840 
T H E V E N o T^s "travels 
to whom three or four She-Afhes belonged, which were 
loaded with weighty Stones, and were tied to the Door 
of a certain, Houfe \ and underftanding their Mailers 
were hard-by at Breakfaft, he palled on *, but at his 
Return, being dillurbed to find the poor Creatures were 
Hill in the fame Condition, and that no Care had 
been taken to feed them, he fent for their Owners, and 
told them, it was but juft that the AlTes Ihould eat in 
their Turn. The Peafants readily afiented j but were 
furprized, when he order’d each to bear one of the 
Stones upon his Back all the Time the AlTes were eat- 
ing. The fame Story is alfo told concerning Sultan 
Morat, 
The Poft of Captain-Baftia is one of the nobleft in 
the Empire. Tie is great Admiral and General of the 
Gallies ; his Power is abfolute when he is out of the 
Dardanelles, fo that he can ftrangle the Viceroys and 
Governors who are on board, without waiting for the 
Sultan’s Order. The Grand Vizier is the only Minifter 
who is above him : It is the fecond Poft in the Em- 
pire, and he is accountable to the Grand Signior alone. 
Not only the Sea-Officers, biit-alLthe Governors of the 
Maritime Provinces likewife receive Orders from him. 
At Conftantinople there are not above twenty eight or 
thirty Men of War. The Gallies are diftinguilfied into 
two Clafles, namely, thofe pf Conjiantinople and thofe of 
the Archipelago 5 thofe of Oonjiantinople are at Sea only 
in the Summer. At the Clofe of the Campaign they 
are difarmed, to be laid up in the Arfenal of Cajfum 
Bajfa ; the greater Part of the Beys or Captains are 
Renegades. Befides the Body of the Galley, Artillery, 
' and Bisket, the Emperor alfo allows them Pay, and the 
reft of their Equipage, which confifts of two hundred 
Oars, and a Boat to go on Shore. 
If the Captains are rich enough to fublift their Slaves 
who row, they make a confiderable Profit, for they are 
allowed twelve thoufand Livres for Rowers, and make 
an Advantage alfo of the Journeys in which they em- 
ploy their Slaves by Land during the other Part of the 
Year. When there are not Rowers enough, they prefs 
the Slaves of private Men at ConBantinople j but very 
little Service is done by thefe poor Wretches, who have 
no Experience, and perifti moft of them at Sea, as 
the Service of the Sea requires much more Pradlice 
than that of the Land. To reinforce the Soldiers of 
the Gallies, the Turks add fome of the Janizaries. The 
Gallies of the Archipelago are obliged to be in a Rea- 
dinefs to put to Sea at all Times. The Captains are 
paid by Alfignments upon the Iflands, and are bound 
to find their own Slaves, and pay them, for the Grand 
Signior allows them only the Veflel, Artillery, and 
Rigging. 
They avoid an Engagement all they can, in order 
to preferve their Slaves j and moft of them have nei- 
ther the Number of Gallies they ought to maintain, nor 
their Equipage compleat, becaufe the Captain-Baftia for 
a Sum of Money (which the others know proper Ways 
enough to hand to him) often winks at it, confequent- 
ly the Military Difcipline is very indifferently obferved. 
The Beys of Rhodes and Scio ought to provide feven 
Gallies for each Ifland j he of Cyprus fix ; thofe of 
Mytelene, Negropont, Salonica, and Caval one a-piece. 
Andros and Syra only one, and Naxos and Paros the 
like. The Captain-Baftia fails round the Archipelago in 
the Summer, to raife the Capitation Tax, and learn 
the State of Affairs which have happened. He com- 
monly holds his Days of Audit in a Port of Paros, 
called Drio, which is the Center, as it were, of the 
Archipelago. The Officers of the IQands repair thither 
to make their Prefents to him, and pay in the Sums 
at which each Iftand is taxed. Here alfo the Captain- 
Baftia finally judges all Matters, as well Civil as Cri- 
minal. 
The only Danger that can now be apprehended from 
the Turks, muft arife from the Wickednefs of Chrijiian 
Renegadoes, more efpecially Men of defperate For- 
tunes, who have had long Experience, and arrived at 
confiderable Dignities , either in Military or Naval 
Service i lor Men may, by repeated Memorials, 
awaken the Turkifh Minifters to a true Senfe of their 
Book III. 
Condition, and may alfo propofe amending their Dif- 
cipline, by introducing that of the Germans, and fo the 
laft Evil would be worfe than the firft, fince Tiirkilh 
Infantry, thus difciplin’d, would be infinitely, more ter- 
rible than the Janizaries ever been. That this is 
not altogether a groundlefs or idle Sufpicion, appears 
from two Inftances in our own Time, viz. the Port’s 
fending an Aga into Plolland to treat with Mr. Lan~ 
gallerie, a Frenchman, who quitting the Service of his 
own Prince, was railed in that of the Allies to that of a 
Lieutenant General ; but growing difcontented, as thefe 
Sort of People generally do, after the Peace was con- 
cluded, propofed tranfporting a Colony into the Morea, 
and reviving the Ottoman Naval Power in the Archipe- 
lago. His Schemes were received, a Perfon fent to treat 
with him in Holland, and confiderable Sums of Money 
paid him ; but fome of his Practices requiring his Pre- 
fence in Germany, he went thither, was feized and im- 
prifoned, and continued in that Situation, till in a def- 
perate Fit of Madnefs he put an End to his own Life. 
The recent Example of Count Bonneval is another of 
the fame Kind *, he was a Man of one of the belt Fa- 
milies in France, but profligate in his Morals, and with- 
out any Principles whatever. He too quitted the Ser- 
vice of France to enter into the Troops of the Allies, 
where he obtained very great Preferment, and if any 
Thing could have fatisfied his Ambition, might have 
had it *, but having conceived fome Prejudice againft 
his Patron Prince Eugene, he behaved in fuch a Man- 
ner as forced the Imperial Court to proceed againft 
him with Severity, which lo exafperated his haughty Spi- 
rit, that he retired to Turkey, where having fome Dif- 
ferences with the French Ambaffador, who refufed to 
take him under his Protedion, and being claimed as a 
Subjedl of his Imperial Majefty, which by the Treaty 
of Peace then fubfifting would have obliged the Furks 
to have given him up, he found himfelf under the 
dreadful Neceffity of abandoning the Chriftian Faith 
to fave himfelf from being thus delivered. 
Thefe Circumftances are not taken from the fabulous 
Hiftory of his Adventures, but from his own Letters, 
and therefore the Reader may depend upon them. 
This Man might have proved as ufeful to the Turks as 
dangerous to the Chrijiians. He had ferved againft them 
in the laft War in Hungary, was perfedly acquainted 
with the Errors in their Difcipline, and without Doubt 
would have fet them right, as appears from the Memo- 
rials that he prefented from Time to Time, and which 
muft be allowed to be very judicious in their Kind ; but 
he was never much efteemed or greatly trufted by the 
Infidels •, and to fay the Truth, as Things ftand at 
prefent in that Empire, it is very improbable that fuch 
a Man Ihould fucceed, for many Reafons, out of which 
I will mention a few. 
The Nation in general are ftrongly wedded to their 
own Cuftoms, and have an infuperable Contempt for 
thofe of other Nations. The Dilcipline of the Janiza- 
ries is now corrupted to fuch a Degree, that there is no- 
thing they dread fo much as a Reformation ; they no 
longer confider their Kind of Life as a Military Pro- 
feffion, in which Preferment is to be derived from Me- 
rit, but as a Trade of which they are inclined to make 
the moft they can, and therefore deteft all Thoughts 
of being put out of the Way in which they now are, 
and would certainly mutiny, if a new and Arid Difci- 
pline was infifted upon. The Turkijh Minifters are na- 
turally fufpicious of Renagadoes, forefeeing that if they 
Ihould rife to confiderable Employments, it muft be at 
their Expence, the Thoughts of which they cannot bear; 
and therefore though they cannot refufe fuch People 
Protedion and Countenance, yet they always ftudy to 
deprefs and keep them under ; , but we know not what 
Time, and the Lights of Experience may produce, and 
therefore we ought to be upon our Guard againft ail 
Accidents. 
Befides in a Country fo fubjed to Revolutions, No- 
body can pretend to decide about what may happen. 
A new Emperor may arife of a martial and enterpri- 
fing Genius, and may take the Reins of Government 
into his own Hands, and pay very little Deference to 
his 
