J.C. 1716. Whilft Charles XII. made his fate depend upon the caprice of viziers, and whilft he was alternately receiving favors and affronts from a foreign power, prefenting petitions to the fultan, and fubfifting upon his bounty in a defert, all his enemies, awaked from their former lethargy, invaded his dominions; and Stanislaus, king of Poland, whom he had fo powerfully protected, yielded up the throne to his competitor Frederick Auguftus, elector of Saxony. The grand vizier Kiuperli, who opposed all the defigns of Charles XII. was difmiffed from his office, after having filled it two months. The king of Sweden's little court, and those who ftill adhered to him in Poland, gave out that Charles made and unmade the viziers, and governed the Turkish empire from his retreat at Bender; but he had no hand in the difgrace of that favorite. The vizier's rigid probity was faid to have been the fole cause of his fall. His predeceffor had paid the janiffaries, not out of the imperial treasury, but with the money which he procured by extortion. Kiuperli paid them out of the treasury. Achmet reproached him with preferring the interefts of the fubject to that of the emperor Thy predeceffor Chourlouli," faid he, "well knew how to find other means of paying my troops." "If," replied Kiuperli, he had the art of enriching thy highness by rapine, it is an art which I glory in being ignorant of." The Heg.1122. The profound fecrecy that prevails in the J.C. 1710. feraglio feldom allows fuch particulars to tranfpire to the public; but this fact was published along with Kiuperli's difgrace. The vizier's boldness did not coft him his head, because true virtue is fometimes refpected, even while it difpleafes. He was permitted to retire to the ifle of Negropont. Thefe particulars I learned from the letters of Mr. Brue, my relation, first druggerman to the Ottoman Porte, and I have given them here, in order to display the true spirit of that government. After this, the grand feignior recalled from Aleppo baltagi Mehemet, bafhaw of Syria, who had already been grand vizier before Chourlouli.* The baltagis of the feraglio, fo called from balta, which fignifies an axe, are flaves employed to cut wood for the use of the princes of the Ottoman blood, and the fultaneffes. This vizier had been a baltagi in his youth, and had ever fince retained the name of that office, according to the custom of the Turks, who are not ashamed to take the name of their profeffion, or of that of their father, or even of the place of their birth. Whilft Baltagi Mehemet was a valet in the feraglio, he was fo happy as to perform fome little fervices This was the reputed husband of Sarai. Without doubt this mistress's influence till fubfifted. With refpect to this woman, there is fome trifling difference between Mr. Voltaire's account and mine. I have followed prince Cantimir and several manufcript letters found in the king of France's repofi tory of foreign affairs. We should have extraordinary lights indeed on his, tory, if writers did not differ more, nor on more effential points. AUTNOR. Heg.1122. J.C.1710 fervices to prince Achmet, who was then a prifoner of ftate in the reign of his brother Muftapha. The princes of the Ottoman blood are allowed to keep for their pleasure a few women who are past the age of child-bearing, but ftill agreeable enough to please. As foon as Achmet became fultan, he gave one of these female flaves, for whom he had had a great affection, in marriage to Baltagi Mehemet. This woman, by her intrigues, made her husband grand vizier; another intrigue displaced him; and a third made him grand vizier again. When Baltagi Mehemet received the bull of the empire, he found the party of the king of Sweden prevailing in the feraglio. The valid fultanefs, Ali Coumourgi the grand feignior's favorite, the kislar aga, chief of the black eunuchs, and the aga of the janiffaries, were all for a war against the czar; the fultan was fixed in the fame refolution, and the first order he gave the grand vizier was to go and attack the Ruffians with two hundred thousand men. Baltagi had never made a campaign; but he was not an ideot, as the Swedes, who were diffatisfied with his conduct, affected to reprefent him. He faid to the grand feignior, upon receiving from him a fword fet with precious ftones: "Thy highness knows that "I was brought up to handle an axe and cleave wood, not to wield a fword and command ar"mies nevertheless, I will endeavour to ferve thee to the best of my power; but should I fail of fuccefs remember I have entreated thee "before Heg. 1122. "before hand not to impute the blame to me." J.C. 1710. The fultan affured him that he might depend upon his friendship, and the vizier prepared to carry his orders into execution. The first step of the Ottoman Porte was to j.c.1711J.C. imprison the Ruffian ambaffador in the caftle of Heg.1123. the Seven Towers. It is the cuftom of the Turks to begin by arresting the minifters of thofe princes. against whom they declare war. Strict obfervers of hospitality in every thing elfe, in this they vio-. late the most facred law of nations. This injuftice, however, they commit under the pretext of equity, believing themselves, or, at least, defirous to make others belive, that they never undertake any but just wars, because they are confecrated by the approbation of their mufti. Upon this principle they take up arms (as they imagine) to chastise the violaters of treaties, and think they have a right to punish the ambaffadors of those kings with whom they are at enmity, as being accomplices in the treachery of their mafters. Add to this the ridiculous contempt they affect to entertain for Chriftian princes, and their ambaffadors, the latter of whom they commonly confider in no other light than as the confuls of merchants. The khan of Crim Tartary, received orders to hold himself in readiness with forty thoufand Tartars. This prince is fovereign of Nogai, Budziack, part of Circaffia, and all the Crimea, a province anciently known by the name J.C. 1711 name of Taurica Cherfonefus, into which the Heg.1123. Greeks carried their arms and commerce, and founded several powerful cities; and into which, in after times, the Genoese penetrated, when they were masters of the trade of Europe. In this country are to be feen the ruins of fome Greek towns, and fome monuments of the Genoefe, which ftill fubfift in the midst of defolation and barbarity. The khan is called emperor by his own fubjects; but with this grand title he is nevertheless the flave of the Porte. The Ottoman blood, frorn which the khans are fprung, and the right they pretend to have to the empire of the Turks, upon the failure of the grand feignior's race, render their family refpectable, and their perfons formidable even to the fultan himself. 'Tis for this reason that the grand feignior dares not venture to destroy the race of the khans of Tartary; tho' indeed he feldom allows any of these princes to grow old on the throne. Their conduct is closely inspected by the neighbouring bafhaws: their dominions are furrounded with janiffaries; their inclinations thwarted by the grand viziers; and their defigns always fufpected. If the Tartars complain of their khan, the Porte deposes him under that pretext. If he is too popular, it is ftill a higher crime, and he is the fooner punished. Thus, almost all of them are driven from fovereign power into exile, and end their days at Rhodes, which is commonly their prison and |