*\J able to the project of this great king: by this means he secured the defence of the southern frontiers of Poland, and increased his military strength at a cheap rate; at the same time fertilizing a desert country, and by insensible but sure degrees civilizing a race of men who were no less dangerous to those whom they were to defend than those with whom it was their business to be in a state of constant warfare and hostility. As the Cossacks in question were under the obligation of serving the king of Poland in all his warlike expeditions, Batory, from their ranks, augmented the Polish army by an additional force of six thousand light cavalry; and this addition, it was intended, should be permanent. In 1578, during the memorable war with Russia, this newly raised Cossack' cavalry performed prodigies of valour, and powerfully contributed to the victories obtained by the Polish army over the Russians. At a. latter period. King Batory, whilst according his favour and protection to the brave and meritorious portion of the Cossack troops, yet neglected at the same time no measures for repressing their lawless depredations. Having heard that their new chief, Podkova (a Wallachian, so named on account of his extraordinary strength, he having repeatedly broken in two, with his fingers, a horse-shoe, podkova in Polish), had, without his orders, invaded Wallachia, and by a sudden and totally unexpected irruption into that country, had seized possession of it, before its hospodar, Peter, an ally and relative of Batory, could have time to arm in its defence, he sent a prompt reinforcement to the assistance of the latter; and Podkova, pursued and vanquished by superior numbers, was captured, and, by the king's orders, beheaded. This was the first collision that had occurred between the Poles and the Zaporogue Cossacks; and, although affording a seasonable opportunity for the assertion of sovereign authority, and for the exercise of a just severity, requisite for the maintenance of public- order, this incident served to open Batory's eyes, and to warn him that the Cossacks and their chief already possessed by far too ample means and incitements to create disturbance for them to remain submissive and tranquil. He resolved, therefore, to place some restrictions on their growing power; and, by a skilful admixture in his measures of well-timed rigour with politic conciliation, he succeeded in calming the restless agitation of the Cossacks; sending Polish colonists into the Ukraine to counterbalance for the future the innate turbulence of this singular race. As a state of almost eternal warfare existed beyond the cataracts of the Dnieper, the successor of Podkova, the Attaman Schah, found a pretext for invading Turkey both by sea and land. After ravaging several of the Turkish provinces on the coast, he burned the suburbs of Constantinople, subdued the Turkish forces on every side, and carried off from the gates of the Seraglio, and under the very eyes as it were of the Sultan, one of his most beautiful favourites, returning back with his prize into the Ukraine. Incursions of a similar nature constantly succeeded each other, like the waves of a tempest-troubled ocean.
All the corsair incursions of the Cossacks in question were performed in light boats, called czayhi (pronounced tchaiqui), the nature and construction of which merit particular notice. The largest of these pirate-vessels of the Zaporoguian Cossacks, the czayka would con tain from thirty to sixty men; was sixty feet long by twelve in breadth; furnished with a sail and from fifteen to twenty-five oars, and was armed with a couple of swivel guns, or leather cannons, and a competent number of smaller fire-arms. These vessels were, sometimes, constructed of the single trunk of the linden-tree, which was hollowed out by the Cossacks, and so fashioned that, by fastening to it a few planks of wood coated with pitch, they converted it into a kind of light bark or elongated barge, lined on the inside with skins or with leather, and surrounded, outside, with small floats or osier-boxes, which, breaking the force of the waves, served both to lighten the weight of the vessel, and, at the same time, to secure its steadiness, even during the most violent tempests. This singular species of bark, having from eight to ten feet interior depth, possessed also the advantage of being managed with a facility-aim ost incredible; inasmuch as a bark so constructed drew infinitely less water than any other vessel of equal capacity and dimensions. To complete such a vessel required generally the labour of sixty Cossacks for fifteen days.