By degrees it was filled with ha-bitations, and afterwards appropriated to a feparate community of perfons; who de-moted themlelves folely to arms, and totally excluded all women from the precindt oftheir military refidence. The inhabitants were divided into claffes; each of whichelected its refpe&ive leader, and were all under the jurifdidtion of a hetman or fupremechief, chofen by the whole l'ociety.
Thefe Zaporogian Coffacs became fo diftinguilhed for their bravery and fkill in deful-tory war, that perfons flocked from diflant regions to this fociety of warriors. Theinhabitants of the fetcha were not obliged to continue in it for any fettled term ; beingonly bound, while they remained, to conform themfelves to the regulations and difci-pline of their affociates 5 thofe who were difpofed to marry, quitted the fetcha, but werepermitted to fettle in the neighbouring diflridf, with the privilege of re-admiffion, pro-vided they were not attended with the' wives and families, whom they were allowedoccafionally to vifit. The Zaporogians increafed their numbers by affording an afyiutnto deferterst, and by forcing and enticing youths and children from the Ukraine andPoland , whom they trained to a military life, and admitted into their community.The place of their refidence was occafionally varied ; when their numbers increafed, orwhen the hordes wandered at a confiderable diftance from each other, different partiesereded and occupied diftinot fetchas. The firft fetcha of this extraordinary focietyfeems to have been fituated on an ifland of the Dnieper below the cataracts; the laltwhich they inhabited, qt the abolition of their government, and which at that periodwas the only one they poffeffed, flood near the rivulet Bufulak, at the point where itfalls into the Dnieper , in the government of Kiof §.
The members of this community being collected from various nations, and from thenature of their conftitution perpetually changing, their number could never be exactlyafeertained : Manflein relates, that in the war in which he ferved againft the Turks,they brought eight thoufand horfe into the field, and on an emergency could have raifedtwelve thoufand or fifteen thoufand. They frequently performed incredible feats cflvalour in the campaigns of the Ruffians againft the Turks and Tartars , nor yvere theirfervices confined folely to land : by their fkill in'navigating the Dnieper , they occafion-ally defended the mouth of that river, and attacked with fuccefs the armed veffels on thecontiguous coafts of the Black Sea . But while they were thus terrible to their enemies,they were fcarcely lefs.formidable to their allies. Nominally dependant on the hetmanof the Ukraine , they were claffed among the fubjetls of the Ruffian empire; but thepeculiarity of their manners, their reparation from all other fociety, their popular formef government, together with their warlike difpofition, rendered them a barbarous and
* Porogi fignifies catarafts.
-j- Setclia means any place furrounded with a wall, or fortification, feparated from the neighbouring dif-•trift S. R. G. iv. p. 414. • ’
p S. R G iv. p. 441. . (
$ M Muller lias accurately and circumftantially deferibed the fetcha of the Zaporogian Coffacs, fromwhich account I have feledted this fhort .extract. S. R. G iv. p. 411—472,
unruly