\ 
Chap. II. and its Inhabitants the C o s s A C K s. 
by the King. The Cojfacks returned to their Homes, 
and laying down their Arms upon the Faith of their 
Treaty, were killed or plundered by the Polijh Soldiers, 
and another Militia fet up, excluding the true Cojfacks, 
and among other opprelTive Methods the Poles took from 
them fome of their Greek Churches. 
But the Tartars afterwards ruining a great Part of the 
Ukrain, convinced tine Poles of the Neceffity of reftoring 
the Cojfacks. Uladijlaus IV. making War upon the T w- 
tars, was very careful to Fe it done, and gave them 
for their General Theodore Chimielinjki, and granted him 
a Privilege to build fome Mills j but a Polijh Gentleman^ 
named Jarinfki, burnt them, raviflied his Wife, and 
afterwards killed both her and her Son. The Cojfacks 
were alfo provoked by their Landlords, who farmed out 
their Lands to the Jews, who monopolized all the Trade 
of the Country, and got fo much Power that they would 
pot fuffer them to marry, or baptize, but upon their own 
Terms. Theodore and his Cojfacks obtaining no Redrefs, 
or Satisfaction, for thofe Injuries, raifed an Army of above 
twenty thoufand Men, burnt, plundered, and ravaged 
the Country, and did what Mifchief they could to the 
Polijh Nobility. Upon which the Senators defired the 
King to march againft them ; who anfwered, that they 
ought not to have burnt their Mills. King John Cajimir 
favoured them underhand, and defigned to miake ufe of 
them for the Conqueft of Crim Tartary, at which the 
Poles, being diifatisfied, levied an Army of fifty 
thoufand Men, whom the Cojfacks defeated, killed ten 
thoufand upon the Spot, and took the City of Kiow. 
To revenge this Affront, the Poles fummoned the fe- 
venth Man throughout the Kingdom, and marched 
againft the Cojfacks, without the Confent of the King, 
and were again defeated by them. 
But while Cbimielinjki celebrating the Nuptials of 
his Son, with the Daughter of the Prince of Walachia, 
at Kiow, the Poles furprized the Cojfacks, plundered the 
City, and took the Grecian Patriarch Prifoner. The 
Cojfacks fent to the King to know whether this had been 
done by his Authority He anfwered, no ; and that it 
was done by the Nobility out of Revenge. Upon this 
Chimielinjki called in the Crim Tartar with one hundred 
thoufand Horfe, againft whom the King went in Perfon, 
at the Head of the Nobility, and totally routed them, 
' though they were three to one ftronger than the Poles. 
Chimielinski gathered up the Remainders of his fcattered 
Army, and continually harraffed the Country, fo that 
the King was obliged to make an Agreement with them ; 
but the Nobility were difeontented at it, and alledged, 
the King had granted too much : This Peace was made 
in 1649, Chimielinski fearing the Poles would not obferve 
that Treaty, made an Alliance with the Grand Signior 
and the Prince of Moldavia, and at a Dyet he propofed 
fuch Terms as fhewed he intended to make himfelf an 
abfolute Prince, under the Proteftion of the Turks. 
Thus a new War broke out in 1651, when the Cof- 
Jacks, and their Confederates, befieged Smolensko, took it 
next Year, and ravaged Lithuania-, they took Wilna, 
and fome other Cities, where they committed great Bar- 
barities : It was chiefly owing to them that the Mufeovites 
got Pofleflion of the Provinces of Smolensko and Siberia, 
and the greateft Part of the Palatinate of Kiovia, whieh 
were confirmed to them by the Treaty of Oliva, in 1 666. 
They have fince thofe Days fuffered many Changes of For- 
tune, as well as Diminution in Numbers ; but at this time 
however they are tolerably free, fome under the Pro- 
tection of the Turk, others under the Poles but the 
greateft Part of them ovm themfelves Subjefts to Rujfia. 
After giving their Hiftory, which is Angular enouo-h, 
and very well deferves the Reader’s Attention, we will 
next confider the Country in which they live, and which 
from the Flatnels of it, has been fuppofed, not without 
great Probability, to have been left partly by the Sea, and 
partly by the great Rivers that run through it, in the fame 
manner as the Antients report of Lower Egypt, and as we 
know that Trabt ol Country was certainly left, which is 
called Marjhland, in the County of Norfolk. 
2. The NordUkrain fignifies a frontier Country, and 
lies betwixt 48 and 52 Degrees of North Latitude, the 
VoL. II. Numb. 104. ' 
Niefier is their weftern, and the Nieper their eafterii, Bolin™ 
dary. According to fome Authors Kiow is the chief Towm^ 
and belongs to the Mufeovites, being taken from the Poles 
in 1633, by the Confederate Army of the Mufeovites z.n 6 . 
Cojfacks. This City gives Name to the Palatinate of 
Kiozd, which had Princes of its own till it was reduced to 
a Province by Cajimir III, who began his Reign in the 
Year 1333. The Ruins of the Walls fhew it to have been 
eight Miles in Compafs ; Here are to be feen ftill the 
Ruins of many Arches, high Walls, Churches, and the 
Sepulchres of many Kings, with Grdek inferiptions. The 
Church of St. Sophia, whofe Walls are lined with 
Mofaic Work *, and that of St. Michael, remarkable for 
its gilded Roof, arc ftill in a tolerable Condition, 
Betwixt this Town and the Nieper New Kiow along 
the Banks of the Nieper, which has about fix thoufand 
Inhabitants. ThePapifts have four Churches, and the 
ten, with a fort of an Univerfity. The fecond Town of 
note is Perejlaw, on the Eaft-fide of the Nieper, upon the 
River Truhicz, which falls into the Nieper two Miles be- 
low it : It lies ten German Leagues South-eaft from Kiowy 
is a ftrong Town, and contains fix thoufand Families^ 
Here the Cojfacks have a Regiment, and another at Kaniow.^ 
a little lower *on the Eaft-bank of the Nieper : On the 
fame fide is Cirkaefe, the Center of all their Retreats; 
which was burnt by the Polanders in 1637. 
On the fame Side lies Krilow, and below that Cremierc- 
zow, the loweft Town upon the River, all the Country 
below it being defert. Further down the River there are 
many Ifles, moft of them uninhabited, becaufe overflowed 
in the Spring j but much frequented by Fifhermen. Several 
other Rivers increafe the Nieper at Romonow, but chiefly 
Samar, which fupplies the Country not only with Fifh^ 
but with other Commodities, as Honey, Wax, Venifon, 
and efpecially Timber : The Cojfacks call this River the 
Holy River : In the Spring they catch Sturgeons and Her- 
ring here. 
A little below this, xht Poles 101635, built a Fort at 
Kuda,vc\\ich. is the firft of t\\.& P orouki, Conjiantinow on the 
River 6'/^d’2:,which runs into the Nieper. Porowi or Porouki^ 
in the Ruffian Language, fignifies a Rock : Of thefe there 
are thirteen Chains that crofs the Nieper, and render the 
Navigation from the Ukrain to t\it Black Sea impracticable ; 
fo that though the Ukrain be fruitful in Corn, yet the In- 
habitants not being able to export it, fuffer much of it 
to lie unfilled. Of thefe Rocks, fome are under Water, 
fome above, as big as Houfes, very near to one another, 
and flop the Courfe of the River ; fo that when it is low 
they make Catarabts fometimes of fifteen Feet high j but 
in the Spring, when the melted Snow fwells the River, all 
the Rocks are covered with Water, except the Seventh, 
which ftill hinders the River from being navigable ; near the 
loweft Poroki the River is not above a hundred and fiftyPaces 
broad, and therefore is the beft Paffage for the Tartars. 
Below, there lies Tomakouka, the Place where the Cof’ 
Jacks rendezvous, but their principal Retreat is below the 
Czertomelick, upon an Ifland fiirrounded with a vaft 
Number of fmall ones ; fome of them dry, and others 
overflowed in the Spring *, fome of them are Moraffes, 
but all of them covered over with Reeds and Canes as big 
as Pikes, which hides the Paffages betVv'een the Iflands, 
and makes it a Labyrinth, known only to the CoJfacks,'w\iQ 
call it Scarbniza-Woyskowa, or the Treafury of the Army; 
Here they lay up their Money and Ordnance : The T urks 
have loft many Galleys among thefe Iflands, which not 
being able to difmtangle themfelves, fell into the Hands 
of the Cojfacks. From thefe Porouki the Cojfacks are called 
Zaperouski, which is, the great Body of the Nation ; and 
none can be lifted among their Number^ till he has pafied 
in his little Boat ail the PoroukEs, and from thence, by 
the Mouth of the Nieper, to the Black Sea. 
The River there is three Miles broad 5 yet both the 
CoJJdcks, and others, pafs it in this manner : They furnifti 
themfelves with flat-bottom Boats, at the Stern of which 
they fatten crofs Poles of a good Length, to which they 
tie the Heads of their Horfes, as many on the one Side 
as on the other, to balance them , and putting their Bag- 
gage in the Boat, they row over, their Horfes fwim? 
ming after them. 
^ Q- , Th« 
I 
