246 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



Empire. Their habit of frequenting the banks [ 

 of the rivers and islands lying in mid-stream had 

 necessarily familiarized them with the use of 

 boats. They depended for their food chiefly on 

 their fisheries, which down to our own time have 

 continued to be very considerable. The popular 

 idea that a Cossack in his natural state is simply 

 a horseman, is quickly dissipated when we know 

 that more than one traveler has compared their 

 capital to Venice. " Though not so grand as 

 Venice," wrote Clarke, "Tscherkaski somewhat 

 resembles that city." The entrance was by broad 

 canals, intersecting it in all directions. On either 

 hand houses built on poles appear, during the 

 periodical inundations of the Don, to float on the 

 water. The inhabitants seem to be amphibious. 

 Children may be seen to leap from the doors and 

 windows of the houses, and swim about like so 

 many frogs. The capital was moved by the Het- 

 man Platoff, early in the present century, to a 

 spot a few miles off. Those of the inhabitants 

 who left their old homes for Novo Tscherkaski, 

 retained the custom of building in force in their 

 former abode. Though removed from the influ- 

 ence of the inundations, the " houses," says Oli- 

 phant, "are still raised above the ground." 



The amphibious habits of the Don Cossacks 

 have apparently not yet forsaken them. During 

 Mr. Wallace's voyage down the Volga, he had, as 

 fellow-passengers on board the steamer, Cossacks, 

 who "worked" their passages by jumping into 

 the river, whenever the vessel got aground, to 

 lay out hawsers and assist to haul her off. Their 

 aquatic habits enabled the Cossacks of the Euxine 

 and the sea of Azov to carry on a long series of 

 piratical or buccaneering campaigns against the 

 Turks. Indeed, they sometimes extended their 

 ravages almost to the waters of Stamboul. At 

 the present day, when we hear so much of sub- 

 marine warfare, it is interesting to find that the 

 Cossacks had anticipated us by the adoption of a 

 remarkable system of under-water tactics. On 

 the faith of a Roman Catholic missionary we have 

 it that in the seventeenth century they were in 

 the habit of proceeding upon their excursions, 

 warlike or predatory, in anumber of small boats, 

 which could be readily sunk and easily raised 

 again. When pursued by any of the armed ves- 

 sels of the grand-signior, which they were unable 

 to attack with any prospect of success, it was 

 their custom to retreat into shallow water, and 

 there allow their boats to sink to the bottom. 

 The crews remained on board, and drew a supply 

 of air for breathing through long tubes, which 

 were attached to floats lying on the surface. Thus 



concealed, they were rarely discovered ; and when 

 the enemy had retired, they would leave their 

 places, and rise above water to obtain assistance 

 to drag their boats into still shallower water* 

 where they could be more easily got again afloat. 

 The memory of these deeds still lingers in the 

 breasts of the Don Cossacks, many of whom have 

 told recent travelers that, had they been permitted 

 to fit out a flotilla of small boats during the Cri- 

 mean War, they "would have captured the British 

 fleet, as their ancestors used to capture the Turk- 

 ish galleys on the Black Sea." 



The history of the various Cossack families, 

 and the system of polity adopted by each, show 

 how great a measure of freedom they enjoyed, 

 and how truly democratic was their mode of gov- 

 ernment. Their natural disposition, and the pitch 

 of civilization to which they have long attained, 

 will be easily seen from a comparison of the va- 

 rious accounts of those who have visited them. 

 In 1743 Jonas Hanway found them a "civilized 

 and a very gallant as well as sober people." The 

 latter attribute we must .take to be comparative, 

 and the Cossacks, though, according to all ac- 

 counts, infinitely the superiors in sobriety of the 

 Russians proper, and of our own ancestors, per- 

 haps, under the early Hanoverian kings, seem now 

 to be able to imbibe a very fair share of strong 

 liquors. The traveler Clarke is very lavish of 

 his praise of the Cossacks, and equally exasper- 

 ated with the Russians of the capital for repre- 

 senting them as uncivilized. As he spent some 

 time among them, and as his book may be still 

 regarded one of the classics of Russian travel — 

 especially, too, as he has been corroborated by 

 all subsequent visitors — we may summarize the 

 result of his observations. 



Travelers about to visit the Ukraine, and the 

 districts traversed by the Don and its kindred 

 streams, were warned by " an unprincipled race 

 of men," the Russians of the northern provinces, 

 that they would find the Cossacks little better 

 than savages, and were bold in venturing their 

 lives among them. In every respect, when com- 

 pared with his fellow-subjects of the empire, the 

 Cossack has the advantage. His physique is finer. 

 He is cleaner, better dressed, and more highly 

 educated. In his own country no people can be 

 found more honorable and hospitable than he is. 

 On warlike expeditions, and far from home, he is 

 a robber, because " plunder is part of the military 

 discipline in which he has been educated." But 

 he lays aside such habits when he again gets 

 among his own people. Jonas Hanway had found 

 the Cossacks "very clean and well clothed." His 



