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J.C. 1698. the dauphin was elder than the mother of the

Heg.1109,

&1110. king of the Romans. These good reasons easily

prevailed on the grand vizier to permit Mauro Cordato to make overtures to the two ambaffadors of England and Holland, on condition of his not acknowledging to them that he was fent. This Greek had taken for the rule of his conduct a maxim of a Turkish poet, which fays, that a falfhood which brings about an affair, is preferable

to the truth that embroils it. He went immediately to the two ambassadors; and having first exacted a folemn oath from each of them that they would not discover any thing of what he was going to tell them, he affured them, that the Turks were reduced to such a state, that they would accept any conditions which fhould be propofed to them; that no moment could be more favorable for concluding a glorious peace; that if they would make the first overture, he would be answerable that they would find as much facility in the negotiation as they had before met with obftacles; that his being a Christian and the kindness which he had received at Vienna during his refidence there, ftrongly attached him to the intereft of Leopold; and that it was his regard for the emperor of the Weft which made him inform them of what might be very useful to his fervice. Sir..... Paget and Mr. Colliere replied unanimously, that all the advances which the Turks might make would be favorably received; but that it

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was not proper either for the mediating powers, He.1109, or Leopold as vanquisher, to make the first ad- & 1110. vances. Mauro Cordato, having gotten this answer from the two ambaffadors, haftened back to the grand vizier's to tell him that he was commiffioned by fir Paget and Mr. Colliere to ask him if he were willing to appoint a conference for a peace. Huffain bafhaw replied to his druggerman only by embracing him with tranfport, and immediately fent the reis effendi and his kiaia to the ambaffadors to fettle with them the place and time. Mauro Cordato followed them with intention to be their interpreter. As matters stood, it was highly neceffary that the office of druggerman should be trusted to none but him. Each of the two parties being well convinced that they had not made the firft overtures, both were conducted where both earnestly defired to arrive. The mediators wrote to Vienna, Venice, Warsaw, and Mofcow, immediately, in order that the different powers might fend their plenipotentiaries to the place of conference, which they appointed at Carlowitz, a small town fituated be- French tween Peter waradin and Belgrade. The French ambaffador, who did not learn thefe news 'till they were public, made vain efforts to traverse the peace. The grand vizier replied to his reproaches, that the French, having themfelves concluded the treaty of Ryfwick, ought not to be astonished at the Porte's being defirous of putting an end to the war likewife..

• Meanwhile

The

amballador

complains

in vain

against it.

J.C. 1698.
Heg.1109,

Meanwhile the armies entered the field; but

&1110 they remained in obfervation without undertaking any thing on either fide. Each was fufficiently tired with the preceding fatigues to relish the repose which the circumftances admitted. The plenipotentiaries repaired to the place appointed; the little town being scarcely fufficient to hold their carriages and retinue, they had recourse to tents. The Porte sent thither the reis effendi Rami Mehemet, with Mauro Cordato, likewife invefted with an honorable title, which fignifies nearly private fecretary to the divan; the plenipotentiaries for Leopold were, count Petingen and count Schlik, privy counsellers; for the czar, Procope Bognavits and Vofnicini; for Poland, Stanislaus Michael Noski, waywode of Pofnania; laftly, for the republic of Venice, the noble Rofini. Lord Paget and Mr. Colliere, the English and Dutch ambaffadors, acted as mediators. What had already happened in feveral congreffes was the cafe at Carlowitz, that the ceremonial was longer and more difficult to fettle than the objects for which the affembly was held. The place where the conferences should be; the precedency, whether of the mediators, or between the plenipotentiaries; the reciprocal vifits; in fhort, every thing gave fubject for conteft. The Turks claimed the first place, and the ambaffadors of Leopold would not give it up. The English and Dutch ambassadors, as mediators, would have the first rank. The Polish

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Heg.1109,

& 1110.

Polifh ambaffador claimed the feat next to the J.C. 1698.
Imperial powers; but neither the Ruffians nor
the Venetian would confent to be placed after
him. They had the fame claims and difputes
with respect to their vifits; and things were
gotten to fuch a height, that, after continuing for.
more than three months in this manner, the ple-
nipotentiaries were on the point of feparating
without having feen one another. Mauro Cor-
dato, more ingenious, or rather more cunning,
than the reft, thought of a way to manage the
pride of all these nations. An edifice of a round
form was built in the middle of the fquare at
Carlowitz, confifting of a large room, with as
many doors as there were nations, opening on
the fide that looked towards each country. The
tents of the ambaffadors were disposed in the
fame manner at equal diftances. The first day
of the congress, at a fignal given by the media-
fors, they all left their pavilions at the fame time,
arrived at the fame time in the congrefs cham-
ber, faluted one another at the fame time, and
took each the feat that was prepared for him at a
table which was likewife of a round form, on
which the mediators had difpofed every thing
neceffary for the difcuffion of the different in-
terefts.

Heg.1110,

The conferences began the 14th of November, J.C. 1699. and every thing was concluded by the 26th of & 111. January; the Chriftians too had obtained an intermiffion of fome days to celebrate their Chrift

VOL. IV.

K

mas.

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J.C. 1699. mas.
Heg.1110,

Carlowitz;

treaty.

The emperor Leopold agreed to a truce &1111. with the Turks for the space of twenty-five years. Treaty of The following were the conditions of it. All Conditions Tranfylvania was ceded to the emperor Leopold of the in the fame extent that it had been poffeffed by the last prince Michael Abaffi and his predeceffors; Temeswar was confirmed to the fultan; and in order to prevent all poffibility of blocking up or famishing this town, fix neighbouring towns were dismantled, without the fortifications being permitted to be raised again. It was alfo ftipulated, that the navigation of the Teiffe and Marofch fhould be free for both empires; that the emperor of the Weft fhould continue master of all the country between the Danube and the Taiffe; that in order to fix the limits of Hungary on the eaft fide, a ftraight line fhould be drawn from the mouth of the Marofch along the borders of the Taiffe as far as the mouth of the Boffat at the place where it enters the Save; that on the fouth fide the Save should serve for limits between the dominions of the Turks and those of the emperor of the Weft as far as the place where the confluence of the Unna is formed; that in this extent of reciprocal frontiers, no fortrefs should be raised or repaired, except Belgrade and Peterwaradin. The czar of Ruffia concluded a truce for two years only, during which each was to remain in poffeffion of what he had taken. The Poles agreed to the fame truce as the emperor; the conditions were, that Kaminieck, Podolia,

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