The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

THE LITTLE RUSSIANS AND COSSACKS. 293and bagnios. To these plundering hordes Christian bands were opposed, whichafterwards became famous under the name of Cossacks. They consisted chiefly ofthe independent elements in the border-lands between the rival Slav and Moslempopulations, of the Dnieper fishermen, and of adventurers accompanying the tradingcaravans of the steppes. Under the influence of the chivalrous ideas prevailing inthe West, the Polish and Lithuano-Russian nobles converted these Cossacksinto a sort of "Ukranian knights" (rytzarstvo Ukrayinne). Some of their firstrallying-points were Kanev and Chigirin, in Kiyovia, though Cherkasi soonbecame the chief centre of the Lower Cossacks about the Middle Dnieper, and theterm Cherkasi is even still applied to the Little Russians by their Great RussianFig. 14S. Khortitza.Scale 1 : 200,000.L of P-., Littlepol . Khortltz3~mo- L ofGBarroTre.Wells.______ 2 Mil-.neighbours. Towards the close of the sixteenth century they established themselvesfarther south, in the Dnieper islands below the confluence of the Samara,about the great falls, whence their Russian name of Zaporog (Za porqjtfst), or"People beyond the Falls." In this well-protected spot they soon became theterror of the Moslem marauders, and attracted multitudes of the peasantry,escaping from serfdom in Poland and Lithuania, and raising their numbers in theseventeenth century to "120,000 armed warriors" (Beauplan). They crossed theBlack Sea to burn Sinope, in Asia Minor, and in 1624 one of their expeditionssacked the suburbs of Constantinople. In the sixteenth century the centralsitch, or stronghold, was in the island of Khortitza, amidst the Dnieper rapids,VOL. V. X