Meat which is the usual proportion of the Grand Signiors ordinary Table and by inviting himself to a Banquet many times at the Visiers expences and this being done so frequently gives the world occasion to believe that he demands it out of no other 〈◊〉 then narrowness of soul to save the charges of his own Dinner and the rather it is so believed because this Emperour is reputed of a covetous disposition and of no affinity with Solyman the Magnificent But the ways and means by which the Grand Signior comes in the end to be possessed of the gains and profits collected by his Visier and other officers requires a particular discourse apart which shall in its due time and place be treated of and this shall for the present suffice to have spoken concerning the Prime Visier and his office CHAP. XII The Offices Dignities and several Governments of the Empire HE that will describe the Policies of a Country must endeavour especially in the most exact and punctual manner possible to declare the several Offices Dignities and Riches of it that so a more easie computation may be calculated of its strength numbers of Men Fortifications Forces by Sea where best defended and where most easily vulnerable and exposed The next to the Visier Azem or the first Visier are the several Beglerbegs which may not unaptly be compared to Arch-Dukes in some parts of Christendom having under their jurisdiction many Sangiacks or Provinces Beyes Agaes and others To every one of these the Grand Signior in honour bestows three Ensigns called in Turkish Tugh which are staves trimmed with the tail of a Horse with a golden Ball upon the top and this is to distinguish them from Bashaws who have two Ensigns and the Sangiak-beg who hath also the name of Pascha and hath but one When a Pascha is made the Solemnity used at the conferring his office is a Flag or Banner carryed before him and accompanied with Musick and Songs by the Mirialem who is an Officer for this purpose only for investiture of Pashaes in their office The Government of Beglerbegs who have several Provinces called Sangiacks under their Command are of two sorts the first is called Has ile Beglerbeglik which hath a certain Rent assigned out of the Cities Countries and Signories allotted to the Principality the second is called Saliane Beglerbeglik for maintenance of which is annexed a certain Salary or Rent collected by the Grand Signiors Officers with the Treasure of the whole Government out of which are paid also the Sangiack Beglers that is the Lords of the several Counties Towns or Cities and the Militia of the Country It is impossible exactly to describe the Wealth and wayes of Gains exercised by these Potent Governours to enrich themselves for a Turk is ingenious to get Wealth and hasty to grow rich howsoever we will succinctly set down the certain sums of Revenue which are granted them by Commission from the Grand Signior assigned them out of every particular place of their Government besides which they have the Profits of all Wests and Strays Goods of Felons sale of Vacant Church-Offices Salves Horses and Cattel which by Mortality or other accidents have no certain Master to which may be added the benefit of their Avanias or false Accusations whereby they invade the Right and Estates of their Subjects as also of the Robberies of their people and strangers by their own Slaves and Servants whom they send abroad with that design and having committed the Robberies themselves under pretence of discovery of the Crime and doing Justice they seize the innocent people torture and imprison them and perhaps put some to death for expiation of their own offences To come nearer then to this purpose The Beglerbegs of the first sort are in number 22 who have their Revenue allotted them in the places that they govern collected by their own Officers according to Commission of which the first is of Anatolia anciently called Asia minor afterwards Anatolia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from its more Eastern situation in respect of Greece the yearly Revenue of which in the Grand Signiors books called the old Canon is a Million of Aspers and hath under its jurisdiction 14 Sangiack Kiotahi where the Beglerbeg resides in Phrygia Magior Sarahan Aidin Kastamoni Hudanendighiar Boli Mentesche Angora otherwise Ancyra Karahysar Teke ili Kiangri Hamid Sultan Ughi Karesi with the command of 22 Castles 2. Caramania anciently called Cilicia and was the last Province which held out belonging to the Caramanian Princes when all places gave way to the flourishing Progress of the Ottoman Arms the Revenue hereof is 660074 Aspers and hath under its jurisdiction 7 Sangiacks viz. Iconium which is the Court of the Beglerbeg in Cappadocia Nigkde Kaisani otherwise Cesanca Jenischehri Kyrscheheri Akschehri Akserai And in this Principality are three Castles at Iconium one at Larende and Mendui under the Pasha's immediate command and 17 others in several Sangiacks 3. Diarbekir otherwise Mesopotamia hath a Revenue of a Million two hundred thousand and 660 Aspers and hath under its jurisdiction 19 Sangiacks with five other Governments called Hukinmet in Turkish eleven of which Sangiacks are properly belonging to the Ottoman Royalties and eight are Curdian Counties or of the people called Kurts for when Curdia was conquered the Country was divided and distinguished into the nature of Sangiacks but with this difference of right inheritance and succession to the Goods and Possessions of their Parents and succeed as Lords of Mannors or to other petty Governments by Blood and Kindred And as other Lords of Sangiacks Timariots or Barons pay the Grand Signiors duties and hold their Land in Knights service or other tenure whereby they are obliged to attend and follow their Commanders to the Wars whensoever they are called thereunto by the Grand Signiors summons these that are registred for Hukiumet have no Timariots or Lords to command them but are free from all Duties and Impositions and are absolute Masters of their own Lands and Estates Those Sangiacks which are properly belonging to the Ottoman Royalties are C Harpu Ezani Syureck Nesbin Chatenghif Tchemischekrek Seared Mufarkin Aktchie Kala Habur Sangiar otherwise Diarbekir which is the place of residence of the Beglerbek Those Sangiacks which are entailed upon Families are Sagman Kulab Mechrani Tergil Atak Pertek Tchifakichur Tchirmek 4. Of Scham otherwise Damascus the certain Revenue of which is a Million of Aspers and hath under it Sangiacks 7 with Has where the Contributions by the Beglerbegs Officers are collected upon the Country and are Kadescherif alias Jerusalem Gaza Sifad Nabolos alias Naples in Syria Aglun Bahura and Damascus the City where the Beglerbeg resides He hath farther three with Saliane for account of which he is paid by the Kings Officers and those are Kadmar Saida Beru Kiurk Schubek where are no Timariots but the Inhabitants are true and absolute Masters of their own Estates in the same manner as the Curdi
with Martins Fur but now with Sables are not laid up in the common Wardrobe for the Embassadors of the succeeding year but a new Equipage and Accoutrements are yearly supplyed at the common charge and thus they pass honestly and in good esteem at the Ottoman Court being called the Dowbrai Venedick by the Turks or the good Venetian This petty Republick hath always supported it self by submission and addresses for favour and defence to divers powerful Princes courting the favour of every one never offering injuries and when they receive them patiently support them which is the cause the Italians call them le sette bandiere or the seven Banners signifying that for their being and maintenance of the name of a free Republick they are contented to become slaves to all parts of the world And it is observable on what a strange form of jealous policie their Government is founded for their chief officer who is in imitation of the Doge at Venice is changed every moneth others weekly and the Governour of the principal Castle of the City is but of twenty four hours continuance every night one is nominated by the Senate for Governour who is without any preparation or ceremony taken up as he walks the streets having a handkerchif thrown over his face is led away blindfold to the Castle so as none can discover who it is that commands that night and by that means all possibility of conspiracy or combination of betraying the Town prevented These people in former times were great Traders into the Western parts of the world and it is said that those vast Carracks called Argosies which are so much famed for the vastness of their burthen and bulk were corruptly so denominated from Ragosies and from the name of this City whose Port is 〈◊〉 rather by Art and industry then framed by nature Some of the Provinces also of Georgia formerly Iberia but now supposed to be called from St. George the Cappadocian Martyr and the poor Country of Mengrelia are also tributaries to the Turk who every three years send messengers with their sacrifice to the Grand Signior of seven young Boyes and as many Virgins apiece besides other slaves for Presents to great men this people chuse rather this sort of 〈◊〉 then any other because custom 〈◊〉 introduced a forwardness in the Parents without remorse to sell their Children and to account slavery a preferment and the miseries of servitude a better condition then Poverty with freedom of the whole retinue which these beggerly Embassadors bring with them for so the Turks called them being about seventy or eighty persons a 〈◊〉 of miserable people are all set to sale to the very Secretary and Steward to defray the charge of the Embassy and bring some Revenue to the publick Stock so that the Embassadors return back without their Pomp reserving only the Interpreter as a necessary attendant to their voyage home The Emperour of Germany may also not improperly be termed one of the tributaries to the Ottoman Empire whom for honour sake we mention in the last place in so ungrateful an office being obliged according to the Articles made with Solyman the Magnificent to pay a yearly tribute 〈◊〉 3000 Hungars but it was onely paid the first two years after the conclusion of the Peace afterward it was excused by the Germans and dissembled by the Turks until taking a resolution to make a War on Hungary made that one ground and occasion of the breach for upon the truce made for eight years between Sultan Solyman and the Emperor Ferdinand as Augerius Busbeck reports in 〈◊〉 Capitulations that the tribute is made the foundation of the accord Cujus concordiae pacis ac confoederationis hae conditiones sunto primò nt tua dilectio quotannis ad aulam nostram pro arra induciarum 30000 Hungaricos Ducatos mittere teneatur una cum residuo quod nobis per proxime praeterlapsum biennium reservetur CHAP. XV. The Desolation and Ruine which the Turks make of their own Countries in Asia and the parts most remote from the Imperial Seat esteemed one cause of the conservation of their Empire THis position will appear a Paradox at first sight to most men who have read and considerd the Roman Conquest whose jurisdiction and Dominions were far larger then this present Empire and yet we do not finde that they so studiously endeavoured to dispeople and lay waste the Nations they subdued but rather encouraged industry in plantations gave priviledges to Cities meanly stored invited people to inhabit them endeavoured to improve Countries rude and uncultivate with good Husbandry and Maritine Towns with Traffick and Commerce made Citizens of their confederates and conferred on their conquered subjects oftentimes greater benefits then they could expect or hope for under their true and natural Princes and certainly the Romans 〈◊〉 and were richer and more powerful by their policy and therefore why the Turk might not proceed in the same manner and yet with the same advantage is worth our consideration For the solution of which difficulty it will be necessary to consider that these two Empires being compared there will be found a vast difference 〈◊〉 the original foundation progress and maximes each of other For the Romans built their City in peace made Laws by which the arbitrary will of the Prince was corrected and afterward as their Arms succeeded and their Dominions were extended they accommodated themselves often to present necessities and humours and constitutions of the people they had conquered and accordingly made provision and used proper Arts to keep them in obedience and next by their generosity and wisdom won those Nations to admire and imitate their vertues and to be contented in their subjection But the Turks have but one sole means to maintain their Countries which is the same by which they were gained and that is the cruelty of the sword in the most 〈◊〉 way of execution by killing consuming and laying desolate the Countries and transplanting the people unto parts where they are nearest under the command and age of a Governour being wholly destitute and ignorant of other refined Arts which more civilized Nations have in part made serve in the place of violence And yet the Turks have made this course alone answer to all the intents and ends of their Government For the subjects of this Empire being governed better by Tyranny then Gentleness it is necessary that courses should be taken whereby these people may remain more within compass and reach of Authority which they would hardly be were every part of this Empire so well inhabited as to afford entertainment within the Fortifications of its vast Mountains and Woods to the many unquiet and discontented spirits that live in it And this may be one cause that so rarely Rebellions arise amongst the Turks though in the remotest parts of Asia and when they do are easily suppressed This also is one cause why Great men so easily resign themselves up to
stature and stomachs they speak big talk of nothing but killing and adventurous exploits but in reality their heart and courage is not esteemed proportionable to their bulk and bodies in the City they march before the Vizier on foot and make way for him to the Divan on journeys they are too heavy and lazy not to be well mounted they have a Captain over them called the Delibaschi their Arms are a Lance after the Hungarian fashion a Sword and Pole-Axe and some of them carry a Pistol at their Girdle This sort of People being naturally more faithful than the Turks and more inclinable to the Vizier Kupriuli for being of the same Country he maintained 2000 of them for his Guard which was so great a curb to the Janizaries and the other Militia that they were never able to execute any Conspiracy against him The same course his Son the present Vizier follows and is doubtless next the Grand Signiors favour his principal security Of the Segbans and Sarigias It is not to be omitted that the Beglerbegs and Pashaws maintain always a Miltia called Segbans to whose custody the charge of the baggage belonging to the Horse is committed and a select number called Sarigias to whose care the baggage of the Infantry is entrusted these serve on foot with Muskets like Janizaries and the others on Horse-back like Dragoons in Christendom their pay besides their meat is 3 or 4 Dollars a month The Beglerbegs have oftentimes on occasions of their Rebellions enrolled many of this sort of Militia to encounter the Janizaries the which was practised in these late times by Ipchir Pashaw Hasan Pashaw and Murteza Pashaw who having listed great numbers to fight under this denomination the Vizier Kupriuli for terrour and more easie destruction of this people proclaimed through all Asia that strict inquisition should be made after the Segbans and Sarigias and that it might be lawful for any one to kill and destroy them without mercy by which means many were butchered in several places and 30000 of them revolted to the Sofi of Persia. The Muhlagi and Besli Are the servants of Beglerbegs and Pashaws the first make profession of a principal art in good Horsemanship and exercise themselves in throwing the Gilid which is a Dart much used amongst the Turks in the true management of which there is great dexterity and because there are considerable rewards bestowed on those who are expert herein the Turks practise it on Horse-back as their only exercise and study very much delight herein the Grand Signiors have always taken and to be spectators of the Combats between the servants of several Pashaws born in different Countries and Nations who from a principle of honour to their Nation and hopes of preferment contend with that heat and malice one against the other as surpass the cruelty of the ancient Gladiators and not only limbs or eyes are lost in this skirmish but oftentimes sacrifice their blood and life for the pastime of their Prince Such as are observed to be bold active and dexterous at his Game are preferred to the degree and benefit of a Zaim or Timariot The Beslees are footmen who for their great abilities in walking and running attain oftentimes to be made Janizaries And thus we have now with as much brevity as may be run through the several Degrees Numbers Institutions Laws and Discipline of the Turkish Militia by Land whose farther progress into Christendom and damage to the Christian Cause may the Almighty Providence so disappoint that his Church corrected and grown more pious by this chastisement may at length be relieved from the Rod and Yoke of this great Oppressor CHAP. XI Certain Observations on the Turkish Camp and the Success of the last Battel against the Christians IN the year of our Lord 1665. the Earl of Winchelsea our Lord Embassador for certain Affairs of His Majesty and the Company or Merchants having commanded me to meet the Great Visier in his return from the Wars in Hungary through ill or rather uncertain information of the Visiers motion I was forced to proceed as far as Belgrade in Servia on the Confines of Hungary 23 days journey from Constantinople where finding a good part of the Turkish Army encamped neer that City for better convenience and expedition of my business I entred within the Quarters of the Spabees and pitched my Tent as neer the Visiers and the other principal Officers as consisted with due respect 〈◊〉 which place I remained seven days untill the Army removed towards Adrianople and not having fully compleated my business there I marched and remained other 13 days together with the Army in which time I had leisure to make some reflections on the Order of the Turkish Camp In the front of the Camp are Quarter'd the Janizaries and all others destin'd to Foot-service whose Tents encompass their Aga or General In the body of the Camp are erected the stately Pavilions of the Visier of his Kahija or chief Steward or Councellor the Reis Effendi or Lord Chancellor the Tefterdar Pascha or Lord Treasurer and the Kapisler Kahiasee or Master of the Ceremonies which five Pavilions take up a large extent of ground leaving a spacious Field in the midst in the centre of which is raised a lofty Canopy under which Offendors are corrected or executed aud serves to shelter from the Sun or Rain such as attend the Divan or other business with the Officers of State Within the same space of ground also is the Hasna or Treasury in small Chests one piled on the other in form of a circle for guard of which 15 Spahees every night keep a Watch with their Arms in their hands Neer these Quarters are the Tents of Pashaws Beghs Agaes and Persons of Quality who with their Retinue solely make up a considerable part of the Turkish Army In the Reer are the Quarters of the Spahees and others that attend the Horse-service as Segbans Sarigias and others On the 〈◊〉 hand of the Visier without the Camp are placed the Artillery and Ammunition which in the time I was there was inconsiderable the great Cannon remaining in Buda and in the City of Belgrade only 40 or 45 small Field-pieces of Brass as I reckoned them each drawn by four Horses marched with the Visier more at that time for State and Ostentation than for real Service The Pavilions of the Great Visier and other Persons of principal Office and Quality may rather be called Palaces than Tents being of a large extent richly wrought within adorned beyond their Houses accommodated with stately Furniture with all the convenience of the City and Country and in my opinion far exceed the magnificences the best of their Buildings for being but for few years continuance the maintenance of them is beyond the expence of Marble and Porphery or the perpetual Edifices of Italy durable to many Olympiads and Myriads of years With these Houses and movable Habitations which with the Posts that support them are
their snare what they labour for is but as slaves for their great Patron and Master and what will inevitably effect their ruine and destruction though they have all the arguments of faithfulness virtue and moral honesty which are rare in a Turk to be their advocates and plead for them When I consider many other things of like nature which may more at large hereafter be discoursed of one might admire the long continuance of this great and vast Empire and attribute the stability thereof without change within its self and the increase of Dominions and constant progress of its arms rather to some super-natural cause then to the ordinary Maximes of State or wisdom of the Governours as if the Divine will of the all-knowing Creator had chosen for the good of his Church and chastisement of the sins and vices of Christians to raise and support this potent people Mihi quanto plura recentium seu veterum revolvo tanto magis ludibria rerum mortalium cunctis in negotiis observantur But that which cements all breaches and cures all those wounds in this body politick is the quickness and severity of their justice which not considering much the strict division and parts of distributive and commutative makes almost every crime equal and punishes it with the last and extreamest chastisement which is death I mean those which have relation to the Government and are of common and publick interest Without this remedy which I lay down as a principal prevention of the greatest disorders this mighty body would burst with the poyson of its own ill humors and soon divide it self into several Signories as the ambition and power of the Governours most remote from the Imperial Seat adminstred them hopes and security of becoming absolute In this Government severity violence and cruelty are natural to it and it were as great an errour to begin to loose the reins and ease the people of that oppression to which they and their fore-fathers have since their first original been accustomed as it would be in a nation free-born and used to live under the protection of good laws and the clemency of a virtuous and Christian Prince to exercise a Tyrannical power over their estates and lives and change their liberty into servitude and slavery The Turks had the original of their Civil Government founded in the time of war for when they first came out of Scythia and took arms in their hands and submitted unto one General it is to be supposed that they had no Laws but what were Arbitrary and Martial and most agreeable to the enterprise and design they had then in hand when Tangrolipix overthrew the Persian Sultan possessed himself of his Dominions and Power and called and opened the way for his companions out of Armenia when Cutlumuses revolted from him and made a distinct kingdom in Arabia when other Princes of the Selcuccian family in the infancy of the Turkish power had by wars among themselves or by Testament made division of their possessions when Anno 1300 Ottoman by strange fortunes and from small beginnings swallowed up all the other Governments into the Ogusian Tribe and united them under one head untill at last it arrived to that greatness and power it now enjoys The whole condition of this people was but a continued state of war wherefore it is not strange if their laws are severe and in most things arbitrary that the Emperor should be absolute and above law and that most of their customs should run in a certain channel and course most answerable to the height and unlimited power of the Governour and consequently to the oppression and subjection of the people and that they should thrive most by servitude be most happy prosperous and contented under Tyranny is as natural to them as to a body to be nourished with that diet which it had from its infancy or birth been acquainted with But not only is Tyranny requisite for this people and a stiff rein to curb them lest by an unknown liberty they grow mutinous and unruly but likewise the large territories and remote parts of the Empire require speedy preventions without processes of law or formal indictment jealousie and suspition of mis-government being license and authority enough for the Emperour to inflict his severest punishments all which depends upon the absoluteness of the Prince which because it is that whereby the Turks are principally supported in their greatness and is the prime Maxim and Foundation of their State we shall make it the discourse and subject of the following Chapter CHAP. II. The absoluteness of the Emperour is a great support of the Turkish Empire Sultan Mahomet Han the present Emperour of the Turkes aged 23 yeares Anno 1666 THe Turks having as is before declared laid the first foundation of their Government with the principles most agreeable to Military Discipline their Generals or Princes whose will and lusts they served became absolute Masters of their Lives and Estates so that what they gained and acquired by the Sword with labours perils and sufferings was appropriated to the use and benefit of their Great Master All the delightful fields of Asia the pleasant plains of Tempe and Thrace all the plenty of Aegypt and fruitfulness of the Nile the luxury of Corinth the substance of Peleponesus Athens Lemnos Scio and Mitylen with other Isles of the Aegean Sea the Spices of Arabia and the riches of a great part of Persia all Armenia the Provinces of Pontus Galatia Bythinia Phrygia Lycia Pamphylia Palestine Caelosiria and Phaenicia Colchis and a great part of Georgia the tributary principalities of Moldavia and Valachia Romania Bulgaria and Servia and the best part of Hungary concur all together to satifise the appetite of one single person all the extent of this vast territory the Lands and Houses as well as the Castles and Arms are the proper goods of the Grand Signior in his sole disposal and gift they remain whose possession and right they are only to lands dedicated to religious uses the Grand Signior disclaims all right or claim and this he so piously observes to the shame of our Sectaries in England who violate the penetralia of the Sanctuary that when a Bashaw though afterwards convicted of Treason bestows any lands or rents on any certain Mosch or Temple that grant or gift is good and exempted from any disposal or power of the Grand Signior The lands being thus originally in the Grand Signior after the Conquests were made and the Country secured and in condition to be distributed divisions were made of the houses mannors and farms among the Soldiery whom they call Timars as the reward and recompence of their valour and labour in consideration of which every one proportionably to his revenue and possession is obliged to maintain horse and men to be always ready when the Grand Signior shall call him forth to serve him in the wars by which means the whole Country being in the
hand of the Souldiery all places are the better strengthned and the conquered people more easily kept from Mutiny and Rebellion not much unlike our tenure of Knights-service in England and lands held of the Crown but with this difference that we enjoy them by the title of a fixed and setled Law never to be forfeited but upon Treason and Rebellion they enjoy them also by inheritance derived from the Father to the Son but yet as usufructuary during the pleasure of the Emperour in whom the propriety is always reserved and who doth often as his humour and fancy leads him to please and gratifie a stranger dispossess an ancient possessor whose family hath for many generations enjoyed that inheritance Sometimes I have heard with the sighes of some and the curse of others how the Grand Signior heated in his hunting and pleased with the refreshment of a little cool and chrystal water presented him by a poor Paisant hath in recompence thereof freed the Tenant from the rent of his Landlord and by his sole word confirmed to him the Cottage he lived in the Woods Gardens and Fields he manured with as sound a title as our long deeds and conveyances secure our purchases and inheritances in England and this the former Master dares not name injustice because this Tenant is now made proprietor by the will of the Grand Signior which was the same title and claim with his preseription tenant-right and custom availing nothing in this case For if the inheritance hath been anciently derived from Father to Son the more is the goodness and bounty of the Emperour to be acknowledged that hath permitted so long a succession of his favours to run in one family in whose power it was to transfer it to others The absolute and unlimited power of this Prince is more evident by the titles they give him as God on earth the shadow of God Brother to the Sun and Moon the giver of all earthly Crowns c. And though they do not build and erect Altars to him as was done to the Roman Emperours when that people degenerated into a fashion of deformed adulation wherein Italy is at present corrupted yet the conception they have of his power the Ray they conceive to be in him of divine illumination is a kind of imagery and idolatrous fancy they frame of his divinity It is an ordinary saying among the Turkish Cadees and Lawyers That the Grand Signior is above the Law that is whatsoever law is written is controllable and may be contradicted by him his mouth is the law it self and the power of an infallible interpretation is in him and though the Mufti is many times for custome formality and satisfaction of the people consulted with yet when his sentences have not been agreeable to the designs intended I have known him in an instant thrown from his office to make room for another oracle better prepared for the purpose of his Master Some maintain that the very oaths and promises of the Grand Signior are always revocable when the performance of his vow is a restriction to the absolute power of the Empire And I remember when my Lord Embassador hath sometimes complained of the breach of our capitulations and pleaded that the Grand Signior had no power by simple commands to infringe articles of peace to which he had obliged himself by solemn oaths and vows the Interpreters have very gently touched that point and been as nice to question how far the power of the Grand Signior extended as we ought to be in the subtile points of the divine Omnipotence but rather in contemplation of the Grand Signiors justice wisdom faith and clemency insinuated arguments of honour convenience and justice in maintaining the league inviolate with the King of England It was Justinians rule concerning the Prerogative of Princes Etsi legibus soluti sumus tamen legibus vivimus That is although the Majesty of Princes and the necessity of having a supream head in all governments did free and priviledge them from all punishment and exempt them from the censure and correction of law that no earthly power could call them to account for their errours or disorders in this world yet it is necessary to the Being of an absolute Monarch to be a severe executioner of the Laws of his Country and it is more his interest and security then to act without rule and always to make use of the power of absolute dominion which is to be applied like Physick when the ordinary force of nature cannot remove the malignancy of some peccant humours The Grand Signior himself is also restrained by laws but without impeachment to his absolute jurisdiction For when there is a new Emperour it is the custom to conduct him with great pomp and triumph to a place in the Suburbs of Constantinople called Job where is an ancient Monument of some certain Prophet or Holy man whom the Turks for want of knowledge in Antiquity and History stile that Job who was recorded for the mirrour of constancy and patience For they confound all History in Chronology saying that Job was Solomons judge of the Court and Alexander the Great Captain of his army At this place Solemn Prayers are made that God would prosper and infuse wisdom into him who is to manage so great a charge Then the Mufti embracing him bestows his benediction and the Grand Signior swears and promises solemnly to maintain the Musleman Faith and laws of the Prophet Mahomet and then the Visiers of the Bench and other Bashaws with profound reverence and humility kissing the ground first and then the hemme of his vest acknowledge him their lawful and undoubted Emperour and after this form of inauguration he returns with the like solemnity and magnificence to the Seraglio which is always the seat of the Ottoman Emperours And thus the Gr. Sig. retains and obliges himself to govern within the compass of Laws but they give him so large a latitude that he can no more be said to be bound or limited than a man who hath the world to rove in can be termed a prisoner because he cannot exceed the Inclosure of the Universe For though he be obliged to the execution of the Mahometan Law yet that Law calls the Emperour the Mouth and Interpreter of it and endues him with power to alter and annul the most setled and fixed Rules at least to wave and dispense with them when they are an obstacle to his Government and contradict as we said before any great design of the Empire But the leaâ—â—ed Doctors among the Turks more clearly restrain the Imperial power only to the observation of that which is Religious in the Mahometan Law saying That in matters which are Civil his Law is Arbitrary and needs no other Judge or Legislator than his own will Hence it is that they say the Grand Signior can never be deposed or made accountable to any for his crimes whilst he destroys causelesly of his Subjects under the
singular Modesty and respect in the presence of their Master So that when a Pascha Aga or Spahee travels he is alwayes attended with a comely equipage followed by flourishing Youths well clothed and mounted in great Numbers that one may guess at the greatness of this Empire by the retinue pomp and number of Servants which accompany Persons of Quality in their journeys whereas in the parts of Christendom where I have travelled I have not observed no not in attendance of Princes such ostentation in Servants as is amongst the Turks which is the life and Ornament of a Court. And this was alwayes the custom in the Eastern Countreys as Q. Curtius reports Lib. 6. Quippe omnibus barbar is in corporum Majestate veneratio est magnorumque operum non alios capaces putant quam quos eximiâ specie donare natura dignata est But these Youths before they are admitted are presented before the Grand Signior whom according to his pleasure he disposes in his Seraglio at Pera or Adrianople or his great Seraglio at Constantinople which is accounted the Imperial Seat of the Ottoman Emperours For these are the three Schools or Colledges of Education Those that are preferr'd to the last named are commonly marked out by special designation and are a nearer step to degrees of Preferment and are delivered to the charge of the Capa Aga or chief of the White Eunuchs The Eunuchs have the care of these Scholars committed unto them whom they treat with an extraordinay severitry for these being the Censores morum punish every slight omission or fault with extream rigour For Eunuchs are naturally cruel whether it be out of envy to the Masculine Sex which is perfect and intire or that they decline to the disposition of Women which is many times more cruel and revengeful then that of men they will not let slip the smallest Peccadillo without its due chastisement either by blows on the soals of the feet or long fastings watchings or other penance so that he who hath run through the several Schools Orders and degrees of the Seraglio must needs be an extraordinary mortified man patient of all labours services and injunctions which are imposed on him with a strictness beyond the discipline that religious novices are acquainted with in Monastries or the severity of Capuchins or holy Votaries But yet methinks these men that have been used all their lives to servitude and subjection should have their spirits abased and when licensed from the Seraglio to places of Trust and Government should be so acquainted how to obey as to be ignorant how to Rule and be dazled with the light of liberty and overjoyed with the sence of their present condition and past sufferings passing from one extream to another that they should lose their reasons and forget themselves and others But in answer hereunto the Turks affirm that none know so well how to govern as those who have learned how to obey though at first the sence of their freedom may distract them yet afterwards the discipline lectures and morality in their younger years will begin to operate and recollect their scattered sences into their due and natural places But to return from whence we have a little digressed These young men before they are disposed into their Schools which are called Oda their Names Age Country and Parents are Registred in a Book with their allowance from the Grand Signior of four or five Aspers a day the Copy of this book is sent to the Tefterdar or Lord Treasurer that so quarterly they may receive their pension Being thus admitted they are entered into one of the two Schools that is to say into the Bojuck Oda or the Cuchuck Oda which is the great Chamber or the less the former commonly contains 400 and the other about 200 or 250. these two Schools may be said to be of the same form or rank and what is taught in one is likewise in the other neither of them hath the precedency all of them equally near to preferment their first lessons are silence reverence humble and modest behaviour holding their heads downwards and their hands across before them their Masters the Hogias instruct them in all the rights discipline and superstition of the Mahometan Religion and to say their prayers and understand them in the Arabick language and to speak read and write Turkish perfectly Afterwards having made proficiency in the former they proceed in the study of the Persian and Arabick tongues which may be of benefit to them if their lot chance to call them to the Government of the Eastern parts and is a help to the improvement of their knowledge in the Turkish which being of it self barren is beholding to those tongues for its copiousness and enrichment Their Cloathing is good English Cloth and Linnen neither fine nor coorse their Diet is chiefly Rice and other wholsome Meats which become the Table of Scholars where there is nothing of superfluity as there is nothing of want Their manners and behaviour are strictly watched by the Eunuchs their careful Guardians so as they cannot be familiar one with another at any time without modesty and respect to the presence they are in if they go to perform the necessary offices of nature or to the Bath they are never out of the eye of an Eunuch who will admit none of their nearest relations to speak with them or see them unless special License be obtained from the Capa Aga or chief of the Eunuchs Their Bed-chambers are long Chambers where all night Lamps are kept burning their Beds are laid in ranks one by another upon Safrawes or Bords raised from the ground and between every five or six lies an Eunuch so as conveniently to see or over-hear if there be any wanton or lewd behaviour or discourse amongst them When they are arrived to some proficiency and almost to Mans estate and strength of body fit for manly exercises they are trained up in handling the lance throwing the Iron Bar drawing the Bow and throwing the Gerit or Dart. In all these Exercises they spend many hours being constant in all or some of them and are severely corrected by their Eunuchs if they seem to be remiss or negligent therein many of them spend much time principally in drawing the Bow in which they proceed from a weaker to one more strong and by continual exercise and use come at last to draw Bows of an incredible strength more by art and custom then of pure force and thus by constant bodily exercise they become men of great strength health and agility fit for the Wars and all active employments amongst their other exercises Horsemanship is a principal Lesson both to sit in a handsome posture and to manage their Horse with dexterity to draw the Bow on Horse-back forwards backwards and on either side which they learn with that agility and pliantness of their joynts in the full career or speed
the Empire CHAP. XIII Of the Tartars and Tartar Han and in what manner they depend upon the Turks THe Tartars may very well be accounted amongst the other Princes subject to the Ottoman power I mean not the Asiatick Tartars or the Tartar of Eusbeck though so much Mahometan as to wear green Turbants and to deduce their Race from the Line of Mahomet himself for having conquered China and possessing a greater Empire then the Ottoman they are far from acknowledging any subjection or degree of inferiority to the Turk nor are all the European Tartars subjects to the Sultan for the Kalmuk and Citrahan Tatars men of strange barbarity and countenance different from all the other race of mankind though Professors of the Mahometan Religion are yet faithfully and piously obedient to the Duke of Moscovie their lawful Prince But the Precopentian Tartar which inhabits Taurica Cherfonesus now called Crim the principal City of which is Theodosia now Cafa and the Nagaentian Tartar which inhabits by the Palus Meotis between the Rivers of Volga and Tanais are the people which may be accounted amongst the subjects or at least Confederates of this Empire though only the City of Cafa of all those Dominions is immediately in Possession and Government of the Turk which in my opinion appears to be a cautionary Town and Pledge for their obedience and though the Han or Prince of that Country is elective yet he is chosen out of the true Line and confirmed by the Grand Signiors who have always taken upon them a power to depose the Father and in his place constitute the Son or next of that Linage when found remiss in affording their Auxiliary helps to the War or guilty of any dis-respect or want of duty to the Ottoman Port. This present Han which now governs called Mahomet Ghirei for that is the Surname of his Family remained during the life of his Father according to the custom of the Eldest Son of this Prince a hostage to the Turk in Janboli a Town in Thrace four dayes jurney distant from Adrianople situated on the 〈◊〉 or black Sea but from thence upon jealousie of too near a vicinity to his own Country was removed to Rhodes where he passed an obscure and melancholy life until the death of his Father and then being recalled to Constantinople had there his Sword girt on swore fealty to the Grand Signior with all other formalities performed according to their custom of regal inauguration But being setled in his Kingdom and mindful of his sufferings at Rhodes he had ever stomached the Pride of the Ottoman Emperour by which and the disswasion of the Polonians and the other neighbouring Tartars as a thing dishonourable to so ancient and powerful a people to resign the heir of their Kingdom a hostage to their neighbours this present Prince hath refused this part of subjection which the Visier Kupriuli often complained of but not being in a condition to afford a remedy unto thought it prudence to dissemble But yet these people are esteemed as Brothers or near allies with the Turk to whom for want of heirs-male in the Ottoman Line the Empire is by ancient compact to desend the expectation of which though afar off and but almost imaginary doth yet conserve the Tartar in as much observance to the Turk as the hopes of an Estate doth a young 〈◊〉 who is allured to a complaisancy and obsequiousness with the petulant humor of a Father that adopts him who is resolved never to want heirs of his own Family And thus the Tartar is as obedient as other subjects and though the Turk exercises not his power there by commands as in other places of his Dominions but treats all his business by way of Letters yet these Letters serve in the place of Waraents for the signification of the Grand Signiors pleasure and are as available as the Autogra and other formalities of the Imperial Edict are in other places in subjection to the Turk By ancient compact between this Empire and the Kingdom of Tartary it is agreed that whensoever the Grand Signior goes in person to the Wars the Tartar Han is to accompany him in person with an Army of a hundred thousand men but if the Visier or some other General be in the Field then is he only obliged to send forty or fifty thousand under the command of his Son or some principal Officer of his Kingdom who are paid and maintained out of the booty and pillage they acquire In the year 1663 the Tartar called on occasion of the War in Hungary to the assistance of the Turk they made such incursions into that Country Moravia and Silesia sacking and burning all Cities and Towns that they carried away one hundred and sixty thousand captive souls in one year which precise number I am informed from those who had received good information of the Pengik or Certificates that were given upon every head for the Tartar being an absolute free-booter makes prize of all that comes within his power and lest he should prey on the subjects of the Turk they are bound to take out attestations from certain Registers of the Names Countries and Age of their Captives lest they should deceive the Turk with the sale of those who are already their own subjects and slaves The Tartar is to the Turk as the Giacall to the Lion who hunts and finds the prey for the Lion to overcome and feed on And so the Tartar makes incursions into the neighbouring Countries round about and pass in great bodies some times ten or twelve dayes without doing the least dammage or spoil in their journey outward but as soon as they turn their 〈◊〉 home they rob spoil burn and carry all the Inhabitants of what Age or Sex soever like a torrent before them and every one of them leading three or four horses a piece on which they mount their Captives and load their prey make a running march day and night with few hours intermission for natural repose too fast for any orderly Army to overtake and any other that is not so is not able to give them Battel Such of their slaves as in the journey are wounded and infirme and not able to accompany the Camp they kill those which they bring safe into their own Country they sell to the Turks who come thither to Trade for this Merchandize which is the most profitable commodity that Tartary affords Young Boyes and Girls are rated at the highest price the latter of which being beautiful are like Jewels held at an unknown value but few of them escape the lust of the Tartars who deflower them even in the years of their very infancy This sort of people were by the ancients called Sermati and were alwayes famous for their exploits on Horse-back but heavy and ignorant of foot service which Character Tacitus gives of them Lib. 1. Hist. Omnis Sarmatum virtus quasi extra ipsos nihil ad pedestrem pugnam tam
ignavum ubi per turmas advenere vix ulla acies obstiterit iners videtur sudore acquirere quod possis sanguine purare mirâ diversitate naturae cum ijdem homines sic ament inertiam oderint quietem They live very hardly and feed especially on horse flesh which dying in their march they never examine his diseases whether surfeited or over-heated but distributing his flesh amongst their Companions placed it under their Sadles and thus baked between the heat of the man and the horse chafed with that dayes labour is at night judged sufficiently prepared as a dish fit for the Table of their Prince And as the men are nourished with a Diet of raw flesh herbs and roots or such as the Earth naturally produces without the concoction of the Fire to prepare it for their stomachs so also their Horses are of a hardy temperament patient of hunger and cold and in the sharp Winter of those Countries when the ground is covered with Snow nourish themselves with the Barks of Trees and such herbage as they can find at the bottom of the deep Snow Their Towns or Villages consist of huts rather then houses or hurdles made of sticks and covered with a course hair Cloth of which Villages there are accounted two hundred thousand so that taking one man out of every Village as their custom is when they go to the War they speedily form an Army of two hundred thousand fighting men But now having carryed great riches out of Poland and gained a considerable wealth by the Market of their slaves some of them throw off their homely Plads to wear Sables and some more frugal employ their money for building Houses the riotous and dissolute are addicted to strong Waters and a drink called Boza made of a certain seed which drank in a great quantity doth intoxicate and is now much in use among the Turks and give themselves up to a gluttony as brutish as that which is natural unto Swine having no art of sauces to provoke their appetite but rest delighted with the meer contentment of idleness and a full stomach But this shall be sufficient to have spoken of the relation the Tartars have to the government of the Turk and their subjection to this Empire their customs and manners being more amply and fully described in other books CHAP. XIV Of the Tributary Princes to the Grand Signior viz. Moldavians Valachians Transilvanians Raguscans c. THe power and puissance of an Empire is not more judged of by the many governors the rich offices it can dispose of the multitude of Provinces it contains in obedience and the necessity it can impose on other Princes to seek its confederacy which we have already treated of then it is by the many tributaries which to redeem the remainder of their wordly goods willingly sacrifice the best part to appease his fury in whose power it is to master all and so these distressed Nations long wearyed-out with tedious Wars oppressed between the Emperour of Germany the Polander and the Turk and more damaged by their own civil dissentions and domestick perfidiousness then vanquished by the force of Arms were forced at last to surrender up their fruitless Provinces to the devotion of the Turk which are now harassed and oppressed beyond all expression and are the meerest slaves to the Turk of all other his subjects and may well be compared to the industrious Bee and profitable Sheep whom he cares for and maintains alive for the sake of their Honey and the interest of their Wool and as if all this were too little when it â—â—all be so thought fit he opens the gate to the incursions of the Tartar who having gained a considerable booty of goods and captives sells to the Turks for slaves those which were before his subjects These three poor Provinces formerly called the Daci which withstood so long the Roman Arms were alwayes esteemed a Valiant and Warlike people according to that of Virgil lib. 8. Aen. Indomitique Dacae pontem Indignatus Araxes Juvenal Sat. 5. Dacius scripto radiat Germanicus antro Which Countries have been the Graves and Cemeteries of the Turks and in these modern times been the stage on which so many Tragedies of War have been acted being defended with as much valour and variety of successes as could humanely be expected in so unequal a Match as was between those Provinces singly and the Ottoman Empire But now at last they are forced to yield and become not only tributaries but slaves and subjects to the Turk who having deprived them of the true line of their natural Princes succeeding in a lawful inheritance place over them some Christians of the Greek Church without consideratian of their conditions or riches or qualifications nay rather chuse to give the Standart which is the sign of the Grand Signiors confirmation of the Prince to some inferior Person as Taverners Fish-mongers or other meaner professions purposely to disparage the people with the baseness of their Governors and expose them to the oppressions of men of no worth or dexterity in their office It hath several times been under the consideration of the Turks at length to reduce these three Provinces to the command of so many Pashaws contrary to the original Capitulations agreed on at the time that these people first submitted to the Ottoman yoke but as yet it hath been carried to the contrary as more profitable and better serving the ends of the Empire for hereby Christians become the instruments of torment to their own Brethern Out-rages and Spoils may be the more boldly acted more Turkish Officers employed on every slight occasion on gainful messages and the people by long oppressions living under the jurisdiction of a Prince who can rather spoil then protect may be reconciled more willingly to the Turkish Government and learn to value the gentleness and power of a Pashaw compared with the remembrance of their former aggrievances But of this government they will rather let them imagine the ease and sweetness then injoy it for 〈◊〉 a Pashaw the Governor the power of a Turk would be concerned for their protection he would esteem himself their Patron and his honour engaged in their defence by which means these Countries would be relieved in a great measure of extortions and violences which is not so beneficial to the Turk as the present miserable estate in which they remain Moldavia called by the Turks Bugdan was first made tributary to the Turks by Mahomet the great but under the small tribute of 2000 Crowns per annum afterwards Bogdanus Vayvod thereof anno 1485 fearing to become absolute Vassal to the Turk taking to his association the Kingdom of 〈◊〉 took up Arms against Selymus the second by whom being drawn out from his Country John a Moldavian born but one who had embraced the 〈◊〉 superstition was preferred by Selymus to the Principality but no sooner was he setled therein but he returned to his former
Misfortune to entreat of Peace by which means they may gain time to recollect their Forces and Provisions to prosecute the War It is notable and worthy of Record the treachery of the Treaty used in the year 1604. Begun in the time of Mahomet the third and broken off by Achmat his Successor The overtures for a Treaty were first propounded by the Turks and Commissioners from the Emperour appointed and met the Turks at Buda twelve days truce were concluded for consideration of the Articles and Presents sent by the Turks to the Emperour to perswade him of the reality of their intentions Mahomet dying Sultan Achmat renews his Commission to the Bassa of Buda to continue the Treaty whereupon the Christian and Turks Commissioners have another Meeting at Pesth where whilst the Christians were courteously Feasting the 〈◊〉 in Tents near the Town and they to create in the Christians an assurance of their faithful dealing were producing Letters from 〈◊〉 Sultan and Prime Visier filled with Oaths and Protestations as by the God of Heaven and Earth by the Books of Moses by the souls of their Ancestors and the like that their intentions for Peace were real and meant nothing but what was honourable and just At that very time the Turks of Buda conceiving that in the time of this great jollity and 〈◊〉 the Walls of Pesth were neglected and slightly manned issued 〈◊〉 in great numbers to surprize it the alarm of which ended the Banquet and the Turks finding matters contrary to their expectation returned only with the shame of their treachery It is no wonder the Disciples should in a point of so great liberty and advantage follow the example and Doctrine of their Master for the like Mahomet did when overthrown and repulsed at the siege of Mecha made a firm League with the Inhabitants of strict Peace and Amity but the next Summer having again recruited his Forces easily surprised and took the City whilst that people relying on the late agreement suspected nothing less then the Prophets treachery And that such perfideousness as this might not be Chronicled in future Ages in disparagement of his Sanctity he made it lawful for his Believers in cases of like nature when the matter concerned those who were Infidels and of a different perswasion neither to regard Promises Leagues or other Engagements and this is read in the Book of the institutions of the Mahometan Law called Kitab Hadaia It is the usual form and custom when a noble advantage is espyed on any Country with which they have not sufficient ground of quarrel to demand the opinion of the Muftee for the lawfnlness of War who without consulting other consideration and judgement of the reasonable occasions then the utility of the Empire in conformity to the foregoing president of his Prophet passes his Fetfa or sentence by which the War becomes warrantable and the cause justifyed and allowed It is not to be denyed but even amongst Christian Princes and other the most gallant people of the world advantages have been taken contrary to Leagues and Faith and Wars commenced upon frivolous and slight pretences and States have never wanted reasons for the breach of Leagues though confirmed by Oaths and all the Rites of Religious Vows We know it is controverted in the Schools whether Faith is to be maintained with Infidels with Hereticks and wicked men which in my opinion were more honourable to be out of question But we never read that perfidiousness by Act and Proclamation was allowable or that it was holy to be faithless until the Doctors of the Mahometan Law by the example of their Prophet recorded and commanded this Lesson as a beneficial and useful Axiome to their Disciples And here I cannot but wonder at what I have heard and read in some Books of the Honesty and Justice of the Turks extolling and applauding them as men accomplished with all the vertues of a moral life thence seeming to infer that Christianity it self imposes none of those engagements of goodness on mens natures as the Professors of it do imagine But such men I believe have neither read the Histories nor consulted the rules of their Religion nor practised their conversation and in all points being ignorant of the truth of the Turks dealings it is not strange if through a charitable opinion of what they know not they erre in the apprehension and Character they pass upon them OF THE Turkish Religion BOOK II. CHAP. I. Of the Religion of the Turks in general THe Civil Laws appertaining to Religion amongst the Turks are so confounded into one body that we can scarce treat of one without the other for they conceive that the Civil Law came as much from God being delivered by their Prophet as that which immediately respects their Religion and came with the same obligations and injunctions to obedience And though this Policie was a Fiction of some who first founded certain Governments as Numa Pompilius Solon and the like to put the greater engagements and ties on men as well of conscience as through fear of punishment yet in the general that proposition is true that all Laws which respect Right and Justice and are tending to a foundation of good and honest Government are of God For there is no power but of God and the powers that be are ordained of God And then if God owns the creation and constitution of all Princes and Rulers as well the Pagans as Christians the Tyrants as the indulgent Fathers of their people and Country no less doth he disallow the Rules and Laws fitted to the constitution and Government of a people giving no dispensation to their obedience because their Prince is 〈◊〉 or their Laws not founded according to true reason but the 〈◊〉 of their corrupted judgements or interest It is vulgarly known to all that their Law was compiled by 〈◊〉 with the help of Sergius the Monk and thence this superstition is named Mahometanism whose infamous life is recorded so particularly in many other Books that it were too obvions to be repeated here and therefore we shall insist and take a view of the Rites Doctrines and Laws of the Turkish Religion which is founded in three Books which may not improperly be called the Codes and Pandects of the 〈◊〉 constitutions The first is the Alchoran the second the consent or testimony of Wisemen called the Assonah or the traditions of the Prophets and the third the inferences or deductions of one thing from another Mahomet wrote the Alchoran and prescribed some Laws for the Civil Government the other additions or superstructures were composed by their Doctors that succeeded which were Ebbubecher Omar Ozman and Haly the 〈◊〉 of Babylon and Egypt were other Doctors and Expositors of their Law whose sentences and positions were of Divine Authority amongst them but their esteem of being oraculous failing with their temporal power that Dignity and Authority of infallible determinations was by force of the Sword transferred to the Turkish
in all reason ought are those of Royal Foundations called in Turkish Selatin Giameleri over which the Prime Superintendent is the Kuzlir Aga or the chief Black Eunuck of the Sultans Woman and in his power it is to distribute all considerable offices of Ecclesiastical Preferment relating to the Royal Moschs which office makes a considerable addition to his other power and Revenue for there are many of those Moschs in divers places of the Empire but especially where the Sultans do or have resided as Prusa Adrianople and Constantinople The Royal Moschs of Constantinople are Santa Sophia Sultan Mahomet who Conquered this City Sultan Bajazet Sultan Selin Sultan Soylman Schezade or the Son of Sultan Soylman Sultan Ahmet and three other Moschs built by the Queen Mothers one of which was lately erected and richly indowed by the Mother of this present Sultan I shall scarce adventure to acquaint my Reader with the particular Revenue belonging to all these Royal Edifices but certain it is they have Rents as noble and splendid as their Founders for example of which I shall instance only in that of Santa Sophia built by Justinian the Emperour and re-built by Theodosius and was the Metropolis of old Bizantium and the Mother Church belonging to the Patriarchal See of Greece is still conserved sacred and separated for use of Divine Service of the Revenue of which Mahometan Barbarism and Superstition hath made no Sacrilegious Robbery but maintained and improved and added to it in that manner that the in-come may equal any Religious foundation of Christendom for when I had the curosity of procuring from the Registers of that Church distinctly all the particular Gifts Benefices Lands Monies at interest and other endowments belonging thereunto and offered according to my ability some thing considerable to have a true Copy of the riches and annual Rent of the place the Keepers of those Lists would perswade me whether out of ostentation or scruple of sin to make one of my faith acquainted with the particulars of their Religious offerings that the Wealth rent and account of all those Royal endowments are so many that as they are distinctly set down fill a Volume and the knowledge of them is the study alone of those who are designed to this service but in general I am given to understand by those who magnifie not matters beyond their due computation That the Revenue amounts to about one hundred thousand Zechins a year which proceeds not from any Lands or Duties raised without the Walls of the City but all from within the Sultan himself being a Tenant to that place paying or acknowledging a Rent of one thousand and one Aspers a day for the ground on which the Seraglio stands on being in times of the Christian Emperours some part of the Sanctuary or Gardens dedicated to the use of that stately Temple which the Turks esteemed Sacrilegious to separate entirely from the holy Service to which it was assigned though the admirable situation thereof rendred it unfit for other habitation then the enjoyment of the Sultan did therefore think fit to oblige the Land to a Rent adding the odde Asper as a signification that the thousand Aspers were not a sufficient consideration for the use of the Church Lands and might therefore be augmented as the piety and devotion of succeeding Emperours should move them It is reported by the Turks that Constantinople was taken upon a Wednesday and that on the Friday following which is their Sunday or Sabbath as we may call it the victorious Sultan then first entituled Emperour went with all Magnificent Pomp and Solemnity to pay his Thansgiving and Devotions at the Church of Sancta Sophia the Magnificence of which so pleased him that he immediately added a yearly Rent of 10000 Zechins to the former endowments for the maintenance of Imams or Priests Doctors of their Law Talismans and others who continually attend there for the Education of youth teaching them to read and write instructing them also in the principles of their Law and Religion Other Emperours have since that time errected near unto it their Turbe or Chappels of burial in one of which lies Sultan Selim Surnamed Sarhose or the drunken with his hundred Children and therewith have conferred a maintenance of Oyl for Lamps and Candles which burn day and night and a provision for those who attend there in prayer for their souls departed to which opinion the Turks as I have said already are generally inclinable though not preached or inforced on any mans belief as an Article of Faith Over and above this expence there is daily provision made for relief of a multitude of poor who at certain hours appear at the Gates of this Temple and receive their daily sustenance whatsoever advances as yearly great summes are laid up in the Treasury is numbred with the riches of the Mosch and remains for the service of that place as for the reparation or building thereof in case of fire or other accidents Besides the sumptuous Edifices of the body of the Royal Moschs there are annexed unto them certain Colledges for Students in the Law called Tehmele out-houses for Kitchins where the poors Meat is dressed Hospitals called Timarhanelar Hans or Houses of Lodging for Strangers or Travellers publick Fountains shops for Artizans and whole Streets of low Cottages for habitation of the poor whose stock reaches not to a higher Rent All these appendages bring some Revenue to the Mosch which is constantly paid in to the Rector or President thereof called Mutevelli but because this is not a sufficient maintenance there are divers Lands Villages Mountains Woods and whole Countries assigned to this use called Wakfi which are hired out at certain Rents for the behoof and benefit of the Moschs some rents being paid in Corn others in Oyl and all sorts of Provisions and out of every new Conquered Country some part thereof is assigned to the use of Moschs of modern Fabrick as now from the Country gained lately about Newhausell which as I am informed from those who gave in the account to the Grand Signior there are two thousand Villages which pay Contribution to the Turk are assigned certain Lands for encrease of the rent of the Moschs built at Constantinople by this present Queen Mother which rents are sometimes raised by the way of Tenths or Tithes not that the Turks make Tithes a duty or rule for the maintenance of persons places and things consecrated to Divine Service but as they find it a convenient and equal expedient in some Countries for leviation of their rents Such Countries and Villages as these which are called Wakfi are greatly blessed and happy above others in regard that the Inhabitants enjoy not only particular priviledges and immunities from thence but freedom likewise from oppression of Pashaws and the 〈◊〉 Souldiery in their March or of great persons in their journey or passage from one Country to another who out of reverence to that lot to which they
is best encreased and maintained yet the Priest as I may call him or their Church-man hath the least hand in the Solemnity the matter as an action wholy civil is performed before the Caddee or Judge not unlike the manner practised in England for some few years according to that absurd act of Marriages by a Justice of Peace and is in the nature of a Recognisance whereby the Husband doth personally oblige himself before the Judge to take such a Wife and in case of his Death or Divorce to endow her with a certain Estate to remain to her own disposal The Woman is not there present but appears by her Father or some of her nearest Relations and is afterwards by a great attendance of Women brought covered sitting a stride on Horse-back under a Canopy to the Habitation of her Bridegroom who remains at the Gate with open arms to receive her there is great Rejoycing and Feasting hereat the night before she is brought to the Company of her Husband but when the precedent Ceremonies to the Marriage are performed and compleated the House is all silent and she is brought into the Bride-Chamber by an Eunuch if she be of Quality if not by some Women of near Relation and delivered to her Husband who is himself to untie her Drawers and undress her for his bed not unlike the custom amongst the Romans of Zonam solvere Polygamie is freely indulged to them by their Religion as far as the number of four Wives 〈◊〉 to the common report that a Turk may have as many Wives as he can maintain Though Mahomet had nine Wives and Hali had fourteen as being men more spiritual and of a more elevated degree had greater priviledges and indulgences for carnal enjoyments This restraint of the number of their Wives is certainly no Precept of their Religion but a rule superinduced upon some politick considerations as too great a charge and weakning to mens Estates every one that takes a Wife being obliged to make her a Kabin or Dowry as we have said before or else for better Regulation of the oeconomies and to prevent and abate somewhat of the Jealousies Strifes and Embroilments in a Family which must necessarily arise between so many Rivals in the affection of one Husband who is obliged by Law and Covenants to deal and bestow his benevolence and conjugal kindness in an exact proportion of equality And least this consinement to a certain number of Wives should seem a restriction and impeachment of that liberty and free use of Women which they say God hath frankly bestowed on man every one may freely serve himself of his Women Slaves with as much variety as he is able to buy or maintain and this kind of Concubinage is no wayes envyed or condemned by the Wives so long as they can enjoy their due maintenance and have some reasonable share in the Husbands bed which once a week is their due by the Law for if any of them hath been neglected the whole week before she challenges Thursday night as her due and hath remedy in that case against her Husband by the Law and if she be so modest as not to sue him for one weeks default she is yet so ingenious to contrive a supply of her wants And whereas these Women are Educated with much retiredness from the conversation of men and consequently with greater inclinations towards them and with no principles of virtue of moral honesty or Religion as to a future state relating to the rewards or punishments of their good or bad actions they are accounted the most lascivious and immodest of all Women and excel in the most refined and ingenious subtilties to steal their pleasures And as in Christendom the Husband bears the disgrace and scandal of his Wives incontinency here the Horns are by the vulgar adjudged to the Father Brothers and Kindred the Bloud of her Family is tainted and dishonoured and the Husband obtaining a Divorce quits himself of his Wife and dishonor together No question but the first Institutor of this easie Religion next to the satisfaction of his own carnal and effeminate inclination and this taking freedom amongst his Disciples his main consideration was the encrease of his people by Polygamie knowing that the greatness of Empires and Princes consists more in the numbers and multitudes of their people than the compass or large extent of their dominions This freedom if it may be called so was granted at the beginning of the world for the propagation and encrease of mankind and the Jews had that permission and indulgence to their loose and wandring affections and we read that the Eastern parts of the world have abounded with Children of divers Mothers and but one Father and that ordinarily a Great Personage in Egypt hath been attended with a hundred lusty Sons in the field proceeding from his own Loins well Armed and daring in all attempts of War But yet this course thrives not so well amongst the 〈◊〉 as formerly whether it be thought their accursed Vice of Sodomie or that God blesses not so much this state of life as when the paucity of Mankind induced a sort of a necessity and plea for it But chiefly through the irreconcileable Emulation and Rivalry which is amongst many Wives those Witchcrafts and Sorceries which in this Country are very frequent are prepared against the envyed fruitfulness each of other that either they make an Abortive Birth or otherwise their Children pine and macerate away with secret and hidden charms by which means they are now observed not to be so fruitful and numerous as is the Marriage-bed of a single Wife nor is the Family so well regulated and orderly as under the Conduct and good Huswifery of one Woman but contrarily filled with noise brawls and dissentions as passes the wisdom of the Husband to become an equal Umpire and Arbitrator of their differences which consideration restrains many though otherwise inclineable enough to gratifie their Appetites from incumbring themselves with so great an inconvenience and I have known some though childless have adhered to a single Wife and preferred Quiet and Repose before the contentment of their Off-spring The Children they have by their Slaves are equally esteemed with those they have by their Wives Neque vero Turcae minus honoris deferunt natis ex concubinis aut pellicibus quam ex uxoribus neque illi minus in bona paterna juris habent Busbeq Ep. 1. But yet with this difference in esteem of the Law that unless the Father Manumisses them by his Testament and confers a livelihood upon them by Legacy they remain to the Charity of their Elder Brother that is born from the VVife and are his Slaves and he their Lord and Master and it is with them as in the Civil Law Partus ventrem sequitur So that from the Loins of the same Father may proceed Sons of a servile and ingenious condition There is also another sort of half Marriage amongst
seek for refuge in the Mountains or woods of the Country In fine though generally the Military Offices are in the same form and the Souldiery disposed according to the ancient Rule and Canon yet licentiousness and negligence have so prevailed in the Officers as to introduce that corruption which renders them wholly altered and estranged from their first Discipline For the Commanders upon every light occasion are contented to make Otoracks or Stipendiaries such as enjoy the pay and priviledges of a Souldier and yet are excused from the Wars which they easily purchase with a small sum of money for a scratch or a flesh-wound gained in the Wars wholly against the Original Institution which designed that benefit only for maimed and disabled Souldiers so that now there is so great a number of that Souldiery lusty and healthful under the title of dead-mens pay as disfurnishes the Grand Signior's Treasury and weakens his Forces The Janizaries also marrying freely and yet dispensed with as to the absence from their duty and Chambers apply themselves to Trades and other Studies besides the War by which means having Children and dependencies they are forced by other Arts than their few Aspers of daily pay to seek the provision and maintenance of a Family and their minds growing estranged from the War are sollicitous with the care and anxiety for a Wife and Children and in my time have so abhorred the thoughts of the War both in Candy and Hungary that many have offered great Presents to be excused and so general hath been the dislike of all kind of Martial action for the reasons before mentioned that at first the very rumours and discourse of War and afterwards the reality thereof caused so general a discontent as had if not prudently prevented and timely suppressed burst into a Mutiny of the Militia whose meer enquiry but into the reasons and grounds of the War is little different from a Sedition Another Corruption hath the covetousness of the Officers produced for small presents and donatives in owning many under the title and name of Spahees and Janizaries which have no name or place in the Rolls or Registers of the Souldiery by which means many Offenders and Outlawed persons are defended by the military priviledges and the ancient honour due to Arms is prostituted for the maintenance and protection of the rascalities and scum of the world And this shall serve to have spoken in general of the present state of the Turkish Souldiery we shall now proceed to the particularities of the force and numbers of the Turkish Militia and from whence and how they are raâ—â—ed CHAP. II. Of the Turkish Militia IN the twelfth Chapter of the first Book we made an estimate of the Revenue and the Riches of all the Beglerbegs and Pashaws of the Empire by which might be collected the number of Souldiers which these great men are able out of their own Families to furnish unto the Wars it will be now time to make a just computation in its due place of the Forces in particular the numbers the Countries from whence they are raised the several military orders and the true puissance of the Ottoman Empire which is indeed so incredibly great and numerous that with good reason they have formed it into Proverb That no grass grows there where the Turkish Horse hath once set his foot This speculation is absolutely necessary to a true description of the Regiment of a Country for the Martial Constitutions are the best part of the Political Science and Civil Laws have no vigour unless they receive their Authority by the enforcement of the Sword This Consideration is also so necessary to the Art of a States-man that he ill studies the Geography of his Enemies Provinces who knows not the utmost 〈◊〉 it contains by Land and Sea and is ill prepared to gain a perfect knowledg of the prudent Arts wherewith a Nation or People is conserved in Peace who is ignorant of their Force and Constitutions appropriated to the time of War Wherefore we shall discourse as succinctly of this Subject as the matter will permit and with the same certainty that one of the principal Muster-masters of the Turkish Rolls long practised and accurate in his Office hath decyphered from whose Report it self I profess to derive my Authority in this following Relation The whole Turkish Militia then is of two sorts one that receives maintenance from certain Lands or Farms bestowed on them by the Grand Signior others that receive their constant pay in ready money The 〈◊〉 nerve or sinew of the Turkish Empire is that of the first rank which are of two sorts viz. Zaims which are like Barons in some Countries and Timariots who may be compared to the Decumani amongst the Romans Those of the second sort paid out of the Grand Signiors Treasury are 〈◊〉 Janizaries Armourers Gunners and Sea-Souldiers called Levends who have no pay for life or are enrolled amongst the military Orders but only make an Agreement for five or six thousand Aspers for their Voyage which being ended they are disbanded Of the Zaims and Timariots The nature of these two and their Institution is the same the only difference is in their Commissions or Patents or rather we may call them the Conveyances or Evidences for their Lands which they have from the Grand Signior For the Rent of a 〈◊〉 is from 20 m of Aspers to 99999 and no further for adding one Asper more it becomes the Estate of a 〈◊〉 called a Pashaw which is from 100000 Aspers to 199m999 for adding one Asper more it becomes the Revenue of a Beglerbeg The Timariots are of two sorts one call'd Tezkerelw who have the Evidences for their Land from the Grand Signiors Court whose Rent is from 5 or 6000 Aspers to 19m999 for then with the addition of one Asper they enter the number of Zaims The other sort is called Tezkeretis who hath his Patent or Writing from the Beglerbeg of the Country whose Rent is from 3000 to 6000 Aspers The Zaims in all Expeditions of War are obliged to serve with their 〈◊〉 which are to be furnished with Kitchens Stables and other necessary Appartments agreeable to their state and Quality and for every 5000 Aspers of Rent received from the Grand Signior they are to bring a Horse-man into the Field which is called 〈◊〉 as for example one of thirty thousand Aspers is to come attended with six one of ninety thousand with 18 Horsemen and so proportionably every Zaim is entitled Kiilig or Sword so that when the Turks calculate the strength or numbers that a Beglerbeg is able to bring into the field for the service of his Prince they make a computation upon so many Zaims and Timariots themselves which they call so many swords not numbring the people with which they come accompanied The Timariots are obliged to serve with lesser Tents and to be provided with 3 or 4 Baskets for every man that attends them for
mend the Ways and Bridges for passage of the Army To the like Service are obliged certain Families of Bulgarians for carriage of Hay and cutting Grass according to the Season of the Year The number of the Zaims and Timariots in the Governments of the Beglerbegs of Buda Temswar and Bosna I finde not particularly described in the Ottoman Books but however according to the best information that Militia on the Confines of the Empire 〈◊〉 Serhadli amount to the number of about 70000 fighting men paid out of the Rents of the Sangiacks of that Country But though the Militia of Buda be not set down in the Registers of more ancient date at Gonstantinople because it is as it were a Principality independent both for its eminency Revenue and large extent of Dominions yet in that City it self is strict order observed and the Rolls of their Force most exactly known and computed to which the Turks have a strict eye it being a Frontier Garrison of much importance and the Key of Hungary the Militia of which as I learned from Officers of note during my residence in that place was according to this precise account Of Janizaries 12000 Spahees 1500 Zaims and Timariots 2200 Azaps which are the meanest sort of Souldiery 1800 Belonging to the Castle of Buda 1200 Jebegees or Armourers 1900 The Guard at the Gate called Cuchuc Cappe 500 Topgees or Gunners 500 Martoloes a sort of Foot-Souldiers 300 Souldiers belonging to the Powder-house 280 The Souldiery who are Servants to the Pashaw 3000 In all 22180 to which adding the Militia of Bosna and other parts of Sclavonia and all along the Frontier Countries which extends for above 800 English miles the number may amount to no less than 70000 fighting men But we here discourse only of the number of the Zaims and Timariots which whole sum amounts to of Zaims 10948 and of Timariots 72436 which makes in all 83380 but this is calculated at the lowest rate they may very well be reckoned to be one third more besides other Militia's of Cairo or other Orders of Souldery to be treated of in the following Chapters These Partitions or Divisions were first made by Solyman the Magnificent as the best Rule and Method for an orderly disposition of his Militia and as the strongest nerve of the Ottoman Force but as with Time in the most exact compositions of Discipline corruptions through covetousness and ambition of officers are introduc'd so also in the just disposal of these Rents according to the ancient Institutions for the Beglerbegs Pashaws Treasurers and other Officers instead of bestowing this maintenance to the Souldiers according to their merits of Valour or long Service reserve it to prefer and gratifie their Servants and Pages obliging them in recompence thereof under various Services some that live at Constantinople or near the Sea to defray the charges of all Boats and Vessels which carry their houshold Provisions others that live in the inland Countries agreeing with the Treasurer of the Souldiery without regard to the true Heirs or any other consideration set to sale these Rents to them who proffer most so that in time of Harvest the Pashaw sends abroad his Officers to gather his Profits from the poor Timariots with that oppression and violence as causes disturbances differences and Lawsuits amongst them which being to be decided by Judges partly interess'd in the Quarrel the Sentence is certainly determined on their side who have most power and most money The aforegoing account of Zaims and Timariots is the most reasonable one can be given And because we have reckoned them at the lowest rate making some allowance to the 83380 〈◊〉 Militia may amount to an hundred thousand men which as I have heard is the utmost number of this sort of Souldiery CHAP. IV. Of certain Customs and Laws observed amongst the Ziamets and Timariots AMongst these Forces of Ziamets and Timariots are in time of War and Action mixed certain Voluntiers or Adventurers called by the Turks Gionullu who maintain themselves upon their own expence in hopes by some signal Actions of Valour to obtain the succession into a Zaims or Timariots Lands as places are made void by the slaughter of the War These men are often very hardy and ready to attempt the most desperate Exploits moved by a desire of the reward and by the perswasion that at worst dying in a War against Christians they become Martyrs for the Mahometan Faith It is reported that in one day upon the assaults given Serinswar or the new Fort of Count Serini one Timariots Farm was bestowed eight times one being slain it was conferred on another and so on a third and so on the rest all which had the misfortune to fall until it rested on the eighth the others dying with the title only of Timariots The Zaims or 〈◊〉 being aged or impotent have in their life time power to resign up the right of their Estates to their Sons or other Relations It is not lawful for a Peasant or Clown to mount his Horse or girt his Sword like a Spahee until first he hath had part of his Education in the Service or Family of some Pashaw or person of Quality unless it be on the Confines of the Empire where having given evident Testimonies of his Courage he may then become Competitor for the vacant Farms of a Zaim or Timariot It is the Custom of Romania that a Zaim or Timariot dying in the Wars his Ziamet Rents are divided into as many Timariot Farms as he hath Sons but if a Timariot hath no more then 3000 Aspers Rent it descends entirely to his eldest Son but if it be more it is proportionably divided amongst the rest of his Children But if they dye of a natural death at their own homes the lands fall to the disposal of the Beglerbeg of the Country either to confer them on the Heirs of the deceased on any of his Servants or sell them at the best advantage But in Anatolia there are many Zaims and Timariots whose Estates are hereditary to them and their Heirs and are not obliged to serve in person in the War but only to send their Gebelues or number of Servants according to the value of their Estates of which duty if they fail in the time of War that years Rent is confiscated to the Exchequer and this Estate descends to the next of Kin whether derived from the Male or Female line CHAP. V. The State of the Militia in Gran Cairo and Egypt THE Guard and protection of the Kingdom of Egypt is committed to the charge of twelve Begs some of which are of the ancient Race of the Mamalukes confirmed by Sultan Selin upon the taking of Cairo these have the command of the whole Militia in their hands whereby they are grown proud powerful and ready upon every discontent to rise in Rebellion every one of these maintains 500 fighting men well appointed for War and exercised in Arms which serve but as their Guard
and for Servants of their Court with which they go attended in journeys in their huntings and publick appearances under the command of these twelve Captains are twenty thousand Horse paid at the charge of the Country whose Office is by turns to convey yearly the Pilgrims to Mecha and the annual Tribute of 600000 Zechins to the Ottoman Court whether it be judged requisite to send it either by Land or Sea these are the standing Militia of the Country out of which unless upon the foregoing occasions they are not obliged to other service their principal duty being to prevent the invasion of the African Montaneers who often make incursions from their barren Rocks into the fat and fruitful Soyls of Egypt Besides this Militia are computed eighty thousand Timariots out of which they yearly transport about 2500 or 3000 men to the Wars of Candy but to more remote Countries or the late Wars of Hungary I did not hear that this Souldiery hath usually been called These twelve Beghs of Egypt are noble by bloud enjoying an hereditary Estate descending from the Father to the Son which richness joyned with the command of a powerful Army hath rendred them so formidable and insolent that oftentimes they take upon them an authority to imprison and depose the Pashaw from his Office and spoil him of all the riches he hath collected in his three years Government by which means are always great jealousies and enmities between the Pashaw and these Beghs dissentions and rebellions to that high degree that many times it hath been little different from an absolute Revolt Ibrahim Pashaw was in the year 1664 imprisoned by them and obtained his liberty for 600 Purses of money after whose departure the brother of the said Ibrahim upon some certain pretences on the Pashaw's score falling into their hands was imprisoned also but shortly after obtained his releasement by the Grand Signiors Master of Horse who was sent expresly to compose the disorders of Egypt which were now proceeded to that degree as without some satisfactory atonement could not be termed otherwise than a total defection and therefore they resigned up one called Sulficar Bei to justice who being brought to Adrianople was immediately in presence of the Grand Signior put to death But the Turk hath always on occasions of these disturbances and insolences dissembled and connived at the disorders perceiving the distemper of that Kingdom to be such as can with much difficulty be redressed fearing that were forcible remedies applied they would cause so violent a commotion of humours as would absolutely rent it from the body of the Empire The Auxliary Forces to the forementioned 〈◊〉 of the Turks Are the Tartars Valachians Moldavians and Tranfilvanians under the command of their respective Princes who are obliged to serve in person whensoever called by the Sultans command The Tartars I mean of Crim are to furnish a hundred thousand men with the Tartarhan or Prince in person to lead them when the Grand Signior himself appears in the field but if the Army is commanded by the Visier only then the Son of the Tartarhan is to serve or having no issue the Army to the number of 40 or 50 thousand fighting men is to be conducted under the chief Minister But the Princes of Valachia Moldavia and Transilvania are 〈◊〉 excused from personal attendance in the Camp each of which respectively are to be attended with six or seven thousand men a piece And though the Prince of Transilvania called Apafi was in the last War against the Emperor not called out of the Confines of his own Country it was with design that he should keep that Station free from the irruption of the Enemy not that he was disobliged from his personal attendance on the Visiers Camp CHAP. VI. Of the Spahees A Spakee HItherto we have treated of the Turkish Horse that are maintained by Farms and Rents of Lands now it will be necessary to discourse of those that receive their constant pay from the Grand Signiors Treasury and these are called Spahees who may not improperly be termed the Gentry of the Ottoman Empire because they are commonly better educated courteous and refined than the other sort of Turks and are in number 12000. Of these there are two Orders one called Silahtart who carry yellow Colours and the other Spahaoglari or the Servants of the Spahees and have their Colours red these Servants have now obtained the precedency above their Masters for though the Silahtari are very antient and dednce their institution from Ali their first Founder who was one of the four Companions of Mahomet yet Sultan Mahomet the third on a day of Battel in Hungary seeing the Silahteri routed and put to flight with violent passion and earnestness endeavoured to stop their course and perceiving the Servants of these Spahees to remain still in a body incited them to revenge the shameful cowardise of their Masters who immediately encouraged with the words of the Sultan clapping up a red Flag gave so bold an onset on the Enemy and with that success as wholly recovered the glory of the day in remembrance of which service and notable exploit the Sultan as disposer of all Honours and Orders gave ever after the preheminence to these Servants before their Masters since which time this new institution of Spahaoglari hath always been continued These Light-Horse men are armed with their Scimitar and Lance called by them Mizrak and some carry in their hands a Gerit which is a weapon about two foot long headed with Iron which I conceive to be the same with the Pila amongst the Romans which by long exercise and custom they throw with a strange dexterity and violence and sometimes darting it before them in the full career of their Horse without any stop recover it again from the ground they also wear a straight Sword named Caddare with a broad blade fixed to the side of their Saddle which or the Scimitar they make use of when they arrive to handy-blows with the Enemy many of them are armed with Bows and Arrows and with Pistols and Carbines but esteem not much of fire-arms having an opinion that in the field they make more noise than execution some of them wear jacks of Mail and Head-pieces painted with the colour of their Squadron in fight they begin their onset with Allah Allah and make three attempts to break within the Ranks of 〈◊〉 Enemy in which if they fail they then make their retreat The Asian Spahees are better mounted than commonly those of Europe though these being Borderers on the Confines of the Christians having learned much of their Discipline by constant skirmishes and combats are trained in the art of War and become the more valiant and experienced Souldiers But the Asiatick Spahees were formerly the more rich many particular men of them bringing into the field thirty or forty men apiece besides their Led-Horses Tents and other accommodations proportionable to
them to retreat after they were engaged upon a false alarm that the Enemy in great numbers were coming to fall on the Quarters where the Viziers person remained and that this error was the first original of the slaughter that ensued augmented their discontents and animosities against the Government The Souldiery besides was greatly terrified and possest with a fear of the Christians and amazed upon every alarm the Asian Spabees and other Souldiers having Wives and Children and Possessions to look after were grown poor and desired nothing more than in peace and quietness to return to their homes so that nothing could come more grateful to this Camp no largesses nor hopes could pacifie the minds of the Souldiery more than the promises and expectations of Peace And this was the true cause that brought on the treaty of Peace between the Emperor and the Turk in such an instant contrary to the opinion of most in the world and gave occasion to the Vizier to embrace the Propositions offered by the Heer Reninghen then Resident for the Emperor who was carried about according to the motions of the Turkish Camp to be ready to improve any overtures of Peace that might be offered the Vizier to shew his real intentions flattered and caressed this Resident with the Present of a Horse richly furnished a vest of Sables and a commodious Tent whilest the Propositions and Condescentions on the Turkish part were dispeeded to Vienna which were returned again with an entire assent to most of the Articles and those wherein there might be any difference were to be referred until the arrival of the Extraordinary Embassador who was supposed might reach the Ottoman Court by the end of April The Asian Spabees were overjoyed at the news 〈◊〉 and immediately obtained licence to depart and most of the Militia was dispersed every one with joy betaking himself to his own home But this Embassador missing of his time alloted for his arrival above a month later then he was expected put all things into a strange combustion I was then in the Camp when it was whispered that the Treaty was at an end that the Christians had deluded them and caused them to disband their Army that so they might fall upon them with the greater advantage the misfortune of which according to the custom of the Commonalty was charged on the heads of the Governors and the too much credulity of the Vizier But at length on the 28. of May 1665. news coming that the Embassador from the Emperor was arrived at Buda the Vizier the next day departed from Belgrade with his whole Army which I accompanied as far as Nissa about nine days march towards Adrianople and there having put an end to my business and wearied with the slow pace and heats and other inconveniencies of an Army I took my leave of the great Vizier and proceeded forward by longer journeys to attend the Court at Adrianople And that I may give my Reader an account of these Countries and the nature of the people that inhabit them I hope it will not be judged much besides my purpose if I entertain him a little with a relation of some part of my journey to Belgrade On the 29th of April 1665. I departed from Adrianople towards Belgrade and on the first of May I lodged at a Village called Semesgè the first Town I came to inhabited by Bulgarians who are Christians that day being a Festival the women upon the arrival of Guests came running from their houses with Cakes of dough-baked bread which they called Togatch only laid upon the Coals between two Tiles which they soon kneaded and prepared for the stomachs of Travellers others brought Milk Eggs and Wine to sell and what else their homely Cottages afforded which they pressed on us with much importunity the younger and handsomer callenging a priority in the sale of their Provisions before those who were ancient and more homely These Country Lasses had that day put on their holy Garments which put me in mind of those dresses I have seen in pictures of the ancient Shepherdesses in Arcadia being a loose Gown of various colours with hanging 〈◊〉 their arms had no sleeve but that of their Smock which though it were of Canvas or some very 〈◊〉 Linnen was yet wrought with many various works of diverse colours their hair was braided hanging down at length behind which some had adorned with little shells found upon the Sea shore tyed at the end with fringes of Silk bobs and tassels of Silver their heads were covered with pieces of Silver Coin of different sorts strung upon thread and their breasts were in the same manner decked those being most honoured and esteemed most rich who were best adorned with these strings of Coyn and Bracelets on their wrists with which every one according to her ability had dressed and made her self fine Amongst these we passed with plenty of Provision and a hearty welcome for these people called Bulgarians inhabit all that Country to the Confines of Hungary they till all that ground pasture vast numbers of Cattel and are industrious and able Husbandmen by which means and the liberty they enjoy by the small number of Turks which live amongst them they pass their time with some reasonable comfort and are more commodious in wealth than they suffer to appear outwardly to the envious eye of the Turks Their Language is the old Illyrian or Sclavonian Tongue which hath much similitude with the Russian because this people is said to come originally from beyond the River Volga and so by corruption are called Bulgarians or Volgarians On the third of May we arrived at Philippopolis where we were civilly entertained at the House or Monastry of the Metropolite or Greek Bishop of that place By this City runs the River Hebrus having its original from the Mountain Rhodope in sight of which we travelled towards Sophia of which Ovid thus speaks Qua patet umbrosum Rhodope glacialis ad Haemum Et sacer amissas exigit Hebrus aquas The City of Philippopolis is scituate in a large and open Plain and Level whereon are great numbers of little round Hills which the Inhabitants will have to be the Graves of the Roman Legions slain in those Fields A certain Greek had once the melancholy dream of much Treasure buried in one of these Hills and this phancy so often troubled him in his sleep that it took a strong impression in his mind whilst he was waking and so far troubled him that he could take no rest nor contentment until he had eased his mind to the Nasir-Aga who is he who oversees the Water-works and places of pleasure belonging to the Grand Signior in that Country The Turk though he had a great mind to the Treasure durst not yet open the ground until he had first acquainted the Grand Signior with the mind of the Greek who upon the first intimation dispatch'd away Officers so apt the Turks are in matters of profit to
unseasoned Timber that the first Voyage many of them became unserviceable for their Leaks and the rest at the 〈◊〉 of the Fleet in the Month of October following were laid up amongst the old and worn Vessels It may seem a difficult matter to assign the true reason why and by what means the Turks come to be so decayed in their Naval Forces who abound with so many conveniences for it and with all sorts of materials fit for Navigation as Cordage Pitch Tar and Timber which arise and grow in their own dominions and are easily brought to the Imperial Gity with little or no danger of their Enemies For Timber the vast Woods along the Coast of the Black Sea and parts of Asia at the bottom of the Gulph of Nicomedia supply them Pitch Tar and Tallow are brought to them from Albania and Walachia Canvas and Hemp from Grand Cairo and Bisquet is in plenty in all parts of the Turks Dominions Their Ports are several of them convenient for building both of Ships and Gallies the Arsenal at Constantinople hath no less than a hundred thirty seven Voltas or Chambers for Buildings and so many Vessels may be upon the Stocks at the same time At Sinopolis neer Trapesond is another Arsenal at Midia and Anchiale Cities on the Black Sea are the like and in many parts of the Propontis the Hellespont and the Bospborus are such Ports and conveniences for Shipping as if all things had conspired to render Constantinople happy and not only capable of being Mistress of the Earth but formidable in all parts of the Ocean and yet the Turk for several years especially since the War with Candia and their defeats at Sea have not been able at most to Equippe a Fleet of above 100 Sail of Gallies of which 14 are maintained and provided at the charge of the Beyes of the Archipelago for which they have certain Isles in that Sea assigned them The Turks do neither want Slaves for to bogue at the Oars of the Gallies for Tartary supplies them with great numbers besides divers persons in Constantinople make it a Trade to hire out their Slaves for the Summers Voyage for 6000 Aspers running the hazard of the Slaves life who returning home safe is consigned to the possession of his Patron And if want still be of Chiurma as the Turks call it or Slaves for the Oar a collection is made in several Provinces of the lustiest and stoutest Clowns called by the Turks Azabs but by the other Slaves Chakal these are chosen out of certain Villages one being elected out of every twenty houses the hire of which is 6000 Aspers for payment whereof the other 19 Families make a proportionable Contribution Upon receipt of their pay they give in security not to fly but to serve faithfully for that years Expedition But these men unused to the Service of the Sea unskilful at the Oar and Sea-sick are of little validity and the success of their Voyage may be compared to that in the Fable of the Shepherd who sold his Possessions on the Land to buy Merchandise for Sea-Negotiations The Souldiers which are destin'd to Sea-service are called Levents who come voluntarily and enter themselves in the Registers of the 〈◊〉 obliging themselves to serve that Summers Expedition for 6000 Aspers and Bisquet for the Voyage the stoutest and most resolute of these fellows are those called Cazdaglii who are a certain sort of Mountaniers in the Country of Anatolia neer Troy whose Country I once passed through with some apprehension and more than ordinary vigilance and caution to preserve my life for being all Robbers and Free-booters we admitted no Treaties or Discourses with them but with our Arms in our hands Others there are also obliged to Sea-service who are Zaims and Timariots and hold their Lands in Sea-Tenure but being not bound to go in person themselves they bring or send their Servants called in Turkish Bedel to supply their place every one providing one two or more according to the value of his Lands as we have before declared in the Chapter of the Zaims and Timariots Some Janizaries are also drawn out for Sea-service and some Spahees of the four inferiour Banners and not to make too bold 〈◊〉 the veterane Souldiers command only such to Sea as are new and green Souldiers lately registred in the Rolls of the Spahees The Auxiliaries of the Turks Forces by Sea are the Pirates of Barbary from those three Towns of Tripoli Tunis and Algier but these of late years have disused the Custom of coming in to the Turks assistance yet oftentimes they ply towards the Archipelago and to the Levant but it is to supply themselves with Souldiers and recruits of people for encrease of their Colonies The other part of Auxiliary Forces is from the Beyes of the 〈◊〉 being fourteen in number every one of which commands a Gally and for their maintenance have the contribution of certain Islands in that Sea allotted to them the which are better manned and armed than these of Constantinople but these neither are not willing too much to expose their Vessels to fight or danger in regard that being built and maintained at their own charges and their whole subsistance they are the more cautious how they venture all their Fortune in the success of a battel These Beyes also give themselves much up to their delights and pleasure and employ more thoughts how to please their appetites than to acquire glory and fame by the War what they gain in the Summer when joyned with the gross of the Turkish Fleet is the Prize of the Grand Signior but what chance throws upon them in the Winter is their own proper and peculiar Fortune The Gunners of the Turkish Fleet are wholly ignorant of that art for any person who is either English French Dutch or any other Christian Nation they design to this Office whether he be skilful or unskilful in the management of Artillery having an opinion that those people are naturally addicted to a certain proneness and aptitude in Gunnery in which they find their error as often as they come to skirmish with their Enemy The chief Admiral or Generalissimo of the Turkish Armata is called the Captain Pashaw his Lieutenant General is called Tershana Kiahiasi the next Officer is Tersane Emini or Steward of the Arsenal who hath the care of providing all necessaries for the Navy but this place being bought as almost all other Offices occasions a necessity in these persons to rob Nails Anchors Cables and other provisions of the Fleet to satisfie the debts they contracted for the purchase of their places in the like manner doth every Reis or Captain of a Gally keep his hand in exercise as often as convenience offers these are all for the most part Italian Renegadoes or the race of them born and educated neer the Arsenal The Officers command their Chiurme or slaves in corrupted Italian which they call Franke and afford them a better