The powers of Europe now beheld upon the frontiers of their own empires an enemy far more redoubtable than the Saracen "infidels" against whom they had waged their mystical crusades. Turning from his dream of rescuing the Holy Sepulchre the Emperor Frederick II exercised all his eloquence to unite the Christian princes in a league against the ^Mongols. The Roman Pontiff, fearing for the Christian rehgion, preached a Holy War. Saint Louis prepared to march in person against the barbarians.
"All of ci\Tlized Europe was given over to anxiety and apprehension. The Tartars were represented as monsters living upon human flesh."* "Even the most reasonable believed that the end of the world was at hand. The people of Gog and ^lagog advancing under the command of the Antichrist were about to bring about the destruction of the universe." Suddenly, as though by common agreement or following some general command, the widely scattered hordes of horsemen turned once more towards the East, finally settling in great armed camps upon the fertile steppes near the shores of the Volga. In this inexplicable action, as mysterious as their first appearance from the heart of Asia, the wTiters of the time perceived the hand of an unseen Providence. The avenging wrath of the Deity had been turned aside by the intercession of the priests and holy men of Christendom.
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
Yet complete as the conquest of the Tartars appeared to be it was not destined to outlast the century which saw its rise. As usual in Oriental despotisms the seeds of its dissolution came from within.
The first result of these disaff ections — notablj' a revolt of the Nogai tribesmen against the princes of the Golden Horde — was the disappearance of the crude administrative system exercised by the Tartar rulers over the old tribes of the steppes. These began once more to reassert their indef pendence. Bands of Scythian refugees, Khosars, /> Khomans and "Khosaks," began to leave the // marshy deltas of the great rivers such as the Don and Dnieper — where they had found in common a precarious refuge — and mounted on horses stolen from the Tartars returned to their familiar haunts. Here a terrible desolation spoke everywhere of "Tartar Peace." How complete had been the destruction of whole tribes and settlements of the previous inhabitants — cfiught by the overwhelming avalanche of Tartar horsemen — is pictured by the monkish chroniclers of a previous generation. In Hakluyfs Voyages these travellers describe how "for over three hundred leagues" they passed through great fields of whitening bones, "the only signs that might recall the presence of previous inhabitants of the steppes."
The wars of the princes of Tartary with the revolted Nogai and the struggles of the latter with
F THE "FREE PEOPLE" 5
the Russians now gave to the miserable remnants of the ancient lords of Sej^hia an opportunity to recover something of their ascendency, over the wildest and most deserted parts of the steppes. As these scattered tribesmen became more skilled in desert warfare, both Russians and Tartars occasionally sought their alliance and the aid of their ill-armed cavalry in setthng their quarrels. But whether gathered in armed camps or Slovods, or else leading an errant nomad life, these "war bands," composed of refugees and renegades of every origin, were a constant menace to the frontiers of their more civilized neighbours; pirating on the great rivers and attacking the caravans of Russian or Tartar merchants with indifferent zeal. In the precarious existence of these rovers, we find the first traces of the frontier "ci^'ilization" of the Cossacks.
Xo problem of Russian history has given rise to more controversy than that of the origin of the Cossack race. It now appears established that the influence of the geographic and climatic conditions which exist on the steppes, modifying to a common type the characteristics of the peoples and tribes (often of wholly different origin) who in turn have inhabited the ancient lands of the Scyths — is the paramount factor in soh'ing this problem. The tracing of blood ties and relationships would therefore seem of less importance than an understanding of the conditions under which the characteristic Cossack civilization has been developed.