Our notice of the principal towns of the Ukraine shall be preceded by a description of Ki'ow (which the Russians spell Kief), the capital of the province. The origin of Kiow appears to date from a time very far anterior to our own era; it may be traced back, in the opinion of some annalists, to the period when the Greeks (Cheronites), who laid the first stone of this city, carried on an active commerce with Byzantium, the modern Constantinople. On the right bank of the Dnieper, the true patriarch of Polish rivers, which pours its broad floods into the Euxine, stands the sacred city of Kiow, crowning a rugged steep, that rises from the bosom of the moving sands on the river's brink. It is divided into two portions, the upper town, called Pieczarsk, and the lower, called Dolny Kiov. The former contains the noble cathedral of St. Sophia, consecrated in 1037, a masterpiece of architecture and magnificence; and in the same portion of the city, there are subterranean vaults or catacombs, containing the bones of many saints or Russian martyrs. Under the ruins of the ancient church of St. Basil, are alabaster tablets with Greek inscriptions, bearing the date 260 of the Christian era. Ki'ow has always been the seat of extensive commerce, and several times has been surrounded with ramparts, the scene of many a warlike achievement. When, in 1018, Boleslaus the Great, king of Poland, entered this city in the character of a conqueror, it contained eight spacious squares, and more than four hundred churches, with their gilded towers, shedding floods of reflected radiance when the sunbeams played upon them. These churches contained immense riches, supposed to have been taken from Theodosia (Kaffa). A great part of this wealth was conveyed into Poland by Boleslaus; and at a later date, when Mieczyslaw II. occupied the Bohemian throne, the Bohemians carried the same into Prague. Although the greatest number of these churches were dedicated to the worship of the Greek Church, yet there was a Roman Catholic cathedral; and there were also some Roman Catholic churches. In the beginning of the tenth century, the Russian duke Gleg, first took this city from the Slavonians. In 988, Vladimir the Great, established his residence in this city; and, after having espoused Anne, or Anastasia, sister of Basil and Con stantine, who occupied the throne of Constantinople, embraced Christianity, together with a great number of his subjects. In the same year, the patriarch of Constantinople gave to K'iow its first metropolitan bishop, in the person of Bishop Michael. In 1018, Boleslaus the Great, and in 1077, his great grandson, Boleslaus the Bold, entered this city as victors. In 1228, it was plundered by the Tatars. In 1320, the grand duke of Lithuania, Gedymen, took possession of it in his turn. In 1399 and 1414, Ediga, who conquered Vitold, committed in it many acts of ravage and destruction, from which it never recovered. In 1650, Chmielnicki (Khmielnitski), made himself master of it with his Cossacks; but in the following year, Prince Janus Radziwill, always successful against these Cossacks, drove them out of it. In 1660, it was occupied by the Moscovites, and has remained in the power of the Russians ever since 1686. Ki'ow possesses an academy and a gymnasium. For a long time the schools of the government of K'iow were under the direction of the university of Vilno; but in recent years, they have been transferred to that of the university of Kharkof. A bishop of K'iow, J. A. Zaluski, is known in the annals of Poland, by his having formed a library composed of two hundred thousand volumes. This noble collection was ordered, in 1795, to be transported from "Warsaw to Petersburg. In the vast gardens of Pietcharsque, abounding in all the most delicious fruits of the season, there are vines producing grapes, from which wine is sometimes made.
B In these gardens, situated in the upper town, black grouse are sometimes to be seen. Kiow has from a remote period been greatly celebrated for its exquisite confectionary, elsewhere unsurpassed. At the festival of St. John, towards the end of June, the highest ranks of society belonging to the Ukraine, and even the proprietors of all the Kussic lands, assemble at Kiow; many transactions are effected, and immense sums change hands. The whole city is crowded with wealthy visitors; estates are sold and purchased; balls and brilliant parties exhilarate the young and the gay.