(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.