History of the Greek Revolution

Preface

. The contest betwixt the Greeks and Turks has employed so many pens, that he who now ventures to write on that hackneyed, and appa rently exhausted subject, must begin by explain ing his reasons for travelling over a beaten road, to which he cannot hope to attract public curiosity, since it is either satiated by preceding narratives, or drawn away towards more recent and important transactions : these reasons may be summed up in a few words. That momentary interest, which induced a number of persons hastily to publish what they had seen or heard in Greece, exists no longer ; but there is, and ever will be, a grave class of readers loving truth more than novelty, and desirous of becoming acquainted with the exact details of a revolution, that must take its place in the history of the world.

As yet there is nothing calculated to satisfy their taste, for of the forty authors whom the struggle in Greece has called forth, three or four alone have any claims to accuracy, .■•-vol. i. a

PREFACE.

. and their labours were confined to short and isolated periods, and detached scenes of the war;* neither are they always free from the influence of strong prejudices. Conceiving that a day would come when a work more connected, and written on a larger basis, will be acceptable to literary men, the author of the following pages has presumed to take upon himself the task of composing it ; because having served in the Greek army, and lived several years in close intimacy with the people of Hellas, he is in debted to the friendship of numerous indivi duals who bore a distinguished part in their country's affairs, as well as to the kindness of his Philhellenic comrades, for authentic materials, which are not likely either to survive the present generation, or to fall in the way of others. * As an example we sball pitch upon the campaign of 1821, certainly better described hitherto, than any subsequent epoch.

Of four authors who have treated it in detail, Messrs Raybaud, Blaquiere, Pouqueville, aud Green, the first served in Greece, and maybe impli citly trusted for every thing that happened under his own eyes ; the second, though partial, is a lover of truth, and derived his informa tion from a Philhellene serving in the Morea ; the third (long a resident in the East, and brother to the French Consul at Patrass) and the fourth, (himself Consul at that port,) had very good means of sifting out the real progress of events, but were both unfortunately wedded to violent prejudices on opposite sides, and both wrote for a political purpose. By comparing their accounts, a reader of judgment may obtain an accurate knowledge of the insurrection at Pa trass, the siege of Tripolizza, and generally of the campaign in Pelo ponnesus : but with regard to the contemporaneous operations in Northern Greece, and beyond the Danube, he will either be left in the dark or led astray.

PREFACE.

. III At the same time he has thought it his duty carefully to peruse all former publications on the topic of Greece, neither affecting to differ from his predecessors, where they are correct, nor admitting any thing upon their authority, unless when assured of its exactitude by his own observations, or by collating oral and MS. evidence worthy of credit. His study, in short, has been, by clearing away exaggeration, recti fying errors and anachronisms, and supplying omissions, to represent the Greek Revolution as it really was. Cairness, Nov. 1, 1832. CONTENTS OF VOLUME FIRST. PAGE Introduction, . . . . . . . . . 1 Appendix to Introduction, ....... 60

Book I. Chapter

I. Rebellion of Ali Pasha, and its consequences. Return to Epirus of the Souliotes, and their hostilities against the Turks. Hopes and projects of the Hetœrists. Revolt of Theodore Vladimiresco in Wallachia, and Invasion of Moldavia by Ypsilanti. Campaign in the Trans-Danubian Principalities, . 75 Appendix to Chapter I., 135

Progress of the war in Epirus, Macedonia, and Northern Greece, till the conclusion of the year 1821, ..... 258

Chapter VI

Affairs of Peloponnesus, from the capture of Tripolizza to the end of the year 1821. Insurrection of Crete. Some general considerations on the state of Turkey and Greece, and on the feelings with which the Revolution was regarded in Europe, 289 Appendix to Chapter VI., 322

Book II. Chapter

I. Constitution of Epidaurus, and establishment of a Central Government in Greece. State of Turkey, and remarks on her political relations. Transactions in Peloponnesus during the first six months of the year 1822, ..... 3^3 Appendix to Chapter 1 348, .

CHAPTER II.

Affairs of the Archipelago. Insurrection of Scio. Naval operations on the Asiatic coast, ....... 34.9 Appendix to Chapter II., ....... 372 CHAPTER HI. Campaign in Epirus. Operations in Eubœa, Macedonia, and Northern Greece, till the middle of July 1822, . . . 375 Appendix to Chapter III.,, ... . 4,15 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV. YAGK

Grand Expedition of the Turks against Greece Invasion of Peloponnesus. Military and Naval Operations in Argolis and the Argolic Gulf, until the end of September, . . . 418

CHAPTER V.

Operations in Northern Greece till the close of the year 1822. First siege of Messalonghi, ...... 446 Appendix to Chapter V., 466

CHAPTER VI.

Transactions in the Archipelago and Peloponnesus during the three last months of the year. State of Greece and Turkey at its conclusion. Campaign of 1822 in the Island of Crete, Appendix to Chapter VI., DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER VOL. I 1. Map of Greece, to face the title-page. 2. Emblem of the Hetœria, to face page ... 58 3. Map of Wallachia, 96 4. Battle of Valtezza and Dragashan, . . - . 143 5. Siege of Tripolizza, . . . . . . 234 6. Island of Candia, . . . . . .301 7. Battle of Petta, 388 8. Plain of Argos, . . . . . . .418 VOL II. 1. Greek Islands, to face the title-page. 2. Sketch of operations before Athens, to face page . 375 3. Siege of Scio, .......

Introduction

. The glory of the ancient Greeks, their proficiency in the arts of war and peace, and the profound misery and degradation of their modern descendants, are historical facts so well known and established, that any attempts to prove or dilate upon them, might justly be con sidered a waste of words : nevertheless, in order pro perly to introduce our subject, we may be allowed to take a short retrospect of the different phases which that celebrated and unfortunate people has presented, from the beginning of history to our own time, a space of two thousand five hundred years. Placed, as it is, at the south-eastern extremity of Europe, it was through Greece that the first rays of light and civilisation penetrated the darkness of our continent, and there it was that the seeds of knowledge, imparted irom Asia and Africa, found an intellectual soil, so admirably fitted to receive them, that the Greeks, but just emerged from a savage life, vastly surpassed their Phœnician and Egyptian instructors, and stationed themselves at the head of the human race.

At the very commencement of their career, when tradition is taken up by regular history, we see that this restless and enterprising people (after pro- ArOI_. I. A

INTRODUCTION.

. ducing a Homer and a Hesiod) had, although poor and divided at home, covered with flourishing colonies the shores of Asia Minor, Sicily, Italy, Thrace, and Nor thern Africa, thus extending the domain of their name and language, and had even planted some ad vanced posts of civilisation on the remote and barbarous coasts of Gaul, Spain, and Scythia. Next comes the most splendid page of their annals, when the military skill, and enthusiastic love of liberty, evinced by a part of their nation, overthrew in a series of brilliant ex ploits the brute force of despotism, and the gigantic might of Persia ; when their patriotic warriors acquired in the immortal battles of Marathon, Thermo pylæ, Salamis, and Platæa, laurels which the voice of fame has kept, and will ever keep fresh and verdant ; when the most complete victory crowned the justest cause.

Well had it been for Greece, if the unquiet spirit of her sons, their romantic fondness for adventure, and overweening ambition, could have fully vented them selves in contests with the surrounding mass of barba rism ; for some consolation may be derived amidst the miseries of war, when each triumph of a polished people adds to the sphere of light and letters. But unfortunately the Greeks, however much inclined to roam abroad in quest of wealth and martial renown, to subdue and pillage their ruder neighbours, had a still stronger disposition to oppress their own country men — to engage in civil broils — and y as:t_.'t the pre eminence of their petty republics and jarring factions. Hence sprung a deplorable succession of political crimes, domestic turmoil, discord, and hostility; the leading

INTRODUCTION.

. 3 states, such as Athens, Sparta, Thebes, Argos, and Sy racuse, exerting all their energies in a fruitless struggle for permanent superiority, and drawing the lesser com munities into the vortex ; while in every city, either individual tyrants, or oligarchical and democratical factions, not less tyrannical, were aiming to subvert the existing constitution, and to destroy the lives and for tunes of their fellow-citizens ; so that the face of the country was overspread with devastation, and the num ber of exiles almost equalled those residing at home. For a century and a half, however, the soil of Hellas was untrodden by the foot of a foreign invader ; but the colonies, besides being afflicted by the same intestine disorders, had to make head against the Persians, Car thaginians, and the barbarians of Italy and Thrace.

In spite of their unrivalled qualities as soldiers, the successful campaigns of Agesilaus in Asia, and some memorable victories of the Sicilian Greeks, the bounds of Hellenic domination rather receded, until the first Philip, skilfully availing himself of the balance of par ties, and the weakness to which continual revolutions had reduced the principal republics, gave to the rising kingdom of Macedonia a clear ascendency over the whole confederation. So confused and calamitous a period seems ill fitted for the cultivation of learning o.na tncfine arts ; but this is not the only instance where fche energy of men naturally ingenious and aspi ring, being called into action by all that was passing aroun^ *ikM, hath, under the influence of liberty, shot forth branches in many different directions ; and it was precisely betwixt the epoch of the Persian inva sions and the reign of Alexander, that the most cele-

INTRODUCTION.

. brated poets, historians, orators, and philosophers of Greece flourished, and that painting, sculpture, and architecture, attained a pitch that has never been sur passed. The conquests of Alexander, wonderful alike for their extent and the rapidity with which they were effected, the partition of his empire, and the long wars of his successors, gave fresh scope to the ambition and active talents of the nation ; an unceasing stream of adventurers poured into the East, where wealth and honours, such as before they had hardly conceived in imagination, were offered as a ready prize to their valour and ability. For another century, Macedonians and Greeks ruled over all Western Asia, Syria, and Egypt, and, establishing colonies in every province, rooted there their own language, manners, and insti tutions.

But that same buoyant and restless character, which had led them by so many paths to the temple of glory, displayed itself in yet more striking colours on a larger theatre, and, banishing peace and repose, involved the conquered countries in perpetual convul sions. Corrupt as the victors were before, their native vices were aggravated by Oriental softness, and by mingling with subjects still more corrupt than them selves ; and it would be difficult to find any portion of history so deformed by the bl??kest villainy, ar iaat of Alexander's successors. The treasures tb.t were at the disposal of those princes, enabled them to form parties, and interfere in the domestic affairs of the republics ; while the flower of the European Greeks, whose courage and prowess were in the highest repute, left their homes to serve in the armies of Syria and

INTRODUCTION.

. Egypt; and those circumstances caused the parent country to decline more and more, enfeebled first by domestic wars, and then by the shock of the Macedo nians. Even Macedon, when left to itself, was a kingdom possessing but moderate resources. Its sovereigns, aware, therefore,* that force alone could not maintain their influence, took advantage of that factious spirit and proneness to division which some ancient authors * considered as a natural and incurable malady belonging to the Grecian temperament, and embraced the policy of supporting the petty tyrants, who, under r protection, set themselves up in almost every state. Some generous attempts were indeed made to retrieve their independence, and check the torrent of abuses. The union of Peloponnesian cities, called the League of Achaia, held out a hope of improvement, blasted by the* jealousy and rapacity of the Spartans and Etolians.

In this uneasy and troubled condition the Hellenic nations was found by the Romans, Who, 'ausanias -and Herodian. f Polybius clearly sets -* ' P«y t0 wuic» jjonnesus was redr . ■ AT*> edoniaI -wcendei. vy, by '-*ar, anarchy, and 9 e d-preditin- Jbe;s and pirates, espey the Illyrians aad E*o!««r, >at *• whole property ■ the penins. .a, of every esc-" t^ bodies of its sold into ' ~'e Le w,ote (wh. sum of 6000 a at the befcin- """''I ever

INTRODUCTION.

. far behind the Greeks in taste and genius, vastly excel led them in cool judgment and steady policy. The maxims of the former tended to knit together and con solidate their acquisitions, while the levity of the lat ter led to eternal division and subdivision. Had been possible for Greece and Macedonia, following the advice of Agelaus of Naupactus, t > combine a resistance to Italian encroachment, the A-sue of the contes might have been doubtful; but th Romans had n< such hard trial, for the republics thai were then most considerable, Rhodes, Etolia, and Achaiatj joined thei standard, and lent very efficacious aid, firs.-, in over throwing the monarchies, and then in subjugatmg other. Before the era of Augustus, the Roman v had swallowed up Hellas, its colonies, and the las fragments of Alexander's empire, previously impaire and shaken by the barbarians of Parthia, Pontus, an Armenia, who, through the quarrels and imbecility c the later Macedonian princes, had been able to son and powerful dynasties.

For several hundif yews after the period to wiJch we have just allude Greece is lo t to i utical history ; but she continued reigr pre-eminent 0ver the 'epartments of art ac science, and i :orr -^ools nf A thens and Ab dria,. to faests of her langr* ire. and We ' amongst her •Ans in se-vj

INTRODUCTION.

. 7 y ieleing to a foreign enemy, shared that lot which she on the inhabitants of half theearth. U0 ' fall of tie Western empire, .the Easter, might be upon as wholly a Grecian monarchy ; all vestige he La, -, , JDgIle and mannerg disappeared m the com t of Constantinople ; and in the list of it, «», we ,.an hardly find one where Greek had not tirey, or to a great degree, supplanted the original ■leetc. of the people. - Six centuAes of despotism had *ow, however, fully me their work; instead or the aspbfag though ill " , nc.ent Greece, history displays to u Wa, torpid, effeminate, r nd weigh- V tyra , , nonastio supej Itition : gen? 3 'er cherish 1 r liberty, nor fostered by patro g,'. ear up against public calami ■■ _° Aether lost, became at least silent / «j invariably happens, arts and -' - .ith it in decline, and t love 0f iati rfue, disputation, wa' all the By* a&. 'i;ic ->**$££ The lW( for a thousarjfj "lespjo ■4, i. . cies of tin,.., da: . nd < c can exu. it little infor An reaming the luntry to w our attention is me immediately irected. We duly know that pioper Greece was re-

INTRODUCTION.

. 8 peatedly and cruelly wasted by Goths, Saracens. ; Bulgarians, that her cities were mostly ruined, part of the p i™ exterminated, and that t, fill up the void, the emperors planted there, al vario. riods, colonies of Mardaites and Sclavoi. In K the French and Venetian crusaders took Constantmoi and dismembered the western provinces of the emp Peloponnesus was conquered by a brother of the Cou of Champagne; other adventurers again ... rram, race seized several districts of tb Venice occupied the Archipelago; an< A . Greek prin set up an independent sovereigns . Epirus. Befc however, a century had elapsed, the matins were from Byzantium, and the seconu Greek eiupirt vered Thrace, Etolia, some of the h P< ' nesi , which last remained attached . catastrophe. Pressed by the Otto. ••n border, the. -ainTH*?

Adriatic - as a 150s! eks,F* -.p. -_ae per second, had a •-• crashed ; wliu iisoutt1 h each other a over those Aw tyagmcr.ts of « ant; _-, that still hung together by a thread. But r

INTRODUCTION.

. 9 were the Moslems long allowed the undisturbed enjoy ment of their new acquisitions. Venice courageously asserted her claim, and sustained reiterated contests, with varying result, foi Jove two hundred years; being sometimes mistress of the best parts of Greece, .tnde t other periods nearly expellet ". from the whole, *\ntil, in 1717, the banner of St Mark, driven finally ora the Morea and the Archipelago, continued hence forth to float in the Ionian islands alone. The Greeks, oppressed by both parties, and turned over like c ttle I om one to the, other, as suited the circumstances of e moment, do - ...•- have felt m\.Jn interest in v enetian caue, nor to have rbgretted its defea- '•"•ims'of ie republic towards th**n were 511 cai ar affection ; her po . debased and ignorant ; .nolic priests was little A . ectarians than Mohan* me-' for an instant the IN" dODUCTION.

Minor. His son, Osman, assumed the title of Sultan, and reducing, in 1300, the city of Prusa, in Bithynia, made it the capital of his dominions, which he extended daily, at the expense c: _e Byzantine emperors. The Sultans that followed for some ger dratiur; most all men of vigour and talent, passed the F .lles pont, conquered Thrace, and the con. tries as far as th» Danube, defeating at Nicopolis, Cossova, aud ValQH the efforts of the Poles, Hungarians, and the Scidvonifi prii ..es of Bidgaria, Servia, Bosr a, &/_*. ; and, in * o'.i. n ° *> - • •- *d Jtorming Co> rf-antinopk eif vestige of the '* an. world, at re his death g< *<~ lo European lirkey neari ,, J!~,jfa '' . ounded it in 1851 Wfepp - at led to so brilliant hie qualities of the v. v0. \dvefects of its adversar. f *che Byzantine enipir*- ' the bordering kir

INTRODUCTION.

. .he wstit c 0f the a vast advabta^e to the fil -1— P*>veu aiso ftntrv of „«, • ' m 9n a^e when th* infantry of other nations presented merely hasty levies of raw and spiritless peasants ; and in point o/finan they were equally superior, since they'd.^ a fixed revenue regularly collected, while the Christ L sovereigns depended altoo-ether on rh„ gifts of their vassals and th cle g" 't^T""" busied with warlike JL.£££Z derive important results from the discovery of gun powder ; they first brought formidable battering tiSTs against the w 11s of cities ; and it was to his artille y aud the mustfetry of his Jauissaries, that Sultan Sdim Ae .eroeiousf owed the victories he gained over the his oloodthirstv p,,Ce, the grandson of Mohammed the Second, was occupied during LB whole reign in astern wars, and the aest of Syria and Egypt Previous, however, to tbe close of the fifteenth cena change began to appear in tfcose /inters : al of learning in the west, brought With i 1 of military skill the turbulent nr ndepen^ • and the chaos of E jlity I the earlier .{.vpll.>.-« •.•■--- _• ■_. . , , , -'•"■veiieis vj.veJ _iurKey, _e forcibly nth tha order ai-i nhpri;, n t „> -i j • ■; jjo ODe( e ''al prevailed in its provinces ; Hence and mod, v ., sol(K go different from w,jat ie.

T1k . - espi_. anarchy seem- _ .er; aud there is reas_ to suspect, that — _ subjects of the Porte were harassed and . t"e 'idustrjjus classes in the west sometimes envied their "i. We are assured, that in Italy, the natives, goaded to dethe Imperialists and French contending for its possession, derepose under the shade of the Crescent. iltan Selim the First is surnaincd by Turkish historians Yavcuz, Fierce.

INTRODUCTION.

. sao_. 1 into regular monarchies, win - race of improvement, while the Turks, \. * -ded to their original customs, remained stationary. The effect of this alteration became visible when the Ottoman empire was at its zenith, under Sulyman the Magnificent, who, after overrunning Hungary, failed in his attempts *o take Vienna and Malta, and expired at length in a fit of rage, occasioned by witnessing the glorious stand made by a handful of Austrians, at Sigeth, against his im mense army. During the sway of his son and successor, Selim the Second, the battle of Lepanto, sough c i 1571, gave a blow to the Turkish marine, ''*)in which u never en tirely recovered. Nevertheless, for above an hunom years after that event, Christendom, distracted by rel? gious and political wars, trembled at the name of thos Mohammedans, ., ,o persisted in the design they ha conceived of universal subjugation.

Not only Politr and Venice, but even the German emperors, chose j ntly to pUK&ase a precarious truce by humil sions, rather than risk expensive hostilities whose resources oeared prodigA -A. loody overthrow th?' ontecucu the x Got.hr. low inferiors of their tr< ;s to the diaciplim Europe, and dialled the V1* " ore gem tained, tha^, land they .vei incible ported by their ancient reputA ' h'"' " favourable terms, and indemnified ti "<*s ± late disaster by the final reduction of Cai. plished in 166s). According to a principle V, on, of commencing a new war against a fresh ad

INTRODUCTION.

. 13 as soon as they had brought a former one'Uva conclusion, they next turned their arms against the Poles and Muscovites ; and although experiencing another terrible defeat near Chotin, in 1673, from Sobieski, who destroyed 25,000 of them, the end of the struggle was to their advantage, as they gained by it Kaminiek and the Ukraine. Thus the balance hung doubtful, or rather inclined to the side of the Infidels, when, in 1681, the haughty and ambitious Grand Vizier, Kara Mustafa, persuaded Sultan Mohammed the Fourth to break his treaty with the Emperor Leopold ; and two years after, laid siege to Vienna, with above 150,000 men. On the 12th September, 1683, 70,000 Poles and Germans, under Sobieski, dispersed this mighty host, like chaff before the wind ; and from thafmemorable day we may date the decline of Ottoman power.

The Christians, now aware of their own military superiority, instead of seeking peace, combined their enterprises, and vigorously pressed the common enemy, until the Porte, after great exertions and great reverses, confess ed itself vanquished, by subscribing to the pacification of Carlovitz, which stripped it of Hungary, the Morea, Podolia, and the Ukraine. Henceforth Europe ceased to dread the Turks, and began even to look upon their existence as a necessary element of the balance of power among its states. Throughout the former half of the eighteenth century, the court of Constantinople, abandoning its extensive schemes of conquest in the west, maintained, however, a respectable attitude, — repelled the invasion of the Czar, Peter the Great, compensated the loss of the Bannat, in the war of 1715, by recover ing Peloponnesus, and opposed an honourable resist-

INTRODUCTION.

. ance to the united aggression of Austria and Russia in 1737. • Russia was then shaking off her pristine barbarism ; and that immense and growing empire had hitherto caused little apprehension to the Ottomans, who were destined to receive from thence the most fatal blows. The campaigns of Marshal Munich — glorious, in deed, but costing an excessive waste of his troops, few of whom fell by the sword — proved, that the best bul wark of Turkey lay in the wide and uncultivated plains to the north of the Black Sea, and in the habits of the Tartar tribes that roamed over them. The bold and judicious policy of Catharine the Second cleared away those obstacles ; and the signal discomfitures which the Turks sustained in their two wars with that empress, as well as the events of the French expedition to Egypt, demonstrated to the wisest amongst them, that old institutions no longer sufficed for their defence.

At the commencement of the present century, Sultan Selim the Third endeavoured to reform their military disci pline ; but his project wounding the interest of the Janissaries, and the prejudices of the bulk of his peo ple, led to his deposition and death. His successor, Mustafa, in a few months shared the same fate ; and such tumults arose, as might probably have caused the dissolution of the monarchy, had the sceptre passed to the hands of a less firm and able prince than Mahmoud the Third. Mounting the throne at a very early age, Mahmoud saw himself environed by dangers and difficulties. In November 1808, the year that he began to reign, a furious civil war raged in the heart of Constantinople ;

INTRODUCTION.

. 15 the Grand Vizier, Mustafa Bairactar, lost his life, and the victorious Janissaries, giving the law to their sove reign, forced him to sanction their rebellion, to abolish the new institution of the Nizami'jedid, and to sacrifice to their vengeance his most faithful servants. The youthful Sultan, thus left to his own guidance, was farther embarrassed by foreign and domestic hostilities with Russia and Servia ; many provinces set his au thority at nought, and it required the shoulders of an Atlas to support the sinking empire. Endowed by nature with a mind singularly cool, vigorous, and undaunted, Mahmoud had received an excellent Oriental education, from the paternal care of his uncle Selim, whose plans of reform he was determined to follow up ; but circumstances obliged him long to dissemble, and proceed with extreme caution in curbing the mutinous soldiery, until he should extri cate himself from the pressure of external war.

Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 having forced the Emperor Alexander to concentrate his means for the defence of his own dominions, Turkey obtained peace on better conditions than the events of the con test entitled her to expect. The treaty of Bukorest stipulated the cession to Russia of Bessarabia, and half Moldavia ; but being patched up in haste, it left numerous points open to future discussion, and not least so the affairs of Servia, which had figured for five years as a Russian ally. The Sultan lost no time in seizing the favourable moment to turn his arms against that nation, weakened through faction fomented by the intrigues of Caradja, the new Prince of Wallachia, (a devoted slave to the Porte,) and tired of the tyranny

INTRODUCTION.

. of its chief, Czerni George. In the summer of 1813, a powerful Turkish army, led by the Grand Vizier, Khourshid Pasha, overran Servia with very little op position. Czerni George, withdrawing into Russia, lived at Kief, on a pension assigned him by the Empe ror, and a multitude of the people escaped death or captivity by flying to the Austrian states. At the same period, the Pasha of Vidin, and several other rebels of minor importance in Roumelia, were suppress ed, and most of their heads exposed at the Seraglio gate. When Ottoman vengeance was fully satiated by the devastation of Servia, its fugitive inhabitants were allowed to return under favour of an amnesty, and to resume the cultivation of their soil. But having once broken the Mussulman yoke, they could not again tamely submit to it ; a fresh insurrection broke out in 1815, and some blood was spilt on both sides.

Europe was then at peace, and Russia having leisure to inter fere, the Porte appeased these troubles, by granting the Servians an accommodation on fair terms, and suffer ing them to administer their own internal affairs, under the presidency of Milosh, brother-in-law to Czerni George. He was permitted to keep on foot a body of troops for the purposes of police, and the tribute was fixed at an annual sum of 3,000,000 of piastres ;* it was moreover agreed, that the Turkish garrisons in the Danubian fortresses should not be augmented be yond a certain number. Having pacified his European dominions, Mahmoud directed his attention to Asia, the larger division of the * At that time about £120,000 sterling.

INTRODUCTION.

. 17 empire, where the tenets of Islamism are supposed to flourish in greater purity, and the Mohammedan infinitely exceeds the Christian population. There he was equally successful in putting down open revolt, and sapping the authority of those great families, that from generation to generation inherited extensive domains in Anatolia. His constant good fortune in crushing domestic enemies became a matter of popular remark, especially after the ruler of the Vechabys had been vanquished by the armies of Egypt, led captive to the foot of his throne, and publicly executed at Constantinople, and the holy cities of Mecka and Medina again brought within the Ottoman pale. The design he had conceived of military reform was never allowed to slumber entirely, but he pursued it with so much caution, that the steps he took were almost imperceptible.