Particularly hurt was our Ambassador by the total lack of enthusiasm which both the Merchants and the King showed on the Article of the figs. The former made no haste to avail themselves of the concession, and their indifference filled Sir John with the fear lest the privilege should lapse through disuse. The latter did not, as he expected, write to the Grand Signor and Vizir to thank them for the favour conferred upon his kitchen. After waiting long and in vain, Sir John felt constrained to urge his Majesty to rectify the omission, though late, “as having tasted and bin pleasd’ with some of that fruit.” It was clear that people at home did not care a fig for Smyrna figs. They were wrong; for, under the “two ships lading” figment, the English were able as time went on to export vast quantities of dried fruit from Smyrna—and housewives yet unborn would have blessed the name of their benefactor, if they knew it.[176]
However, happily for his peace of mind, it was some time before Sir John heard of this ingratitude; and meanwhile he did everything to ensure the execution of the Articles he had obtained at the cost of so much hardship and hazard. The task presented some difficulties; for, though the Grand Vizir granted the Commands which the Ambassador asked readily enough, the local officials evinced the strongest disinclination to part with any profit to which they had been used. A test case was offered by the Chief Customer of Constantinople, who, on the arrival of the first English ship, detained five bales of cloth—the duty in kind which he had been in the habit of levying under the old Capitulations. Finch immediately sent his Dragoman with the new Capitulations and required Hussein Aga to restore the goods at his peril. The Customer complied, but, at the same time, got the Vizir’s Kehayah to write to the Ambassador complaining that the English merchants were trying to defraud the Grand Signor. Sir John’s reply was that his good friend the Kehayah was misinformed: the merchants were not to blame, for they acted by his own order. To the Customer also he declared that if any English merchants should dare, directly or indirectly, pay for any cloth one asper more than the sum specified in the new Capitulations, he would imprison them, adding that for what he did he had the Grand Signor’s oath and hand, and if the Customer engaged in a dispute on that point, either he or the Ambassador must sink. This peremptory message made Hussein Aga submit to the new dispensation. Sir John, however, did not rest satisfied with his victory: to prevent any “after claps,” he exacted from the Customer a letter to the Kehayah formally acknowledging the justice of our proceedings, and this letter he caused to be registered by the Cadi as well as in his own Cancellaria. The effect of his action appeared when, on the arrival at Constantinople of two more ships, the goods passed through the Custom-House without the least controversy. At Aleppo he met with similar opposition and overcame it with equal success. And all this without any bakshish, except a few judiciously distributed bottles of Canary, “which the Grandees at Court baptize by the name of English sherbett.” In the same way, every other question relating to commerce was settled as it arose by means of Imperial Commands, so that in a year’s time the New Articles were firmly established over the Empire.
Not a little of this success was due to the happy termination of our Tripolitan enterprise, which “has given great reputation and terrour to His Majesty’s arms in this Court.” While Finch was negotiating at Adrianople, Narbrough had been capturing or destroying pirate galleys; and, on January 14th, 1676, the boats of his squadron had even forced their way into the port of Tripoli and there burnt four men-of-war. The upshot of these bold operations was a Peace by which the Dey agreed to release all English captives, to pay an indemnity, and to grant a number of commercial privileges. The Ambassador made the most of our triumph. As soon as he received from the Admiral the terms of the Treaty, he sent his Dragoman to inform the Kehayah, who said that he believed the Grand Vizir’s letters had helped to bring the Tripolines to reason. The Dragoman was far too polite and prudent to contradict a Turk, but he remarked that “the firing of their men-of-warr in port had much of perswasion in it.” “Wee know it, wee know it,” replied the Kehayah, with a laugh.[177]
Other circumstances helped Finch to strengthen his position at the Porte. In the spring of 1676 the Grand Signor, after ten years’ absence, surprised Constantinople by appearing in its environs: a step which was hailed as a sign that the sovereign’s distrust of his capital had vanished, and that henceforth he would refresh the eyes of its inhabitants with his presence and fill their purses by his extravagance. It is true that these expectations were not fulfilled. Instead of taking up his abode in the Seraglio which had been prepared for him, the Grand Signor encamped outside the city “like an enemy,” and only ventured to pay spasmodic visits to some of its mosques. Nevertheless, the vicinity of his camp, with all its pomp, created a welcome diversion for the Franks as well as for the Turks. The Rev. John Covel was once more in his element. With a roving, inquisitive eye, he prowled about the Imperial tents, comparing them with those he had seen at Adrianople and taking stock of every detail.[178] The Ambassador himself was not less excited. He reports to the Secretary of State the various theories current about the motives which had induced the Sultan to come so near and those which prevented him from coming any nearer; he describes his movements; and he relates how adroitly he managed to turn them to account. The Sultan often went by water from place to place. Finch noted this, and one day, “making inquisition when His Majesty would passe,” he ordered the two English ships in port to give him a salute; and that the performance might be more impressive he ordered the guns to be fired from the lower tier: so that they might speak louder than those of two Algerine men-of-war which were also then in port. His orders were carried out to the letter. As the Grand Signor passed by our ships, a fanfare from their trumpets entertained him: when he was a little past them, they began to fire: 31 guns from the Mary and Martha, and 21 from the Hunter. The Grand Signor stopped his barge to receive the salute, and till it was quite done rowed very slowly. The performance was repeated on his return; “which was very kindly taken.”[179] Presently, “by reason of dust in foule weather, dust in fayr weather, and want of water,” the Grand Signor pitched his camp in a new place—“just before my house, and I sitt at dinner in the Prospect of His own Tent and His Trayn about Him!”[180]
Then, suddenly, turning from the contemplation of externals, our Ambassador penetrates for a moment into the passions that seethed inside those stately pavilions.
There lived in Stambul an unvenerable old Princess, popularly known as Sultana “Sporca,” or “the Dirty”—an epithet which she had earned by making it her profession to bring up young girls for the entertainment of the grandees. Among her troupe of nymphs she had “a Circassian slave that was extraordinaryly beautifull, and did dance, sing, and tumble in the height of perfection after the Turkish mode.” During the previous year the Grand Signor, hearing of this prodigy, had sent for her. But the old lady, unwilling to lose so lucrative a pupil, evaded the Imperial command by alleging that she had given the girl her freedom and therefore could not dispose of her. Now, however, the truth came out. One day, while the girl was exercising her arts for the amusement of some pashas, she attracted the attention of the Captain of the Grand Vizir’s Guard, who gave her 300 sequins and sent 1000 more to the Sultana on condition that she let the damsel and her companions perform in his house. The Sultana readily agreed to the bargain; but she reckoned without her client. After the performance the gallant Captain, while dismissing the other members of the troupe, kept the handsome slave. Next morning the Sultana petitioned the Grand Signor, confessing her former deception. The Grand Signor, enraged at his own disappointment, ordered the Sultana to be banished, the damsel to be annexed to his harem, and the Captain’s head to be exposed in his camp: “So true is that of Virgil:
“Quisquis amores
Aut metuet dulces, aut experietur amaros.”[181]
His Christian colleagues this year afforded our Ambassador as much food for self-satisfaction as the Ottoman Court. There had lately arrived at Constantinople two new Ministers: a Venetian Ambassador and a Genoese Resident. The former, Signor Morosini, who had already represented Venice at Paris and Vienna, was “an experiencd’ and dexterous” diplomat with whom one found it easy to maintain “good corrispondence.” The latter, Signor Spinola, “really acts such low and mean things that he exposes the dignity of a Publique Minister both to Turkes and Christians” and renders friendly intercourse with him impossible.