Origin of the Zaporogues — Description of the Country formerly Inhabited by them— Their Numbers, Customs, Laws, and Conditions of admission — Their Robberies by Sea and Land — Their Mode of Life, and Manner of Electing Chiefs — Wars with Turkey, Russia, and the Tatars— Their Independence— Cruelty of Peter the Great towards them — Their Treaty with Mazeppa — Surrender to Turkey — Submission to Russia, and afterwards to Poland — Massacre organised by Catherine — Their Incursion into the Polish Ukraine — Complete Suppression.
It is extremely difficult to assign any fixed epoch as being that of the true origin and first establishment of the Zaporogues, whom many authors appear altogether to confound with the Polish Cossacks, of which race they were in some degree the parent stock. As, however, they must not be entirely confounded together, it may be as well to give some of the reasons for our assertion, which, based as they are upon facts, in themselves indisputable, may give some approximate idea of the diflference which existed between the two, without attempting, however, to enumerate all these points of dissimilarity, a task which would involve too wide a digression from the main object of the present work.
The Polish Cossacks did not, from the outset, constitute a body separate from the rest. The Zaporogues appear to date only from the 17th century: they were, originally, nothing but a militia corps, chosen from amongst the very bravest, the most expert, and the most active of the Cossack race — they were called prcBsidiarii, and may be regarded as the first Zaporogues — especially appointed to guard the islands of the Dnieper (on which were situated the dockyard, the arsenal, and the treasury of the Cossacks,) during the absence of the latter on their piratical excursions. At a later period, this militia was reorganised by king Stephen Batory, in 1578, being registered and paid expressly for the defence of the southern frontier of Poland against the incursions of the Tatars, the Russians, and the Turks: they were always under arms, and upon active service, either on the islands or along the banks of the Dnieper; and were to be changed or relieved in rotation. Subsequently, as we shall prove, this same militia separated from the main Cossack body, and formed a distinct community, retaining to the last moment of its existence the impress of its primitive descent.
The Zaporogues were so named from the Polish words, za, beyond, and porog, cataracts; that is to say, ''the inhabitants or dwellers beyond the cataracts." One of their earliest stations was the island of Khorchitza (forty miles to the south of Kiof), in lat. 50 deg. and long. 40 deg.
In order to obtain admission as a member of the Zaporogue community at their first establishment, the candidate was required to pass, in his boat, the thirteen cataracts of the Dnieper; and this too against the current; a feat which might well seem impracticable, even to a Hercules himself, were not the fact averred and attested by a host of eye-witnesses, and by several of the earlier historians, amongst others by Boauplan, Starovolski, Sherer, and many others. Further, he must have killed ten of the enemy; have made a successful excursion on the Black Sea; profess the Greek faith, and be unmarried: to all which qualities he was to unite the minor recommendations of being able to hit a mark at a considerable distance with the ball from his carabine; to transfix with an arrow a bird on the wing; and to swim, several times in succession, across the Dnieper. At a later period, however, any robust and desperate brigand was eligible as a Zaporogue. Essentially free, in the enjoyment of the highest consideration, and of great privileges amongst the general mass of Cossacks, over whom they considered themselves to have, as they indeed possessed, a marked superiority, the Zaporogues appear to have entertained a sovereign contempt for all those who cultivated the soil, or addicted themselves to commerce.