478 WAR OF THB TURKS 



quite a ftranger to the hiftory of antient and modem 

 times, plainly faw, what a vaft acceffion of power muft ac-* 

 crue to the Ottoman porte if this antient granary of the 

 Roman empire jfhould once fall into their hands; 

 whereas at prefent they muft content themfelves with 

 an imaginary fovereignty which adds nothing to tjieir 

 revenue. This importance of the object received a 

 great augmentation by the then circumftances of affairs, 

 when the two imperial courts of chriftendom had com- 

 bined their powers to humble the turkifh crefcent, and 

 feemed to threaten its downfall with the whole force of 

 their extenfive empires. Whoever has perufed the ac- 

 counts of the old conftitution of the ottoman govern- 

 ment, as they are given by Cantimir, Marfigli, Mon- 

 tecuculi, &c. will be forced to confefs, that though 

 the conftitution at that time was incomparably better 

 than at prefent, and the great fuperiority their nume- 

 rous armies Ihould have given them, from the expe * 

 rience their commanders had acquired during an unin- 

 terrupted war ; yet, that all the advantages in battle 

 they gained over the chriftian troops, were entirely 

 owing to the bad condition of the latter, or to the want 

 of capacity on the lide of their leaders. Already in 

 the earlieft periods of their hiftory, a feeble Hungarian 

 army, amounting to no more than two-thirds of their 



The prefent journal of this war was compofed by the writer's 

 brother, who fervec! in the capacity of body phyfician to the ka- 

 pudanpafha. It is a faithful relation from one end to the other, and 

 was confirmed by a young gentleman who was always about 

 the perfon of the kapudan pafha during thefe tranfaclions, and is 

 now here on affairs belonging to the compt'mg-houfe of Carlo Ro- 

 fctti. 



on, 



