DON COSSACKS. 
Thus, from the success attending their incur- 
sions, their numbers have rapidly increased. 
In the year 1 579 , they made their appearance, 
for the first time, in the Russian armies*. In 
1734, their earliest colonies were established 
upon the Volga. About the same time, another 
colony marched towards the Terek, and settled 
there. Towards the middle of the last century, 
a detachment fixed their residence along the 
banks of the Samara, the Ui, and the Ural, as 
lar as the Kirgisian frontier. But by much the 
most powerful detachment from the original 
hive is established upon the shores of the 
Caspian, at the mouth of the Ural river : it left 
the Don in the beginning of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, and has since been augmented by sub- 
sequent emigrations from the parent stock. 
This branch of the Don Cossacks joined in the 
rebellion under Pugaichef. In order to annihi- 
late the memory of their revolt, the Russian 
Government prudently changed their name, 
(which had hitherto been, Cossacks of the Jaik,) 
together with the name of their capital, and of 
the river upon which they resided 2 3 . 
The most remarkable branch of the Don 
Cossacks has been established in Siberia. It 
(2) Storch, tom. I. p. 68. 
(3) Ibid. p. 73. 
