An envoy from the new King of Poland, John Sobieski, was expected in the Grand Vizir’s camp every moment; and in case of an agreement, it was said that the Ottoman Army would join the Polish in a common campaign against the Muscovite. What inclined the Turks to an accommodation, besides Sobieski’s conciliatory attitude, was the fear of an attack from Persia. So Sir John’s informant reported. “But, My Lord,” said Sir John, “notwithstanding these fayr Intimations of Peace there can be no certainty of it, For the Publique Prayers have bin made these ten dayes over the Empire for the Gran Signor, which begin not till He is out of His own Territory’s, and must continue till victory or Peace.... In the Interim it seems by the vast Quantity of Slaves that dayly from the Black Sea are sent hither, that the Turke meets with little opposition.”[41]
In the interim, we, for our part, cannot do better than take a look round at the place in which Sir John lived, the people among whom he moved, and the things that occupied his enforced leisure. Such a description will make the subsequent narrative more intelligible and instructive, without unduly delaying the action; for, truth to tell, many months had to elapse before there was any action worth mention.
FOOTNOTES:
[33] Finch to Coventry, Sept. 9, 1675, Coventry Papers.
[34] Finch to Coventry, Jan. 11-21, 1674-75, Coventry Papers.
[35] See Winchilsea’s despatches, passim, S.P. Turkey, 17, 18, 19; Finch Report; Rycaut’s Memoirs; Covel’s Diaries, p. 207.
[36] The Latin version of that Charter is preserved at the Public Record Office, S.P. Turkey, 1. A copy of it, with an English rendering, will be found in Hakluyt’s Navigations (Glasgow, 1904), vol. v. pp. 178-89.
[37] Rycaut’s Memoirs, p. 311. For an amusing example of the young man’s Puritan scrupulosity see Covel’s Diaries, pp. 107-8.
[38] See “New Articles added to the Capitulations,” together with “The Grounds and Advantages” thereof, by Sir John Finch, in the Coventry Papers.