■Jt89 RUSSIA IN EUROPE, 



Danube. They were much exasperated at the ill conduct of their* 

 commander the vizir : and it was computed that the Turks lost 

 28,000 of the best and bravest of their troops, within little more 

 than a fortnight; and 48,000 more abandoned the armyy and totally 

 deserted, in the tumultuous retreat to the Danube. Prince Gaikzin 

 placed a garrison of four regiments in the fortress of Choczim, and 

 soon after resigned the command of the army to general count Ro- 

 manzow, and returned to Petersburg covered with laurels.. 



The Russians continued to carry on the war with success ; they 

 Overran the great province of Moldavia, and general Eiemdt took pos- 

 session of the capital, Jassy, without opposition. As the Greek na- 

 tives of this province had always seci'etly favoured the Russians, they 

 now took this opportunity of their success and the absence of the 

 Turks to declare themselves openly. The Greek inhabitants of Mol- 

 davia, and afterwards those of Wallachia, acknowledged the empress 

 of Russia their sovereign, and took oaths of fidelity to her. On the 

 18tn of July, 1770, general Romanzow defeated a Turkish army near 

 the river Larga : the Turks are said to have amounted to 80,00© 

 men, and were commanded by the khan of the Crimea. On the se- 

 cond of August, the same Russian general obtained a still greater 

 victory over another army of the Turks, commanded by a new grand, 

 vizir. This army was very numerous, but was totally defeated. It 

 is said that above 7000 Turks were killed in the field of battle, and 

 that the roads to the Danube were covered with dead bodies : a vast 

 quantity of ammunition, 143 pieces of brass cannon, and some thou- 

 sand carriages loaded with provisions, fell into the hands of the Rus- 

 sians. 



But it was not only by land that the Russians carried on the war 

 successfully against the Turks. The empress sent a considerable 

 fleet of men of war, Russian built, into the Mediterranean, to act 

 against the Turks on that side ; and by means of this fleet, under 

 count Orloflf, the Russians spread ruin and desolation through the 

 open islands of the Archipelago, and the neighbouring defenceless 

 coasts of Greece and Asia. The issue of this war was a peace, con- 

 cluded on the 21st of July, 1774, highly honourable and beneficial to 

 the Russians, by which they obtained the liberty of a free navigation 

 over the Black Sea, and a free trade with all the ports of the Otto- 

 man empire. 



Before the conclusion of the war with the Turks, a rebellion broke 

 out in Russia, which gave much alarm to the couiM; of Petersburg. 

 A Cossac, whose name was Pugatscheff*, assumed the name and cha- 

 racter of the late unfortunate emperor, Peter III. He appeared in 

 the kingdom of Kasan, and pretended that he made his escape, 

 through an extraordinary interposition of Providence, from the mur- 

 derers who were employed to assassinate him ; and that the report of 

 his death was only a fiction invented by the court. There is said to 

 have been a striking resemblance in his person to that of the late 

 emperor ; which induced him to engage in this enterprise. As he 

 possessed abilities and address, his followers soon became very nu- 

 merous ; and he at length found himself so powerful, his followers 

 being: armed and provided with artillery, that he stood several en- 

 'gagements with able Russian generals, at the head of large bodies 

 of troops, and committer* great ravages in the country. But being 

 $t last totally defeated, and taken prisoner, he was brought to Mos- 



