Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

CHA P. III.

State of the Ottoman Empire at the opening of the congress at Bucharest. Abilities of the Grand Vizir; time of the ceffation profitably employed; unwearied perfeverance in establishing order and dijcipline in the army. French conful at the Dardanelles becomes a renegade, and establijnes 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 prifoner 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. ObJervations on the armistice. Migration of the Torgut tribe of Tartars. Fleet in the Baltic; alliance with Denmark; ceffion of Holftein. Grand Duke's marriage. Duke of Courland. Rujian marine. Iue of the war in Georgia. Silver mines difcovered. Magnanimity of the Empress; conduct with respect to the commercial failures; attention and regard to the English merchants. Parties in Ruffia.

T

HE time gained from the hurry and fury of war, during the negociations 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 conflitution, had been accumulating for near a century, were become fo numerous and obftinate, that it feemed almoft 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 fcarcely delivered from an enterprizing ufurper, who had long thrown off all dependence on the Ottoman empire: who was ftill ftrongly supported, 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

and rebellion, and the preservation of that and the neighbouring countries became every day more precarious. The coats or the Leffer Afia were every where filled with violence and diorder. The part relaxation of government, operating with its present weakness, and the contempt drawn upon it by the difgraces and misfortunes of the war, took away all relpect and fear, and put an end to all oder and fubordination. The grandees of the country, and even the Turkish bathas and officers, began to act like independent princes, to levy troops in their diftricts, enter into civil wars, and openly, in defiance of law and juice, to purfu the gratification of their avarice and revenge, without fear, ihame, or remorie. In Europe, every thing to the north of the Danube and ine Black Sea, except Oczkow and Kilbarn, were already lot, and a beaten, difpirited, ungovernabie foldiery, with the remains of a

[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 firmnefs and dignity, and a minister, whofe uncommon abilities gave hopes that he would redeem the errors of his predeceffors. Of these they had already received a fpecimen, 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 minifter.

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 purpose, he kept the troops from difperfing, and the Janiffaries 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 fubmiflion, 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 harshness of the climate, and the roughness of the country, made them neceffarily experience degrees of hardship and fatigue, with which they had hitherto been little acquainted; while the Vizir himfelf, 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 afhamed to murmur at doing what was only their duty.

Thus by perfeverance, and an unremitting induftry, the Grand Vizir gradually curbed that licentioufnets, 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 alfo faid, that by the affiftance of feveral 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 fubmit to receive instructions, which they had fo often refused and fo long despised.

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 Chriftianity to embrace Mahometanism, formed a kind of military school, under the

fanction

fanction and immediate infpection of the Grand Signior, which, in the prefent difpofition of the Turks, may be productive of fome erect. This man, having a competent degree of mathematical knowledge, and being well veried in the management of artillery, had been employed, prior to his apoftacy, in repairing the cattles, and erecting new fortifications, at the Dardanelles, fo that independent of the defence of a fleet, that paffage might, from its own ftrength, be rendered impracticable to the Ruffians. That 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 of fice with fuch affiduity, that, it is faid, he has already accomplished a furprising improvement in the management of their artillery.

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 greatest 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 pursuance of the plan he had formed, continued conftantly with the army. In the mean time, the moft 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 moft picafant 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 utmost efforts, notwithstanding the affiftance given them by the Ruffians; and the decayed city of Jaffa, or Joppa, colt them a fiege of feven or eight months, though but meanly fortified, and as badly provided.

The taking of this place was however necellary to Ali Bey, as it greatly facilitated the enterprize which he was meditating against Egypt, and which he then immes diately prepared to carry into execution. The forces which he was able to collect for this purpose, were very unequal to to great a defign; but his eagerness to regain fo defirable a poffeffion, outweighed all other confiderations, and prompted him to put every thing to the hazard.

He accordingly fet out with about 13,000 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 Neither Ali Bey, nor his followers, were

men.

May 7th,

1773discom

pofed

pofed at the fight of this great army; and though it was on a Friday, a day which the Mahomeans fcrupulously dedicate to prayer, and which Aboudaab wanted to keep facred, by deferring the battle aill the next day, they obliged him to change his refolution. A defperate engagement enfued, in which Ali Bey and his followers behaved with the utmost refolution; 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 *ícape.

A fon 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 fon, 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 afked what it was not in his power to grant, as his life was in the hands of the Grand Signior only. Aboudaab kept his word, and an order was afterwards iffued from Conftantinople for his being beBeaded; but it is not known wheaher 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 poffefed of feveral qualities that rendered him worthy of a better fortune. It does not seem extraor

dinary that in his circumstances, he fhould have encountered any dangers, or engaged in any attempt however defperate, that might afford 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 confciousness 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 huudred Ruffians, Greeks, and Albanians, in this ill-fated army, who kept in a diftinct 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 coaft of Egypt; but difappeared as foon as they found the unhappy turn that affairs had takén.

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 most fortunate to the Turkish empire, of any that had taken place for many years. Befides the getting rid of

a most

a moft daring and dangerous rebel, and the recovery of a noble country, on which the fubfiftence of the capital, and the army in a great degree depended; this fuccefs ferved to restrain 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 misfortunes. It alfo fhewed to its enemies the vaft refources 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 most 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 chofen 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 reflore the tranquillity of that country.

The fleet which the Porte was able to fit out this year at Conftantinople, was only equal to the tafk 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 invasion of Romania, by a fudden embarkation of troops, aboard

fuch veffels as they could procure in thofe 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 having failed of fuccefs. The Ruffi- · ans 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 mostly natives of that country, feized the opportunity to difband, and retire to their respective homes, by which the expedition was of neceflity laid afide.

This ftate of inactivity, in which the Turkish marine was refrained by its weakness, ill fuited the enterprizing genius of the celebrated Haffan, or Hoffein Bey, the Captain Bafha, 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 Ruflians had paffed the Danube in the latter campaign, obtained leave from the Emperor to appoint a deputy for his naval command, and to go himself, in the rank of Seraskier, or principal general, to oppofe the enemy. We have already feen the fuccefs that attended his bravery and conduct upon that expedition, and the precision with

which

« ZurückWeiter »