granting to the Cossacs protection and assistance. Their former fertile country being desolated and laid waste by the long continuance of the war, they settled in the Russian Ukraine, preserved their ancient constitution, and were exempted from the payment of all taxes. To compensate in some measure for these immunities, they stipulated to maintain at their own expence considerable body of troops for the service of Russia. But in 1708, Mazeppa, the hettman, or chief of the Cossacs, infringed this treaty, and joined Charles the twelfth of Sweden. Peter the first, who at that time possesed the throne of Russia, in order to prevent such revolts for the future, sent a strong detachment into the little islands of the Nieper, whither the Cossacs had fled with their families and effects, inhumanly commanded them to be put to death, and their property to be divided among his soldiers. Exclusive of the massacre committed by the czar's troops, he caused a great number of Cossacs to be transported to the Baltic, where they endured the most unmerited sufferings. Peter, however, did not succeed in extirpating that warlike nation. The office of hettman was abolished in 1722, but restored in 1750, when the empress Elizabeth confirmed the election of one of her privy-counsellors to that dignity. The internal government of this people seems to approximate the nearest to that of the ancient Germans. The captains and officers of the nation elect a chief, who holds his office during life, and is considered as a superior over the other towns, each of which is formed into a separate commonwealth, and governed by an ●fficer chosen annually. The Cossacs are divid

ed into many tribes, but their manners and customs bear a strong affinity to one another; and their principal distinction seems to be the effect of local and accidental causes.

The czar possesses a part of Circassia, which is situated in Asiatic Russia, or Russian Tartary. The females here are celebrated for their beauty, and called the "French Tartar women," on account of their great fondness of fashious. The men also dress in a tasteful manner. They practice circumcision, which is the only part of Mahometanism they observe, and with it they mingle certain ceremonies of Paganism and Christianity.

The Tartars are a people who inhabit a vast extent of territory in the Russian empire. They are in general disagreeable in their persons, but strong and very robust. So numerous are the tribes into which they are divided, that the bare nomenclature of them would be a difficult study to commit to memory. They are scattered over the plains, which they inhabit in preference to any other part, and consider towns and cities as places of confinement. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at, that no country in the world contains fewer towns than Russian Tartary. It possesses, however, heaps of ruins, which sufficiently demonstrate that it has not always been thus bare of cities, and which must be the remains of cities of considerable magnitude. In some sepulchres, which stand near to them, the curious have found Grecian, Syrian, Arabian, and Roman coins.

In Siberia, which is an immense country, or rather frightful desert, whither the Russians are exiled, similar vestiges of habitations may be

observed.

observed. The Huns, who overturned the Roman empire, and who had originally emigrated from the north of China, issued from these forests. To them succeeded the Tartars, called Usbecks, who, in their turn, were dispossessed by the Russians. It is thus that for ages men have continued to murder each other, in fighting for one of the most uninviting countries upon earth. The cold is here of long duration, and so intense that people have often been frozen to death on horseback. In this country all kinds of minerals are to be met with; and Siberia furnishes fossile bones, which are the reliques either of very large elephants, whose existence must appear very extraordinary in so cold a climate, or of a species of animal which is now totally extinct. Whether of these opinions ought to be adopted naturalists are not agreed. The scattered hordes, or tribes, who inhabit this country, have not adopted the same manners, but each has its own peculiar customs, government, and religion, if deserving that appellation. Siberia was not subjected to the Russians by gentle means. Peter the Great caused in one day seven hundred of the inhabitants of a small town, called Tara, to be impaled alive, in order to deter others from conspiring against him. Near to that unfortunate town grows a species of henbane, which, being infused in liquor, produces a very extraordinary effect on those who drink it the most minute things become great in their eyes; a straw is magnified into a beam, a few drops of water seem a lake, and the smallest hole appears a precipice. Possessed of so excellent a preservative, it is much to be regretted that the ill-fated inhabitants did not send to

the czar a few casks of wine duly impregnated with it.

CHAP. II.

From the Accession of Ruric to the Extinction of his Family.

OTWITHSTANDING all researches into

Nowy, The Russians may searches

in the same light as those ancient families, who are ignorant of their origin and descent, and are, scarcely acquainted with the names of those who first began to raise them to celebrity and repute. In fact, it would be an extremely difficult task to prove whether their progenitors were Scythians, Huns, Cimbri, Getæ, Sarmatæ, or other ancient inhabitants of those countries, which are now comprehended within the dominions of the czar. It is not till the middle of the fifteenth century, that we can discover in those extensive tracts of territory other inhabitants than hordes of savages, who advancing, retreating, combating, expelling, expelled, and returning, were at length united under the command of a more enterprizing and successful chieftain, who formed them into a corporate nation. On the death of this leader, the collected tribes were divided among his children, who renew the former confusion. After some time arises another chief, who resumes the empire, which he again loses or dismembers among his family. In this manner, Russia was incessantly exposed to the fatal vicissitudes of sovereigns and intestine wars, and being oppressed by the bloody contests of those dis

cordant

cordant princes, frequently became an easy prey to the Poles and Tartars.

We shall, however, retrace the sovereigns of this country as far back as the most authentic accounts of Russia extend.-In the ninth century, the Scandinavians, who were Danes, Normans or Norwegians, and Swedes, emigrated. from the north, and crossing the Baltic, settled in this country. They first subdued the inhabitants of Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia; and, extending their conquests, exacted tributes from the natives of Novogorod. These intruders were denominated Waregers, from which the name Russes or Russians, is said to derive its origin. This country being broken into several petty states, which were continually at war with each other, the most horrid rapine, cruelty, and devestations were frequently committed. Gostomisel, therefore, a principal person among the Novogoradians, by whom he was highly revered for his prudence and understanding, pitying the wretched condition of his countrymen, advised them to apply to their potent neighbours the Waregers, and to offer them the government. This proposal was readily accepted, and three princes of known abilities and valour, whose names were Ruric, Sineus, and Truwor, who are said to have been brothers, were deput ed to the office. They reigned very amicably, and made considerable additions to their respective territories, all of which at length devolved to Ruric, by the death of Sineus and Truwor, who left no issue.

On the demise of Ruric, he left his dominions to his son Igor, a minor, whom he committed to the care of a relation

A. De

878.

named