_Turkey and Russia--The Eastern Question_ (Vol. ix., p. 244.).--The past
history of these rival states presents more than one parallel passage like
the following, extracted from Watkins's _Travels through Switzerland,
Italy, the Greek Islands, to Constantinople, &c._ (2nd edit., two vols.
8vo. 1794):
"The Turks have been, and indeed deserve to be, praised for the manner
in which they declared war against the Russians. They sent by Mr.
Bulgakoff, her Imperial Majesty's minister at the Porte, to demand the
restitution of the Crimea, which had been extorted from them by the
merciless despot of R----a, (_sic_) when too much distressed by a
rebellion in Egypt to protect it. On his return without an answer they
put him in the Seven Towers, and commenced hostilities. They hate the
Russians; and to show it the more, frequently call a Frank _Moscoff_.
To the English they are more partial than to any other Christian
nation, from a tradition that Mahomet was prevented by death from
converting our ancestors to his faith."--Vol. ii. pp. 276-7.