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J.C. 1695. bade the exercife of the Roman religion throughHeg.1106. out the island.

Mezzo

morto is

captain

On the news of this fuccefs, the grand feignior made depofed the captain bashaw, and conferred his bafhaw. dignity on the pirate of Tunis, to whom he fent J.C. 1695 the three tails, which made him bashaw of the Heg.1107. bench or of the arched roof. Notwithstanding these honors fo well merited, Mezzomorro could never be prevailed on to quit the drefs of a failor, in which he always appeared in the divan as well as, on board his vessels. He replied to those who wanted to have him clothe himself better: "If the captain bafhaws, my prede"ceffors, had never worn any other than this "habit which you despise, the marine of the "empire would be in a better ftate; and, in"stead of retaking what they have loft, as I have

just done, I should have made new conquests." Since Mezzomorto, the captain bashaws have always worn the dress of a failor, made, it is true, of rich stuffs and fine furs.

Mustapha had not taken the field when he Campaign of Mufta- learned the fuccefs of Mezzomorto. Under this pha. favorable prefage, he put himself at the head of his army, which was compofed of forty-five thousand men only. As he knew that Frederick Auguftus, elector of Saxony, the German general, had not fo many troops under his command, he thought it wifer to employ a few foldiers, who, inured to the hardships of war and well disciplined, would coft lefs money to the empire and

ferve it better, than the innumerable crowd of J.C. 1695. Heg.1107. combatants affembled by his predeceffors, rather to famish the country than to conquer it, and who made more confufion in battle then they did fervice. Muftapha re-established a fevere discipline in his army, which had always been kept up among the Turks when they had good generals, and which is easy to be maintained in this nation, already reduced to obedience. The fultan conducted his army like a fage, humane prince, who has learned from the law of nations, that in war, an upright man does no more injury to human kind than is abfolutely indifpenfable. He left Adrianople the tenth of June, paffed the Danube at Belgrade, took Lippa and Titul, and caufed them to be demolished. Having learned by the Tartarian scouts that general Veterani was advancing at the head of eight thousand Tranfylvanians, he came up with and charged them; but fmall body the Turks, who knew very little of military dif- This ac cipline, advancing in diforder against a corps him much well closed and thick fet with pikes, whofe fire was fo directed, that each shot, fired at a finall diftance, carried off a man, were foon put to flight. Mustapha, full of courage and fhame, rode full Speed to rally them. He brought them back in reality; and a fecond difcharge, as well directed and as bloody as the firft, put them again to flight. The voice of the emperor with still more. difficulty once more affembled these difperfed troops. This prince, meeting a bashaw who was

VOL. IV.

F

an

He beats a

of troops.

tion cofts

blood.

Heg. 1107.

J.C. 1695 an officer in the fpahis, and who was fleeing as faft as he could, faid to him, alluding to his name, Schain, which in Turkish fignifies a Hawk: "Go, Hawk, thou art nothing but a foolish bird "that gives the example of flight to others like "thyfelf." Schain, touched with this reproach, returned immediately, and contributed greatly to the rallying of the cavalry for the fecond time. This third attack was equally bloody with the two others: the Turks kept fleeing; and the Germans, though feverely mauled, remained nevertheless unfhaken. In this manner, during feveral hours, eight thousand Tranfylvanians maintained a fight against forty-five thousand Turks, without lofing an inch of ground, and without executing any other manœuvre, than that of closing their ranks as their comrades were killed away. Conftancy and firmness would have prevailed over number, if general Veterani, who was grievously wounded, had not been obliged to get off his horfe. They carried him to a carriage, where the violence of the anguish soon deprived him of his fenfes. The Tranfylvanians meditated to retire in good order; reduced to the number of four thoufand, they rejoined the army of the elector of Saxony, after having killed more than fifteen thousand of the Turks, among whom were a great number of bashaws, agas, and officers of diftinction, who had ventured their life with more bravery than prudence in order to merit the attention of their fovereign. As the

purfuit

Heg.1107.

pursuit of the Tranfylvanians was as bloody as J.C. 1695. the battle had been, Mustapha fecretly ordered the mufti, who had followed him to the army, to find an expedient to leffen the ardor of the cavalry. The chief of the law immediately iffued a fetfa, which imported, that the great prophet forbids to follow a fleeing enemy with too much earneftnefs, and whoever perifhes in infringing this precept lofes the crown of martyrdom. Mustapha therefore permitted the Germans to make good their retreat, and returned through Walachia to Adrianople, where he entered triumphantly.

The people exaggerated the exploits of their sovereign, which amounted only to the taking of two small places badly defended, and to a victory over a body of troops fix times less in number than the Ottoman army, which advantage had likewife been purchafed very dear; but the remembrance of the expedition of Scio and the news of a confiderable booty which the khan of the Tartars had taken from the Poles, increased their joy, and caufed this year to be confidered as very fortunate, as Frederick Auguftus, at the head of the main army, had not made a fingle conqueft. The czar of Mufcovy,* Peter the The Ruf Great, had attempted to take Afoph; but, not- tempt in withstanding the endeavours of that prince to Aph.

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* It is remarked that Peter the Great, who would have every officer pafs through all the ranks, and who gave the example himself, ferved at this first hege in quality of colonel.

fians at

vain to take

Heg.1107.

J.C. 1695. teach his foldiers the art of war, the Muscovites did not yet know how places are fortified, nor how to attack fortified towns. Their repeated efforts coft them much blood, and they were conftantly repulfed; thus, the principal fuccefs of the Turks this year, was in the defence of their

towns.

J.C. 1696. At the court of a prince refolved to govern by Heg.1107, 1108. himself, there must be more intrigue, than when a grand vizier decides defpotically in the name of an indolent, invisible master. Elmas bafhaw had the confidence of Mustapha ;, but he divided it The mufc with the mufti. He had found a dangerous rival church in the latter, whofe credit was fupported by an

wrefts a

from the

to make a

Christians old afcendency that the preceptor had had over mofque his pupil, and the authority of the Alcoran, to

of it.

which the chief of the law had continual recourse. Elmas, more political than religious, wished to please the allies of the Porte. With this view he had granted the French ambaffador, Mr. Dechateauneuf, liberty to rebuild a church at Pera, and though the Alcoran expressly forbids the permitting of new churches to be raised, or those which the Chriftians fhould be defirous of rebuilding to be enlarged, the minister, who thought he had intereft to please the greatest enemy of the house of Austria, had shut his eyes at the new plan of this church which took in much more ground than the old one. This toleration ferved the mufti as a pretext for raifing himself against Elmas bafhaw with all the energy

of

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