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which he fulfilled his promife to the Grand Signior; and as he seems at present to fland 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 thofe fudden revolutions of fortune, to which the natives of thofe wide Afiatic regions have in all times been more liable than thofe of any other part of the world, was reduced in his infancy to a state 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 Rodosto, 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.

As his genius lay wholly to war, and the Ottoman empire afforded no opportunity then for his indulging it, he enlisted among the recruits that are usually raised in that neighbourhood for the fervice of the ftate of Algiers, and was fent with the rest 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 ftate, 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 greateft dangers, was foon diftinguifhed from his fellows, and by a moft rapid progress, rose from being a flave 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 Conftantia, 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 he 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 distinction, and afterwards, at his own defire, forwarded him to Naples. There he had the good fortune to freight a Danifh 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

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As the difcuffion of this fubject made fome noife, 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 delign 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 fervices 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 trea fure was. through the fpirited conduft of Mr. Gahler, at his own difpofal, he found means to employ fome part of it to better purpofe in the feraglio, that it would have anfwered in the hands of the Algerine agent. However that was, he was ditcharged, and immediately appointed to the command of a hip of the line. He afterwards acted as vice-admiral in the engagement at Cifme, where the not taking his advice, in flanding out to fea and engaging the Rufians, first coft the captain bafia his fleet, and afterwards his head. In the general deftruction of that night, Haffan 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 prefent the idol of the people, who look upon him as the restorer of the Ottoman glory. It seems, 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 underfood by the people, and more captivating to their imagination, than the ftedfalt, 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 muft 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 existence to Mouffon Oglou.

While the western and northern boundaries of the Ottoman empire, have been liable to the ravages of a cruel and deftructive war, its eastern limits have been depopulated by that fatal destroyer 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 first 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 Eu

phrates

phrates and the gulph of Perfia, brought their fears and the disorder along with them, at the diftance of 240 miles. Here it raged in all its fury, fweeping away the people for fome time, at the rate of fix or feven thousand a day. Most of the western chriftians perifhed; the English factory faved their lives by flying into Perfia, choofing rather to truft 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 respect to her liftening to terms of accommodation, and agreeing to the congrefs of Foczani; and it is as little to be doubted that the fubfequent revolution in that kingdom, had a principal fhare in the renewing of the armistice, and the entering into fresh negociations at Bucharest. Indeed, it is probable, that this was the best, 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 prefent year. A great tribe of the Calmuc-Tartars, which was called the Torgut, had long inhabited the vast defarts of the kingdom of Aftracan, where, under a limited fubmiffion to the Ruffian

government, they fed innumerable herds of cattle, and carried on a very confiderable trade with Aftracan, 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 numerous, as to be able to raise 30,000 fighting men, and whether it was, that they met with any late causes 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 scheme 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 strong 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 fuch a number of people, and the total depopulation of thofe unbounded wilderneffes, that ftretch fo far on all fides of Aftracan, muft be prejudicial to Ruffia. It may, however, prove the means of enquiring minutely into the caufes of diffatisfaction that operated upon thefe people, and of regulating her future con

duct

duct in fuch a manner, as to preferve the affections of thofe Tartars, who form fo great a body of her fubjects, and of paying a cautious attention to that unconquerable love of liberty, which, in a greater or leffer degree, prevails through all their various na

tions.

Notwithstanding the pacific profeffions on both fides, certain appearances and preparations in Sweden, were evidently alarming to the court of Petersburg, and occafioned the fitting out of a very confiderable fleet to cruize in the Baltic, as well as the keeping of an army upon the frontiers. Both thefe measures, however neceffary they might have been, were highly inconvenient to Ruffia at this period, as the firit prevented her from fending a reinforcement to the fleet in the Archipelago; and the fecond, obliged her to keep a confiderable number of her beft troops unemployed, at a time that they were mach wanted both on the Danube and in the Crimea.

The fame cause made it thought neceffary to enter into a ftricter union with Denmark, which was cemented by a treaty of infinite advantage to the latter. In confequence of this treaty, the Grand Duke of Ruffia has made a formal ceffion and renunciation of his patrimonial rights and dominion in the dutchy of Holftein, to the King of Denmark, who in return, as the fhadow of an equivalent, has ceded the miferable county of Oldenburgh, and the city of Delmenhorst, with its territory, to the Grand Duke. This important transfer of territory and 1773dominion, was executed at Kiel, the capital of Holstein,

Nov. 16th,

where the members of the regency. the civil officers, nobility, and people, were affigned over, and took oaths of allegiance to the King of Denmark; and the ceflion was compleated, by the delivery of the keys of the city, and of a piece of earth, to Count Reventlau, the Danish minifter.

Thus have both powers parted with the original inheritance of their ancestors, and one in particular, with that which promifed more fecurity and greater permanence, than any other of his extenfive poffeffions. As the ceffion made by Denmark could be of no ufe to the Great Duke, and from its fituation and distance was scarcely tenable, he has prefented it to his relation the Duke of Holftein Eutin, Prince Bishop of Lubeck, by which those territories, and the lands belonging to the bishoprick, will become hereditary in that family.

The articles of the treaty are not published; but from the price paid by Ruffia, it is probable that an offenfive and defenfive alliance of the strongest nature must be its bafis. It is faid, that upon the continuance of the war, Denmark is to fend a confiderable naval force to the Mediterranean, to the affiftance of the Ruffians; and there is no doubt, in certain circumftances, that its principal forces by fea and land may be liable to be called forth. In the beginning of the year, while the treaty was yet in agitation, and long before its conclufion, a ftrong fquadron was fitted out by the Danes, and kept in a readiness for service during the greater part of the feafon; and no fecret was made of its being intended to join Admiral Bafsballe,

the

the Ruffian commander, if any event should take place in the Baltic, which required their mutual

exertion.

As the Grand Duke was now far advanced in his twentieth year, a marriage was determined upon between him and one of the princeffes of Heffe Darmstadt; and as it was thought proper, in a matter of fuch importance to his happiness, that the choice fhould reft folely with himself, the Landgravine, and her three daughters, arrived at Peterfburg for that purpose. The Grand Duke's choice was foon determined in favour of the Princess Wilhelmina, who was about a year younger than himself; and that lady having conformed to the Greek religion, was baptized in that faith by the new names of Natalia Alexiowna. The

Oct. 10:h. marriage was fome time after folemnized with great magnificence, the Grand Duke having then entered into his 21ft year.

A few days prior to the Great Duke's marriage, and on the anIniversary of her coronation, the Empress loaded Count Panin, who had been his governor, with honours and emoluments. She bestowed upon that nobleman an eftate for ever, valued at near 7000l. a year, and a penfion for life to the fame amount, befides an appointment of about half that fum, for conducting the department of foreign affairs, together with the choice of any house in Peterburg, to be purchased for his refidence, and an allowance of money for plate and furniture, of about 35,000l. She alfo fhewed a proportional munificence to all the officers of the Grand Duke's late houshold.

mous Count Byron, Duke

of Courland, died at a great age, on the last day but one of the preceding year, and was fucceeded by his fon. As the reigning duke was known to be in no degree of favour at the court of Petersburg, his poffeffion of that dutchy was held to be very precarious; while it was generally thought that it would have been thrown in as an equivalent on one fide or other in the partition of Poland, and probably might by fome marriage arrangement be formed with fome of the adjoining provinces into an independent ftate. It is probable, that whatever difficulties prevented the execution, more than one defign of this nature was in contemplation; and the Duke himself was fo fenfible of the dangerous ground he ftood on, that he attempted to bring about a match with one of the remaining princeffes of Heffe Darmstadt, in hopes thereby to ftrengthen his intereft. This defign was crushed as foon as it was known, by the emprefs, who is faid to have fent him word, that he had no occafion to think yet of matrimony. In this hopeless fituation, he was fummoned to Petersburg, and his ruin was thought to be decided; but a change foon appeared in the conduct and defigns of the court; whatever it proceeded from, he fuddenly became a favourite at court, and the empress has conciudeda marriage for him with a Ruffian princess.

The greatest attention has been unremittingly paid to the forming of a great fleet in the feveral ports of the Baltic, where Sir Charles Knowles, who obtained permiffion to retire from the British service, and engage in the Ruffian, has exerted his well-known knowledge

and

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