Born a Serf of Count Pototski — Raised from his station, and made Chief of the Cossacks— Houmagne— The Empress Catherine foments discord in the Ukraine — Mladanovicz sends him to relieve Houmagne — A Polish Deputation make him large offers to secure his co-operation — Is persuaded to desert the cause of his Country — Joins Zelezniaque, and opens Houmagne to his ferocious bands — Assists at the dreadful Carnage perpetrated there — Assumes the command of the Rebel Army — Is defeated by Nekrassa and the Polish troops — Takes refuge in the Russian Camp, and is made prisoner with Zelezniaque, by Goloriva, who was sent by the Empress to quell the Rebellion — Gonta is condemned to a cruel death, and his family exiled to Siberia— Branetzki the Polish General — Many Polish Families driven from their homes— Induced to return, they are massacred — Dreadful state of the Ukraine — Its desolations, and awful sacrifice of human life — Gonta's Character — The present Count Pototski and his sister the Countess Kieseleff emigrants from the country.
If the guiltiest deeds that darken the annals of the past, if the savage ferocity of the tiger and the subtlest wiliness of the fox, if great versatility of mind and unexampled perfidy, united to the loftiest ambition, have at any time rendered a brigand chief notorious, no one has better deserved so detestable a renown, than the man who is the subject of this biographical memoir.
Gonta was originally a serf, professing the GrecoKussian religion, and was born at Rosuszli, a small village belonging to Szczesny Pototski, palatine of Kiow, the capital of the Ukraine. This nobleman was possessed of immense riches, and was the owner of the town of Houmagne with all its dependencies. Since the year 1760 he had confided this property to the care of a skilful steward named Raphael Mladanovicz. This man, seeing that the greatest portion of the land about Houmagne was lying uncultivated, and that with proper agricultural attention its value might be increased, erected farm-houses in convenient localities, and assigned them to industrious tenants at a very moderate rent, on condition of their making good roads, and using every means to augment the revenue of his master. At the same time he endeavoured to secure the well-being of the palatine's subjects and dependents. He then improved and ornamented the town of Houmagne, repaired the houses and streets, and established schools, which he placed under the direction of men esteemed for the excellence of their character. For the security of the town and its vicinity, in addition to a certain number of regular troops, there were some regiments of militia formed from the relics of the ancient Polish Cossacks.
Houmagne soon became a flourishing place, and its liches and prosperity rapidly increased. As its inhabitants were composed of a mixture of Roman Catholics, members of the Greek catholic church, and of the Greek non-united schismatic church, several priests of the Koman and Greek churches came hither for the purposes of education and proselytism. This caused some alarm among the clergy of the Greek church.* An ill-feeling was engendered, and mutual calumnies and recriminations, with the various bickerings of religious animosity, followed in their train.
Gonta, living under the protection of Mladanovicz, a courtier by nature, and gifted with much acuteness of intellect, contrived to insinuate himself into the good graces of his master, the Palatine Pototski; who, highly appreciating the valour and abilities of his vassal, gave him the command of his Cossack troops. He also ameliorated his condition, enabled him to contract an advantageous marriage, and placed him in the proprietary tenure of two villages for a rent almost nominal.
Gonta did not at first show himself unworthy of his master's bounty, and appeared to be actuated by a devoted attachment to his benefactor. As he at all times lived in perfect harmony with Mladanovicz, to whom he confided his two sons; and as the palatine's high opinion of him was daily increasing, Gonta was entrusted with the command of all the baronial or seignoral troops in the neighbourhood; and was cajoled, humoured, and flattered, as always happens in similar circumstances. Availing himself of all the advantages he enjoyed, he gained extensive influence and great consideration in the Ukraine; and became the favourite of all the Cossacks, over whose minds he had obtained a powerful ascendancy.