At the same time as the townspeople, residents of the lord's names began to flee to Zaporozhye; Since this caused damage to the lord's economy, they were always forbidden to convert to the Cossacks in any way. There was only one thing left for the boys to do: run to the bottom, and that’s what they did; this “holy goal” still had nothing to spare for their homeland, and the free life of the Cossacks after the master’s bullying should have seemed like paradise to them.
In this way, many permanent residents from Ukraine and Poland gathered at Niza.
Niz or Zaporozhye consisted of lands lying on the 0b side of the Dnipro, below its rapids, almost to the Black Sea.
These places were steppe, and nature here had a dual character; In terms of its appearance, it represented an extraordinary abundance, which generally distinguished Ukraine (lying above the rapids), but in terms of location, it represented an extreme lack.
In the spring, Zaporozhye looked like a limitlessly stretched green tablecloth, boundless, as if a silky veil, with overhanging rocks over high-water rivers and deep gullies.
And how diverse the city was! Here a ravine spreads out, a ravine stretches; there, along the banks of the river, rocks jut out from behind the rocks; there is a stream babbling melodiously. Or a river pure as crystal twists capriciously: here small hillocks rise, mounds and graves rise, and there, far away, by the mighty flowing waters, dark, drowsy, pristine, densely leafed lands.
All this is extremely beautiful and majestic!
Zaporozhye was rich in water: the Dnieper alone with its tributaries occupied a huge area of land, making it possible to develop rich flax and steppe flora, despite the scorching sun in summer and severe cold in winter; True, forests did not occupy huge areas. But they amazed the traveler with the density of their thicket, the size of individual trees and the variety of species of the latter.
Here we met: linden, maple, hornbeam, elm, oak. ash, plane tree, leather tree, vine, sedge, willow, willow, rose hip, hawthorn, mulberry, blackthorn, wild pear and apple tree, duli, barberry and many others.
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The land was fertile and rich; it could abundantly produce various types of grain: rye, wheat, barley. oats, buckwheat, millet, flax, hemp, etc., - from garden vegetables: watermelons, melons, cucumbers, potatoes, garlic, onions, beets, parsley, etc.
In spaces of several tens or hundreds of dessiatines one could find many types of vegetation: dim tea, sage, feather grass, chicory, cockle, asparagus, horseradish, poppy, chamomile and others.
All this at the first shine of the spring sun little from the ground, grew rapidly and in a short time reached almost full development.
With the appearance of vegetation, animals also appeared, and birds also flew in; “Plavni” were especially abundant in both.
Floodplains are low-lying valleys along the sides of the middle and lower flows of the Dnipro, especially on the left bank, covered with lush grass, tall reeds and various kinds of, mostly soft, trees: in spring and rainy autumn, the floodplains were completely flooded with water; However, they were dry, except for the lowest places, filled with water and representing channels - streams, lakes and swamps.
The consequence of this was that in the hottest summer, when the coastal steppes were scorched by the sun, and therefore lifeless spaces, the floodplains had and provided the moisture necessary for the development of plants and were a refuge from the heat for various kinds of animals and birds.
The floodplains were swarming with wild boars, bears, badgers, and wolves. foxes, otters, buffaloes, horses, deer, fallow deer, goats and others; partridges, corncrakes, starlings and many small birds lurked, darted and flew in the dense grass and bushes, fleeing from huge vipers, various snakes and eagles, hawks and falcons soaring at heights; drokhva (chicken name), like a flock of rams. grazed in the coastal steppe; the tops of the thawed oak trees were covered with troupes of black grouse perched on the branches: swans, geese, ducks, cormorants, cranes, birds, women and other water and marsh birds swam, dived and fed in rivers and lakes, sometimes rising into the air in noisy flocks to escape the attacks of the gourmet fox, and again descending on another lake, equally rich in fish, just like before.
Nowhere, it seems, has there been such a variety of different
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fish, as in the Dnfir and its tributaries; Since ancient times, stories have come down about its wealth in fish.
Here were found: sturgeon, catfish, stellate sturgeon, tench, sterlet, pike, ram, bream (chubak), perch, ruffe, roach, pike perch, ide, herring, chilik and bufflug, reaching up to 3 fathoms in length.