. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. THE LITTLE RUSSIANS AND COSSACKS. 293 and bagnios. To tlieso plundering hordes Christian bands were opposed, which afterwards became famous under the name of Cossacks. They consisted chiefly of the independent elements in the border-lands between the rival Slav and Moslem populations, of the Dnieper fishermen, and of adventurers accompanying the trading caravans of the steppes. Under the influence of the chivalrous ideas prevailing in the West, the Polish and Lithuano-Russian nobles converted these Cossacks into a sort of "Ukranian knights&qu
. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. THE LITTLE RUSSIANS AND COSSACKS. 293 and bagnios. To tlieso plundering hordes Christian bands were opposed, which afterwards became famous under the name of Cossacks. They consisted chiefly of the independent elements in the border-lands between the rival Slav and Moslem populations, of the Dnieper fishermen, and of adventurers accompanying the trading caravans of the steppes. Under the influence of the chivalrous ideas prevailing in the West, the Polish and Lithuano-Russian nobles converted these Cossacks into a sort of "Ukranian knights" (ri/fzarstvo Ukrayinne). Some of their first rallying-points were Kanev and Chigirin, in Kiyovia, though Cherkasi soon became the chief centre of the Lower Cossacks about the Middle Dnieper, and the term Cherkasi is even still applied to the Little Eussians by tlieir Great Russian Fig. 148.—Khortitza. Scale 1 : 200,000. SP-^O' 32^50 L of H. 47 ^"^ V Cot, BAiPwa1<l\ 55 û5°IO L ofb BniTO-ws- Û Wells. 2 Miles. neighbours. Towards the close of the sixteenth century they established them- selves farther south, in the Dnieper islands below the confluence of the Samara, about the great falls, whence their Russian name of Zaporog {Za poroj'fsi), or "People beyond the ; Li this well-protected spot they soon became the terror of the Moslem marauders, and attracted multitudes of the peasantry, escaping from serfdom in Poland and Lithuania, and raising their numbers in the seventeenth century to " 120,000 armed warriors" (Beauiilan). They crossed the Black Sea to burn Sinope, in Asia Minor, and in 1624 one of their expeditions sacked the suburbs of Constantinople. Li the sixteenth century the central sitch, or stronghold, was in the island of Khortitza, amidst the Dnieper Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrat
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade18, booksubjectgeography, bookyear1883
