had been lofing piece-meal for two hundred years. The Ruffians, however, took a great number of prizes during the year, which were fold in Leghorn and other ports of Italy, and which might in fome degree indemnify the expences of the fleet. In this refpect they have gone greater lengths, than they had hitherto ventured, in feizing the property aboard christian veffels, under the certainty or pretence of its being Turkish; by this means the Levant trade has been totally ruined, and it becomes a doubt, whether the commercial fates of Europe, or the Turks, have been the greater fufferers in this pyratical war. It is certain that the most favoured of the former have feverely felt its effects; and it is faid that the merchants of Marfeilles, and fome others, who were the most immediately concerned, are irrecoverably ruined. Such has been the languishing ftate of the war in the Mediterra nean, which has not, fince the first year, in any degree anfwered the hopes that were formed upon its original fuccefs, nor the great expence it has caufed to Ruffia. It is true, that great damage and mifchief has enfued from this naval expedition; but it has fallen principally upon individuals of different nations, without effectually diitreffing, or effentially weakening the enemy. We find that this year, whilft the Ruffians were employed in plundering rich merchant fhips, Conftantinople has been fupplied with corn and provifions, from Egypt and Syria, in the greatest abundance; and as the capital was thus preferved, from the only fatal confequence it had to dread in a war of that nature, the ruin of a few merchants, or the ravaging of fome of its remote and numerous islands, were matters of little importance to the Porte. CHAP. CHA P. III. State of the Ottoman Empire at the opening of the congrefs at Bucharest. Abilities of the Grand Vizir; time of the cellation profitably employed; unwearied perfeverance in establishing order and difcipline in the army. French conful at the Dardanelles becomes a renegade, and establishes a military School. War in Syria. Ali Bey reduces Joppa, and marches at the head of an army for the recovery of Egypt; is defeated in a bloody battle near Cairo, and taken prisoner, by Mahomet Bey Aboudaab; his death. Tribute fent from Egypt; good confequences of the reduction of that country. Cheik Daher. Armaments in the Black Sea. Some account of Hoffein Bey Dreadful plague at Bagdat and Baffora. Ruffia. Obferva. tions on the armistice. Migration of the Torgut tribe of Tartars. Fleet in the Baltic; alliance with Denmark; ceffion of Holftein. Duke's marriage. Duke of Courland. Ruian marine. Iflue of the war in Georgia. Silver mines difcovered. Magnanimity of the Emprefs; conduct with respect to the commercial failures; attention and regard to the English merchants. Parties in Ruffia. HE time gained from the Grand and rebellion, and the preservation ur neighbouring coun ing the negotiations at Foczani and Bucharest, was not unprofitably employed by the Porte. The diforders indeed, which partly from the relaxation of government, and partly from faults in its original conftitution, had been accumulating for near a century, were become fo numerous and obftinate, that it feemed almost as difficult to determine which to begin with, as it was to form a right judgment upon the nature of the remedies which were neceffarily to be applied. Egypt, was scarcely delivered from an enterprizing ufurper, who had long thrown off all dependence on the Ottoman empire: who was ftill ftrongly fupported, and was preparing to recover a country which he confidered as his own, with all the eagerness that revenge and ambition could infpire. Syria, had long been a scene of open war tries, became every day more pre- [B 4] ruined ruined navy, were left for the defence of the remainder, In thefe deplorable circumftances, the Ottomans had a fovereign, who bore his misfortunes with unparalleled firmness and dignity, and a minifter, whofe uncommon abilities, gave hopes that he would redeem the errors of his predeceffors. Of these they had already received a specimen, which gave room for every hope in the future; as the addrefs with which Mouffon Oglou, concluded the armistice, and brought on the negociations at Bucharest, may, perhaps, be ranked with the greatest fervices, that any prince or ftate ever received from a minister. During this momentous interval of ceffation, when every quarter prefented claims which at another time would have demanded his utmoft attention, the Grand Vizir fuperfeded all other confiderations, to the great object of bringing about a reformation in the army. To effect this purpofe, he kept the troops from difperfing, and the Janizaries from returning to Conftantinople, as they had hitherto done at the end of the campaign; and thereby preferved them from thofe exceffes and debaucheries, which rendered them equally impatient of fubmiffion, and incapable of fervice, upon their return to the camp. Their bodies were now, on the contrary, hardened by the length and feverity of a Bulgarian winter, where the harfhnefs of the climate, and the roughnefs of the country, made them neceffarily experience, degrees of hardship and fatigue, with which they had hitherto been little acquainted; while the Vizir him-, felf, who was an avowed enemy to the Afiatic luxury, taught them by his own example, that vigilance, activity, and temperance, which he wished them to practife: and being thus conftantly under the eye, and in the power of their commanders, they became infenfibly habituated to regularity and order, He at the fame time took care that they fhould be plentifully fupplied with neceffaries, and their pay regularly iffued; fo that no real caufe being left for complaint, the foldiers were ashamed to murmur at doing what was only their duty. Thus by perfeverance, and an unremitting industry, the Grand Vizir gradually curbed that licentioufnefs, which, during this war, had made the foldiers terrible only to their officers; while their difobedience, and contempt of order and difcipline, laid them continually open, as a defenceless prey to their enemies, and rendered their courage only a certain fnare for their deftruction. It is also faid, that by the affiftance of several French officers, he has taken great pains to introduce the European difcipline among the troops, and that the Turks, grown wife at length by their misfortunes, have for once fubdued their pride and their prejudices, and now submit to receive instructions, which they had fo often refufed and fo long defpifed. A French renegade, who had been the conful to that nation at the Dardanelles, and had bafely fixed the ftigma upon his country, of producing the first public officer belonging to any western ftate, who had abandoned christianity to embrace Mahometifm, formed a kind of military school, under the fanction fanction and immediate inspection of the Grand Signior, which, in the prefent difpofition of the Turks, may be productive of fome effect. This man having a competent de gree of mathematical knowledge, and being well verfed in the management of artillery, had been employed, prior to his apoftacy, in repairing the caftles, and erecting new fortifications, at the Dardanelles, so that independent of the defence of a fleet, that paffage, might from its own ftrength, be rendered impracticable to the RuffiThat fervice having been performed to the fatisfaction of the Porte, and this adventurer being now become its fubject, he undertook the inftruction of the Turkish engineers, and attended to this office with fuch affiduity, that, it is faid, he has already accomplished a furprizing improvement in the management of their artillery. ans. The appearances of peace, by no means flackened the preparations for war during the negociations; new levies were made with great diligence, and fhips were built, manned, and equipped, with the greateft poffible expedition. Thefe objects, together with the restoration of order and tranquillity in the provinces, were immediately attended to by the Grand Signior, while the Vizir, in purfuance of the plan he had formed, continued conftantly with the army. In the mean time, the most admirable order and police were preferved in the capital, which being purged of its fupernumerary crowds by the war, and cleared of the idle and profligate, became with its beautiful environs, the most pleasant refidence in the world. The winter in Syria was too moderate, to prove any restraint to the troubles in that country. Ali Bey, by the affiftance of his faithful ally the Cheik Daher, and through that veneration and compaffion, which the brave and unfortunate, experience more among barbarous tribes than civilized nations, was again grown confiderable; and thefe leaders became every day more formidable. They however spent much time in the befieging of towns, a fervice for which the kind of troops that they commanded were totally unfit, and for which they notwithstanding feemed to have a great paffion. Many inconfiderable places baffled their utmoft efforts, notwithstanding the affiftance given them by the Ruffians; and the decayed city of Jaffa, or Joppa, coft them a fiege of feven or eight months, though but meanly fortified, and as badly provided. The taking of this place was however neceffary to Ali Bey, as it greatly facilitated the enterprize which he was meditating against Egypt, and which he then immediately prepared to carry into execution. The forces which he was able to collect for this purpose, were very unequal to fo great a defign; but his eagerness to regain fo defireable a poffeffion, outweighed all other confiderations, and prompted him to put every thing to the hazard. He accordingly fet out with about 13000 men for Grand Cairo, and met with no obstacle in his march till he approached to that city, near which, at a place called Salekie, he found Mehemet Bey Aboudaab, too well prepared for his reception, at the head of an army of 60,000 1773. Neither Ali Bey, nor his followers, were difcompofed men. May 7th. pofed at the fight of this great army; and though it was on a Friday, a day which the Mahometans fcrupulously dedicate to prayer, and which Aboudaab wanted to keep facred, by deferring the bat ale till the next day, they obliged him to change his refolution. A defperate engagement enfued, in which Ali Bey and his followers behaved with the utmoft refolu tion; but being alfo encountered, with a refolution, which they probably did not expect, they were at length overborne by numbers, and were, almoft, all cut to pieces; not above five hundred being taken prifoners, and their fituation not admitting any to escape. A fou and a nephew of the Cheik Daher, with feveral other Beys, were among the flain. Ali Bey, after being defperately wounded, was taken prifoner; and was the fame day brought in that condition before the Divan at Cairo. In this forlorn fituation, he loft his former refolution, and throwing himfelf at the feet of Aboudaab, called him his foo, and requested his life in the most endearing terms. The conqueror did not infult his misfortunes; he said he should receive no prejudice from him; but that he aiked what it was not in his power to grant, as his life was in the hands of the Grand Signior only. Aboudaab hept his word, and an order was afterwards iffued from Conftantinople for his being beheaded; but it is not known, whether he died of his wounds, or in confequence of that order. Such was the fate of Ali Bey. A man, who independent of his ambition and rebellion, feemed poffeffed of feveral qualities that rendered him worthy of a better fortune. It does not feem extraor3 dinary that in his circumftances, he fhould have encountered any dangers, or engaged in any attempt however defperate, that might af ford a poffibility of retrieving his affairs; but the attachment and intrepidity of his voluntary followers is truly aftonishing; whofe hearts, inftead of being dejected at the fight of fuch an army, or of finking under a confcioufnefs of their own miferable fituation, which afforded neither retreat nor fhelter, on the contrary, beat high for the engagement; and without any refource but their own native courage, fought, till they were cut to pieces, with all the confidence which arifes in veteran troops, from a knowledge of their fuperiority in military skill and difcipline. There were about four hundredRuffians, Greeks, and Albanians, in this ill-fated army, who kept in a diftin&t body, and had the management of the artillery, which amounted to twenty pieces of cannon, and with which they did great execution during the engagement. They alfo behaved with great courage, and were all killed to about twenty. Some Ruffian fhips appeared at the fame time upon the coafts of Egypt; but difappeared, as foon as they found the unhappy turn that affairs had taken. The news of this important fuccefs was received with great joy at Conftantinople, which was ftill increafed, by the arrival foon after, of four years revenue that was due from Egypt, which had been kept back by the troubles, and was now fent as the firft fruits of the fettlement of that country. In truth, this event was the moft fortunate to the Turkish empire, of any that had taken place for many years. Befides the getting rid of a moft |