The Turks left his houfe, he returned triumphant to Con- J.C. 1482. Heg. 887. ftantinople with his vizier Acomat. This able minifter, who had the moft confiderable trufts both in peace and war, endeavoured to get information of every thing that paffed at Rhodes, without his master's appearing to trouble himself about it. The governor of Lycia, a province in the neighbourhood of the island, fent thither a pretended agent, under pretence of fettling a treaty of commerce. Aubuffon regarded this agent, only as a fpy mafked under a fpecious title. He abridged the formalities which this man affected to multiply in order to prolong his miffion, and kept him, as much as poffible, from the object of his curiofity. Acomat, not being able to promise himself any thing more from propofe a this ftratagem, tried another expedient. He sent the Order a man to perfuade the knights of Rhodes, to and the make a folid peace with the Turkish emperor. perfuade The vizier, without mentioning his master, who, retire to he faid, was not informed of this proceeding, promised to procure the completion of the treaty, provided the knights would agree to reasonable conditions. This peace might be particularly advantageous to the Order; Aubuffon liftened to the proposals. Though Zizim was not then mentioned, the grand master did not doubt but they would require him to deliver up that unfortunate prince. To elude this condition, to which the knights could not consent, and to peace to of Rhodes, knights Zizim to France. J.C. 1482. avoid their coming to wrest Zizim from their Heg. 887. hands, they determined to fend him out of their territory; they perfuaded the prince, that it would be right for him to fhew himself to these nations from whom he expected fuccours. They offered him for asylum one of their commanderies in the district of Provence, where he fhould be entertained and ferved by knights, and where he' would have an opportunity of conferring with the king of France; and they promised him, that, if the projected treaty did not take place, he, Zizim, should return, with the forces of Europe, and have the veffels and troops of the Order to make good his pretenfions with. The fituation of the Ottoman prince did not permit him to discuss these reasons. It was neceffary to obey orders disguised under the name of advice. Before he embarked for Provence, he figned an ample power to the grand master to treat with Bajazet, agreeably to what should beft fuit with the fortune and fafety of prince Zizim. By an act, he engaged, if ever he recovered the empire, either in entire or part, to observe a conftant peace with the Order, to open all his ports to their fleets, to fet at liberty every year, gratis, three hundred Chriftians of both fexes, and to pay a hundred and fifty thousand crowns of gold to the treafury of the Order, to indemnify them for the expences which they had been at on his account. 1 Heg. 887. This act, figned by the Turkish prince, is J.C. 1482. ftill preserved in the records of Malta. It is dated the fifth of the month Rejeb, in the year of the hegira 887, which anfwers, according to our way of computing, to the 21st of Auguft 1482. This prince embarked, at length, under the conduct of chevalier Blanchefort, nephew to the grand mafter, with a melancholy, which neither the respect nor promises of the knights that accompanied him, were able to remove. As foon as Aubuffon faw himself freed from this dangerous gueft, he fent ambaffadors to Conftantinople, to negociate a peace, which the Turkish emperor as anxiously defired as he did. The knights Dumont, Arnaud, and Duprat, were charged with this negociation. Bajazet received them with more honor than is in general paid by the Muffulmen to Chriftians. The vizier Acomat, and the bashaw Mischa Paleologus, who, having raised the fiege of Rhodes, was exiled by Mahomet II. were appointed to treat with them. Bajazet had recalled this minifter, and reftored him all his employments. Acomat, who believed that the knights of Rhodes would never arm for Zizim, treated them with all the Mahometan haughtiness. He commenced with demanding, that prince Zizim fhould be delivered up, and that all the Order fhould be declared vaffal and tributary to the empire. These proposals J.C.1482. propofals were received with ftill more haughtiHeg. 887. nefs than they had been made; the Rhodian ambaffadors would have broken up the conference immediately; but Mischa Paleologus, who had more reason to fear the knights than any other perfon, endeavoured to pacify them; he faid in the Turkish language to his colleague, that he undoubtedly was not ignorant how much the emperor wished a peace, and that it was therefore wrong to throw fo many obftacles in the way. Duprat understood Turkish, and his 'colleagues and he agreed to continue the conferences, but this only made them become more untractable on the conditions. The haughty Acomat foon excused himself from conferring with the ambaffadors, leaving to his colleague, as he faid, the reproach of having difgraced the Ottoman empire. The moft difficult and important object was refpecting prince Zizim: thefe knights, who profeffed generofity as much as nobility and bravery, could not abandon an unfortunate prince, who had thrown himself into their arms. On the other hand, a peace would be advantageous to the Ottoman empire, only by fecuring it against Zizim. After a great knights deal of difcuffion, it was agreed, that the Order and Turks fhould engage to keep this prince always in its The agree on a Breaty. power, and under the ftrict guard of feveral knights; that he should not be given up to any fovereign, Chriftian or Mahometan, that might make Heg. 887. make use of his name to disturb the repofe of the J.C. 1482. empire; that, for the maintenance and guard of in this prince, the grand feignior fhould pay annually to the Order thirty-five thousand ducats of Venice. They agreed likewife on another fum, to indemnify the knights and inhabitants of Rhodes, for the loffes that they had fuftained by the fiege. At this price peace was re-established between the two powers. However difgraceful this treaty might appear for Bajazet, the Turks gained by it, as their marine, very inferior to that of the Order, was unable to defend their merchants from the frequent captures which a great number of Rhodian veffels, well armed, were continually making on their coaft. Bajazet figned this treaty in filence. But Acomat could not conceal his indignation; he lamented aloud does not the emperor's weakness, and complained bitterly, that this empire, founded on the ruins of fo many crowns, should become, in the hands of Bajazet ̧ tributary to a handful of foldiers. Acomat diffemble his difap› probation These indifcreet expreffions were heard, even by the monarch, and fome enemies did not fail to mifrepresent them. One of these bashaws, called bafhaws of the ban and arched roof, who had the most accefs to the prince, feized this occafion to ruin the grand vizier. This man, called Ifaac, was father to one of Acomat's wives, who, under Mahomet II. had been ravished in a public bath by prince Muftapha. The reader must remember Dd of the peace. |