The text describes a former Ukrainian settlement, not far from which there are Monasteries associated with Stefan Czarniecki. It also mentions, among other things, Czarniecki's bed, which was located in Baczkuryn until 1840. The interesting history of the manor house in Baczkurynie, inhabited by the Humnicki family, is also briefly described (Source: "Ziemia. Tygodnik Krajoznawczy Ilustrowany', Warsaw 1912, no. 13, pp. 3-6, after: Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa).

A modernised reading of the text

Baczkuryn

Former Ukrainian settlement, formerly in Braclaw province, now in Kyiv governorate, Hnovets district; - originally owned by the Zbaraski, Wiśniowiecki, Tarlowski, Lanckoronski, Skopowski princes, since 1769 it has been the seat and patrimony of the Gozdawites Humnicki.

It is situated on the uplands of the Dnieper-Bohu watershed, not far from the ancient Cossack and Black Sea routes. There are still several graves from pre-historic times, but whether they are traces of rituals, battles or signs of migration of ancient peoples, the tradition is completely lost. It is as if a whole swathe of land was covered with forests and a once wandering team, weary of the cold and hunger, came across an inhabited hut (this is how the local people call a primitive hut in the ground - a "shelter") and the joyful cry of the wanderers "Bacz kureń" (you can see the hut) remained the name of the settlement.

One of the rivulets, called Prosiana, was probably once populous: this is evidenced by the numerous causeways, which formed not inconsiderable ponds, and were laid - for water mills and fish shelters; - they were quarried from old, not present-day bricks. In the manorial loch, called Kozary, there was a tradition of caverns, dungeons and wells with millstones placed there, defending access to treasures gathered from some robberies and assaults; Also close by - only a few versts - is the old Monasterzys, where Stefan Czarniecki fought against Bolotin and other Niti warlords, and where he received a wound from which he later died - and again a few versts from Baczkurin, next to the villages of Południ and Wiktorówki, is the famous Armenian forest, now called the Vertmij forest, in which a large caravan of Armenian merchants was robbed and murdered in the 17th century; Their families then sought compensation from the owner of the locality - and as this forest was on the border of the Sieniawski (Granowski key) and Wiśniowiecki (Bussowiecki) estates, the owners, wishing to avoid losses, disavowed the forest - but after many years had passed, they wanted to seize it again, and a two-century-long process ensued, which ended recently in the granting of the right to the forest to the later purchasers of the Bukowiecki key, the Sarneckis, and the disavowal of this right by the government, which, after the 1831 uprising confiscated the Gumowski key to the Czartoryskis.

Chmiel. 30 versts from Baczkurin lies Humań, with its terrible, still heartbreaking memory of the massacre - when so much blood was shed, when so many treasures were lost. So it is very possible that the stories about the treasures stored in Bachkuryna are true and that they were deposited there by those who, in revolts, assaults and murders, accumulated such treasures that they were not supposed to use! It is also remembered that in 1812, in the midst of terrible frosts and storms, so much snow fell in Bachkuryn that the peasants, the inhabitants of the cottages, used tunnels to communicate with each other, and the manor house, which was already standing at that time, although it was located on high foundations and on a hill, barely looked out on God's world through its chimneys and roof.

Shortly afterwards, Baczkuryn was visited by a relative of the Humnicki family - the much-loved and esteemed Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, author of the famous 'Śpiewy historyczne'; the first edition of the book with engravings and music is still preserved in the library - probably a gift from the author to his hosts. An interesting and thought-provoking family heirloom is an old-fashioned table with a mosaic top, which broke with a crash the same minute, hour and day that its owner, Franciszek Salezy Humnicki, died on his way to Bachkurin in Berdyczow in 1815.

At the time of the rupture, the wife of the absentee was standing at this table and thinking about the return of her expected husband - when she heard and perceived the rupture - she wrote down the moment it happened, and somehow, strangely concerned, sent a Cossack to meet her husband - but the Cossack sent found the lord already dead, and it turned out that the death and the rupture of the table were simultaneous. A very significant and sympathetic event took place here during the 1831 uprising. After a Polish detachment was defeated near Daszów, having heard reports that the then heir of Baczkurin, Aleksander Humnicki, supposedly sent serfs and food to Daszów - he ordered one of the officers to go with a detachment of the army to Baczkurin, make a search, investigate and bring the accused.

General Roth, who was leading the Russian army, was installing himself in the nearby village of Monasterzysko, and on the appearance of the detachment and on hearing that the lord was likely to be arrested, the livelihood of the village people, serfs, men and women, gathered around the detachment and firmly announced that they would not give up their lord and would not allow him to be taken.

Surprised and apparently not wanting to make a stink about his lords, the officer acceded to the peasants' demands, sent a messenger with a report to General Roth, and the latter, sharing or approving of the officer's conduct, ordered him to return and dropped the matter. Surrounding neighbours and friends of the Humnicki family: Podoscy from Monasterzysk, Sarnecki from Ochrynowa, Dachowski from Lejkowa, Jasinski from Verczniaczka, Krechowiecski from Leszczynowka, Jagiełłowicze from Chalajdowa, Oraczewski from Dąbrówka, Ułaszyni from Psota Leńczyka, Krasitskiy from Shabaslowka and Kniazhaya Krynitsa, Rohozinskiy from Cybulon and many others, after the people behaved in such a friendly manner, made numerous gifts of sheep and money to him in gratitude and appreciation for their courage and devotion.

Unfortunately, the year 1863 already marked a completely different disposition - as the sons and grandsons of the same landowners denounced the conversation of one of the young Humnicki, and this one, for his best intentions and aspirations, was condemned to a long and hard captivity and exile.

The year 1875 was a difficult one for the inhabitants of Baczkurin as, for various reasons, the heirs had to leave the village for a dozen or so years - at the same time, a huge fire destroyed all the old and splendid buildings, as well as a dozen or so peasant cottages - only the old manor house survived, although it was covered with a flammable wooden roof - but it was saved thanks to the determination and courage of a peasant woman, the daughter of Aleksandra Ikniuk, once freed from serfdom by Grzei Taran; This brave and attached woman, with an old picture of the crucified Christ, jumped onto the roof and, with unbelievable agility and vigilance, extinguished the embers and sparks falling from everywhere.

This same woman, now old and powerless, single-handedly dispersed and drove out of the manor garden a large crowd of young enthusiasts and reformers who in 1906 wanted to forcibly promote unemployment in the manor; she stood before this crowd defenceless, but determined and strong in her loyalty and attachment to the manor, and the crowd, surprised and confused, dispersed and retreated. This noble and faithful servant and friend is still alive, a type so rare today in our society so far removed from the traditions of old.

The old mansion, always still inhabited, the seat of the fourth generation of the Humnicki family, surrounded by an extensive garden, contains some old furniture, some rare engravings, old prints, some first editions of Polish Romantics; - until recently, it held originals: Grottger's "School of a Nobleman" and Smiler's "The Oath of Jadwiga"; - but one of the most interesting and pleasant souvenirs is a portrait of Anna Austin, an American woman, painted in watercolour by Tadeusz Kościuszko after his liberation from St Petersburg, during his second stay in America.

This portrait was personally given to one of the Humnicki family in the United States by the Austin family - and although it is not a masterpiece of brushwork, it was kept as a precious memento of our hero's fondness with reverence. There is also in Bachkourin an old Orthodox church of the Tartar Circumscription from the mid-18th century, - as usual, now tarnished with a green-painted roof; it can be seen from the southern part of the manor house - as well as the old legendary forest of the Cossars and the groups of trees planned by the famous gardener Mikier, planted in the early 19th century, among which the chapel and the manor house were to be built.

The soil in Bachkourin is rich, fertile, on a clay substrate, buttery - the yields are lush, the trees beautiful and magnificent - a nursery of fruit and decorative trees and plant acclimatisation samples has been established on the manor land for 10 years. And the hand of time again shows a different day: where once the Polans stayed, where the Tartars lurked, where the Zaporizhzhia was robbed, now domestic and exotic plants are cultivated - and this good earth, strewn with graves, often covered with blood - as it was green for the former, so it is green for the present and future generations.