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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43757	The history of Isuf Bassa, captain general of the Ottoman army at the invasion of Candia	Higgons, Thomas, Sir, 1624-1691.	1684 (1684)	Wing H1957; ESTC R34466	47,910	219

THE HISTORY OF Isuf Bassa CAPTAIN GENERAL OF THE Ottoman Army At the Invasion of CANDIA LONDON Printed for Robert Kettlewel at the Hand and Scepter over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1684. TO THE READER THe Novels and Romances of these times by mixing real things with Fiction have so corrupted History that it is hard to distinguish Truth from Fable Nor is it onely the Greek and Roman Story which have been so served but the Turkish too For as we have had a Grand Cyrus and a Cleopatra so there is an Illustrious Bassa the Authors of all which have prostituted Truth to give colour and probability to their Inventions But in this Relation Reader I assure you there is not any thing of that kind All here is matter of fact taken either out of approved Histories or authentick Letters and Memorials Besides the Life of Isuf Bassa which is full of surprizing Events you have here the beginning of the War of Candia of which he was a great occasion Nor have you onely the Successes of that War but the Causes of it and the Motives upon which it was undertaken A War as memorable certainly as hath been in any Age whether you consider the duration of it which was Four and twenty years or the numbers of Men which perished in it of which there is an account of above Nine hundred thousand onely of the Turkish side who were buryed in the Fields and in the Seas of Candia or the disparity of the Forces betwixt which that War was made a great part of the power of Europe Africa and Asia being engaged against the single State of Venice ERRATA PAge 19. line 5. for Ports read Posts p. 20. l. 18. read and overcame p. 47. l. 17. for Discovering read Disserving p. 58. l. 20. for Officers read others p. 60. l. 7. for Court read Covent l. 10. read Alvisi p. 78. l. 16. for Naris read Nani p. 89. l. 16. read was p. 118. l. 6. read Cernide p. 151. l. 4. for so read to p. 156. l. last dele out He. p. 158 l. 16. read Selectar THE HISTORY OF ISUF BASSA IN the Province of Dalmatia upon the Confines of the State of Venice liv'd a young man called Isuf Vascouich meanly born and very poor but having a great heart and impatient of the misery of his Condition he resolved to put himself into the World and try what Fortune would do for him He set out of his Father's House in so ill equipage that before he had gone far his feet were all cut with the stones which moved an old woman who was touched with pity to see a handsome Youth in that condition to give him a pair of Shooes a kindness which in due time he amply requited Isuf for by that name he was afterwards known came first to Nadin in Croatia where having some knowledge of the Turkish Tongue he put himself in the service of Sinan Bey one of the Governours of that Country as a helper in the Stables But being taken notice of for a youth of more than an ordinary Wit he was perswaded by a Capigi who was going to the Court to get his Congé of Sinan Bey and to accompany him to Constantinople the place for men to seek for Fortunes Coming to the Seraglio the best Imployment he could get was to cleave Wood for the Grand Seignior's Kitchin from which in a little time he was advanced to carry Water into the Garden and admitted there as an under-Gardner a Post of all inferiour ones the most advantageous since the Emperour passeth much time amongst those people and often calls his Councils of State and War into his Gardens by which means those Gardners come acquainted with all the Grandees of the Court and are known to the Sultan himself who having no Hereditary Nobility advanceth many times the meanest of his Slaves to the most eminent Dignities of the Empire It hapned that Isuf came into this Employment much about the time that Sultan Amurat went for Babylon who before he began his Journey sent for his three Brothers Orcan Bajazet and Ibrahim one after another and discoursing to them of the Expedition he was undertaking did what he could to sound their inclinations and finding that Orcan and Bajazet desired Arms and Horses that they might wait upon his Majesty to the War he thought it not safe to leave such young men behind him and so commanded that they should both be strangled But Ibrahim who innocently or rather as it is thought by the instruction of the Sultaness his Mother asked nothing of him but a few Aspers to buy Cages to put his Birds in was left alive but out of all capacity to make any disturbance in the absence of his Brother being put under a strict Guard in one of the Towers of the Seraglio where he had no creature to serve him but a woman-Negro a Mute In this Tower there was a window which looked into the Garden where Isuf used to water the Flowers from whence Ibrahim would often peep through a Grate upon him and listen to him as he sung seeming delighted with the Musick of his Voice Isuf perceiving he was taken notice of by Ibrahim and having compassion for this miserable Prince would at certain times when no body observed him approach the Tower and tell Ibrahim all the news of the Court regaling him with such Flowers and Fruits as were in the Garden Ibrahim finding that Isuf was disposed to serve him and thinking him discreet desired him if he wished him well as he pretended that he would talk no more at the Grate since if it were discovered it might be the loss of both their lives But said he when you have any thing to impart to me sing it in a tune as you pass under my window which I shall understand as well as if you spoke By which means Ibrahim came to know all that passed in the Seraglio and whatever succeeded in the Army Amurat was now upon his march to besiege Babylon when advice was brought him that the King of Persia had taken the Field with one hundred and twenty thousand Horse and was incamped some leagues from Babylon in a vast and fertile plain abounding with Forage and Provision where he stayed to countenance the Besieged and to be ready upon occasion to give them succour Old Babylon was built by Queen Semiramis upon both sides the Euphrates which cuts it in two and was the Metropolis of the Assyrian Empire and one of the seven Miracles of the World But out of its ruines is arisen another Babylon called Bagdet by the Turks which stands not upon Euphrates but fifty miles off upon the River Tigris which runs into Euphrates This City is very vast divided by the Tigris and incompassed with an ancient Wall with some Half-Moons about it But it s chief strength consisted in three great Ditches and in the number and resolution of the Defendants of which were forty thousand