Heg.1135

to hold them ready to join his fleet. A capiggi I.C.1723. pachi was fent at the fame time to Petersburg, to & 1136. declare to the czar, that if he protected the Georgians, either against the Porte, or against either of the two fovereigns of Perfia, the grand feignior would think himself obliged to declare war against him; that moreover his vengeance against the Leghis had been carried far enough, and that the emperor of the Turks could not refuse the protection demanded of him by Sunnite Muffulmen like himfelf. The bafhaw of Erzerum received orders to enter Georgia with twenty thousand men, where he did not meet with the leaft refiftance.

Meanwhile the khan of Crimea wrote continually to the Porte, that it was their common interest to make an irruption into Ruffia, to employ the czar in his own dominions, and hinder his invading Perfia. Ibrahim, always inclined to peace, replied, that the Porte was seriously me ditating to reprefs the czar, but that if he, the khan, durft begin hoftilities without the approbation of the fublime emperor his fovereign paramount, he must not only expect to be depofed, but he might be fure that his difobedience would be punished with death. By the precept of the Alcoran, which admits but of one fovereign in a country, however large it may be, when it is not separated by feas or Infidel nations not fubjugated, Ibrahim confidered the khan of the Tartars as a prince in fubjection to the sword of Othman, and M m 2

VOL. IV.

he

J.C.1723 he hoped that Mir Mamout, who was a Sunnite

Heg.1135,

& 1136. Muffulman like Achmet III., would be as faithful

to the law of Mahomet as the khan of the Tartars had always been, and that he would acknowledge. the Ottoman emperor for the father of the true Believers. But when he had learned by an aga, whom the bashaw of Bagdad had dispatched to Mir Mamoud, that this ufurper was refolved to be an independent king the fame as the fophis had been, the vizier faw there was no other course to take than that of difmembering Perfia; that in order thereto it became more and more neceffary to agree with Peter the Great. The czar was as defirous as Ibrahim not to multiply the obftacles to the conquests which he meditated; and, as he knew it to be the intereft of France to dif fuade the Porte from combating any other power than the house of Auftria, at that time the rival of the house of Bourbon, he prevailed on Mr. Decampredon, the French minifter at Petersburg, to write both to his court and to the marquis of Bonac, the French ambaffador at the Porte, in order that this ambassador might take upon him in the name of his mafter the mediation between Turkey and Ruffia.

The marquis of Bonae, a man of fine talents. and great zeal, knew the court in which he was negotiating, as much as the interests of that. which he was to ferve. He had fo ingratiated himfelf with the grand vizier Ibrahim, that that minifter believed the French ambaffador his parti

cular

cular friend, and as much attached to the Porte J.C.1723. Heg.1135, as himself. The grand vizier, holding for a & 1736. certainty that the Ottoman empire and the kingdom of France ought to make but one in the order of policy, earneftly liftened to the advice which the marquis of Bonac gave him. He particularly approved the being sparing of the forces of the Ottoman empire, in order to keep his neighbours in awe, by threatening to attack whichfoever should attempt to oppose the defigns of the Porte. This pacific plan flattered the avarice of the grand feignior, and the timidity of the grand vizier, who knew that the heads of his predeceffors had often anfwered for the events of war. He feared however the divan, and particularly the janiffaries, who cried aloud that the czar would be let make himself master of Persia, in order to be able afterward to possess himself of the Ottoman dominions in Afia. The marquis of Bonac had frequent conferences with the reis effendi, as likewife with the grand vizier; and these two minifters, worked upon by the French ambaffador, fought the means to difarm Ruffia. The capiggi pachi, who had been fent to the czar, brought back a rather haughty answer. The Ruffian monarch declared to the Porte, that it was not his intention to infringe the peace in the leaft; but that, if the Turks endeavoured to oppofe his defigns on the coaft of the Cafpian sea, he fhould on his fide traverse the views which they might have on the countries fituated between

the

270

J.C. 1723. the two feas. The marquis of Bonac, who was Heg.1135, & 1136. in the fecret of the court of Ruffia, observed to

The French

ambaffador

mediation.

the grand vizier, that, notwithstanding the menaces which the czar's anfwer feemed to contain, it offered a mean of pacification; that it was just to let that prince extend his conquests on the bor ders of the Cafpian fea, if, as he infinuated, he fuffered the Ottoman empire to take provinces that lay convenient for it. The marquis added, that if the ufurper Mir Mamout should be defirous of claiming what had belonged to Perfia, it was equally the intereft of the Porte and of Ruffia to live in peace, and even in alliance, in order to fight together the common enemy; that the czar was fo perfuaded of the advantage of offers his fuch an agreement, that Mr. Nepluief, the Ruffian refident at the Porte, had said to him, that he had powers to conclude a treaty. On this overture, the grand vizier propofed to the French ambaffador to act as mediator. The marquis, who wrote an exact account to his court of the steps that he had thought proper to take, received no answer to it. Either through negli gence of cardinal Dubois, at that time prime. minifter, or that this prelate did not like the mar quis of Bonac, he left him in the greatest embarraffinent, without directing, or approving, or blaming his conduct. In this disagreeable fituation, the ambaffador, fure that it was the interest of his court to hinder a war between two powers who, both independent and allies, might difquiet

the

the house of Auftria, made a bold ftep which the J-C. 1723. Heg.1135 love of doing good fuggefted to him. He re- & 1136.

plied to the propofal of the grand vizier, that it

being then the ramazan or Turkish lent, it appeared to him an improper time for opening con→ ferences; that moreover he had no inftructions from his court for this mediation; but that nevertheless, if he did not receive any before the end of that feafon, as he was the ambaffador of a prince equally the ally of the Ottoman emperor and of the czar of Mofcovy, he would act in that quality for mediator between the two powers, if both should defire it; that he was already fure of the Ruffian refident; that after the ramazan the grand vizier might proceed as he thought fit; and that he confidered as a good introduction to the treaty, that Peter the Great had declared he fhould not command his troops in perfon, that campaign.

from Perfi

fuccefs.

During this interval, a Perfian arrived at Con- Embaffy ftantinople, whofe retinue was but small, and who without appeared to have fuffered greatly from fatigue and mifery. He had been stopped a long time on the frontiers of Turkey, before he was permitted to continue his journey. He ftiled himfelf ambaffador from Shah Thamas, the fon of Shah Huffein. This prince, inheritor of the pretenfions and misfortunes of his father, was retired into the mountains of Armenia: fome poor provinces which had been laid wafte ftill held out for him. He had fent both to the Ot

toman