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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47555	The Turkish history from the original of that nation, to the growth of the Ottoman empire with the lives and conquests of their princes and emperours / by Richard Knolles ... ; with a continuation to this present year MDCLXXXVII ; whereunto is added, The present state of the Ottoman empire, by Sir Paul Rycaut ...	Knolles, Richard, 1550?-1610.; Rycaut, Paul, Sir, 1628-1700. Present state of the Ottoman Empire.; Grimeston, Edward.; Roe, Thomas, Sir, 1581?-1644.; Manley, Roger, Sir, 1626?-1688.; Rycaut, Paul, Sir, 1628-1700. History of the Turkish empire.	1687 (1687)	Wing K702; Wing R2407; Wing R2408; ESTC R3442	4,550,109	2,142

they may drink it with full Bowls and have sufficient thereof to give them their Kaif as they call it that is to transport them into a dissolute mirth or the ridiculous actions of drunkenness or to a surfeit or a vomit they esteem it not worth the drinking and a provocation to the appetite and palate to remain with a desire of demanding more But such as would appear Religious amongst them and are superstitious morose and haters of Christians abstain wholly from Wine and are of a Stoical pride melancholy temper and censorious of the whole World. These men who drink onely Water and Coffee enter into Discourses of State matters censure the Actions and pass Characters on the Grandees and great Officers Assumta Stoicorum arrogantia Sectaque quae turbidos negotiorum appetentes faciat Tac. lib. 14. And this was the reason why the great Visier Kuperli put down the Coffee-houses in Constantinople and yet privileged the Taverns because the first were melancholy places where Seditions were vented where reflexions were made on all occurrences of State and discontents published and aggravated but Wine raised the spirits of men to a gay humour and would never operate those effects to endanger his condition as the Counsels which were contrived in the Assemblies of those who addicted themselves to a more melancholy Liquor The drinking Wine in young Men is esteemed amongst the extravagancies of Youth but in old men is crime a more undecent and scandalous in a higher degree But why Mahomet should so severely forbid the use of Wine to his Disciples is recounted in a Fable on this occasion That their Prophet being once invited by a Friend to an entertainment at his house changed in his way thither to be detained a while at a Nuptial Feast where the Guests raised with the chearfull spirits of the Wine were merrey embracing and in a kind temper each towards other which pleasing humour Mahomet attributing to the effect of the Wine blessed it as a sacred thing and so departed But it happened that in the evening returning again and expecting to see the love and caresses he had before blessed to be augmented he found the house to the contrary full of Brawls and noise fightings and all confusion which he also having understood to be another effect of the Wine changed his former Blessing into a Curse and for ever after made it Haram or an abomination to his Disciples CHAP. XXVI Of their Morality Good Works and some certain of their Laws worthy of observation THough according to the preceding Discourse the Character that may thence result from the nature and temperance of the Turks doth not promise any long Treatise concerning their deep Morality Vertues and elevated Graces yet in the minds of all Mankind though never so barbarous God having wrought the Law of Nature and made that impression of doing right to our Neighbour which tends towards conservation of the World we may well expect to find the same Principles in the Turks especially their Victories and Spoils abroad having procured them conversation with other Nations and their Wars and Treaties with Christians having refined their minds in a good part of that rude temper they brought with them out of Scythia it will not be strange for us to find amongst them men whom Education hath made civil polished in all points of vertuous deportment and made Heroes of their Age though I must confess I cannot applaud the generality of this people with so high encomiums as I have read in the Books of some ingenious Travellers and do believe without partiality that they come short of the good nature and vertues are to be found in most parts of Christendom Howsoever wherein they conceive a great part of charity is placed and meritorious Works it will not be unworthy nor unpleasant to consider And in the first place they esteem it a good work to build Houses though from thence they obtain a Rent because it is a habitation for those who have no Lands or Estates to have them of their own But especially such as are Princes and great Men who build Chans or Inns which are receptacles for Travellers at night are ranked in the first Order of sacred Benefactors and are blessed and prayed for by the weary Guests who have found repose and refreshment through their Munificence and in these Buildings the Turks are extraordinary Magnificent in most parts of the Empire having united to many of them a stately Mosch Baths and Shops for Artisans and Tradesmen to supply all the necessities of the Travellers and some of them are so endowed that every night the Guests are entertained at free cost with a convenient Supper be their number more or less according as the Chan is capable to receive The form of these Buildings is for the most part according to the model of the highest and stateliest of our Halls covered with Lead though not altogether so high Roofed yet some I have observed for their breadth and length very Magnificent yet by reason they have been somewhat lower have onely in that come short of the pride of the stateliest Fabricks though in few of them are Apartments for different Companies yet every one is sufficiently retired having at a convenient distance different Chimneys for all parties of Guests to dress their Meat and in the Winter for their Fire the greatest inconvenience to Men of watchfull spirits and used to quiet retirements is the want of sleep which until I have been over-tired with labour and accustomed thereunto by divers days Journies hath been always a stranger to my eyes by reason of the molestation of various Companies some of which are always awake some mending their Carts others dressing Meat others upon their departure that in those publick places never want noise to disturb those who sleep but of one ear These stately Chans or Inns which with the Moschs are the onely durable and magnificent Buildings of the Empire are the Edifices of certain great Men who fearing to be deprived of their Riches by a hasty death should they endeavour to continue them to their Family chuse to perpetuate their Names and secure their conditions by these publick Works Those who would appear of a compassionate and tender nature hold it a pious work to buy a Bird from a Cage to give him his liberty and hold it a mercifull action to buy Bread and feed the Dogs of which there are a great number of diseased Curs in all Streets appropriate to no Master but are mangy and foul and no small causes of breeding the Plague so frequent in all the Cities of the Turks And this care of Dogs is accounted so charitable that there are certain Laws made for the protection and maintenance of them and it is a lighter offence to deny Bread to a poor Christian who is famished in his Chains than to the Dogs of their Street which are fit for nothing but to breed Infection and some bind themselves

slavery they profess and cannot but fansie a strange kind of projected baseness in all the deportment within the Walls of the Seraglio when there appears so much condescension Abroad to all the lusts and evil inclinations of their Master so that a generous Prince as some have been found among the Ottoman Emperors though he desired not the publick Liberty would yet be weary of this slavish compliance and seek other counsel and means to inform himself of the true state of his own and other Kings Dominions than such as proceed from Men unexperienced in any other Court or Country than that they live in This flattery and immoderate subjection hath doubtless been the cause of the decay of the Turkish Discipline in the Time of Sultan Ibrahim when Women governed and now in this present Age of Sultan Mahomet whose Counsels are given chiefly by his Mother Negroes Eunuchs and some handsome young Mosayp or Favourite seldom any from without being permitted or have their Spirits emboldened to declare a Truth or are called to give their counsel in Matters of greatest importance So that this Obedience which brave and wise Emperors have made use of in the advancement of noble Exploits and enlargement of their Empire is with effeminate Princes delighted with flattery the Snare of their own Greatness and occasion of weak Counsels and Means in the management of great Designs If a Man seriously consider the whole composition of the Turkish Court he will find it to be a Prison and Banniard of Slaves differing from that where the Galley-slaves are immured only the Ornaments and glittering out-side and appearances here their Chains are made of Iron and there of Gold and the difference is only in a painted shining servitude from that which is a squalid sordid and a noisome slavery For the Youths educated in the Seraglio which we shall have occasion to discourse of in the next Chapter are kept as it were within a Prison under a strange severity of Discipline some for twenty thirty others forty Years others the whole time of the Age of Man and grow gray under the correction of their Hogiaes or Tutors The two Brothers of this present Grand Signior are also imprisoned here restrained with a faithfull and carefull Guard and perhaps are sometimes permitted out of Grace and Favour into the presence of their Brother to kiss his Vest and to perform the offices of Duty and Humility before their Prince The Ladies also of the Seraglio have their faithful Keepers of the Black Guard to attend them and can only have the liberty of enjoying the Air which passes through Grates and Lattices unless sometime they obtain licence to sport and recreate themselves in the Garden separated from the sight of Men by Walls higher than those of any Nunnery Nay if a Man considers the Contexture of the whole Turkish Government he will find it such a Fabrick of slavery that it is a wonder if any amongst them should be born of a free ingen●ous Spirit The Grand Signior is born of a Slave the Mother of the present being a Circasian taken perhaps by the Tartars in their incursions into that Country The Visiers themselves are not always free-born by Father or Mother for the Turks get more Children by their Slaves than by their Wives and the continual supply of Slaves sent in by the Tartars taken from different Nations by way of the Black Sea as hereafter we shall have occasion to speak more fully fills Constantinople with such a strange Race Mixture and Medly of different sorts of Blood that it is hard to find many that can derive a clear Line from ingenuous Parents So that it is no wonder that amongst the Turks a disposition be found fitted and disposed for Servitude and that is better governed with a severe and tyrannous Hand than with sweetness and Lenity unknown to them and their Forefathers as Grotius takes this Maxim out of Aristotle Quosdam homines naturâ esse servos i. e. ad servitutem aptos ita populi quidem eo sunt ingenio ut regi quam regere norint rectius But since it appears that Submission and Subjection are so incident to the Nature of the Turks and Obedience taught and so carefully instilled into them with their first Rudiments it may be a pertinent question How it comes to pass that there are so many Mutinies and Rebellions as are seen and known amongst the Turks and those commonly the most insolent violent and desperate that we read of in Story To let pass the Mutinies of former Times in the Ottoman Camp and the usual though short Rebellions of ancient Days I shall instance in the Causes and Beginnings of two notorious Disturbances or rather Madnesses of the Souldiery not mentioned in any History which being passages of our Age deserve greatly to be recorded This Obedience then that is so diligently taught and instilled into the Turkish Militia as to the Spahees in their Seraglios or Seminaries the Janisaries in their Chambers sometimes is forgot when the Passions Animosities of the Court by which inferior Affections are most commonly regulated corrupt that Discipline which its Reason and Sobriety instituted For the affections of Princes are endued with a general Influence when two powerful Parties aspiring both to Greatness and Authority allure the Souldiers to their respective Factions and engage them in a Civil War amongst themselves and hence proceed Seditions destruction of Empires the Overthrow of Common-Wealths and the violent Death of great Ministers of State. And so it happened when ill Government and unprosperous Successes of War caused Disobedience in the Souldiery which some emulous of the Greatness of those that were in Power nourished and raised to make place for themselves or their Party For in the time of Sultan Mahomet the present Grand Signior when the whole Government of the Empire rested in the hands of one Mulki Kadin a young audacious Woman by the extraordinary Favour and Love of the Queen-Mother who as it was divulged exercised an unnatural kind of Carnality with the said Queen so that nothing was left to the Counsel and Order of the Vizier and grave Seniors but was first to receive Approbation and Authority from her the black Eunuchs and Negroes gave Laws to all and the Cabinet-Councils were held in the secret Apartments of the Women and there were Proscriptions made Officers discharged or ordained as were most proper to advance the Interest of this Feminine Government But at length the Souldiery not used to the Tyranny of Women no longer supporting this kind of Servitude in a moment resolved on a Remedy and in great Tumults came to the Seraglio where commanding the Grand Signior himself to the Kiosch or Banquetting-house they demanded without farther Prologue the Heads of the Favourite Eunuchs there was no Argument or Rhetorick to be proposed to this unreasonable Multitude nor Time given for delays or consultation but every one of the accused as he

and Valor moved with a chosen Company of Footmen and certain Troops of Horsemen suddainly set upon the Turks in divers places dispersed abroad far into the Country with such a terrible cry of the Country People and Instruments of War that the Turks being therewith amazed ran away as if they had been mad and were many of them slain without resistance and had not the Gallies lien near the Shore to receive them that were able to flie thither there had not one of them which landed escaped the hands of the Island People The Turks having received this loss left the Island and put to Sea again The Rhodians for the most part now assured and out of doubt of the coming of the Turks by the perswasion of Gabriel Pomerolus Vicemaster and other men of great experience pluckt down the Suburbs of the City and laid them even with the ground their pleasant Orchards also and Gardens near to the City they utterly destroyed the Great Master for example sake beginning first with his own being a place of great delicacy lying under the Walls near to the French Bulwark and taking into the City all such things as they thought needful for the induring of the Siege they utterly destroyed all the rest were it never so pleasant or commodious within a mile of the Town leaving all that space as even and as bare as they could possibly make it to the intent tha●●●e Enemy at his coming should find nothing nea● the City whereof to make use But whilst the pleasures and delights of the Suburbs are thus in defacing another more heavy and woful sight presented unto the Eyes of the Citizens filled the City with greater mourning and pensiveness than did the coming of the Enemy The miserable multitude of the poor Country People some bringing Wood some Corn some Cattel some Fouls and other such necessaries as they had out of the Country into the City for so the Great Master had commanded after whom followed great numbers of Women and Children weeping with dischiveled hair scratching their faces and tearing themselves after the manner of the Country wringing their Hands and casting up their Eyes to Heaven beseeching God with heavy countenance and floods of Tears to defend the noble City of the Rhodes and themselves from the fury of their Enemies Which multitude of Country People with their Provision being packt up into narrow rooms in the Houses of the Citizens and their Cattel starving for want of Fodder afterwards corrupted the Air whereof insued rotten Agues and the Flux during the time of the Siege But after the City was given up such a Plague and Mortality followed as destroyed great numbers of the Turks and poor Christians which knowing not whether to go chose rather there to die than to forsake their native Country The General of the Turkish Fleet which landed in the Island of Chos and was of purpose sent by Solyman to provoke the Rhodians to Battel at Sea before he with his whole power came to besiege the Island came dayly with twenty Gallies half those narrow Seas over betwixt Lycia and the Rhodes leaving the rest of his Fleet riding at Anchor at the Promontary called Gnidum not far from the City of Rhodes ready to aid him as need should require this manner of bravery he used many days together hoping thereby to allure the Rhodians out of their Haven to give him Battel knowing that if he should therein obtain the Victory it were at that time little less than the taking of the City or if he could by cruel fight but weaken the Forces of the Rhodians he should therein do his Master good service and greatly further his Victory by diminishing the number of the Defendants When he had many days without intermission in this proud manner come half Seas over and sometimes passing further came and lay at the mouth of the Haven as it were daring them to fight the Rhodians not wont to be so braved at their own doors moved with the intollerable insolency of this proud Turk by their continual importunity caused the Great Master to call a Counsel to consider whether they should fight with this Fleet of the Turks or not The Counsellors by the appointment of the Great Master assembled the Chancellor a man of great Authority and Spirit famous for his noble Acts both at home and abroad and chief of them which were of opinion this Fleet of the Turks was to be fought withal said So great disgrace was not longer to be suffered but presently revenged For said he the huge Fleet of the Turks I do not say at whose force and fight but at whose very name many men do tremble and quake which for all that is unto us no great novelty for every year we hear of the like is as a head to be joyned unto these pyratical Gallies as Members and then will it be most expedient which will be a most easie thing for us to do having the better both for strength of shipping and number and valor of men to give that great head such a blow and wound by cutting off these limbs that it shall ever after stagger and faint for want of strength or else there is no other Fleet at all prepared against us to follow this and then this discomfited we shall be at quiet Which thing in my judgment though others which fear their own shadows and the falling of Heaven say otherwise is most like to be true for the great Turk is not so sottish to come hither the fittest time of the year being so far spent in the latter end of June to besiege this City and such a City as he knoweth to be most str●ng wanting nothing that is needful and throughly manned with valiant Souldiers from whenc● his Ancestors have been with loss and shame repulsed when as the remainder of the Summer will be spent before he can encamp himself and place his batteries and Winter time as you know is unfit for every Siege especially in this Island wherein they can find no Haven or Harbor to rest in Wherefore on God his name let us set upon our proud Enemies and let us not for a few threatning words sent unto us from a fearful youth upon a fineness and policy lest we sh●uld follow the tail of his Fleet bound for some other place sit still like Cowards within our Walls with our hands in our bosoms as men which for fear and dred durst not shew their heads Which our Cowardise and want of Courage we forsooth call Fabius his policy But I would to God we were like Fabius but I fear we shall prove more like Antiochus the Etolians the Vitellians all whose courage consisted in words vainly hoping to gain the Victory by sitting still and wishing well But the help of God is not to be gotten with Womens Prayers and Supplications or these faint-hearted Policies which Cowards call advised counsel but Victory is gained by adventuring and exposing

overthrew them leaving thirty thousand slain on the place and taking two thousand Prisoners amongst which was the younger Brother of the Tartar King. This Defeat as it was the greatest that ever was given to the Tartars so it is probable that had it been well prosecuted at that time by the Polonians they might have entred the Chersonesus Tauricus and without much opposition have put an end to that Kingdom But Sigismond King of Poland had other Designs in hand such mixed Monarchies as that being better able to defend their own Dominions than to acquire or conquer others To this News ill received at Constantinople supervened the unexpected Death of Bethlem Gabor unexpected I say because that though he had been long labouring under the Diseases of Dropsy and Asthma yet the greatness of his Soul and activeness of his Spirit mastered for a long time his Indisposition so that he seldom or never omitted his Counsels and Business and to the very time of his Death was meditating and contriving Designs whereby to preserve his Dominions and enlarge them And indeed the Government of Transylvania required no less than such a stirring Spirit for being seated between two such powerful Monarchs as the Emperor and the Turk there was need of dexterity and courage to steer between the Rocks of such opposite Interests Sometimes it was necessary to join with one and anon with the other So Sigismond Battori Prince of Transylvania uniting his Forces with the Emperor's in several Conflicts overthrew the Turk and kept the Scale in an equal Ballance Gabor on the contrary inclined to the Turks and supported his Interest with the Ottoman Power following such Maxims as had been more ruinous to Christendom had he transferred them to a Son to imitate and pursue but dying without Issue the Government devolved to his Princess by Vote of the States of the Country and by Confirmation of the Turk as we have already intimated Gabor knew so well how to deal and treat with the Turks that he gained an abatement of ten thousand Dollars of the annual Tribute he managed his Affairs so subtilly with the Emperor that he was always invited to a Peace and accordingly made his Advantage by the Treaty The other Princes of Christendom in like manner courted him and particularly the Cardinal Richelieu employed one Bornemi● a Gentleman of Transylvania a Lover of the French Interest to be always about him by whose means and with the assistance of twenty thousand Crowns of yearly Pension he obliged him to make War on the Emperor at such Seasons as it should be intimated unto him to be most conducing to the advantage of France At length as we have said giving way to mortality he died on the 15 th of November after he had reigned eighteen Years he was a Prince of great Abilities but exercised them ill to the dammage of Christendom howsoever he was a Souldier of extraordinary Courage and Conduct having begun to manage his Sword at seventeen Years of Age and as it is said had been engaged in forty two several Fights His Widow Katherine Sister of the Elector of Brandenburgh rendred an account to the Port of this Accident and the Grand Signior immediately returned Answer by Sulficar Aga condoling the Misfortune and encouraging her to a dependence on the Port which she accepting with due Resentment promised Obedience to the Grand Signior and begged his Protection But the weather was too boisterous and rude for a Vessel to be navigated well under the Pilotage of a Woman for the situation of the Country between two mighty and potent Monarchs required more than a Feminine Mind and Courage to free and defend it from the Plots Snares and Violence with which it was as with a toile encompassed by those two great Nimrods of the East and West And though the Sultan undertook to defend his Female Ally yet the diversion of the Ottoman Arms in Persia the intestine Distractions and the Minority of the Emperor were such burdens on the Foundation of Empire and obstructions to great and Heroick Atchievements in behalf of the distressed Princess that all the Promises made to her were unavailable and ineffectual For Stephen Bethlem a Kinsman of the deceased Prince a Man conspicuous in his own Person and Estate as well as for the several Governments divided amongst his Sons and the interest he had gained in his Country procured means to convoke the States at Claudiopolis and insinuating the foregoing Inconveniences of a Female Government so prevailed with the Assembly that they perswaded the Princess to yield up her Soveraignty to Stephen Gabor as one better capacitated for Rule and Soveraignty than her self Stephen having thus obtained his intent entred into a serious Consultation with his Friends and Relations whether he should labour to confirm the Government to himself and entail it to the Family or renounce it to some other The first seemed a Matter very dubious and difficult for that Bethlem Gabor his Predecessor had disobliged the principal Boyards or Barons of the Country and thereby derived an envy and hatred to all his Family His long and violent Government annexed to the Interest of the Turk had not only rendred his Memory odious to his own People but likewise to the House of Austria which would be ready to continue the like prejudice and aversion to any of the same Family as it did to the last thereof For which Reasons after due and mature consideration it was resolved to offer the Government to George Ragotskie a Person rich in Mony and of great Interest by reason of the Jurisdiction and Castles which he possessed in Hungary belonging to his own paternal Inheritance and in pursuance thereof they sent Stephen the second Son and Solomon a Kinsman of that Family for Ambassadors to Ragotski representing to him that they had preferred his Merit before the Interest of their own Family and therefore desired him that he would be pleased to take upon himself the Regency of the Principality The offer of Government was a savoury Bait to the Palate of Rogotski which he embraced with singular affectation and contentment and was easily perswaded on this occasion to take a Journey to Waradin one of the principal Fortresses and Places of consideration in that whole Province and was there received by Stephen the Ambassador Governor of the Citadel with firing all the Cannon and with the common Joy and Festivity of the whole City But in the midst of this Mirth an unexpected Messenger arrived with News that the States had with common consent elected another Prince which was Stephen Bethlem Father of the Ambassador and Author of this Counsel Ragotski was strangely surprised with this Intelligence and the Ambassadors were put to the blush to see their Negotiations under such a shameful defeat Howsoever resolving to continue constant to their first Election and to renounce the Interest of their own Family they still maintained the same obsequious Offices

transport the People in one whereof were ninety five Persons embarked all of them Pas●a's Aga's and chief Officers of the Court the Vessel was over-set by a sudden gust of Wind and all the People drowned excepting three Sea-men which saved themselves by swimming More considerable were the Mischiefs by Fire For on occasion of some Fire-works made in one of the Grand Signior's Chiosks or Houses of Pleasure the Fire took so fiercely on the Tavan or wooden Works of the Sieling that it endangered the whole Palace and had consumed all but that many Hands and active Men gave a stop to the farther Progress This Fire was but a fore-runner of a greater which began the 16 th of September in that part of the City of Constantinople which is called Aiacab being between the Wall and the Port where live Taverners Butchers Fishmongers and others who sell Provisions The Fire took first in one of those Houses which had been a Tavern and are Buildings only made of Deal-boards and Timber which combustible Matter flamed out so violently that it took hold on all the Houses round and was so quick in its Motion as if it had taken by a Train or that some wicked People with Fire-balls had employed themselves in the Mischief the Fire took its Course against the Wind burning on one side and the other to the Historical Pillar and to the Moschs of Sultan Mahomet and Sultan Selim so that in a short time one third of the City was reduced to Ashes It is difficult to express the lamentable Destruction was made hereby what Riches what Palaces and Moveables were consumed in it there being twenty thousand Houses reported to be burnt which Misery is best represented by the remembrance of our calamitous Incendiation at London the greatest difference between one and the other was that that at Constantinople was more quick in its Motion for it burnt a larger compass of Ground in one third of the Time than ours did at London for that City for the most part consisting of slight Buildings of Wood met not the resistance which ours sometimes did against the Walls of Brick and Stones The Fire being extinguished and Men having time to lament and think began to impute the Cause and Fault to those whom they most suspected sometimes they accused the Persians for having fired the City for which Crime one of them the next Year suffered Death Some attributed the Cause of all to the Jani●aries and that they out of hatred to the Inhabitants or for the sake of Plunder if they did not begin yet at least increased the Fire which they the more suspected because the Janisaries refused not only to work themselves alledging that they expected Orders from their Aga but likewise hindered and discouraged others Howsoever the Grand Signior not wanting on his own part to contribute all Assistance possible sent four thousand Men out of his Seraglio to work about the Fire not excusing the very Officers of his Royal Chamber from contributing their Authority and personal Aid some of which ventured far into the Fire to demonstrate their Courage Activeness and Obedience to the Commands of their Emperor but all this was too little against an obstinate and an invincible Enemy for the Fire flamed and proceeded until it wanted Nourishment and Food to consume In fine twenty thousand Houses were burnt two hundred Moschs and the Library of the Mufti which for the Number of the Arabick and Persian Books was curious and of high esteem The Albengs or Habitation of the Janisaries containing three hundred Chambers of which each Chamber was capable to receive four hundred Men were all burnt and reduced to Ashes The which fatal and miserable Spectacle did a little touch the Heart of Sultan Morat so that he gave out considerable Sums to comfort the Distressed who had most suffered by this Calamity and to raise from its Ashes his consumed and languishing Constantinople which being revived and flourishing was again miserably consumed by Flames in the Month of April 1660. But such is the beneficial and commodious situation of that Place and the Riches thereof by Trade and the Presence of the Ottoman Court that the Inhabitants again rebuilt it in fewer Years than could be imagined But now to return to the Grand Signior at Adrianople we find him resolutely designed to make a War upon Poland to which he was induced by the Perswasions of Abassa and the present conjuncture of Advantage to join with the Moscovite it seeming great Policy not to suffer the Countries of Moscovy to be over-run or the Poles who is a warlike and dangerous Nation to grow Puissant and Powerful by his Success and Conquest over his Neighbours Wherefore Preparations were made on all sides for the War great Quantities of Provisions and Ammunition were sent into Moldavia by way of the Black Sea and the Danube The Tartar Han sent word that all his Forces were in readiness and expected nothing but their Orders to march The Beglerbey of Greece made his Rendezvous at Philippolis with an Army of thirty thousand Men where he attended to join with the Forces of Bosna Silistria and other parts of Europe Moldavia and Walachia made an appearance of Levying Men and joining with the Turk but their Hearts were towards the Poles with whom they kept a secret correspondence and would be ready to adhere on the least Opportunity In short the Army of the Turks was so great and all his Affairs in that readiness that he scorned to incline an Ear to Propositions of Peace in which Opinion Abassa humoured and perswaded him that the Poles were so fearful of his Forces that they had already yielded to Terms of compounding for a yearly Tribute All which proved false for in the mean time Vladislaus King of Poland remitting nothing of the Heat and Vigour of his War against the Moscovites he was so succesful therein that he forced an Army of eighty thousand Men which he had besieged in their Camp to lay down their Arms and surrender themselves which was an Action scarce to be credited at least to be parallel'd in any History and with this Conquest he might have proceeded to the Capital City of Mosco and concluded the War and that Empire But God's Providence which governs all things altered this Counsel and diverted those victorious Arms to the Siege of Bial which Town being well fortified and garisoned withstood many Assaults of the Enemy and blunted the Spirits and Swords of the Conqueror for losing much time in this Siege other Towns made use of the Opportunity to provide and fortify themselves whilst the Poles growing weary and wanting Pay raised divers Mutinies and Seditions in the Camp. These Difficulties and Inconveniences inclined the King Vladislaus to bend a favourable Ear to the many Supplications and Instances which the Moscovites made for Peace So that the Plenipotentiaries being assembled it was agreed that the Dutchy of Smolesco and Czernieschou which

and would serve as a Redoubt or Out-work to the Fort in which upon all extremities they might find Sanctuary and refuge But the apprehension of the Viziers Numbers and his near approach had made that impression of fear in their minds that no safety seemed to remain unless they could see the River Mura between them and their Enemy Nor was Serini more successful in his perswasions to assault the Enemy whilst they were wearied with their March and busied in extending their Tents the other Generals being of opinion that it was too great a hazard for them alone to venture their Forces in so unequal a Combat but they ought rather to expect Montecuculi by the addition of whose Forces the lot of War would be less hazardous if not wholly certain In this manner great Enterprises have been disappointed which have wanted only resolution to make them successful Fortune being commonly favourable if not a Servant to bold and daring Spirits the disunion also of Generals hath been the overthrow of the wisest Counsels and Wars have been observed never to have thrived where the Heads of Armies have been of dissenting humors or d●fferent interests This timidity on the Christian part raised in that manner the spirits of the Turks that without stop or opposition passing the River Muer they arrived at Serinswar where they immediately fell to their Mattock and Spade breaking ground for their Trenches which by continued labour they so diligently attended that in Seventeen days they arrived at the very Ditch of the Fort Only whilst the Turks were transporting their Numbers over the River the generous spirit of Strozzi not enduring to see their passage so easie and open valiantly opposed himself and his small Force against the greater power of the Enemy and so resolutely performed the Action that he killed Five hundred upon the place till at length being unfortunately shot by a Musket-bullet in the Forehead he gloriously together with one Chi●fareas a renowned Croatian Captain ended his days in defence of his Countrey and the Christian Cause In this interim General Montecuculi arrived with his Army and was received by Count Serini with all evidences and demonstrations of respect and hearty welcome and between both passed an appearance at least of friendly correspondence But as to the present Engagement Montecuculi was of opinion That the opportunity was over slipt which should at first have been pe●formed rather by way of surprize than open Bat●el before the Ottoman Army had arrived to its full numbers consisting now of an hundred thousand fighting men To which reasons Serini replied That the Christian Cause and the States and Confines of the Empire were not to be maintained by men that carry their thumbs at their girdles or by Armies made resty with ease and wanton with luxury That those Armies were raised not to consume and exhaust the Revenues of their Princes and Exchequers of their States without making satisfactory amends by a valiant defence of that Interest which they owned That the Enemy had not been before that time attempted was no fault or neglect of his who under the very Walls of Kanisia resolved to give them Battel but that the other Generals supposed it more prudence and caution to protract the Engagement till his Arrival who being now happily conjoyned with them nothing ought to deter them from a glorious Attempt on the Turks who not consisting of above Thirty thousand men ill disciplined and worse armed were not able to withstand the prowess of their Veterane Army which far exceeded them in number discipline and courage These or such like expressions Serini used and to prove what he averred he dispatched a confident Person of his own who spake naturally the Turkish Language with a Letter to the German Resident then entertained under custody in the Turkish Camp to know of him the true state and number of the Turks which Messenger soon after returned with this short account Nisi memortuum velis amplius non rescribas hic vix sunt triginta millia nec illa satis electa quid vos a pugna deterret Tormen●a Arcis nimis in altum exploduntur Which in English is thus Unless you desire my death write not back to me again here are scarce Thirty thousand men and those ill provided what then should deter you from an Engagement The Cannon in the Castle are too high mounted or shoot over Serini gave this Letter to Montecuculi who replied That so soon as General Sporch came up with his Forces he would immediately draw up the Army into Batalia Sporch being arrived he then resolved to expect Marquess Baden and so deferred the Bat●el from time to time until the Turks advantaging themselves by these delays had worked themselves under ground to the very Walls of the Castle At length Montecuculi entring into Serini's Fort it is not known upon what reasons of jealousie or discontent cleared Serini's Forces of the Garison and dispossessed the Governour which when Serini perceived full of anger and displeasure he quitted the Camp and retired himself to his Residence at Chiacaturno with intent to make his just Appeal and Complain● to the Emperor's Court. The Turks availing themselves of these delays and discontents proceeded forward in their work so that having Mined to the very Walls on the 9 th of Iune they blew up one of the half Moons at which the Defendants were so terrified that with amazement they left open one of their Sally Ports at which the Turks entring put the whole Garison into disorder consisting of 1900 fighting men so that now no safety remaining but in flight they forsook their Fort and crouding over the Bridge in confused heaps broke it down with the over-pressure of its burden by fall of which many perished in the Waters and about Three hundred and fifty which remained were cut off by the Sword this was the sate of Serini's Fort built with Art and lost by Cowardice and ill Conduct which the Year be●ore only with Twenty Germans and One hundred and fifty Hungarians withstood a most impetuous and fierce storm of the Enemy but now was less tenable than a Palancha tho Garisoned with 1900 Men of whom in this last Assault one alone had Courage to fire his Musket but none adventured to draw a Sword unless certain Voluntiers and French Officers whose Courage only renowned their own Deaths and served to upbraid the Cowardice of their Companions In the Fort were only found five small Field Pieces one whole Cannon a great Mortar Piece and two small ones belonging to Count Serini there were also one Mortar Piece and two small Field Pieces like to those of Serini belonging to the Emperor tho other Guns of weight or value were carried out of the Fort as being judged not long tenable and decreed to be abandoned to the Enemy Serinswar being thus taken was immediately demolished by the Vizier and razed to the Ground either because he

times The Ambassador of Venice Signior Alivisé Molino before mentioned was now at Candia designing to accompany the Vizier in his Voyage to the Grand Signior for adorning which Embassy the Republick had appointed a Ship to carry the Presents and several Persons of Quality for attendance of the Bailo for so their Ambassador is called and in regard in that passage the ship was to touch at Zant they laded on her a hundred thousand Zechins for payment of that Souldiery which with the Captain General were returned from Candia to that place with Presents for the Grand Signior and his Court but it pleased God that this Ship sailing down the Gulf met with so furious a storm of Wind that she suffered shipwrack on the Coast of Italy where not only the ship and goods were lost but every soul upon that ship perished amongst which was Lorenzo Molino Son of the Ambassador and Ottavio Labia another noble Venetian The Great Vizier entertained himself so long in Candia that the month of May was well entered before he departed thence and by the way touched at Scio where he was met by all the Officers and Governors of the adjacent Jurisdictions who came to make tender of their Presents and Services but the Vizier in a plausible manner accepted of their courteous Offers but returned their Gifts saying That he was so sensible of the great oppressions and expences the neighbouring Countries had suffered by reason of the War that he was resolved to superinduce no new Charge by Victory and Peace In like manner from all parts was a confluence of poor oppressed people who came to petition for justice and relief against the corruption and tyranny of their Governors in the respective Countries But the Vizier admitted no Audience for Complaints whether it were to maintain an apprehension of his clemency and gentleness by acting nothing that was cruel or severe or to enjoy himself after his cares and turmoils in the War he almost for fourteen days continuance entertained himself in private by the cool and crystalline Fountains of Scio. Some report that he gave himself at that time so excessively to Wine being overjoyed at his success and conclusion of the War that he was never capable during his abode there of serious thoughts or counsels so that his Kahya or Secretary could never be admitted access unless he were called though on the most urgent occasion of business Others interpreted his retirements to be in order to serious considerations about the management of Affairs at his return as how to satisfie the expectations of the Grandees who patiently attended an amendment of abuses in the Government how he might pacifie the minds of the Souldiery who were jealous of Conspiracies against the lives of the Royal Brothers and how to steer in an even course at Court between the security of his Master and satisfaction of the Vulgar for all the World lived in hope that alteration of times would amend abuses and that the last remedy of all was the return of the Viziers Authority Howsoever it is certainly reported That the Vizier was become exceedingly intemperate in wine and drowned much of his cares in the fumes and vapours of it supposing himself as Tiberius did in Caprea exempt from the eyes of the World whilst he remained in Scio which the Sea had separated from the greater Continent And yet the Vizier is believed never to have tasted Wine or known whether it was bitter or sweet till the pride of his success in Candia transported him to make his joy extravagant to which the Officers about his Person invited him as that which cheared the spirits strengthened the Nerves and induced a strange kind of delight and pleasure in the fancy beyond any thing of Poppies or Opiate Compositions or Biram-Pasha's Pills or Berse or a thousand other inventions fit only to confuse mens reason and stupifie the brain and benumb all the senses in which some as I have heard had so practised themselves by degrees that they could swallow five drams in twenty four hours though I never knew any unless one Turk whom I saw eat above three but then they could eat nothing else nor were they fit afterwards to receive or digest any other nourishment Nature being used to that poyson rejected all other sounder nutriment But Wine they said cheared the heart in that manner and comforted the stomach that the Turks began now generally to drink it unless he were some Pharisaical Hypocrite of the Ulamah or some superstitious aged and ignorant Professor So that the vice of drunkenness became more common amongst the Turks than amongst the Germans or our selves I am sure more intolerable and administred to more mischiefs by how much the Turks being unaccustomed to Wine knew less how to comport the heats of Intemperance And here I shall make a little digression from my purpose in hand to acquaint my Reader of the effects which I have observed to be produced in those who accustom themselves to the use of Opium In all the Country Villages amongst the Turks the more aged sort of men who have most leisure and least necessity to work addict themselves to Opium for alleviation as they say of their cares and to forget their sorrow for pleasure in the taste there can be none being very bitter to the palate which being taken in a morning in a small quantity about the bigness of a Tare superinduces at first a strange chearfulness about the heart and thence raises a more pleasing vapor to the head than any can proceed from the spirits of the best and the highest Wines but afterwards as it begins to digest the vapour becomes more gross and consequently a kind of stupefaction is induced over the brain and nerves which with drowsiness and sleep passes away like a drunken fit The Youth amongst them which drink Wine abhor Opium until growing into years and to the care of a family as a sign of which they suffer their beards to increase they are taught by their Imaum and more by example of others that Wine being against their Law is only dispensable in wild and unbridled Youth but in those of riper age is a vice to be reproached by all sober and well-governed men In the place of which they take up the lawfull and innocent Pill of Opium which makes men serious and setled as they say because that it operates not like Wine which m●k●s men mad and rash and violent but disposes them to be Sots and to sit grave and quiet without doing hurt to any man which is a qualification accounted very laudable amongst them and is one of the greatest Vertues which they endeavour to acquire in their Tekeés or Monasteries This being the reason for which it is taken and allowed it is grown a common custom almost amongst all the Country-people who in the morning before they go to work take first their Opium and upon it three or four dishes of Coffee

use of it to the destruction of all such who might either endanger his Prince or himself that in two or three Years time he became Master of the Lives and Estates of the Grand Mu●iniers confiscating their richess and fortunes to the use and security of his Master having in his time put to Death thir●y six thousand persons whom he proscribed in several Countries and privately strangled in the City by vertue of his absolute and uncontroulable Authority without giving the Offenders liberty of Processes or Pleas for their Lives or the solemnity of Scaffolds or applause of a Funeral Oration at the Gallows whereby to win the affections and compassions of the vulgar but went through with his bloody and tragical business without noise or rumour or knowledge almost of the Souldiery or the people whilst the great Personages whose rapine and pride had contracted them envy and hatred from their inferiours stood confused and amazed not having power to rebel nor Sanctuary to fly unto Such is the effect of an absolute and arbitrary power which is Master of times and affairs and rather fits and squares Enterprizes to Counsels than Counsels to Enterprizes Reges Hercule non liberi solum impedimentis omnibus sed Domini rerum temporumque trahunt Consiliis cuncta non sequuntur Liv. lib. 9. The Grand Signior in the mean time applauded the diligence and circumspection of his Minister and though yet trembling with the memory of late sollevations amongst the Janizaries yet being young and active addicted himself wholly to the delight of Hunting and to follow the Chace of fearful and flying Beasts whilst his Vizier so closely follow'd his game of Bloud that he left noPerson considerable in the Empire who was not a Creature made by or depending on him unless the Kahyabei or Lieutenant General of the Janizaries Mortaza Pasha of Babylon now called by the Turks Bagdat and the Pasha of Magnasia Men whose bravery and generous Justice or else their Guards or Fortune had only seated beyond the reach and Sword of this Tyrant This was then the State of the Turkish Affairs amongst themselves As to Foreign and Christian Princes the Emperor the King of England the French King and the States of Holland had their Embassadors and Residents at the Ottoman Court with whom as yet passed a fair and amicable correspondence excepting with the French whose Embassadour had then lately obtained his release from Imprisonment to which he was confined contrary to the Law of Nations and the Custom of the wisest and most generous People of former Ages and compelled to return into France an Agent being there setled by the Merchants to Negotiate their Affairs the occasions and grounds whereof we have at large signified in another place which unlawful treatment of a Person Sacred none will much admire who considers the humour of supream Ministers that judge themselves under no restraint or limits of Law either Civil or National This Embassador from France was call'd Monsieur le Haye the Father a Person excellently well qualisi'd having with success pass'd in that capacity for the space of 25 years until some misunderstandings passing between him and this Tyrannical Vizier he suffered many indignities from him which being added to the extream torment of the Stone under which he laboured made him willing on any terms to return to his own Counr●ey The Venetians notwithstanding the War had two Ministers there resident the E●cellentissimo Capello Procurator of St. Mark a right worthy and noble Person and Signior Ballarino a Person vigilant and subtle who omitted no opportunities to advance his own Fortunes and with that the benefit of his Republ●ck The Emperors Resident called Simon Renninghen a Person sincere free and open hearted agreeable to the Nature of the Germans had for some Years tho with some difficulty continued the Peace or rather matters from breaking out into an open War the Incursions on the Frontiers and other accidents always adminstring occasions of discontent and complaints to both parties But that the Series of this History may be continud with an even Thread and clear light to the Reader we must cast back our Eyes to the Year 1657. when the Ambition of George Ragotzki Prince of Transilvania began New troubles in his own Principality and laid the Foundation of a future War between the Emperor and the Turks For now Poland was so wearied with the incessant Wars of Muscovy the inveterate Enemy of that Crown with the frequent Rebellions of the Cossacks and the invasion of the Swedes whom the traiterous Vice-Chancellour and his Adherents had invited to the spoils of their own Countrey that King Casimirus was reduced to the ultimate extremity of his Affairs the publick Exchequer and private Treasuries were exhausted the Villages dispeopled the Fields uncultivated Traffick and Commerce ceased nothing but Wars Robberies and Confusion filled the Diurnals with News and the hearts of the Inhabitants with Sorrow and Calamities Wherefore Casimer King of Poland vexed on all sides and not knowing where or how to apply a remedy dispatched his Great Chancellor Albertus Pravesmoski in Quality of Embassador to demand assistance from Ragotzki promising in recompence thereof to adopt his Son to succeed him in that Kingdom No Message could arrive more grateful to ambitious Ragotzki who by so desired a proffer seemed to arrive to the Zenith of his Prosperity which like the Land of Promise being only shewed to his Father in a long Prospective seemed now as it were by Inheritance to devolve upon his Son in order unto which many days of Treaty and Conferences were held between Ragotzki and the Polish Ministers but Ragotzki insisting on certain particulars which were not in the Power of the King or his Commissioners to grant without the approbation of a Diet the Treaty was dissolved and Ragotzki remained displeased and angry pretending himself to have been deluded and slighted resolved to avenge the Affront and by his Arms gain to himself the Crown of that Kingdom so that raising a strong Army and joining himself in a Confederate League with Sweden he invaded Poland wasting all the Frontiers with Fire and Sword. The Ottoman Port growing jealous of the successes of these Affairs and not so much of the Advance of Ragotzki as of the growing greatness of the Swedes with whom unwillingly they would be Borderers issued an express Command That without contradiction or delay he should immediately give a stop to his March and return with his Army into Transilvania And though the Emperor of Germany and the Krim Tartar declared their disl●ke of his proceedings threatning to invade his Principality at home unless he retracted himself and desisted from this enterprize yet Ragotski having his understanding blinded with Ambition and the lust of Rule and Government stopped his ears to the menaces of his Enemies and the counsel of his Friends This Ragotski enjoyed a State most happy large fertile and populous in Power inferior to few superior to

many ●o that he might have passed peaceably and honourably with all could his great spirit have bowed to and complied with his Potent Neighbours For on the one side the Puissant power of the Turk threatned him to whom the least Ombrages of displeasure administer occasion of War On the side of Hungary the Emperour over-awed him On the side of Valachia and Moldavia he lay open to the incursion of the Tartars So that a man might rationally expect That this Prince should have esteemed it honour enough to have conserved his own without rendring himself obnoxious to the jealousie and suspicion of his Neighbours But his great spirit was so enamoured of a Crown and so bewitched with the hopes of obtaining it that nothing seemed difficult or improbable to the acquisition of his longing desires which were the occasion of all those calamities and miseries in Hungary which afterwards ensued In contemplation of all which foreseen evils his Caesarean Majesty sent a Message to the Ottoman Port declaring against the temerity and audaciousness of Ragotski who in the mean time subdued the Fort of Bristia invaded with Fire and Sword the Province of Russia plundered Podolia and advanced as far as Camonitz a Fortress strong by Art and Nature and joining afterwards with the Swedes assisted them in the subjection of Cracovia About this time the Emperour Ferdinand the third began to send succours into Poland and to protest against the proceedings of Ragotski but being surprized by sickness soon after passed to a better life which for some time giving a stop to the assistance of Poland was interpreted by Ragotski as a happy Omen of his good Fortune But how vain and deceitful are humane hopes whose foundations are Ambition and Violence For Leopold succeeding in the place of his Father to Hungary and the Empire immediately prosecuted the design in favour of Poland and in the first place besieging Turone one of the chief Cities of Prussia taken by the Swedes forced it to a Surrender The King of Denmark also growing jealous of the encreasing greatness of the Swedes nourished by ancient grudges and National Emulations took up Arms in defence of Poland and being at first flush of Money gave constant pay and large donatives to mercenary Soldiers which encreased his Army drawing great numbers from the Swedish Colours so that being stoutly recruited he entered into the Enemies Countries possessed himself of the important Fort of Olme in Norway overthrew the Swedish Army at Vorgast and obtained a victory over their Fleet in the Baltick Sea. The Poles also themselves who at first revolted from their Prince and favoured the Swedish proceedings perceiving the Wind change and become contrary to that Party began to abandon the interest they professed and by degrees to return to the due obedience of their King. Zerneski also the General and Lubomiski the Great Chancellour of Poland met the Swedish Forces near Cracovia where giving them Battel discomfited the whole Army killed fourteen thousand upon the place took all the Cannon and Baggage and won that day a most signal Victory Ragotski perceiving the face of things thus changed and being by Command of the Ottoman Port abandoned by his Moldavian and Walachian Forces began to turn his face towards Transilvania where now he wished himself and Army lodged in safety But being overtaken by General Zerneski near the Mountains of Transilvania he was tho unwillingly engaged to fight and was with that fury assaulted by the Polish Horse that tho according to his usual Bravery he charged in Person at the head of his Troops yet he was not able to withstand a violence so disadvantageous in number but that his men being first put into disorder then to a Retreat and then to open flight his whole Army was defeated many of them perished by the Sword others flying through the Woods and Mountains died with famine and he himself obliged to buy a shameful Peace engaging by Word and Oath to the payment of a great summ of Money was permitted with a mean Retinue to return into his own Country Nor did these misfortunes end here but the Tartars commanded by the Turks in revenge and chastisement of Ragotski's Enterprize without their consent entered into his Principality with considerable Bodies of Horse against whose sudden Invasion an Army under the Conduct of his General Kemenius could not be so soon collected and disciplined as to be able to resist that fury of Tartars who at their pleasure burned the Towns and Villages and carried away multitudes of people of both Sexes and all Ages for Captives into their own Country amongst which some were of Quality and Condition Amidst which troubles came Letters from the Ottoman Port directed to the Nobles of Transilvania declaring Ragotski a Rebel and commanding that according to the Laws and Priviledges of that Principality they should proceed to the Election of a new Prince and in case of refusal all the ruins and calamities were threatned which they might justly expect in punishment of their disobedience from a severe and angry Emperor Ragotski being well informed what was designing against him at the Ottoman Port and knowing that his power was not able to oppose so much puissance resolved to give way to necessity and voluntarily depose himself before he should be engaged thereunto by the Imperial Decree so that he calmly receded from his Principality hoping that his humility and submission might procure his pardon at the Court. The Nobility of Transilvania being as well desirous to evidence their affection to their old Prince as their obedience to the Grand Signior did immediately appoint a day for Election but with Proviso that a general Petition should be made in behalf of Ragotski that he might be again restored unto ancient Grace and Favour with the Port who in the mean time swore to live peaceably in a quiet and private condition without making disturbance or innovation in the Government and that when this Grace should accordingly be obtained then that the new Prince should recede and suffer things to return to their former and pristine Estate For which purpose there was choice made of one Francis Redeius a Person of a peaceable and gentle temper who would easily condescend to the terms agreed and as willingly resign up his Government again as he unwillingly received it But though Ragotski had renounced promised swore and in appearance seemed to recede from his Government and surrender all at the irresistible Decree of a superior power yet his high Spirit and working Brain could not dislodg that Ambition of his Heart which at first privately countermined and enervated the Power of the new elected Prince but afterwards his towering Thoughts swelled too big to be suppressed under the cover of Dissimulation yielded just Reason to the Ottoman Port to suspect his designs who not being ignorant of what was past dispatched Orders to the Pasha of Buda to demand the strong Fort of Iancua