174 
CHAP. 
IV. 
BAKTCHESERAI, 
into those dark and sinister manoeuvi’es whereby 
' the plot was perfected for the subjection of 
the Peninsula. Potemkin, arch-priest of intrigue 
and wickedness, planned and executed the 
whole of it ; to fulfil whose designs, it was 
immaterial what laws were violated, what prin- 
ciples trampled, what murders committed, or 
what faith broken. His principal favourites were 
swindlers, adventurers, pimps, parasites : un- 
principled men of every description, but espe- 
cially unprincipled men of talent, found in him 
a ready patron. 
It is well known, that, by the last treaty of 
peace with the Turks, prior to the conquest of 
the Peninsula, Shahin Ghirei, of the family of 
the Khans, who had been a prisoner and a 
hostage at Petersburg, was placed upon the 
throne of the Crimea. This was the first step 
towards the overthrow of that kingdom. From 
the moment of his accession, the Russian minister 
in the Crimea, an artful and designing foreigner, 
well chosen, from Potemkins list, to execute the 
measures he had in view, began to excite among 
the Tahtars a hatred of their Sovereign ; raising 
commotions among them, buying over the dis- 
affected, and stimulating the people to frequent 
insurrection. In the mean time he insinuated 
himself into the good graces of the Khan, 
