The country formerly occupied by the Zaporogues as their peculiar place of abode, extended on either bank of the Dnieper (including the islands formed by that river), over wide-spreading marshes and frightful deserts, rendered almost inaccessible by rocks and precipices, and eternally beaten by the raging waters of the cataracts, whose ceaseless roar might be heard for many miles round: a dwelling-place, rugged, dismal, wild, romantic, and solitary; well fitted to its savage tenants, and capable of hardening men of even the mildest habits. Their head-quarters were shifted occasionally, but always so as to be safe from the attack of the Ottoman galleys, or of foreign cavalry. According to Sherer, they had three principal establishments on the islets; namely, those of Khortchitza, Sednef, and Kaniof: these strongholds were surrounded by a palisade, a ring of chariots bound together with iron chains, and by a deep trench or ditch: occasionally they were defended by artillery, and by a species of embrasures for musketry or cannon. These war-establishments, plentifully supplied with arms, provisions, stores, and ammunition, were termed sicz from the Polish or Russian word, siec od siec — divide, cut up.
It would be difficult to estimate the numbers of the Zaporogues with any approach to certainty, as they varied according to circumstances: in the time of their prosperity they may, according to Starovolski, have numbered forty thousand men, capable at all times of bearing arms: an assemblage of banditti more than sufficient fearfully to disturb the tranquillity of their neighbours.
At first, the Zaporogues made their incursions conjointly with other Cossack hordes, or obeyed the orders of the kings of Poland: subsequently, however, when they had formed themselves into a separate community, they acted on their own account. Their organisation resembled that which they had formerly received from King Batory, a few slight changes or modifications excepted.
The Zaporogues formed a species of military order or association; or, rather, they may be compared, as regards the general features of their combination, to their contemporaries, the famous Flibustiers of the 17th century. They were governed by a supreme chief {attaman koshovy), whom they elected and deposed according to their own caprice. He had under him a secretary-general, pisar; an auditor-general, a staff*- major, assavula; a lieutenant-general of artillery and engineers, and some other subaltern assistants. Besides the officers in question, nominated by themselves, as the country of the Zaporogues was subdivided into numerous districts or kourenes, each kourene had its own particular chief, invested likewise with the title of attaman, whose rank corresponded as nearly as possible to that of colonel of a regiment; and who exercised moreover a kind of civil magistracy in the administration of the lands pertaining to his individual kourene. On the 1st of January, in each year, the Zaporogues assembled, with great pomp and bustle, in order to distribute their lands into as many portions as there were kourenes. Each individual of a district had, throughout the year, the right of hunting and fishing on his own kourene exclusively; or, in other words, no Zaporogue belonging to any other kourene was permitted to interfere with his local privileges or to trespass on the grounds of his neighbour's kourene.
After this partition, they deliberated on the fate of the chiefs of the preceding year, whom they either confirmed in office or deposed at pleasure. The latter awaited their sentence, standing. If the Zaporogues happened to be satisfied with the conduct of their chiefs, the latter bowed to the assembly and retired: if, on the contrary, the attamans had displeased the midtitude, they laid down the insignia of their dignity, and returned back as simple Cossacks to their respective kourenes.