b o o k merchandize fent from the provinces bordering upon the
. Dnieper ; but as the harbour, on account o f its quickfand,
affords no fecuFity for anchorage, the new town of Kherfon
is at prefent rendered the great emporium o f this trade.
4. The poffeffion o f the territory between the Bog and the
Dnieper opens a fecure communication between the Black
Sea and thofe rich and exteniive provinces through which
the Dnieper takes its courfe. This important territory, fo
effential to the exiftence o f the new commerce, was chiefly
inhabited by hordes o f roving Tartars, and by theZaporogian
CoflTacs, who dwelled near the Dnieper, and by their piracies
rendered its navigation extremely hazardous. The origin of
thefe CoflTacs is thus traced by the Ruffian hiftorians.
In the beginning o f the 1 5th century, a tribe o f the Coflacs
o f the Ukraine, who inhabited the territory between the
Bog and the Dnieper, were known under the denomination
o f Zaporogian *, from their iituation near the cataraâs of
thelaft mentioned river, where flood their Setcha t , or principal
fettlement. This fetcha was a kind o f fortrefs fur-
rounded with a wooden wall, and was at firft merely intended
as a place o f afiembly, where thefe CoflTacs were convened,
in order to deliberate upon the method o f carrying on their
cuftomary depredations, or for the purpofe o f electing a chief.
By degrees it was filled with habitations ; and afterwards was
appropriated to a feparate community o f perfons, who devoted
themfelves folely to arms, and totally excluded all women
from the p re c in i of their military refidence. Thé inhabitants
were divided into a certain number o f claflès, each
o f which e le ied its refpedtive leader, who were all under the
* F o ro g i fig n ifk s ca ta ra f ts . th e n e igh b o u r in g d i ilr ift . S . R . G . IV .
f Setch a means an y p la c e furrounded p , 4.14.
w ith a w a ll, o r fo r t ifica tio n , fepar.ated from
jurifdifiion
Jurifdidtion o f a fupreme chief chofen by the whole fociety. c h a p .
Thefe Zaporogian CoflTacs became fo diftinguifhed for their«— v—j
bravery and knowledge o f defultory war, th at perfons, not only
from the circumjacent parts, but alfo from more diftant regions,
flocked to this fociety o f warriors: the inhabitants o f the
fetcha were not obliged to continue in it for any fettled term,
being only bound, while they remained, to conform themfelves
to the regulations and difcipline o f their affociates.
Whenever any o f them were difpofed to marry, they were
under the neceffity o f quitting the fetcha, but were permitted
to fettle in the neighbouring diftridt, with the privilege of
re-admiffion, provided they were not attended with their
wives and families, whom they were neverthelefs allowed
occafionally to vilit. The Zaporogians increafed their numbers
by offering an afylum to deferters *, and by forcing and
enticing youths and children from the Ukraine and from
Poland, whom they trained to a military life, and admitted
into their community upon fimilar conditions,, and with the
fame privileges, which they themfelves poíiéíí'ed. T h e place
of their refidence was occafionally varied: when their numbers
increafed, or when the hordes wandered at a coniiderable
difiance from each other, different parties erected and occupied
feveral diftinct fetchas.
The firft fetcha o f this extraordinary fociety feems to have
been fituated upon an ifland o f the Dnieper below the catarais
: the laft which they inhabited, at the final abolition
of their government, and which at that period was the only
one they poffeffed, was conftruied upon the rivulet Bufu-
lak, at the point where it falls into the Dnieper in the government
o f Kiof +.
S. R . G . I V . p , 44T. cu riou s reader to -h¡3 ac coun t, from w h ich I
M ivM u lié r Jíias fo a c cu ra te ly and c ir - have fe le fted this ilio r t ex t ra f t, S .R . G ,
cumuanhally defcribecl the •- f e t c h a . o f t h e I V . p . 4 1 1— 472.
¿ap o ro g ia o Coflacs,. th a t I w o u ld refer-¿he* - - '
N ■ n 2 As