CHAPTER XXVIII.
[(1.)] “kocken.”—The koggen was a vessel with rounded bow and stern, perhaps similar to the γαῦλος alluded to by Epicharmus and Herodotus. The kind of vessel actually in question is mentioned in a statute of Genoa, dated 15th February 1340, entitled De securitatibus super factis naviganti. “Et de navibus, Cochis, galeis et aliis lignis navigabilibusque vendentur in callegam accipiunt, tot asperos qui valeant perperos tres auri ad sagium Constantinopolim....” Cogge, the Anglo-Saxon word for cock-boat, is a name that occurs in Morte Arthure.
“Then he covers his cogge, and caches one ankere.”
In the time of Richard II, a coggo was a vessel employed in the transport of troops, and coggle is a name still given to small fishing-boats on the coast of Yorkshire and in the rivers Muse and Humber (Campe, Wörterbuch; Jal., Gloss. Naut.; Smyth, Sailor’s Word-book).—Ed.
[(2.)] “Bassaw.”—This is the Slave name for the city of Kronstadt in Transylvania, the chief city in Burzelland. It is situated near the river Burtzel or Burzel, a name given, according to some geographers (Vosgien, Dict. Géog., i, 157), to the territory through which it flows. This name may, however, owe its origin to Bortz, a Coman chief, who is mentioned in a Brief of Pope Gregory IX., dated 1227, addressed to the archbishop of Gran: “Nuper siquidem per litteras tuas nobis transmissas accepimus quod I. Ch. d. ac d. n. super gentem Cumanorum clementer respiciens, eis salvationis ostium aperuit his diebus. Aliqui enim nobiles gentis illius cum omnibus suis per te ad baptismi gratiam pervenerunt, et quidem princeps Bortz nomine de terra illorum cum omnibus sibi subditis per ministerium tuum fidem desiderat suspicere Christianam.” (Theiner, Vet. Mon. Hist. Hung., i, 86.) This prince did certainly seek a refuge in Transylvania, as did many of his countrymen, upon the irruption of the Mongols into Kiptchak. We have it upon the authority of Mussulman writers, that among the eleven Coman tribes settled in this country, were the Bourtch-oglon; evidently subject to the princes Bourtchevitch mentioned in Russian annals (Berezin, Nashestvye Mongolov, ix, 240).—Bruun.