302 
DON COSSACKS. 
chap. Among the Russians, indeed, we were constantly 
Xn ' ; exposed to danger ; either from imposition that 
it was hazardous to detect, or from insult that it 
was fearful to resent ; and in both cases the 
consequences affected our security. In the 
first view of the Cossacks, we beheld a brave, 
generous, and hospitable people. If we ques- 
tioned them concerning the dangers of the 
country, we were referred to districts tenanted 
by wandering Calmucks ; yet we afterwards 
found no cause of reasonable alarm, even in the 
very camps of that singular race of men. At 
Paulovskoy, they told us that the Emperor’s 
courier had been stopped with the mail. We 
doubted the fact in the first instance ; but 
concluded, that if the mail had been really 
stolen, the theft was committed by the Russians, 
who raised the clamour, and not by the Cossacks, 
to whom the robbery had been imputed. In 
times of hostility the Russians found in the 
Cossacks a desperate and dangerous enemy; 
and many a bitter remembrance of chastisement 
and defeat induces them to vilify a people 
whom they fear. The Cossacks are therefore 
justified in acting towards them as they have 
uniformly done ; that is to say, in withdrawing 
as much as possible from all communion with 
men whose association might corrupt, but 
could never promote, the welfare of their 
