Confederates praying in the name of all the Cosacks that His Majesty would please to pardon them promising That thereupon you would return home and act no more mischief but serve the Czar with all Fidelity without occasioning any difference between His Majesty and the King of Persia as also without taking any thing upon the Volga or the Caspian Sea Whereupon those two Cosacks having taken an Oath in the name of the whole Body and sent to His Majesty Seven persons to implore his pardon which was granted and your Forces being permitted to go with safety from Astracan to the River Don the place of your dwelling notwithstanding all this thou Villain hast forgot the Grace and Favor of the great Czar and hast by the way exercised on the Volga great robbery and coming to Tzaretsa beaten the Waywood and committed enorm outrages An. 7178 alias 1670. Thou Villain together with thy Companions forgetting the Fear of God and deserting the Holy Catholick Apostolick Church didst when you were upon the Don speak blasphemous words against our Lord Christ and prohibit to build Churches and to perform Divine Service in those that were in being driving away all the Priests and making such people as would marry instead of practising the usual Ceremonies of Marriage to go round about a Tree Thou Villain also slighting the Grace of the great Czar vouchsafed to thee and thy Associates hast afresh rebelled against His Majesty and returned to the River Volga acting the like villainies with Robbing and Killing as formerly and particularly plundering and putting to death some honest antient Cosacks that refused to joyn with you and to approve of your Actions Thou hast likewise killed and cast into the Water those that by the great Czar were sent with Letters of Pardon to the Captain Cornelius Jacolowitz and to other Donsky Cossacks and caused the rest to be so beaten that they died of it Marching from the River Don with thy confederate Cossacks and coming to the Town of Tsaretza thou hast fraudulently perswaded the people of that place that the Czar's Army was coming to put them all to the sword whereas on the contrary his Majesties Army went to assist that Town against thee and thy villainous practices upon which ungrounded perswasion the said Town surrendred themselves to thee and received thee amongst them Entring into it thou hast put to the sword the Commander Turgonova and all those Citizens that would not be partakers in your villanies and thrown them into the water and thereupon thou didst march out against the Army of the Great Czar and by fraud rout the same and didst fling into the water their Colonel Jwan Lapatin and their Lieutenant-Colonel Tedor Jeckschym and others after having put them to very great torments Besides thou hast taken away the Czar's Boats laden with Rye and robbed many Merchants and after that thou didst march to the Town Tzornojaar and there kill the Governor Jwan Sergeof and all Officers and many Moscovian Soldiers Coming before Astracan thou madest some of thy villanous Cossacks enter into it and by them induce the Soldiers to deliver up the Town and the Bojar and Waywood into thy hands which was done accordingly the Astracan soldiers thereupon joyning themselves with thee and upon thy Orders pulling the Bojar Kneas Jwan Simonowitz Prosorofsky out of the Church whom thou didst cast down headlong from a high Steeple commanding also his Brother together with many Noble-men Officers Soldiers and Merchants after grievous Tortures to be put to death and robbing the Houses of God Churches and Monasteries as also the Czar's Treasure and many Houses of the principal Citizens and burning all the Papers of State in the Chancery with the addition of such scoffings as cannot be parallel'd Moreover thou hast caused without any shame many Priests Monks and Nuns to be stripp'd naked and many other people besides Thou hast also commanded most inhumanly to be beaten very many to make them confess where they had hid their Treasure without sparing little children Further thou hast put to death some of the chief Merchants of the King of Persia and many other Merchants strangers Perfians Indians Turkish Armenians and Boucharen who upon the account of Traffick were at that time in Astracan robbing them of their Goods and occasioning matter of discontent to the Great Chach of Persia Again thou Villain hast been insatiable of Blood and continued to spill the most innocent and thou hast not scrupled to hang up by their Leggs upon the Wall both the innocent Children of the Bojar Kneas Jwan Simonowitz Prosorofsky and after great Torture to worry the one and so to beat the other that thou thoughtest he could not live And thou hast also caused the Clerks that served the Great Czar and would not consent to thy designs to be put to painful deaths commanding them to be hanged up by their Ribs Besides Thou Villain after having killed in Astracan many good people hast delivered many Wives and their Daughters to be abused by your confederate miscreants commanding also the Priests that they should marry none at the Metropolitan's Order scoffing at the Church of God and the Ordinances of the Holy Apostles and annulling the Sacrament of Marriage and throwing such Priests as refused to comply with thee into the water Thou Villain hast also robbed the Treasure of the Great Czar in Astracan and after an effusion of much blood thou didst march out of that City to Tsarietza and thence up the River to Tsaratof whose Inhabitants surrendred themselves unto thee and there thou didst rob the Corn-Moneys of his Majesty and great store of Provision putting to death the Waywode Koesmakotesin and many Noble men From Saratof Thou Villain persisting in thy malitious designs didst come to the Town Samarof which also was surrendred to thee and whence thou didst carry away the Czar's Treasure putting to the sword the Governour Jwan Alsienofsky and many Noble-men and Citizens that would not take your part From Samarof thou Miscreant didst proceed to the Town Simbierske to which thou laidst a Siege and tookst it by storm doing much mischief there Thou didst also send to many other Towns some of thy villanous Companions by false Writings bearing them in hand that the Eldest Son of our Great Czar of Glorious memory our Czarawitz Alexis Alexewitz Great Duke of the Greater Lesser and the White Russia was yet living and that thou by Order of his Majesty wast come to put to death as Traytors all Bojars Councellors Noble men and Officers being in his Majesties service whereas on the contrary the said Son of our Great Czar departed this mortal life and pass'd into the everlasting Rest of Heaven and that in his Pallace in the presence of his Lord Father in the year 7178 alias 1670. the 17th of January his Corps being buried in Mosco in the Cathedral of S. Michel amongst his Progenitors the very next day after his death likewise in the presence of his Lord
such a person and he is still in Mosko at the house of Kneas Jacob Codonietewitz a Circassian And to drive on these devices he spred abroad that this Lord Czarawitz had made an escape from the violent hands of the Bojars and great Lords and taken his refuge to him adding that he Stenko was come by order of the Great Czar to put to death all the Bojars Nobles Senators and other great ones that were too near to his Majesty as Enemies and Traytors of their Countrey By these base practises invented and push't on by Stenko the ignorant people was inflamed to fight furiously and those of them that were taken prisoners underwent death with a wonderful resolution as being possessed with the perswasion of dying for a good cause At Smolensko was hanged a certain person who said that he died upon having seen with Stenko the Prince Czarawitz whereas he saw but a counterfeit one The other ship that Stenko had was lined with Black Velvet and he gave out that there was in it the late Patriarch Nikow who in the year 1666. was upon the Condemnation passed by the Patriarchs of Alexandria and of Antioch by his Majesty the Great Czar deposed from his Dignity and sent to the Monastery of Belooser where he is yet at this day By these Arts Stenko had so far advanced his design that the whole Tract of Land about the Volga and farther up into the Countrey was engaged in this rebellion as far as to the Towns Accateur and Arsa And the number of the Rebels was augmented to two hundred thousand and part of the Czernische Tartars and all the Ruffian Countrey-men living in this Tract and belonging to Muscovian Lords rose up against their Governors killing and hanging them and the fire of this Rebellion gained at length so much ground that it began to burn not above twelve miles from Mosko it self Hereupon the Great Czar raised a great Army and under the conduct of the Noble Kneas Jurge Alexewitz Dolgeroek sent it about the end of September against the Enemy of whom he met a party of Fifteen thousand men who though they fought resolutely and rallied three times yet were at length beaten and put to slight very many remaining dead upon the place and a great number being taken who were immediately executed Six Field pieces fell into the hands of Dolgeroek who encamped under the Town Arsamas where he exercised severe judgment upon these Rebels The place was terrible to behold and had the resemblance of the Suburbs of Hell Round about it were Gallows each of which was loaded with Forty or fifty Men. In another place lay many Beheaded and covered with Blood Here and there stood some impaled whereof not a few lived unto the third day and were heard to speak Within the space of Three Moneths there were by the Hands of Executioners put to death Eleven thousand Men in a legal way upon the hearing of Witnesses Dolgeroek himself remaining upon the place of Judgment sent his Army out by Parties that found out defeated and dispersed Stenko's forces It was of great importance to Russia and a great Mercy of God that the Rebels lay here and there divided as also that they could not agree amongst themselves about the Supream Command For if this power of the Rebels consisting of Two hundred thousand Men had been united and unanimous it would have been difficult for the Forces of the Czar to have resisted and mastered the same The German Officers were highly applauded by His Majesty for having acquitted themselves so well in leading on their Men. The most resolute of the Rebels were those of the small Towns of Lisko and Morasko who had more than once attempted to take by storm the Cloister of Macariof and lost a great number of Men before it taking it at last by the treachery of a Jew and putting to death all the Monks that were found in it and carrying away a rich prey because the people living thereabout had carried their Goods thither for security Morasko held out but those of Lisko rendred themselves in good time and delivered Thirty of the Rebellious Cosacks together with a Nephew of Stenko Razin and so they were pardoned Amongst the Prisoners there was brought to Kneas Jurge Dolgeroek a Nun in Man's habit put over her Monastical dress This Nun had commanded Seven thousand Men and done bravely in this War till she was taken prisoner There appeared not any alteration in her nor any fear of death when the Sentence of being Burnt alive was pronounced against her Amongst the Russians the deserting of a Monastery is esteemed a black and capital crime A little before she died she wished that many more had behaved themselves and fought as couragiously as she had done that then certainly Kneas Jurge would have found his best safety in his heels Being now to die she signed herself after the Russian manner with the cross on her forehead and brest and so laid her self quietly down upon the Pile and was burnt to Ashes There was also brought to Judgment one of Stenko Razin's Confederates and his best Counsellor who had been his right hand His Arms and Legs were cut off and so he was Beheaded and Hanged The Prisoners were commonly put upon the Rack and being examined what they designed in this Rebellion they answered That they intended for Mosco and would have the lives of the Nobles and other great ones Their word was Not'schay that is to say Vnexpected intimating That the Czarawitz Alexis Alexewitz was come as it were from Heaven besides their expectation Thus hath Kneas Jurge Dolgeroek in the space of Three Moneths made an end of this Rebellion in the Quarters about the River Don but in other places the Fire was not yet extinguished when the Czar called him back with his Army Mean time Kneas Constantine Czarbatof was by His Majesty commanded to march towards Taneboef there to subdue the Rebels of those parts which also by the assistance of God was effected So that all the Disquieted and Rebellious Countreys have been by Hanging Burning Beheading Slaughtering besides the Eleven thousand Executed by the Hands of Hangmen and by killing in the Field above an Hundred thousand Men reduced to their former obedience But to return to Stenko Razin after that he had been routed about Simbierske and was retired downwards he chose a freer Air for his abode and remained for a while in the Wilderness of Steep leaving to one of his Confederates call'd Sjorte-Ous that is the Divels Knuckle the command of Astracan Stenko in the mean time wandring up and down until at length by the Captain Cornelius Jacolowitz and those of the Donsky-Cosacks that had remained faithful to the Czar he was secured and brought into Mosco This Cornelius Jacolowitz was God-father to Stenko and always honored by him as if he had been his Father whence he never in the least imagined that that person should contrive any mischief against him But
he that was so perfidious to his Prince deserved no better recompence He was laid hold on about Tzarietza and carried that long way of Two hundred Miles to Mosco entertained all along with the hopes that he should speak with the Great Czar himself and before him by word of Mouth plead his own cause he always imagining that he had many things to say very important for the Czar to know His Brother Frolko was extreamly sad on the way and it seems of a better nature than Stenko whom he charged with all he had done And Stenko seeing his Brother at a certain time more than usually troubled comforted him by representing that coming into the City of Mosco they should receive great honor thousands of people and the greatest of the Land being doubtless ready to meet and to see them Stenko coming within a mile of Mosco the Waggon met him that had been made to bring him into the City according to his deserts In the hind-part of it was erected the Gallows himself was stripped of his Silken habit which he had worn hitherto and an old ragged Sute put upon him and so he was placed in the Waggon under the Gallows with an Iron-Chain about his Neck fastned to the top of the same Both his hands were locked fast to the Side-beams of the Gallows and his Legs divaricated His Brother Frolko was with an Iron-Chain fastned to the Waggon and went a foot on the side of it Thus entred Stenko with his Brother into the City of Mosco Thousands of People of great and mean condition beholding them and so fulfilling his Prophesie of the honor he should have in entring this Town And though he comforted his Brother with this honor yet himself standing in the Waggon looked on no body but held his Face continually downward They were both put to the torture but what they there confessed is not well known onely that Stenko did very much lament the death of his Brother who by the command of Kneas Jurge Dolgeroek had formerly been hanged His Brother Frolko behaving himself most pittifully under the torture Stenko went about to comfort him again and said That he must remember the good things he had enjoyed that he had lived so long among his Friends with great credit and reputation and had commanded thousands and therefore he was now to bear this hard fortune with patience The Russes use this manner of Torture they shave the Crown of the Head of a Malefactor and drop cold Water upon it which they say causeth very great pain It is related That when the Crown of Stenko and his Brother was shaved Stenko said to his Brother I have often heard that none is shaved for a Priest but he must be Learned we are both unlearned and yet they do us the honor of shaving our Crown Four days after that he was brought in he was with his Brother carried to the place of Execution in the Cittadel The Sentence of Death was read before him wherein were expressed the Principal Villanies he had committed He seemed not at all concerned and spoke not a word but stooped And when the Executioner was going to do his office he crossed himself several times directing his face towards a certain Church called Pretsietse Bogorodietse Casaneche that is The most Holy Mother of God of Casan And thereupon he bowed his head thrice towards three several places of the people assembled saying Prostie that is Forgive me And presently he was laid down between two Beams and his Right Arm cut off to the Elbow and his Left Leg to the Knee After this his Head was cut off with an Hatchet All which was done with great speed in a very short time and Stenko gave not the least sigh nor shewed any sign of sense His Brother coming to the place of Execution cryed out That he had the Czar's word a manner of expression when a person hath any secret to reveal which is to be manifested to none but to the great Czar alone Being asked what it was he said It was to be told to none but to the Czar Whereupon he was reprieved and they say That he hath discovered the place of the Treasure digged under Ground by his Brother Stenko This was the end of Stenko Razin his Deputy Sjorte-Ous whom he had left to command in Astracan is said to have raised new commotions putting to Death the Metropolite and others that are contrary to his design God Almighty give to the great Czar Alexis Michaelewitz the Victory over all his Enemies Arch. Angel Sept. 23 23. 1671. on Board of the Ship the Queen Esther The Sentence of Death read before STENKO RAZIN on the Place of Execution June 6. 1671. THou Villain and Renegado Rebel Donsky-Cosack Stenko Razin in the year 7175 alias 1667. abandoning the fear of God and forgetting thy Duty and Oath whereby thou art bound to His Majesty the great Czar Alexis Michaelowitz Emperor and Defendor of the Greater and Lesser and the White Russia hast Rebelled against His said Majesty and having raised other Cosacks hast marched with them to the River Volga there to act thy Villainous Designs And coming there thou hast done great mischief to much people taking the Nasaisky great Boats laden with Salt-fish and Salt belonging to the Patriarch Cloysters and others As also the Boats of many Merchants Which Violence and Robbery thou hast acted as far as to the very Walls of Astracan Again Thou Villain hast betwixt Astracan and the Sorneiner Robbed Killed and Thrown into the Water the Waywood of the great Czar Simon Bellemisch who was sent to speak with thee The like villainy thou hast committed upon the Muscovian Officer Susover that was likewise dispatched to thee for the same end When out of Astracan to the Town Jayck were sent a Waywood and two Russian Colonels with some Soldiers to confer with you in an amicable way and to perswade you to desist from your Villainous attempts and to beg his Majesties pardon thou didst hang both the Colonels and betake thy self with thy Cosacks to Sea from Jayck and return from Sea into the Volga ruining all places of Fishery and burning the habitations of the Tartars Thou Villain hast also been under the Town Tarchi and hast exceedingly endamaged the adjacent places as also part of the Dominions of the King of Persia Being upon the Caspian Sea thou didst rob the Subjects of Persia and take away the Goods of Merchants and their lives also Thou hast also ruined several Towns in Persia and thereby caused great difference between the Two Empires Besides the Soldiers of Astracan upon thy orders have killed their Colonel and joyned themselves to thee doing great mischief in many places An. 7177 alias 1669. The Governor of Astracan Kneas Jwan Simonewitz Prosorofsky sent against you the Waywood Kneas Simon Leibof with His Majesties Army who had girt you all about which thou Villain seeing didst dispatch to that Waywood two of thy chief