three Galleys to Succour the place when he had done it stayed to defend it but that now they were deliberating about the rendition of it he would have nothing to do with that but leave them to resolve of what they thought best for the Publique service whilst he would consider what belonged to him to do for the preservation of his Galleys The same morning the Captains came again to the Proveditor to press him to Treat telling him that Malvezzi Master of the Fire-works who had done such important service in the Siege was newly dead of his wounds Whereupon the Proveditor intreated the Bishop to Celebrate the Mass of the Holy Ghost to implore the direction of God in this so great tribulation and calling together all the chief men of the City that they might have their part in what was treating by the Officers of War desired to know if any man there could propose any way to prolong the defence of the place But the Condition of it was so deplorable that they all cryed out it was no longer to be defended and that there was a necessity of making suddenly some Composition unless they were resolved to give their Wives and Children up to be slaughtered Whereupon the Proveditor was fain to consent that there should be an Instrument in writing drawn up for the Rendition of the place which was to be subscribed by the Proveditor Governour Bishop and all the Military Officers When this came to be signed the Proveditor was so grieved in his Soul to see to what a pass he was reduced that he would have put off the doing of it thinking to set fire to the Arsenal to sink the Ships and Galleys in the Port and so break in pieces the Artillery But perceving the Souldiers would not have obeyed him if he had given any such command nor put a thing in practice which would have deprived them of all hopes of quarter and considering that if through his occasion not onely the Garison but all the People in the Town should have been put to the Sword it would have been no advantage but rather a prejudice to his Prince and Country and that the sacrificing of so many persons would not preserve the place he forbore putting those thoughts in execution After Dinner the Deputys of the Town came again to press the Proveditor to Parley conjuring him no longer to expose the honour of their Wives and Daughters to a licentious and incensed Enemy The Proveditor received them with much courtesy giving them hopes of what they desired but would come to no resolution till he had once more sent to General Cornaro which he did that night acquainting him with the desperate extremity they were in and that yet he would expect till the next day before he Treated to see if there could be any hopes of Succour sent him that night But receiving no answer from Cornaro and being summoned again next morning by the Enemy who were preparing for another General Assault and going to give fire to Nine several Mines he was at last prevailed with to command a White Flag to be put out upon the Breach Upon the sight of which immediately the Cannon ceased and they heard a voice saying What would you have Then Angeli and Bacchieli went out to Parley telling the Aga who asked them what they would have that they desired a Cessation of Arms of the Captain Bassa and that he would be pleased to send some one of Authority into the Town to Treat Presently a Cessation of Arms was granted and the Turks came out of their Trenches in vast numbers upon the Bastion of St. Demetrius where they sate themselves down upon the ground with so profound a silence that in such a multitude there was not one word to be heard and a Turk who by chance shot off his Musket had immediately his Head struck off Some say that the Turks were resolved if the Town had not Treated when it did to have raised the Siege their Army was so shattered and their men so cowed with the resistance they had met with But certain it is that they much admired the bravery of the Defendants and Assan Bassa was heard to say That the great Amurat had never taken Babylon if there had been such men in it as were in Canea The Cessation of Arms being begun the Aga immediately gave advice of it to the Selectar Bassa whos 's Head Quarters were at St. Constantin where he was lodged in a stately Pavilion Upon notice of the Cessation the Selectar Bassa bid them tell them in the Town that they should make ready Hostages to be Caution for the performance of the Treaty and that for his own part they should find him disposed to give them all reasonable satisfaction Within a little time Bacchieli and Captain Brocobard men considerable amongst the Christians passed out of the Town into the Camp for Hostages and were received there with much courtesie At the same time came from the Camp to the Town sent as Hostages by the Selectar Bassa Zembis Zaccaia Nephew to the Selectar and Ibrahim Maga Zembis came arm'd after the Turkish fashion attended by two Souldiers arm'd with Swords Bucklers and Pistols Upon his back he had a Vest of Crimson-Sattin which reach'd the ground and upon it a rich Mantle embroidered with Gold He and Ibrahim were not suffered to enter the City but had a place prepared for them to sit in the Casemats along the walls Where Zembis declaring that he was the Nephew of the Selectar Bassa with great veneration he pulled out a Paper with the Imperial Seal which he said was the Commission given by the Grand Seignior to his Unkle authorizing him to make what Capitulations he pleased and then told them that he was come from the Selectar Bassa to know what it was that they demanded Angeli made answer that they desired a Cessation of all Hostility for fifteen days at the expiration of which time if no Succour came they would surrender the Town Zembis replyed that the Venetian Fleet was so far from coming to succour them that to his certain knowledge they were returned from Zant to Corfu Angeli replying that however they might stay fifteen days to see if they would come or no Zembis swore a great Oath that he was so sure that they would not come that he would engage himself if they did to change his Religion and turn Christian and therefore if they had nothing else to propose he would take his leave and return from whence he came Angeli and the rest hearing this thought it best no longer to defer Capitulating but immediately sent away a Draught of what Articles they desired to the Electar Bassa who required for Hostages Proveditor Navagiero himself and young Cornaro the Generals Son But Captain Brocobard by his dexterity overcoming this difficulty it was concluded that he and Bachieli should remain Hostages as they were and that there should be added to
THE HISTORY OF Isuf Bassa CAPTAIN GENERAL OF THE Ottoman Army At the Invasion of CANDIA LONDON Printed for Robert Kettlewel at the Hand and Scepter over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1684. TO THE READER THe Novels and Romances of these times by mixing real things with Fiction have so corrupted History that it is hard to distinguish Truth from Fable Nor is it onely the Greek and Roman Story which have been so served but the Turkish too For as we have had a Grand Cyrus and a Cleopatra so there is an Illustrious Bassa the Authors of all which have prostituted Truth to give colour and probability to their Inventions But in this Relation Reader I assure you there is not any thing of that kind All here is matter of fact taken either out of approved Histories or authentick Letters and Memorials Besides the Life of Isuf Bassa which is full of surprizing Events you have here the beginning of the War of Candia of which he was a great occasion Nor have you onely the Successes of that War but the Causes of it and the Motives upon which it was undertaken A War as memorable certainly as hath been in any Age whether you consider the duration of it which was Four and twenty years or the numbers of Men which perished in it of which there is an account of above Nine hundred thousand onely of the Turkish side who were buryed in the Fields and in the Seas of Candia or the disparity of the Forces betwixt which that War was made a great part of the power of Europe Africa and Asia being engaged against the single State of Venice ERRATA PAge 19. line 5. for Ports read Posts p. 20. l. 18. read and overcame p. 47. l. 17. for Discovering read Disserving p. 58. l. 20. for Officers read others p. 60. l. 7. for Court read Covent l. 10. read Alvisi p. 78. l. 16. for Naris read Nani p. 89. l. 16. read was p. 118. l. 6. read Cernide p. 151. l. 4. for so read to p. 156. l. last dele out He. p. 158 l. 16. read Selectar THE HISTORY OF ISUF BASSA IN the Province of Dalmatia upon the Confines of the State of Venice liv'd a young man called Isuf Vascouich meanly born and very poor but having a great heart and impatient of the misery of his Condition he resolved to put himself into the World and try what Fortune would do for him He set out of his Father's House in so ill equipage that before he had gone far his feet were all cut with the stones which moved an old woman who was touched with pity to see a handsome Youth in that condition to give him a pair of Shooes a kindness which in due time he amply requited Isuf for by that name he was afterwards known came first to Nadin in Croatia where having some knowledge of the Turkish Tongue he put himself in the service of Sinan Bey one of the Governours of that Country as a helper in the Stables But being taken notice of for a youth of more than an ordinary Wit he was perswaded by a Capigi who was going to the Court to get his Congé of Sinan Bey and to accompany him to Constantinople the place for men to seek for Fortunes Coming to the Seraglio the best Imployment he could get was to cleave Wood for the Grand Seignior's Kitchin from which in a little time he was advanced to carry Water into the Garden and admitted there as an under-Gardner a Post of all inferiour ones the most advantageous since the Emperour passeth much time amongst those people and often calls his Councils of State and War into his Gardens by which means those Gardners come acquainted with all the Grandees of the Court and are known to the Sultan himself who having no Hereditary Nobility advanceth many times the meanest of his Slaves to the most eminent Dignities of the Empire It hapned that Isuf came into this Employment much about the time that Sultan Amurat went for Babylon who before he began his Journey sent for his three Brothers Orcan Bajazet and Ibrahim one after another and discoursing to them of the Expedition he was undertaking did what he could to sound their inclinations and finding that Orcan and Bajazet desired Arms and Horses that they might wait upon his Majesty to the War he thought it not safe to leave such young men behind him and so commanded that they should both be strangled But Ibrahim who innocently or rather as it is thought by the instruction of the Sultaness his Mother asked nothing of him but a few Aspers to buy Cages to put his Birds in was left alive but out of all capacity to make any disturbance in the absence of his Brother being put under a strict Guard in one of the Towers of the Seraglio where he had no creature to serve him but a woman-Negro a Mute In this Tower there was a window which looked into the Garden where Isuf used to water the Flowers from whence Ibrahim would often peep through a Grate upon him and listen to him as he sung seeming delighted with the Musick of his Voice Isuf perceiving he was taken notice of by Ibrahim and having compassion for this miserable Prince would at certain times when no body observed him approach the Tower and tell Ibrahim all the news of the Court regaling him with such Flowers and Fruits as were in the Garden Ibrahim finding that Isuf was disposed to serve him and thinking him discreet desired him if he wished him well as he pretended that he would talk no more at the Grate since if it were discovered it might be the loss of both their lives But said he when you have any thing to impart to me sing it in a tune as you pass under my window which I shall understand as well as if you spoke By which means Ibrahim came to know all that passed in the Seraglio and whatever succeeded in the Army Amurat was now upon his march to besiege Babylon when advice was brought him that the King of Persia had taken the Field with one hundred and twenty thousand Horse and was incamped some leagues from Babylon in a vast and fertile plain abounding with Forage and Provision where he stayed to countenance the Besieged and to be ready upon occasion to give them succour Old Babylon was built by Queen Semiramis upon both sides the Euphrates which cuts it in two and was the Metropolis of the Assyrian Empire and one of the seven Miracles of the World But out of its ruines is arisen another Babylon called Bagdet by the Turks which stands not upon Euphrates but fifty miles off upon the River Tigris which runs into Euphrates This City is very vast divided by the Tigris and incompassed with an ancient Wall with some Half-Moons about it But it s chief strength consisted in three great Ditches and in the number and resolution of the Defendants of which were forty thousand
Garison-Souldiers and as many Inhabitants bearing Arms besides Gunners and Enginiers who came from several parts of Christendom to serve the Persian Upon the news of Amurat's marching the King of Persia commanded the Suburbs of the City to be levelled with the ground and put the place into the best condition it was capable of to receive so formidable an Enemy And that he might omit nothing to stop this Inundation which threatned to overwhelm Asia he sent an Ambassadour to Amurat with rich Presents to sue for Peace But the Tyrant commanded if the Ambassadour did not offer the restitution of Babylon that they should cut off his Nose and Ears This the Grand Visir disswaded as an indignity not to be done to the Minister of so great a Prince and one of their own Religion The Present was most magnificent which the Ambassadour brought Eight Mules laden forty Dromedaries cover'd with cloth of Silk and Gold eight Persian Horses with rich Housses eighteen Carpets of Silk and Seven of Gold two hundred and forty Vests of Brocado and Velvet two hundred pieces of the finest Porcellain forty Sable Skins nine Persian Bows with Arrows of most exquisite workmanship great quantities of Musk and Amber-greece and twenty five Bayl 's of Linnen painted Besides the Ambassadour presented the Emperour with divers delicious Drinks as the most acceptable things to a man so debauched and vitious and last of all the Alchoran written upon Silken paper which the Grand Seignior in reverence kissed Hardly had the Ambassadour exposed his Presents and delivered his Credentials but he was surrounded with Guards and carryed Prisoner to his own House contrary to the Faith given him and to the Law of Nations But Amurat gave him to understand that he would carry him back into Persia himself who to increase his Army had made six thousand new Janizaries though he had decreed a little before that their number should not upon any pretence be augmented And to sweeten their Order which he had much exasperated and to oblige them for the future he dressed himself in the habit of a Janizary and marched so all his Journey in the head of his Army Nor was his care less of his other Militia's for he appeared personally at the Musters of his Timars to see that no man upon pain of death should decline the service And because the General of the Ordnance seemed to make some difficulty of getting along four vast pieces of Cannon by reason of the badness of the way he immediately caused his head to be struck off So that after that no creature durst interpose the least obstacle or delay to the executing of Amurat's Commands Seeing Conservatories of Snow which were to refresh his Wine he would not let them be filled saying he would have nothing of Luxury or Delicacy in his Camp and that he went not to carry Ice but Fire into Persia He commanded all the Takers of Tobacco who were in his Army to be fley'd alive and to be left exposed upon the High-way for an example His chief Physician a man learned in the Persian and Arabian Tongues making him a relation of the admirable effects of Opium he forced him to take so great a quantity of it himself that he dyed within a few hours All the way that Amurat went his Army augmented upon the arrival of new Sangiachs who all left their Governments to attend the Sultan who though he met with many disasters in his march endured all with an invincible patience As he crossed the Euphrates the Bridge over which he passed his Army broke not able to bear the weight which was upon it Baggage Horses Camels and many Souldiers being swallowed by the water swoln with the rains which were lately fallen Besides this a mortality reigned in his Army which carryed away his Souldiers every day But no misfortune could deject Amurat or retard his progress The difficulties he encounter'd did but whet his Courage and as if he were sure of conquering he made a Vow that he would not change his clothes till he was in Babylon But though his heart was so much set upon this enterprize he often thought of the state of his Affairs at home and fearing Changes in his absence repented him of the humanity which he had shewed his Brother Ibrahim and therefore dispatched away one of his Bassa's to Constantinople with orders to see him strangled The Bassa could not come so secretly into the Seraglio but it was discovered by some of the Sultana's who suspecting the cause of his Journey and having pity for Ibrahim the only Prince left of the Ottoman Line would not let the Bassa touch him but drove him out of the Seraglio in such haste that he hardly escaped to carry the news to his Master Amurat though his heart boyled with rage for this Affront did not think it a time to revenge it but suppressing his resentment till his return continued his march with most indefatigable pains and the Ninth of November in the year 1638 sat down before Babylon Just before his arrival there he was met by the Bassa of Cairo with rich Presents and four and twenty thousand Souldiers And from Palestine and all the Neighbouring Countrys came Recruits which added considerably to the number of his formidable Army About the same time came Tarpos King of Arabia with his Mother Wife and Son to lay themselves at Amurat's feet He was courteously received by the chief Bassa's and feasted after their manner Thence he went to visit the Grand Seignior but whether he were doubtful of his safety or repented him of his coming it was observed that at his entring he grew very pale But finding Amurat's Favourite there to receive him he thought it a good Omen and was presently out of apprehension when he saw himself presented with a Vest of Cloth of Gold lined with Sables and a good purse of Chequins with thanks for the assistance he had brought the Emperour All the Troops of that vast Army being joyned there was a Council called not onely of the chief Officers but of the old Janizaries and Spahi's who had been in the Wars of Hungary to have their opinions concerning the conducting of the Siege After great debates it was concluded that an assault should be made at one time in three places the first at the white Gate under the Command of the Grand Visir with a Battery of twelve Cannon the Second at the black Gate by Mustapha Bassa with a Battery of ten Cannon and the third at the Persian Gate by Chussain Bassa Beglerbeg of the lesser Asia with eight pieces Amurat visited all the Ports himself promising his Souldiers vast Donatives and wrote to the Caimecan of Constantinople that he should order Prayers to be made throughout the Empire for his Success he being resolved to conquer or to die He put on plain clothes that he might not be distinguished from other men and that he might be present where danger presented it self without being
observed His horse stood always ready sadled at the door of his Pavillon that he might not lose a moments time where there was occasion for his presence Upon the opening of the Trenches and the raising of the Batteries he gave fire with his own hand to the first Gun which was followed with a furious tempest of Canonades In the beginning the besieged sallied out in gross Squadrons but being repulsed with great slaughter they grew more cautious There was a bloody Contest one day to get a Half-moon and it was hard to say whether the Aggressors were less expert in attaquing or the Besieged in defending But the Turks vast numbers supplied their defect of Skill overcame all difficulties so that they brought their Works to the edge of the ditch And though their Mines had no effect the besieged began to abate of their Courage being in despair of succour The Siege was carryed on more with Swords than Spades since there being no Outworks all was reduced to Assaults Amurat was so transported with a desire of carrying the place that he would have led his men to the Breach himself but that he was stay'd by his Captains who represented to him the extremity of his danger offering to precipitate themselves and sacrifice their own lives rather than he should adventure his Having passed the first and second Ditch they met with desperate resistance at the third but with multitudes of men they filled that too and lodged upon it so that now there was no defence remaining but the Wall which after they had made a breach in it of fifty yards long they furiously assaulted And here appeared a theatre of death not onely in tempests of Shot but showrs of artificial Fire Sulphur and Bitumen Both sides fought for Life the besieged expecting no quarter if the place were taken and the besiegers no mercy from Amurat if they did not take it On Christmas-day the Turks made their last attempt led on by Mustapha Bassa whose men mounted the breach with greater bravery than it had been yet assaulted The Persians with equal resolution met them and here began a Fight which was to decide the quarrel As some men fell new ones still succeeded the earth being dyed with blood and covered with carcasses At last the besieged were forced to give ground being quite tired and the Turks still re-inforced with fresh Recruits climbed up the breach over heaps of bodies and Mustapha being the first who entered with his own hand planted the Royal Standard in the City In this Siege of diseases and wounds there perished fifty thousand Turks and above ten thousand were wounded Of the Persians all the bravest men fell onely some four and twenty thousand who survived the slaughter throwing down their Arms were by Amurat's command received to mercy But Mustapha offended at the clemency of Amurat perswaded him to put them all to the sword remembring him how at Revan in Persia where he gave the Conquered Quarter to requite his Mercy as soon as his Army was gone they rose upon his Garison and cut them in pieces and restored the City to the Persian This made Amurat notwithstanding his Faith passed give order to his Janizaries to cut all their throats and that the execution might be more terrible to do it in the night by the light of lanterns and torches Of all this number there were onely seven and twenty escaped who were reserved by Amurat to be carryed to Constantinople to adorn his Triumph As soon as this bloody execution was ended the sacking of the City was given to the Souldiers which continued three days with all imaginable cruelty their avarice not distinguishing Mahometans from Christians nor Friends from Enemies The loss of Babylon was a greater mischief to the Christians than to the Persian for as long as this place stood the Ottoman Forces were continually employed upon this frontier and wasted with long marches through desert and uninhabited Countrys so that they did but now and then molest the Christians But from the loss of Babylon and the Peace with Persia the Calamities of Christendom may take their date From hence it is that Poland and Hungary have been of late invaded and Candia lost And since this time the Persian hath attempted nothing considerable but hanged up his Scymeter against the wall and let his Arms grow rusty for want of use This hazardous enterprize of Babylon being brought to so happy a conclusion Amurat would have pursued this Victory into Persia but that he was stay'd by some indisposition of health and at the same time he received a Letter from the Favourite Sultana being then upon the frontier attending his return who invited him from the assaults of War to those of Love A woman of a most charming behaviour and so bountiful that she gave the Messenger who brought her the news of the taking of Babylon ten thousand Dollars Amurat who was unbounded in his Rewards as well as Punishments to requite the Grand Visir who was slain in the Siege made his Son though very young Governour of Mesopotamia one of the most esteemed Commands in the Empire and Mustapha Bassa who had been so great an instrument in the taking of Babylon he advanced to the supreme Visirship He sent his chief Ecuyer with a rich Present of Sables to the Queen his Mother to acquaint her with his success having ever born her a most filial reverence To reward this grateful News the Queen obtained of her Son the Bassaship of Bulgaria and confer'd it upon the Messeger Amurat at his departure from Babylon left the Grand Visir behind him with secret instructions not to reject any reasonable offers of Peace and then he dismissed the Persian Ambassadour whom he had kept Prisoner with him all this while and delivered him a Letter in answer to that which the Ambassadour had brought him from his Master the tenor of which was I who am Lord of Lords and command Arabia Persia and Greece exalted by the aid of God to the Empire of the Vniverse the invincible Possessor of the White and Black Sea Lord of the Divine House of Mecca and Medina as also of Hierusalem Aleppo Damascus and of all those Holy and Venerable places of Cairo and Babylon of Ethiopia and the lesser Asia of the Georgians and the Tartars and in a word supreme Lord of the seven Climates Sultan Amurat Can To the brave Soffi to whom God give peace if he deserve it As soon as this my Imperial Letter which is fit to be obeyed shall come to thee be it known that the cause why I detained till now thy Ambassadour whom thou hast sent to my happy Port to sue for Peace was that I might subdue Bagdat which I have done thanks to the edge of my Invincible Sword If thou desirest to be quiet deliver up those Provinces which were the Dominion of my unconquered Ancestors putting them into the hands of my Beglerbegs who will advance thither with my