unread. Poniatowski had no other

way

of con

J.C. 1710.
Heg.1122.

to have pe

- fented to

veying the king of Sweden's complaint to the grand feignior. He drew up a heavy charge Obliged against the grand vizier. Mr. Deferiolles, who titions prewas then the French ambaffador, and who gave the fultan. me an account of the whole affair, got the memorial tranflated into Turkish. A Greek was hired to prefent it. This Greek, mingling with the grand feignior's guards, held up the paper fo high for fo long a time, and made fuch a noise, that the fultan obferved him, and took the memorial himself. This method of prefenting memorials to the grand feignior against the viziers was frequently employed. A Swede, called Leloin, gave in another petition a few days after. Thus, in the Turkish empire, Charles XII. was reduced to the neceffity of ufing the fame expedient as an oppreffed fubject.

'Some days after this, the fultan fent the king of Sweden, as the only anfwer to his complaints, five and twenty Arabian horfes, one of which, that had carried his highnefs, was covered with a faddle and houfing enriched with precious ftones, and the ftirrups were of maffy gold. This prefent was accompanied with an obliging letter, but conceived in general terms, and fuch as gave reason to fufpect that the minifter had done nothing without the fultan's confent. Chourlouli too, who was a perfect mafter of the art of diffimulation, fent the king five beautiful horfes. But Charles, with a lofty air, faid to the perfon

that

Heg.1122.

J.C. 1710. that brought them: Go back to your mafter, and tell him, that I don't receive prefents from my

Strange viziers.

enemies.

< Poniatowski, having already ventured to have a petition presented against the vizier, next formed the bold defign of depofing him. Understanding that the vizier was disagreeable to the fultanessmother, and that he was hated by the kiflar aga, the chief of the black eunuchs, and by the aga of the janiffaries, he prompted them all three to speak against him. It was fomething very furprifing to see a Chriftian, a Pole, an uncommiffioned agent of the king of Sweden, who had taken refuge among the Turks, caballing almost openly at the Porte against a viceroy of the Ottoman empire, who, at the fame time, was both an able minifter and a favorite of his master. Poniatowski could never have fucceeded, and the bare attempt would have coft him his life, had not a power, fuperior to all those that operated in his favor, given a finishing stroke to the fortune of the grand vizier Chourlouli.

The fultan had a young favorite, who afterward governed the Ottoman empire, and was killed in 1716 at the battle of Peterwaradin, which prince Eugene of Savoy gained over the Turks. His name was Coumourgi Ali: his birth was much the fame with that of Chourlouli; being the fon of a coal-heaver, as Coumourgi imports, coumor, in Turkish, fignifying coal. The emperor Achmet II. uncle of Achmet III. having

met

Heg.1122,

met Counourgi, while yet an infant, in a little J.C. 1710.
wood near Adrianople, was ftruck with his ex-
traordinary beauty, and caused him to be con-
veyed to the feraglio. Muftapha, the eldest fon
of Mahomet IV. was very fond of him; and
Achmet III. made him his favorite. He had
then the place of felictar aga, or fword-bearer to
the crown. His extreme youth did not allow
him to make any open pretenfions to the poft of
grand vizier; and yet he had the ambition to
afpire at it. The Swedish faction could never
draw over this favorite to their fide. He had
never been a friend to Charles, or to any other
Christian prince, or to any of their ministers; but
on this occafion he ferved king Charles XII.
without intending to do fo. He joined with the
valid fultanefs, and the great officers of the Porte,
to haften the ruin of Chourlouli, who was equally
hated by them all. This old minifter, who had
served his master for a long time, and with great
fidelity, fell a victim to the caprice of a boy, and
the intrigues of a foreigner, He was stripped of
his dignity and riches. His wife, who was the
daughter of the late fultan Mustapha, was taken
from him; and himself was banished to Caffa,
formerly called Theodofia, in Crim Tartary.* The
bull

VOL. IV.

S

It is faid in one of the difpatches of Mr Deferiolles, that the vizier Chourlouli having had an explanation with fultan Achmet III. at the time that the feals were demanded of him, this minifter fpoke to the prince with a liberty which the Turkish monarch was little accustomed to. Achmet caught up a club which lay near him to knock him down. "My life is in

thy

J.C. 1716. bull or feal of the empire was given to Numan Heg.1122. Kiuperli, grandfon to the great Kiuperli who took Candia. This new vizier was, what illinformed Chriftians can hardly believe it poffible for a Turk to be, a man of incorruptible virtue, a fcrupulous obferver of the law, and one who frequently opposed the rigid rules of juftice to the wayward will of the fultan. He could not endure to hear of a war against Mofcovy, which he confidered as alike unjuft and unneceffary; but the fame attachment to his law, that prevented his making war upon the czar, contrary to the faith of treaties, made him obferve the rights of hospitality towards the king of Sweden. He would fay to his master: "The law forbids "thee to attack the czar, who has done thee no in

jury; but it commands thee to fuccour the king "of Sweden, who is an unfortunate prince in thy "dominions." He fent his majefty eight hundred purfes (a purfe is worth about fixty pounds fterling), and advised him to return peaceably to his own dominions, either through the territories of the emperor of Germany, or in fome of the French veffels which then lay in the harbour of Conftantinople, and which Mr. Deferiolles, the French ambaffador at the Porte, offered to Charles to conduct him to Marseilles.

Count Poniatowski

carried

"thy power," said Chourlouli to him, "I have dedicated it to thee a long "time; I have done even more, I have expofed myself to public hatred to "fill thy coffers and ferve thee well. Punish me for it, if thou darest and "art defirous of encouraging those no better who fhall serve thee after me." The monarch, aftonished, ordered Chourlouli out of the room. AUTHOR.

carried on his negotiations with greater activity .C. 1711. Heg.1122. than ever, and acquired fuch a fuperiority with an incorruptible vizier, as the gold of the Mofcovites was unable to counterbalance. The Ruffian faction, thought it would be their wifeft courfe to poison fuch a dangerous negotiator. They gained one of his fervants, who was to give him poifon in a dish of coffee; but the design was discovered before it was carried into execution. The poifon was found in the fervant's hands, contained in a fmall vial, which was carried to the grand feignior. The prifoner was tried in open divan, and condemned to the galleys; the juftice of the Turks never inflicting death for those crimes that have not been perpetrated.

< Charles XII. who could not be perfuaded but that, fooner or later, he should be able to engage the Turkish empire in a war against Moscovy, rejected every propofal that was made for his peaceable return home. He was continually reprefenting to the Turks, how formidable the power of that fame czar was, whom he had fo long defpifed. His emiffaries were perpetually infinuating, that Peter Alexiowitz wanted to make himself mafter of the navigation of the Black fea; and that, after having fubdued the Coffacks, he would carry his arms into Crim Tartary. Sometimes these representations aroused the Porte, at others the Ruffian minifters deftroyed all their effect.

VOL. IV.

S2

'Whilft