J.C.1738. mies to retire to Iflatim. Siegen recommenced Heg.1151. the fiege of Orfowa, and in fix weeks took that place, with great flaughter. Sciaus bafhaw took Semendriah and Ignipalé with lefs difficulty. In the midst of the rejoicings occafioned by thefe important conquests, they learned that the captain bashaw, who kept the fea with a hundred and twenty fail, had blocked up the Ruffian admiral in a corner of the ftraits of Zabach; that the Ruffians had been conftrained to abandon their veffels, after having fet them on fire; that they had been harraffed by the Turks in their retreat from Crimea; and that they had passed the Borifthenes in diforder. Prince Ragotski less fortunate than his allies, had not been able to raise up many malecontents either in Hungary or Transylvania; and as it was impoffible for him to undertake any thing with fo few men, he was come to put himself in fafety in the Turkish camp. Siegen bafhaw, elated with thefe fucceffes, was defirous of crowning them by the fiege of Belgrade; but the feafon was far advanced. The governor of Niffa having fent word to him that a corps of Imperialists had paffed the Danube, and were threatening his town, which was neither fufficiently well guarded nor provifioned to fuftain a long fiege, Siegen refolved through neceffity to retreat towards that place; this was what the Imperialists wanted. They turned back under Belgrade, and went into winter quarters. The grand vizier, who learned fecretly fecretly that they, were caballing against him at Heg.1151. Conftantinople, desired his master's permiffion to return thither, that the affairs of ftate, he faid, might be tranfacted under the eyes of the emperor. Sultan Mahmout wifhed to have the fuccefs of this campaign reprefented to the people and his enemies as of great importance. He would have Siegen make a triumphant entry, and went himself to meet him. The grand vizier, immediately on the fultan's approach, laid at his feet the ftandard of Mahomet, which he had always had carried before him, and the keys of Meadia, Semendriah, Ignipalé, and Orfowa, towns conquered during the campaign. from Swe the Porte. Obstacles to the con the treaty. Siegen, on his arrival at the Porte, found two Minifters brothers there fent from Sweden, who were come den arrive to conclude a treaty of commerce with the Turks, at the and to endeavour to come to fome agreement about the ancient debts contracted by Charles clufion of XII. These two points were foon fettled. The Turks, who looked upon the money which they had lent Charles XII. as a bad debt, were contented to receive for payment a fhip of feventy-two guns, which came with the Swedish minifters to Conftantinople, and thirty thousand firelocks brought in that fhip. The treaty of commerce was concluded on the conditions granted to the other Chriftian nations. But another fecret object of the miffion of the Swedes was to have their mafter included in the intended treated of pacification between the Porte and the confederate powers. The J.C.1738. The Swedes had a very powerful interest in it; Heg.1151. they were afraid that the czarina would declare war against them as foon as she should be at peace with the Turks, and they would fain have the mediator obtain places of fecurity for the Swedes on the frontiers of Ruffia which adjoin Sweden. The marquis of Villeneuve, who faw already too many difficulties in the great work which he had undertaken, remonstrated to the grand vizier, and even to the Swedish envoys, how unreasonable it would be to include in a treaty of pacification a power that was not at war with either of the contracting parties. The bafhaw of Bonneval, the only man who poffeffed knowledge at the Porte, fays abbot Laugier, and whom the miniftry liftened to, without however giving him any confidence, supported the pretenfions of the Swedes with all his might. He was strongly suspected of having raised up this obftacle through animofity against the emperor Charles VI. to retard the peace; he was fent into exile at Castellemonen. This stroke, which came from the prime minifter, made people think that he wished for a peace; but his fuccefs had fo elated him, that he offered it only on conditions which the belligerent powers could not accept without difgrace. Prince Ragotski was lately dead. Though this event feemed to remove an obstacle, fince the Ottoman empire was neither connected with the posterity of that prince nor with his supposed subjects, Siegen demanded to have Tranfylvania reftored its right of election; Heg.1151. election; that all the places which he had con- I.C. 1738. quered the laft campaign fhould be confirmed to the Porte; and that the Ruffians, who had just demolished and abandoned Kilbournow and Oczacow, fhould restore Afoph fortified, in order that the Turks might be able to keep them from the Black fea. It was not folely to the enemies of the Porte that Siegen bafhaw fhewed himself untractable; the vanquisher of the Germans did not take the pains to conceal his contempt for the kiflar aga, whom the valid fultanefs and the fultan equally favored. He heard with indignation the advice which this officer and thofe of his party gave the monarch, to take advantage of the fortune of his arms to make a folid peace, and never to contemn a vanquished enemy. The marquis of Villeneuve, who was well acquainted with courts, forefaw the fall of this imperious minifter, and announced it in France feveral weeks before it happened, on the druggerman of the Porte's relating to him, that the reis effendi and the mektoupchi had prefumed to contradict the grand vizier openly about the peace, in prefence of Mahmout. J.C. 1739. zler Siegen. The grand vizier, having a good opinion of himself, and perfuaded that the command of the Depofition army durft not be intrufted to any other than of the vihim, was preparing to return to Adrianople, when the capiggi pachi came to demand the seals of the empire of him, and to declare, that he muft Heg.1152. J.C.1739 must inftantly depart for which of the ifles of the Archipelago he fhould think- fit to choose. grand vi zier. His property was not touched, without doubt through acknowledgment for the real fervices Elias made which he had done. The feals of the empire were given to Elias Mehemet, the bafhaw who commanded the army with fuccefs in 1737, and who had been conftrained to raise the fiege of Orfowa the beginning of the laft campaign. Siegen, jealous of this general, perhaps by a forefight of what was to happen, had taken the dignity of bashaw of three tails from him after the raifing of the fiege of Orfowa; but it was reftored to him almost immediately by the credit of the fultanefs-mother. The difgrace of Siegen put an end to that of the bashaw of Bonneval, who was recalled from his exile and confulted afterward with precaution in all affairs, as a man whose abilities were esteemed, but whofe uprightnefs was fufpected. The new grand vizier had more pacific views than his predeceffor; but he thought like him that a folid and honorable peace could be made at the head of a victorious army only. He repaired to Viden to make preparation for the campaign, and wrote to the marquis of Villeneuve, that he must receive his audience of the grand feignior in quality of mediator, and that he would join him afterward at the army, where they would hear together the proposals of the emperor of the Weft and of the czarina. The caimacan Ach met |