Pera of Constantinople,
Jan. 31, 1669 [-70].

I was received by ye Grand Segnior according to ye custome of this Court, except in a condescention wch I am told this Monarch does not accustome himself to, for after my Memorial was read by my Druggerman, containing a congratulation for his success in Candy & recom͡ending to his consideration ye senceritie of my Master’s frendshipe by such instances as ware proper to doe it, he asked me if I had anything more to say by word of mouth, whareupon I pressd ye renuing ye Capitulations, & ye adding some new Articles to explain & fortify ye rest, wch ware often misinterpreted by inferior ministers to ye prejiduce of my Masters subjects. he replied ye Chimacham was his Deputie to whome he refer’d me, & yt if any of his subjects did any thing contrary to ye Capitulations wth ye King of England, he com͡anded him to cutt of thare heads.

APPENDIX XI

SIR JOHN FINCH TO SECRETARY COVENTRY

[Coventry Papers]

(Extract)

Caragas near Adrianople,
September the 9th, 1675.

This done, I thought no other difficulty could remain; but when they were wrote out and the Gran Sigrs seale to them, and I appointed to come to receive them from the Vizir, asking whether the Gran Sigrs Hattesheriffe or Hand was to them, I was answerd’ No. I said then, I could not receive them: Here I send to the Rais Affendi who desires me to desist for it was impossible to be done, for neither France, Venice, nor Holland had a Hattesheriffe to their Capitulations who were renewd’ since ours. Then I send to the Kehaiah my good Friend the Capitulations renewd’ by my Lord of Winchelsea, to which the Imperiall Hand was sett, with this message by my Druggerman, that it was a point I could not depart from, for the Capitulations would not onely be thought by the King my Master to whome I was to send them to be surreptitiously gott, but also it was the losse of my Head to accept of lesse then what my Predecessors had gott: Whereupon the Kehaiah immediately takes Pen and Ink, and writes to the Vizir, who had an Answer immediately that it should be done, but I attended a whole week before it was effected, and three days more before the Vizir deliverd’ them.