a moft daring and dangerous rebel,, and the recovery of a noble country, on which the fubfifience of the capital and the army in a great degree depended; this fuccefs ferved to refrain that fpirit of diforder and revolt which was fo prevalent in other parts, and had a happy effect at the fame time, in removing that dangerous defpondency at home, which was the inevitable confequence of a continued feries of misfortune. It also fhewed to its enemies, the vast resources of that great empire, where fuch a man as Aboudaab, with little more than the bare name of government to fupport him, could raise fo confiderable an army, in one of its moft unfettled provinces.

The fate of his friend Ali Bey, did not difcourage the Cheik Daher, who, feconded by his numerous fons and nephews, and well fupported by the Drufes, Mutualis, and other barbarous tribes who have chosen to follow his fortunes, feemed to acquire new ftrength and courage by that event. He fill carries on a very troublesome war in Syria, which keeps that and the neighbouring provinces in great diforder; nor does it feem probable that the Porte, will be able before the conclufion of a peace, to reftore the tranquillity of that country.

The fleet which the Porte was able to fit out this year at Conftantinople, was only equal to the talk of attending to the defence of the Dardanelles, and of preferving the dominion of the Black Sea. A confiderable part of it was employed in guarding the mouths of the Danube, to prevent any defign the Ruffians might form for the invafion of Romania, by a fudden embarkation of troops, aboard

fuch veffels as they could procure in those vaft channels. A fecond fquadron was fent with troops, ammunition, and provifions, for the relief of Oczacow and Kilburn; and a third was fent with the new Tartar Chan for the recovery of the Crimea. We are not well informed of any particulars relative to this expedition, except its hav ing failed of fuccefs. The Ruffians fay that the Chan landed and was defeated; and the Turks inform us, that the fleet having fuffered much by tempefts, was at length drove into the fea ports of Amafia, and obliged to land the troops to refit, who being moftly natives of that country, feized the opportunity to difband, and retire to their respective homes, by which the expedition was of neceffity laid afide.

This ftate of inactivity, in which the Turkish marine was restrained by its weakness, ill fuited the enterprizing genius of the celebrated Haffan, or Hoffein Bey, the Captain Basha, or Admiral of the Black Sea. This brave commander, who had already diftinguished himself with great honour in the course of the war, particularly in the fatal fea fight at Cifme, and by his bold and masterly conduct, in the expulfion of the Ruffians from the islands of Lemnos, and Meteline, upon finding that the Ruffians had paffed the Danube in the latter campaign, obtained leave from the Emperor to appoint a deputy for his naval command, and to go himfelt in the rank of Seraskier, or principal general, to oppofe the enemy. We have already seen the fuccefs that attended his bravery and conduct upon that expedition, and the precision with

which

which he fulfilled his promife to the Grand Signior; and as he feems at prefent to ftand very fairly, for being the fecond man in that great empire, and that his hiftory, befides, is curious, it may not be improper to take fome notice of

it.

This extraordinary adventurer was born in Perfia; and by one of those fudden revolutions of fortune, to which the natives of those wide Afiatic regions have in all times been more liable, than those of any other part of the world, was reduced in his infancy to a ftate of flavery. This early change in his condition, was the confequence of one of thofe irruptions, which the avarice of the Turks has continually prompted them to make into that ruined empire, fince the death of Nadir Shah. He fell by purchase into the hands of a native of Rodofto, in Romania, by whom he was brought up; but growing impatient of his condition when he arrived at maturity, and the fituation of that city, upon the Propontis, being favourable to his purpose, he by the affiftance of a Greek made his escape to Smyrna.

Ás his genius lay wholly to war, and the Ottoman empire afforded no opportunity then for his indulging it, he enlifted among the recruits that are usually raised in that neighbourhood for the fervice of the ftate of Algiers, and was fent with the reft to Africa. The Algerines were then engaged in a hot war with the inland moors, who are the original poffeffors, and rightful owners of the country; but from whom that state, partly by force, and more, by fomenting the divifions between their princes, extort a precarious fubmiffion Our

adventurer, by an extraordinary intrepidity, uncommon bodily endowments, and a prefence of mind and invention, which found continual refources in the greatest dangers, was foon diftinguished from his fellows, and by a moft rapid progrefs, rofe from being a slave to the command of an army. Having now room for the exertion of his abilities, and the difplay of his genius, he conducted the war fo fuccefsfully, and concluded it fo much to the advantage of the state, that the government of the city and province of Conftantina, the richest and beft belonging to Algiers, was conferred on him as a reward for his fervices.

But Haffan foon experienced the effects of that envy which always attends fortunate merit, for though he preferved his government for fome years, he at length found fo powerful a cabal formed against him at Algiers, that he had no other means for the faving of his life, and the wreck of his fortune, but by a precipitate flight into Spain, whither he carried the most portable and valuable of his effects.

The prefent King of Spain, having fome knowledge of his merit and quality, gave orders that he fhould be received and treated with diftinction, and afterwards, at his own defire, forwarded him to Naples. There he had the good fortune to freight a Danish fhip, which afterwards proved the means of faving his life, and in which he embarked with his effects (which were worth 100,000 crowns) for Conftantinople. Upon his arrival there, the agent from Algiers immediately obtained an order for the feizing of his perfon, as a deferter

from

from that ftate; which having put in execution, he was next proceeding to the confifcation of his effects. In this defign he was however vigorously and fuccefsfully oppofed by Mr. Gahler, the Danish minifter at the Porte, who immediately fent his janizaries on board the veffel, and infifted upon fupporting the honour of his mafter's. flag, by protecting every thing that was in her.

As the difcuffion of this fubject made fome noise, and took up fome time, it gave Haffan Bey an opportunity, which he did not neglect, of having his affairs reprefented to the Grand Signior; and of fhewing his fervices to Algiers, and the defign upon his life, which could have been only prevented by his flight. He at the fame time declared his zeal for the Porte, and made a tender of his fervice in fuch a manner, as fhewed that he confidered it to be of importance; an offer which was the more acceptable, as the prefent war was either then begun or in contemplation. It is alfo probable, that as his treafure was, through the fpirited conduct of Mr. Gahler, at his own difpofal, he found means to employ fome part of it to better purpose in the feraglio, than it would have anfwered in the hands of the Algerine agent. However that was, he was discharged, and immediately appointed to the command of a fhip of the line. He afterwards acted as vice-admiral in the engagement at Cifme, where the not taking his advice, in ftanding out to fea and engaging the Ruffians, firft coft the captain bafha his fleet, and afterwards his head. In the general deftruction of that night, Hafan Bey fignalized himself as

ufual; he being the only Turkish officer that faved his fhip, which he did by forcing his way bravely through the Ruffian fleet.

This extraordinary man, is at present the idol of the people, who look upon him as the restorer of the Ottoman glory. It feems, indeed, as if the Grand Vizir and he may, not unaptly, be confidered as the Fabius and Marcellus of the Turkish empire. The enterprizing fpirit, and brilliant actions of the latter, are, however, better known and understood by the people, and' more captivating to their imagination, than the ftedfaft, deliberate wifdom, and judicious conduct of the former, and they are accordingly loud in their wishes, for Haffan Bey's being promoted to his place. This must naturally breed a jealoufy between thofe great officers, which may deprive the state in a great measure of their fervices, and poffibly end in the ruin of one or the other. Whatever Haffan Bey's merits may be, the Porte is probably indebted for its exiftence to Mouffon Oglou.

While the western and northern boundaries of the Ottoman empire, have been liable to the ravages of a cruel and destructive war, its eastern limits have been depopulated, by that fatal deftroyer of mankind the peftilence. This dreadful fcourge, feems either to have varied its form, or under its old, to have affumed a degree of malignity, which is not perhaps to be equalled in hiftory. The ancient city of Bagdat, was the firft victim to its vengeance, where it carried off, (as it is faid) the amazing number of 250,000 people. The fugitives, who fled in great numbers to Baffora, near the mouth of the Euphrates

and the gulph of Perfia, brought their fears and the diforder along with them, at the distance of 240 miles. Here it raged in all its fury, fweeping away the people for fome time, at the rate of fix or seven thousand a day. Most of the western chriftians perifhed; the English factory faved their lives by flying into Perfia, choofing rather to trust to the clemency of the ufurper Kerim Khan, though their declared enemy, than to the rage of the implacable diforder. The event juftified their conduct; and upon their return, they found only death and defolation in the place of a great city.

There is little.room to doubt, that the change of affairs which were apprehended in Sweden upon the acceffion of a new king, had a confiderable influence upon the conduct of Ruffia, with refpect to her liftening to terms of accommodation, and agreeing to the congrefs of Foczany; and it is as little to be doubted, that the fubfequent revolution in that kingdom, had a principal fhare in the renewing of the armiftice, and the entering into fresh negociations at Bucharest. Indeed, it is probable, that this was the beft, if not the only reafon which could be given, for Ruffia's entering into a ceffation, which was of fuch infinite advantage to the enemy:

The emigration of a whole nation of Tartars from the Ruffian dominions, may be confidered as one of the most extraordinary events of the present year. A great tribe of the Calmuc Tartars, which was called the Torgut, had long inhabited the vaft defarts of the king dom of Aftracan, where, under a limitted fubmiffion to the Ruffian

government, they fed innumerable herds of cattle, and carried on a very confiderable trade with Aftra can, and the towns on the Wolga, whither they fent cows, fheep, horfes, leather, and hides, for which they were paid in corn, meal, rice, copper kettles, knives, tools, iron, cloth, and other Ruffian commodities. Thefe Tartars were fo numetous, as to be able to raifego,000 fighting men, and whether it was, that they met with any late caufes of difguft, or that they imagined the increase of the Ruffian power, would daily render that liberty which was fo dear to them, more precarious, however it was, they determined to quit the country.

They conducted this fcheme with fo much fecrecy, that the smallest fufpicion was not harboured of their defign, till they fet out with their wives, children, and all their effects, for the country of Zongoria, in the Eastern Tartary, which had been the ancient refidence of their ancestors, and lies between the Chinese Tartary, Siberia, and the Leffer Bocharia. In this prodigious journey, they were obliged to traverfe a confiderable part of the Ruffian dominions, and two ftrong bodies of troops were fent without effect in purfuit of them. Exclufive of the benefits derived from their traffick, and the value of the mafs of effects which they carried with them, the lofs of fach a number of people, and the total depopulation of thofe anbounded wilderneffes, that ftretch fo far on all fides of Aftracan, must be prejudicial to Ruffia. It may, however, prove the means of enquiring minutely into the causes of diffatisfaction that operated upon these people, and of regulating her future con

duct