THE PILOT AT REST
For about ten months--that is, till the summer of 1680--Sir John
Finch had no further opportunity of displaying his skill as a
pilot. He was a mere passenger in the diplomatic vessel, and he
availed himself of the privilege which belonged to his position
by diligently noting the behaviour of his fellow-passengers.
Sir John’s despatches have none of the verve of M. de Nointel’s
descriptions of life and manners: he is never less entertaining
than when he means to be so. Yet casual notices--occurrences
mentioned as matters of course--sometimes creep in to relieve
the formality of the narrative. “This Imperiall City,” he writes
in June 1679, “is now filld’ with the whole Court; and the Gran
Signor has filld’ all his Serraglio’s to the heigth of any former
Precedent, with the choice Virgin beauty’s of his Empire, giving
order for the providing of no lesse then five hundred at one
time.” The writer, however, knows that this is not business: it
has nothing to do with those “negotiations and practices” which it
was his duty to keep an eye on. So he proceeds: “In the midst of
all these enjoyments, there wants not the application of Christian
Ministers in order either to the making or preserving peace.”
There follows a record of these efforts for peace which, thanks
to Kara Mustafa’s statesmanship, were to end in a war that brought
the Ottoman Empire to the brink of the abyss. Little did Kara
Mustafa dream that, in browbeating the representatives of Poland
and Russia, of the German Empire and the Venetian Republic, he was
digging his own grave. But that was still in the future. Meanwhile
the Grand Vizir had all these Powers at, or rather under, his feet.
On the departure of the Palatine of Kulm, a Polish Resident was
left at Constantinople. Nevertheless, King Sobieski now sent a
special envoy charged to inform the Porte that the Poles had
renewed their truce with the Muscovites for fifteen years longer.
Poland thought it necessary to give this notice, lest the Turks
should take umbrage: “Such is the awe which that halfe conquerd’
Kingdome hath of this Empire.”[230]
An envoy from Muscovy, at the same time, laboured for peace
under conditions which anywhere outside Turkey would have been
intolerable. Sixty Janissaries kept strict watch over him to
prevent all access to his person; while Kara Mustafa sent the
Capitan Pasha to fortify the Black Sea. By this move the Turks put
“a Bridle into the Muscovites mouthes.” For the rest, it seemed
unlikely that they had any desire to advance farther northwards,
“their camels and horses not being able to endure the rigour of
that climat.”[231]
The duped diplomat departed in disgust; but six months after
another came to treat with the Porte and fared no better. Before
admitting him to audience, the Grand Vizir obtained a translation
of the letter he had brought: it was couched in the usual style
of the Tsars, who loved to fill their letters with as high threats
and as hyperbolical boasts and titles as the Sultans. The Vizir,
incensed by so good an imitation of Turkish arrogance, when the
envoy appeared in the Audience Room, asked him whether this was
indeed his letter, and on the envoy replying “Yes,” he dismissed
him with a “_Chick Haslagiack_--Be gone, you Rogue, you deserve
to be hangd’!” One would think, says Sir John, that this “studyd’
affront” might give a stop to the negotiations. But such was not
the case: “the Visir learnes dayly, that He looses nothing by
the rough treatment of forreign Ministers; as the Ambassadour of
Poland’s ill usage, as well as others have confirmd’ to him.”[232]
Take, for instance, that other great Empire, which, calling itself
(Heaven only knows why) “Holy” and “Roman,” claimed to be the
bulwark of the Christian West.
The Emperor’s Internuncio Hoffmann, since the previous summer when
he arrived to renew the truce, had been accorded only one business
audience and that was little to his satisfaction: a circumstance
from which it might, Sir John thought, justly be suspected that
the Grand Vizir meant to keep him in suspense till he drew the
army to the Danube, and then suddenly to clap up a peace with the
Muscovites and turn his course upon Hungary. Other circumstances
pointed in the same direction. Before he could obtain a second
interview, Hoffmann died, and was soon followed to the grave by his
successor Terlingo. A little earlier, as we have seen, Kindsberg
and Sattler had had their careers cut short by death. So that
in fifteen months the Emperor had lost four Ministers. Sir John
could not help regarding this mysterious mortality as “a presage
of a warr, but,” he adds, “omens then worke upon me when they are
accompanyd’ with naturall reasons, and a considerable one is this,
that the Turke cannot live without a warr.”[233]
That Sir John, eminently a man of peace though he was, prayed for
war, is plain from the eagerness with which he dwells on every
symptom of a bellicose intention, from the disappointment with
which he notes the absence of any bellicose preparations. Hopeful
and despondent by turns, he ends with the sad admission, “Wee are
like to have the Gran Signor’s and Visir’s company here, much to
the advantage of our commerce but as much to the disquiett of all
Ministers here.”
Our Ambassador’s sentiments can easily be understood. For at this
time Kara Mustafa, who was always most at ease when he was violent,
appears to have indulged his peculiar genius at the expense of
foreign Ministers a little too far.
We know already the “avania” brought against the Bailo of Venice.
Sir John had since learnt from a person present at the inspection
of the Venetian Treasurer’s books after his death, that the sum
extorted was not, as he had been told, 45,000, but 85,000 dollars.
Now a fresh claim for Customs-duties lay upon the Signoria, and the
Vizir threatened that, if a bond for 20,000 dollars was not given
him, he would bring the case before the Divan and there condemn
the Bailo to more than double that amount and shut him up in the
Seven Towers till it was paid: afterwards His Excellency might
complain to the Sultan, if he liked. Signor Morosini had no option
but to comply. Including the supplementary fleecing by the Vizir’s
Kehayah, Treasurer, and Rais Effendi, Sir John reckoned that the
operation would come to 40,000 dollars. This treatment made so
painful an impression upon the Bailo that he told Finch that he
intended, on his return home, to advise the Senate to break off
relations with Turkey once for all rather than “be thus eaten up by
degrees.”[234]
A new Venetian Ambassador who arrived to relieve the much-tried
Morosini was treated like an envoy from a vassal State. The Turks
searched the men-of-war that escorted him, and detained them on the
plea of having stolen slaves and killed them. Several corpses found
floating about the vessels lent colour to the accusation, though
the Venetians protested that the corpses came from shipwrecks in
the Black Sea. Be that as it may, the affair was finally settled
for an amount which no man knew: it was said that both the Vizir
and the Bailo wished to keep it private, for, if the Grand Signor
heard of it, he would want his share. And so at length the
new-comer had his audience. From the Venetians themselves Sir
John obtained a graphic account of the function. The Commander of
one of the men-of-war told him that, just as he went out of his
boat, a ragged Turk stepped up to him and, calling him “Giaour,”
gave him a blow with his fist in the nape of the neck, which for
some time deprived him of consciousness: and this was done in the
presence of the Turkish officers who conducted the Ambassador. The
Ambassador’s own son informed Finch that his father sat at a great
distance from the Vizir, who, for all welcome, brusquely asked him,
“When do your ships depart?” though he very well knew that he was
the person who detained them, and throughout the interview looked
another way.[235]
Likewise from the Genoese, whose trade with Turkey, since the
suppression of the traffic in false coin, was worse than nothing,
Kara Mustafa wrung a large sum, though Sir John could not learn how
large nor upon what ground. This secrecy annoyed our Ambassador
sorely: “I much wonder,” he wrote, “that men endeavour to smother
their Avanias whenas I proclaim mine rather by sound of Trumpett
not that I hope for Pity, but that our Great Trade might be lesse
envious.” However, thus much was certain: Signor Spinola, unable
to bear any more bleeding, asked that he might be allowed to ship
off his Nation and quit the country; but he was answered that, if
he again repeated such an unmannerly motion, he should be clapt
into irons. Spinola was presently superseded. But Genoa had to
pay fifteen purses before her old Resident was permitted to go
away, and as much more before the new one could enter. And that,
apparently, was only the beginning of a fresh innovation. Kara
Mustafa’s Kehayah gave out that the Vizir intended thenceforward
to make every new Resident pay 25,000 dollars, and every new
Ambassador double that sum. Further, a high official of the Porte
was heard to say that the Vizir expected monthly presents from all
foreign Ministers, and that they who forgot their duty should
quickly be put in mind that the Vizir was here.[236]
Evidently, success had not made Kara Mustafa milder. The victor
of Muscovy could afford to despise Genoa, Venice, and every other
Power. But it was upon the tributary and vassal States that
he thought himself at liberty to vent the full measure of his
greed and ferocity. It was the Ragusans’ obvious interest not
to multiply their hostages in the Vizir’s hands. But they could
not help themselves: the annual tribute had to be paid. Two new
Ambassadors were accordingly sent with it, and added to the number
of prisoners. They were thrown into the same “loathsome Dungeon”
as the others. “They have been beaten there, stript naked, and
threatned Torments.” All the appeals which the Republic addressed
to Italy for aid had remained fruitless. “The Pope, who will be
concernd’ for Ancona if the Turkes take possession of Ragusi; that
City loosing all its Trade and the Casa Santa it selfe being in
danger; contributes not an Asper to their relief; Hereticks it
seems being in his judgment more dangerous to the Romish Religion
then the Turk’s.” As to the Prince of Moldavia, our Ambassador
briefly informs us that he had “24 times the Torment for non
payment of mony agreed for.”[237]
In this way, to quote Sir John’s phrase, “the Gran Visir thunders
amongst us.” The phrase is one of those that make a picture
leap to the mind’s eye: the picture of a monster, half-human,
half-diabolic, whose voice was thunder and whose gesture lightning.
This picture is, of course, over-drawn and over-coloured. But
there can be no doubt that it is a faithful enough portrait of
Kara Mustafa as he appeared to the contemporary diplomats who
had the misfortune to come into contact with him. They all speak
of his cruelty, avarice, and cunning in terms of unqualified
abhorrence. They all describe him as a creature whose soul was as
black as his face, whose heart held not one generous or merciful
sentiment, whose appetite for gold was as insatiable as that of
a ghoul for blood: a fiend incarnate.[238] In truth (things have
become sufficiently remote to be visible in their true perspective)
Kara Mustafa, a miscreant of imposing magnitude as he was, was not
much more violent, grasping, and unprincipled than the average
Grand Vizir:[239] he was only more consistent. His iniquities,
historically viewed, are but a memorable instance of the misery
which it was in the power of a Turkish Prime Minister to inflict.
But men who smarted under his lash could not be expected to see
current events in the proportions in which, after the lapse of
centuries, they appear to the philosophic historian. “These
things,” says Finch, “will appear to others as they doe to me my
selfe incredible.” He consoles himself, however, by reflecting that
“_Res nolunt male administrari_--Things mend themselves when they
become insupportable.”
Sir John based his hopes of a “mending” on France. A new French
Ambassador, M. de Guilleragues, had arrived in the autumn of
1679, with instructions to demand redress for all the wrongs
which M. de Nointel had failed to prevent: restoration of the
Holy Sepulchre to the Latin Fathers; exemption from the poll-tax
for Frenchmen married to country-born women; and, above all,
restitution of the Stool upon the Soffah. He was understood to be
a man of determination, and he had shown the spirit in which he
meant to approach the Porte on his very arrival by refusing to
salute the Seraglio as he sailed into the Golden Horn, or to suffer
his men-of-war to be searched before they left. In the treatment
that awaited M. de Guilleragues the other foreign Ministers would
read their own fate. They could not hope, as Finch said, to fare
better than the envoy of France, seeing that he possessed two great
advantages over everybody else: a large quantity of new presents,
and a number of French renegades in high places about the Vizir.
Would his advent make the clouds grow lighter, the thunders roll
away, and the horizon at length clear up?
The Turks had let the French men-of-war depart
unsearched--carrying, it was said, seventy fugitive slaves with
them--and otherwise had given the Frenchman a much more respectful
reception than the new Venetian and Genoese envoys. This was a
good omen; but nothing could be predicted with certainty until M.
de Guilleragues had his audience--that would be the real test.
Sir John awaited that crucial event with keen interest: but the
months passed, and the audience did not take place. As far as he
could learn from the Ambassador’s own mouth, as well as from other
sources, M. de Guilleragues was making no progress. Kara Mustafa
had positively refused to move the Stool: whereupon the Ambassador
had refused audience, averring that he must wait for fresh orders
from his King. “How this matter will end,” Finch wrote on the 1st
of March 1680, “I know not.”
Meanwhile his friend and partner in many good and evil days had
left in the vessel that had brought out his successor, making
the third colleague gone during the year. Ruined in pocket and
reputation, Nointel must still have been an object of envy to
Finch: he had, at all events, reached the end of his martyrdom: he
was gone home--to Christendom, to civilisation, where Grand Vizirs
raged not, nor were gentlemen treated like galley-slaves. Another
person, even nearer to Finch, was also just gone: the Honourable
Dudley North. He went not ruined in pocket and reputation like
Nointel: far from it. He went to enjoy at home, according to plan,
the wealth he had piled up abroad, while his brother carried on the
prosperous business at Constantinople. North was the third English
associate to vanish from Sir John’s circle since the accession of
Kara Mustafa. Mr. Paul Rycaut, after seventeen years’ residence in
the East, had found himself suddenly “affected with a passionate
desire of seeing my owne country,” and forthwith “signifyed as much
to the Levant Company, desiring them to send me their favourable
dismission, and to supply this office with another Consul.”[240] He
retired with the consent of his employers, who expressed their high
appreciation of his services. The Rev. John Covel had also resigned
his engagement with the Levant Company and “left Stambul, which,
for many reasons, I may well liken to the prison of my mother’s
belly.”[241]
Lucky, indeed, were all those who could leave a land in which life
had become so hard. But Sir John himself would not now be very
long. His six years’ contract had expired, and he had informed
the Levant Company that he cherished no wish to renew it--nor,
we may easily surmise from many hints, was the Company reluctant
to dispense with his services. All that he waited for was the
appointment of a successor. As to another post, he had put himself
in the hands of his brother, the Lord Chancellor, and would
acquiesce in whatever was done for him: any seat would be a seat of
roses after Stambul.[242]
The waiting was not now so irksome to Sir John as it would have
been a year or two ago. It is true that in one of his despatches
there occurs a passage tinged with pessimism: “I must,” he wrote
towards the end of 1679, “committ all to the Protection of the
Almighty, and God direct me in these difficult times in the
carrying on His Majesty’s concerns in the commerce of His subjects,
which is at this time greater then ever in this place, and by
consequence more envious and more exposd.”[243] But this was only
a passing mood. In the same despatch he thanked God for not being
“strooke” by Kara Mustafa’s thunder; and some months later we
even detect in his tone an optimism to which he had long been a
stranger: “As to _my_ condition here, I must needs say, that I
loose no ground as to the Publick Interest, but advance”[244]--we
seem to hear again the complacent, self-satisfied Finch of the
pre-Mustafa period. And then, all of a sudden, we hear him asking
the Secretary of State to guess how he is “tossd’” by “the present
tempestuous Goverment in Turky.”
What had happened?
The curious will find it in the next chapter.
FOOTNOTES:
[230] Finch to Coventry, June 17-27, 1679.
[231] _Ibid._
[232] The Same to the Same, March 4-14, 1679-80.
[233] The Same to the Same, Jan. 3-13, 1679-80.
[234] The Same to the Same, Dec. 12-22, 1679.
[235] The Same to the Same, March 1-11, 1679-80.
[236] The Same to the Same, Dec. 12-22, 1679.
[237] The Same to the Same, June 17-27, 1679. For details about the
treatment of the Princes of Moldavia and Wallachia see Hammer, vol
xii. p. 41.
[238] _Un diable incarné_ is the French Ambassador’s verdict,
supported by a great many counts which are absent from Sir John’s
indictment. See Vandal’s _Nointel_, pp. 225, foll.
[239] Let one example suffice for many. In 1620 Sir Thomas Roe
tersely described the Grand Vizir of his day as “the veriest
villaine that ever lived.” _Negotiations_, p. 61.
[240] Rycaut to Coventry, April 18, 1677, _Coventry Papers_. The
Same to Williamson, same date; the Same to the King (undated),
_S.P. Turkey_, 19.
[241] _Diaries_, p. 282.
[242] Baines to Covel, in _Finch and Baines_, p. 70.
[243] Finch to Coventry, Dec. 12-22, 1679.
[244] The Same to the Same, March 1-11, 1679-80.