parties to hear news of the Cossacks The Marshy Moorish places which he was to travel through and the great number of Carriages caused his Forces to march scatteringly So that he thought it necessary to divide them into Ten Brigades if we may so name a Body of Ten or twelve thousand men of which number each was composed he reserved the first for himself gave the command of the second to the great General Potoski the third to the General of the Campagne Kalinouski Palatine of Czernihovia the fourth to John Simon Szcavinski Palatine of Brestch the fifth to the Duke of Wisnowitz Palatine of Russia the sixth to Stanislaus Potoski Palatine of Podolia the seventh to the Grand Marshal of the Kingdom Lubomirski the eighth to Stanislaus Landskoronski Palatine of Braclaw the nineth to the Vice-chancellor of Lithuania Sapieha the tenth to Koniespolski the Great Ensign to the Crown The Polish Army came the next day being the Sixteenth to Wygnanka a place abounding in Water and good Pasture Grounds where they understood by a Soldier who had left the Cossacks Army that Kmielniski was gone from his Camp which lay between Zbaras and Wisnowitz to go meet the Cham whom he expected with impatience having called for his assistance not trusting enough in his own Forces although he had a prodigious multitude of revolted Peasants joyned with his Cossacks but had as yet but Six thousand Tartars with him The King arriving at Berestesko of which Town the Count of Lesno under Chamberlain of Brzestia is Lord he incamped near it all along the River of Ster which washes this place on all sides and then sent out Three thousand Horse under the command of Stemkouski and Czarneski to be certainly informed of the enemies march and understood by some prisoners whom they took that the Cham was come to Kmielniski with a numerous Army and that he had sent out parties to learn in what place and condition the Polish Army was Upon this news it was resolved of in a Council of War to dislodge from Berestesko and to place themselves at Dubno a Town belonging to the Palatine of Cracovia The Baggage began to move and the Army was about to march with a resolution to encounter the Cossacks wheresoever they should oppose them when the Duke of Wisnowitz who was of the Guard sent to advertise the King that Kmielniski and the Cham were coming in all haste towards him And the Grand General understanding by a Peasant that the enemies promised themselves assured victory if they could fall upon the Polish Army intangled in the way resolved to stay at Berestesko and the Baggage was ordered to be brought back which was upon the way Scarce were they returned into the Camp but the Scouts brought word that the whole Army of the Cossacks and Tartars were near to Pereatin a Village within five hundred paces so that the Generals presently drew up the Polish Army left the River Ster on one side of them and lined all the Wooded places near with divers Companies of Foot for fear of an Ambush The Twenty seventh of June about night Ten thousand Tartars drawn out from the rest came near to the Polish Army to take a view of it making as if they came to provoke them to fight The Grand Marshal and Grand Ensign not being able to suffer their insolence went out with their Regiments by the permission of the Great General and the assistance also of Wisnowitski his Regiment and ingaged them a long while repulsed them and drove them back half a League Upon the Eight and twentieth there was another more fierce skirmish the Cham placed himself and his whole Army upon certain Eminencies in sight of the Poles strengthned with some of the choice Forces of the Cossacks The Polish Army being also drawn up in order the Regiments of the Palatine of Brzestia and Pomerania of the Duke Bogislaus Radzevil and the Palatine of Witebsko with the Horse of Przemislia and Volhynia went to set upon the Tartars who to revenge the defeat they received the day before seeing that the Horse was backed but with a small number of Foot they poured in upon them great numbers of Men. Landskoronski was the first who could put a stop to this torrent neither was it done without the loss of many of his own Men and of his Brother and he himself was so incompassed by a great number of those Infidels that to disingage him there were sent out the Regiments of the Great General of the General of the Campagne of the Palatine of Russia of the Grand Marshal and of Sapieha The fight grew hot upon the arrival of this reinforcement and many were slain on both sides the Tartars lost about a Thousand Men and divers prisoners of considerable note were taken amongst others the Secretary to the Cham. The Poles had Three hundred of theirs slain and amongst them Casanouski Governor of Halicz Ossolinski Starroste of Lublin Nephew to the Great Chancellor deceased Stadniski Under-Chamberlain of Sanoc Ligeza Sword-bearer of Przemislia Rrecziski Captain Jourdan and divers Gentlemen of the Palatinate of Lencincia and so ended the Engagement of the Eight and twentieth of June The Night following having considered in their Council of War that the Enemies design was to delay time and to reduce the Polanders to extremities for want of Provision in a Countrey too far distant from any place whence they might draw their subsistance they thought it better to employ their Army while it was in its strength and vigor and determined to give Battel the next day The King spent most of the night at his devotions and in ordering his affairs so soon as it was day he drew up his Army without the enemies perceiving it in the least by favor of a great Mist which continued till Nine in the Morning The Right Wing of the First Line was commanded by the Grand General Potoski and under him by Landskoronski Palatine of Braclaw Opalinski Palatine of Posnania Lubomirski Grand Marshal of the Kingdom Sapieha Vice-Chancellor of Lithuania Koniespolski Grand Ensign to the Crown the Count Vladislaus of Leszno Under-Chamberlain of Posnania the two Zobieski's Sons to the Governor of Cracovia deceased and some other great Persons who had raised Forces at their own expences The Conduct of the Left Wing was committed to Kalinouski General of the Campagne to the Dukes of Ostrog and Zaslaw to the Palatine of Brzestya the Duke of Wisnowitz Palatine of Russia to Stanislaus Potoski Palatine of Podolia to John Zamoiski and to Colonel Enhoff of Liefland many of which had joyned the Forces which they had raised in their own Countreys to those of the States The King took charge of the main Body of the Army composed of the German and Polish Foot at the Head of which stood the Artillery commanded by Sigismond Priemski who was General of it and had been a long time Major General under the Swedes in Germany The Second Line in the middle of
House of the Geereys shall be extinct The Religion of the Praecopian Tartars being Mahumetan and their Language the Turkish together with their nearness to Constantinople the Government also is very like to that of the Turks the Cham's first Minister of State is called the Vizier the same as the Grand Signior's they have also Priests and Caditi's to doe justice for the administration of which they have no other Code but the Alcoran and no other interpreter of that but their own common Sense the parties plead their own Cases which are briefly and readily dispatched the Cham himself doth Justice and determines Controversies especially when he goeth forth in publick without acception of persons hearing the poor as well as the rich Drunkenness Murder Adultery and Theft are most rigorously punished and though they be much accustomed to rob in War yet they totally abstain from it in their own Countrey where wearing of any Arms is prohibited them even in the Cham's Court. The forces of this Prince are very numerous for gathering together all the hords of the Tartars who doe either obey him or are his Allies he is able to bring into the field many thousand Horse they have no Foot but some Janisaries which they receive from the Turk upon any expedition which they make by his Order or Agreement there are some few Garrisons in the Castles and strong places of Taurica Chersonesus the most considerable is in the Fortress of Przecop or Or which hath notwithstanding but a bad Ditch four or five fathoms over and a Rampart of seven or eight foot high and two fathoms and half over here lieth always a strong Guard to defend the entrance of the Peninsula and he that is Governor is Commander of all the Hordes of the Tartars as far as the Boristhenes The wars which the Tartars ordinarily make are rather an inroad then any thing else How strict peace soever they have with the Christians their neighbors they doe not fail to visit them often either upon their inclination or upon the Command of the Cham who always pretends to a Tribute from the Moscovites and Polanders which they have paid sometimes when necessity hath forced them and refused at others as not being willing to subject themselves to these acknowledgements towards Infidels and those whom they dispise When the Tartars would make any great inroad either into Poland or Moscovy they choose ordinarily the full Moon of January all the Rivers Lakes and Marshes being then frozen and the Earth especially in the plain Desarts covered with Snow which is very commodious for their Horses which are not shod every Tartar carrieth two with him either for change or to carry his booty and provision neither is his provision very weighty consisting onely of a little Millet dried Flesh powdered after the manner of the Turks and some Garlick which they hold very proper to digest so many crude Meats as they eat and many times they carry nothing feeding onely upon the flesh of their Horses which perish in their march they take their way through the Valleys and most obscure passages that they may not be discovered by the Cossacks who always keep Centry and Watch and are out upon parties to hear news of them and so to allarm the Countrey That which is most surprising is That in the middle of winter they incamp without fire for fear of being discovered and eat little but Horseflesh stewed under their Saddles when they are arrived at those places where they intended whither it be in Vkrain or elsewhere their Generals let loose one third part of their Army which is divided into divers Troops and these over-run and pillage all the Countrey five or six Leagues about the wings of their Army their main body in the mean time keeping close together to be in a posture to fight their Enemies if their should be occasion afterwards this party being returned they let loose another in its turn observing always this Order That all their Troops which run up and down may in a few hours return to the body of their Army after they have pillaged and harrased the Countrey five or six days they return as fast as they can that they may not be set upon in their retreat and having regained the open desart Plains where their Body consisting of Horse they have great advantage in fight they make a halt to refresh themselves awhile and to share the Booty and Prisoners They make their incursions also in Summer but not in such great numbers seldom so many as ten thousand together and these are the Tartars of Budziak who at that season lead their Horses and Cattel into the Plains to feed and so getting ground they of a suddain run out and take away all they meet nor is it easie to stop them but with a thousand men marching always in Tabor The Tartars fight not but in great Troops of two three or four thousand Horse and seldom give battle but when they are much the stronger and when their Army is forced and broken up by the enemy they scatter and disperse themselves into so many little Troops that the Polanders and Germans who march close and by squadrons know not which to set upon in their retreat they shoot their Arrows from behind them with such exactness as to hit those who pursue them at two hundred paces distance and at a quarter of a League from thence rally their forces again and return presently to charge this they repeat often it being their manner of fighting but it is onely thus when they are the greatest number for otherwise when they once run it is full speed and not to return again and it is difficult to surprise them they keeping strict watch all night not easie to defeat them unless it be in some streight or upon some pass of a River The prisoners which they take they make Slaves and sell them to the Merchants of Constantinople and Caffa and other places of the East who either keep them to wait upon themselves or to look after their Cattle or till the Ground entertaining with the same face as we have formerly spoken of as divers Polish and French Officers have related unto me amongst others Lieutenant-Collonel Nicolai and Captain Croustade who most unfortunately fell into their hands but the Poles are even with them for except those Children whom they choose to wait upon them and Baptize and instruct in the Christian Religion or some Murza which they shut up and treat well enough and hope to exchange for some Polish Nobleman prisoner in Tartary the rest are kept as Slaves having always Irons upon their feet and are made use of as Beasts to carry all manner of burthens Lime Brick and all other materials for building Wood for their Kitchins and Chambers and to make clean their Houses and Plough and other labors being always followed by one who keeps them to their work yet these poor people get some time to make Whips
first excused himself for serving under the Cossacks to which he was induced by the outrages which he had received from a certain great person and by the turn of the Fortune of the Poles the year before but yet that he had not for all that lost his love and zeal for his Countrey as he had testified to them in three other Letters which he had sent to them in the same manner and did now give them notice that the King was certainly coming to their relief and already arrived at Zborow that the Cossacks being informed of his coming would not fail to redouble their assaults against them but for the same reason they ought to redouble their courage and prepare themselves to repulse them with their utmost vigor The most part of the besieged could not put any confidence in this Letter supposing it to be a new invention of the Generals But soon after it was found to be true and that the King was advanced as far as Zborow to deliver his besieged Forces having surmounted all those obstacles which might retard his preparations and his march True it is that his Army was thought by the most intelligent not onely insufficient to confront that terrible number of enemies which he went against but even to sustain the least Onset from them it consisting in all but of Fifteen thousand Soldiers in pay and Five thousand others raised by the Nobility at their own charge the rest not being able to come so soon having been too slow in their Levies notwithstanding the continual instances of the King and his earnest diligence in this affair Kmielniski and the Cham understanding of the march of the King of Poland divided their Forces and leaving Forty thousand Tartars with a great number of the Cossacks and revolted Peasants before Zbaras with the rest of their forces marched towards Zborow and were not discovered by the Kings forces either by reason that the King had sent none out to inform himself or that the Countrymen thereabouts more inclined to favor the Cossacks as being of the same Religion with them had not faithfully reported what they knew of it insomuch that the Cossacks and Tartars arrived at the Kings Camp without being any ways discovered being assisted therein by the Woods the thick Mists and the negligence of their enemy Nay Kmielniski himself found means to enter into the Town of Zborow and there to consider at his leisure the posture of the Polish Army And no sooner were the Poles gotten over the Causeys and Bridges which are in the Marshes about the Town and began to put themselves in order but they found that they were on a sudden charged by the Cossacks and Tartars The fight began about the Baggage the Tartars came soon after and fell upon the back of the Kings Forces having crossed a Water where the Peasants by a remarkable Treachery had broken down a Causey which kept it up and so rendred it fordable to the Infidels The Nobility of Premislie and the Cavalry of the Duke of Ostrog sustained the first Onset but being not able to resist the great numbers of their enemies many of that Nobility were lost and all their Baggage Stanislaus Wituski and Leon Sapicha Vice-Chancellor of Lithuania coming to their relief repulsed the Tartars for a time but these returning with more impetuosity against the Troops of the Vice-Chancellor they must now have been suppressed after a contest of six hours if that the Governor of Sendomire and Baldovin Ossolinski Starroste of Stabnitz had not given the Infidels a diversion In which Ossolinski and divers Gentlemen of the Palatinate of Russia were slain while this passed in the Rear and Flanks of the Polish Army Kmielniski with his Cossacks and a Party of Tartars attacked the Front The King who at the first noise of their arrival had put his Forces into Batalia gave the Leading of the Right Wing to the Great Chancellor Ossolinski This Wing was composed of the Cavalry of the King and of that of the Palatines of Podolia Beltz and Enhoff Scarroste of Sokal and other Regiments And ordered the Left Wing to be commanded by George Lubomirski starroste of Cracovia and the Duke Coreski where besides the Regiments of Horse were divers Companies of Voluntiers The Main Battel made up of the Infantry and where the King himself was in Person was commanded by Major General Hubald of Misnia who had served a long time in the German Wars and had afterwards commanded the Militia of Dantzick and by one Wolff a Gentleman of Liefland Governor of Cracovia both which had their German Regiments with them The Tartars extending themselves wide before the Vant-guard as if they came onely to observe them after they had closed of a suddain after their manner of fighting threw themselves upon the right wing where they were received bravely and finding that the Foot were defended with their Pikes and not in a condition to be broken up they passed to the left wing which they were able to shake more then the other Coreski who was at the head of them had his Horse shot from under him Ruzouski was wounded with an Arrow through the Cheeks yet did not neglect with the Arrow sticking still in the wound to goe and advertise the King of the danger wherein the left wing was his Majesty of Poland not regarding the Dignity of his person ran in all haste to encourage his soldiers by his presence bringing them on again which were flying away and complaining that he had no more Officers to Command them yet notwithstanding he himself would take their place and he had been insenbly ingaged in the hottest of the battel if those about him had not detained him The presence of the King who exposed himself in this manner for their safety did reanimate his soldiers as much as the dreadful number of their enemies had discouraged and astonished them and afterwards they fought with more heat nor would be forced to give ground Some Tartars having broken in on one side were repulsed again by the discharge of their Cannon and by two Companies of Foot Commanded by Ghiza Captain in the Kings Guards and in the end the Enemy not being able to get any advantage over them answerable to those great endeavors against the Polish Army the night coming on terminated that days engagement in which in all likelihood they were to have been cut in pieces most of the night was spent in consulting and giving Order how to receive the Enemy the next day they made some intrenchments in haste to defend themselves by and in others they placed their Baggage but while the King was consulting with the principal Commanders and Nobility a report was spread through the Camp that his Majesty had a design to retreat that night with most part of his The extream danger into which affairs were brought rendered the report of this Retreat more probable and it wanted little but the same consternation had happened there as
which his Majesty of Poland took his place consisted of Horse and was commanded amongst other Officers by Tyskewitz Great Cup-bearer of Lithuania The Body of Reserve was commanded by Colonel Meydel Great Master of the Game and by Colonel Enhoff Starroste of Sokal and was composed of the Horse of Grudzinski and Rozraceuski and of the Foot of Prince Charles Brother to the King and of Koniespolski's and Colonel Du Plessis a Frenchman The Baggage and Ammunition was left in the Camp which was intrenched on one side and defended on the other by the Town and the River The King had left some Companies of Foot therein for a Guard who appeared afar of much more numerous then they were by reason of their Lances which by the Kings Orders the Huzzars had left to them every one of which had a Red Penon or Little Streamer at the end and when they were all drawn up in order made a very fair show The Sun dispersing the Mist which till that time had covered the Army it appeared to the Enemy like a beautiful perspective on a Theatre when the Curtain is drawing up who were surprised at their number and good order notwithstanding their Army was more numerous and covered all the Countrey as far as could be seen The Tartars possessed themselves of divers little Hills from whence there was an easie descent and filled up all the space in form of an Half-Moon They had the Cossacks on their Right Hand opposite to the Left Wing of the Polish Army with whom were also joyned some Squadrons of Tartars and near to them was the Tabor of the Cossacks composed of divers Ranks of Chariots in the middle of which were part of their Forces able to sustain all assaults whatsoever The two Armies being thus placed all the morning was spent in light skirmishes but the King doubting lest that the intention of the enemies was to amuse them with these small combats and to set upon them the night following when by reason of the darkness they might the better surprize them he prohibited all his Soldiers upon pain of death from stirring out of their places without order and commanded all the Bridges to be broken down which were built over the Ster that they might not be set upon behind and by this means to ingage his own Soldiers to perform their utmost all hopes of escaping being cut off and that the rest of the day might not be spent unprofitably which was scarce sufficient for a general Battel between two such numerous Armies he began to salute the Enemies with the Cannon at the head of his Army and so from time to time to discharge against them as they drew nearer to those Eminencies whereon the Tartars were placed Divers seeing the day so far spent were of opinion that the Fight should be deferred till the next morning but others insisted much upon the contrary fearing lest the Cossacks might fall upon the Polish Army in the night with their Tabor which they had extraordinarily reinforced and might therewithal constrain them to quit their Camp His Majesty therefore caused the Duke of Wisnowitz to begin the charge with twelve Troops of old Soldiers backed by the Palatine of Podolia with the Auxiliaries of the Palatinates of Cracovia Sendomir Lencicia and Przemistia the Cossacks received them briskly and the conflict lasted near an hour all which time the smoak and dust made them invisible to the rest of the Army and as the Poles began to give way they were timely assisted by fresh Forces which the King sent them upon whose arrival the Cossacks were driven into their Tabor together with the Tartars who ingaged them upon a rising Ground In the mean time the King marched against the great Body of the Tartars the Right Wing staying near a Wood side to hinder the design of many of their enemies who were in Ambush with intention to compass in the Polish Army in the heat of the Battel The King kept the Artillery still before him which Priemski caused to be discharged very opportunely and with great success So that they obliged the Tartars to leave the foot of the Hill and by degrees made themselves masters also of the top after they had sustained the discharges of the Janissaries Carbines who accompanied them In this place His Majesty of Poland was in great danger of his life having four Bullets shot from some pieces which the Tartars had by a Wood side passing very near him and one of them falling at his feet but the Poles soon returned them the like For Otuinouski Interpreter to his Majesty of Poland for the Turkish and Tartar Languages assuring them that the Cham was there in person where they saw the great White Standard The King ordered a piece of Cannon to be so levelled that the first shot took one of the Principal Officers who stood near the Cham which disturbed and frighted him so much that he thought not farther of any thing but retreating that part of his Army which had been driven from the Hill followed him also having left some Squadrons behind to disguise his retreat and amuse the Polanders for some time But they were soon put to their shifts and the Poles pursued them a League and a half till the Night and the swiftness of their Bacmates or Tartar Horses secured them yet they left many in their retreat wounded and slain which they were used to carry off and to burn in their march when they had leisure esteeming it abominable to leave the dead Bodies of their Friends in the hands of Christians They left also much of their equipage as Vestes Saddles Cimitars Chariots and the Tent and Standard of their Cham and his little Silver Drum guilded over and covered with a Skin which serves him for a Bell. Divers Polanders who had been Slaves to those Infidels did here recover their Liberty but many others were killed by them when they saw they could not carry them away with them in their retreat which was so hasty that they travelled Ten French Leagues the same day The King after he had sent out divers Troops of Horse in pursuit of the Tartars went with the rest of his Army against the Tabor of the Cossacks where they were still in great numbers and had Forty pieces of Ordnance which played continually Kmielniski was retreated with the Tartars in hopes to engage them again to fight but he could by no means perswade them to it but on the contrary was very ill treated by the Cham and reproached as one that had cheated him and not made known the true state of the Polish Army but had made him believe they were not above Twenty thousand and therefore he threatned to send him to the King of Poland in exchange for those Murza's which were Prisoners there and would not let him go free till he had sent order to Czeherin to deliver up a considerable sum of Money and part of the Booty which he had formerly taken