Heg.1150.

Ufelefs

at Niem

mirowa.

and Kil.

taken.

land, where the czarina had defired that the con- J.C. 1737grefs might affemble. The ambaffador of the emperor of the Weft was already gone thither. conferences The king of Poland had confented that the congrefs fhould be held in this town, which belonged to him, on condition that the ambaffadors of each of the powers should come there without guards, and truft to him for their fecurity. Whilft the Ruffian plenipotentiaries were impatiently expected there, the news arrived that the Mofcovite army had in the mean time taken Oczacow and 'Oczacow Kilbournow, and that a body of Auftrian troops, bournow under the command of general Vallis, had entered Walachia, and detached parties to reduce Moldavia. The Turks then perceived that the emprefs of Ruffia's defiring to have a congrefs affembled in a Polish town, was merely to get the ambaffador of Charles VI. out of their hands, especially when Mr. Talleman had déclared to them, that if a treaty of peace were made, his master would have each continue in poffeffion of what he had conquered; and that confequently Walachia and Moldavia fhould be confirmed to the emperor of the Weft to pay him for his mediation. The conferences were prefently bro

ken up.

The people were irritated at Conftantinople at the war's being carried on with fo little vigour, and that the minifter, deceived by falfe appearances, left the enemies of the empire the leifure and opportunity to ftrip it, whilft they kept a fine

army

The grand

vizier is depofed.

J.C. 1737 army in the most profound inaction. The claHeg.1150. mours of the people having reached the feraglio, made the sultan uneasy, and decided the fall of the grand vizier and his kiaia. The killar aga, who divided the whole confidence of his master with the valid fultaness, perfuaded him, that the kiaia, who was the grand vizier's confident and counsellor, had carried on a fecret correfpondence with the enemies of the ftate, and that the inaction of the army was more owing to his treachery than to the remiffness of the grand vizier. The felictar aga was immediately dispatched to the army. This officer declared the depofition of Ishmael and the punishment of the kiaia, and presented the seals to Siegen, a bashaw of threetails, who immediately took the command of the troops. The new general loft no time to repair His fuccef- the faults of his predeceffor. The very day that the felictar aga left the army, after having acquitted himself of his commiffion, he was prefent sakes Niffa. at a victory wherein the Imperialifts loft four thoufand men killed on the field of battle, and fifteen hundred prifoners. Count Seckendorf, who commanded the Auftrians, was conftrained to abandon Walachia; he was beaten a fecond time the fame campaign on the confines of Servia, and faw Niffa taken by the Turks, without his beaten and difperfed army being able to give it the leaft fuccour. The Ruffians were ftopped at the fame time by the new khan of the Tartars. The severity of the winter, which had already commenced,

for beats

count Seckendorf feveral times, and

commenced, obliged the Turks to go into

J.C. 1737. quar- Heg.1150. ters; but the recovered courage of this nation rendered the minifters more difficult on the conditions of peace, which the marquis of Villeneuve was continually propofing.

Siegen bashaw, on his return to Constantinople, was received with the transports of joy which his recent victories occafioned in the people, who, for a long time paft, had experienced nothing but misfortunes. Charles VI. perceived too late that his armies were no longer commanded by prince Eugene. He had count Seckendorf arrested and his conduct inquired into, making him refponfible for the misfortunes of the laft campaign. He defired to have the conferences recommenced at Niemmirowa, and folicited the mediation of France with fincerity, offering to be answerable for the adherence of the czarina to the future treaty. But the Turks, as much irritated at having for enemy the very prince whom they had elated with chofen for arbitrator, as elated with their new cefs, prefuccefs, far from thinking of a peace, had invited for the prince Ragotski from Rodofto, where he lived in obfcurity, and were preparing to fend him into Transylvania at the head of an army. They talked at the feraglio of not making a peace 'till after the conqueft of Belgrade, Buda, and Temeswar.

Siegen bafhaw would not listen to the marquis of Villeneuve, who told him, that the diverfion of prince Ragotski might do the Turks more 3 B mifchief

VOL. IV.

The Turks,

their fuc

pare anew

war.

Heg.1150.

Mediation

of the mar quis of Vil

leneuve

by the mi

nifters of

the cza.

rina.

peror

J.C. 1737 mifchief than good, fince that prince was not elected by the Transylvanians, as his father had been, and that a people jealous of its laws would not receive a fovereign more voluntarily from the traverfed hands of the Porte than from thofe of the emof the Weft. Notwithstanding these fage representations, prince Ragotfki was declared way wode of Tranfylvania; he received in perfon the standard and mace of arms, the marks of inveftiture, with more pomp than the Turks generally make use of in thefe ceremonies. But the new fovereign, who knew by the experience of his ancestors how little was to be depended on the Porte, published a manifefto, by the advice of the marquis of Villeneuve, which declared to the Tranfylvanians, that he, Ragotski, took the title given him by the Ottoman emperor, without pretending to any right to their fovereignty 'till they should have conferred it on him by a voluntary election.

J.C. 1738.

The winter was paffed in unfuccefsful negotiaHeg.1151 tions. In the fpring, the grand vizier fent word to the French ambaffador, that fultan Mahmout would never hear of a peace except through the mediation of his master, but that the grand feignior expected that the fuccefs of this campaign would be fuch as fhould conftrain the enemies of the Porte to make more advantageous propofals. Though the czarina had fent to the marquis of Villeneuve her confent to the propofals prefented by the emperor of the Weft for

her

Embaffy

fia.

her and himself, fhe fent the mediator another J.C. 1738. Heg.1151. power which changed all the preceding dif pofitions, and gave him just reason to suspect the fincerity of her minifters. He had no longer room to doubt it when he learned by the Farfecretary of a Perfian ambaffador, juft arrived at Conftantinople, that this minifter was come principally to offer the mediation of Thamas Kouli-khan between the Ruffians and Ottomans; but the Turks preferred the good offices, and efpecially the guaranteé of France, to the offers of an ufurper, whom they could not look upon as an ally, and whom they did not believe very well fecured on his throne. They rejected the proposals of Thamas Kouli-khan, the more affirmatively, as he demanded permiffion to keep an iman at Mecca, and wanted to introduce by degrees a fort of communion between the Aliians and Sunnites, which the latter refused with horror.

Succefs of

paign.

However, the Turks, who at firft had been beaten, had this fame campaign a fuccefs which feemed the camto promife them a more difadvantageous peace. Elias bafhaw, who had laid siege to Orfowa in the very beginning of the fpring, was forced to raise it, and was pursued by the Imperialists beyond the Danube. On the arrival of the grand vizier, who brought a reinforcement, the Ottomans repaffed the river a third time, drove the Imperialists back as far as Meadia, which they made themfelves mafters of in a few days, and forced their ene