The details of this treaty are curious. The attaman of the Zaporogues, Horodynski, noted for the hatred he bore the Russians, placed himself voluntarily under the orders of Mazeppa. In order to celebrate this happy alliance with becoming splendour, a magnificent repast was provided for the entertainment of the Zaporogue deputies; Mazeppa, for the occasion, was obliged to borrow a quantity of plate from a nobleman of the Ukraine with whom he was lodging: and, as a further mark of his high consideration for his guests, he promised that they should be introduced to the Swedish king, and have the honour of kissing his majesty's hand. Their koshovy, Horodynski, as likewise Mazeppa, having duly expatiated on the merits and extolled the glory of the royal warrior of the north, exhorted their subaltern chiefs to observe some kind of decorum: the latter swore on the Evangelists not to get drunk until after dinner, and received instructions as to the manner in which they were to comport themselves in the presence of his majesty and his suite. At the conclusion of the dinner, however, and of the ceremony of kissing hands, they gave loose to the wildest demonstrations of gaiety after their own peculiar fashion, and began to make off with all the plate within reach, and on which their dinner had been served up. The maitre d'hotel hastened to reclaim it. According to their code of politeness, the Zaporogues regarded this interference in the light of an insult, and demanded reparation at the hands of their koshovy, more especially as they had fulfilled the conditions exacted from them as regarded their conduct during dinner: they threatened to break off the alliance, and to pass over on the instant to the side of the Russians, if the maitre d'hotel was not given up to them to be punished according to their summary mode of procedure.
As it was to be apprehended that some of the Russian agents might take advantage of this untoward incident, the unhappy maitre d'hotel was delivered up to them. After they had jostled and pitched him about for some time from one to the other, he was ultimately despatched by a stab with a knife through the heart. Charles arrived too late to save him. According to the Zaporogue custom, a guest, provided he be not a Jew, invited to a dinner-party, is entitled to carry off with him whatever he may take a fancy to, with the exception of money or arms. The reader must pardon this slight digression illustrative of Zaporogue manners.
After the battle of Pultawa, in which a great number of them fell, the rest of the Zaporogues followed Mazeppa into Turkey, which they quitted however after his death.
At a subsequent period, the Empress Catherine II. of Russia, flattered the Zaporogues by having 'her name inscribed in letters of gold in their public registers, and employed them during the rebellion of 1768, under Zelezniak, against the Polish nobles. After the suppression of this revolt, partly by the aid of the Russian troops (Catherine's policy having in the mean- time changed as regarded this insurrection), a portion of the Zaporogues perished on the scaffold: another portion, faithful to Poland, took refuge in Turkey under!N ekrassa, whilst the remainder fled to their fastnesses. But Catherine, uneasy at their existence, suddenly despatched General Tekeli with considerable forces to crush them in their retreats. Surprised, surrounded, and attacked at all points, the Zaporogues, after a determined but ineffectual resistance, were compelled to surrender: the sitche was declared from thenceforth broken up; the ancient Zaporogue territory incorporated with Russia (where it now forms the modern governments of Ekaterinoslav, Kharkof, and Tauride); and the very existence of the Zaporogues themselves, as a separate community, annihilated. A considerable body of them dispersed themselves in various directions. Amongst the remarkable incidents to which this obstinate, although ultimately fruitless resistance of the Zaporogues gave rise, and which characterised their last struggles for existence as a nation, may be particularized the heroic exploits of the last of the Zaporogue chieftains, Sava.
Amongst other grave accusations laid to the charge of the Zaporogues, the chaste Czarina Catherine reproached them with leading a debauched and licentious life! At a later period, those amongst them who made their submission to Russia, and declared themselves willing to marry, received, by virtue of the Ukase of the 30th June, 179, the right of territory over the island of Taman and all the country situated to the east of the Black Sea, between Kuban and the sea of Azof, as far as Labinskay Krepost, occupying in all a space of 1700 geographical miles.