and my Lord Chandois going to succeed him, who would bring letters, in answer to his demand, from his majesty; which advice the ambassador sent to court, and thereby stopped all proceedings.

"A vizier is, in some measure, afraid of an ambassador, till he hath had his audience of the grand signor, where he may easily and unavoidably complain of him; which audience being once past, it is very hard for an ambassador to make complaints; because the vizier hath all his creatures about the grand signor: so that nothing can be done without attempting desperate means, which ambassadors, especially of rich nations, do not, but on very great exigencies, attempt. My Lord Chandois arrives at Constantinople, and brings from his majesty of England to the vizier, and to the grand signor, letters of two sorts; one to be delivered in case the vizier did not comply, of a high nature; and the other, as usual, of ceremony only, to be delivered in case all went well.

"In the first audience with the vizier, the ambassador, Lord Chandois, delivers the high letter from his majesty to the vizier, which the vizier read over all himself; and made no other reply thereto, only bade him welcome. In this letter of his majesty to the vizier, he found his avanias laid open, and the king of England demanding justice for the detention of the capitulations, a thing of a high nature; at which he was strangely

surprised for, though it was not imputed to him, but his kaia (who had been strangled a little before) yet the vizier, to clear himself thereof, ordered three hundred purses, or a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to be paid to the treasurer by the Jew his merchant, which was the sum the vizier received. The Jew pretended it was the dead kaia's money; but we knew well it was paid out of the vizier's own treasury; and the vizier ordered the ambassador not to say a word more of that matter. The money was received with all joy by the ambassador and nation, as a happy omen (being the ambassador's first negotiation) that all successes would be as prosperous: but there wanted not amongst us some who feared the ill consequences, which shortly after we found, paying too dear for this money.

"In the same letter his majesty told the vizier, that he had examined into the demand of the Basha of Tunis; in which he found all falseness and ingratitude; and that, after so great kindness as freeing his goods from pirates of Malta and Leghorn, which he neither was nor could be obliged to do; he therefore required to have the basha exemplarily punished, for making so unreasonable and false a demand. This letter had the desired effect; for the vizier wholly dismissed that business; which, I think, was all. But, since the Tunis basha is dead, and his heirs made the

same claim, which is overcome, and a quietus obtained; which hath removed all fears of farther trouble from it.

"Hitherto all goes well, and on our side: but the king's men of war, with the old ambassador, being departed, the grand vizier began to recollect with himself, how he had been deceived of his hopes by us, first in losing so great a sum, as he expected, out of the Tunis basha's business; and, secondly, in refunding such a sum as three hundred purses, which he had kept so long in his maw; and, therefore, resolved revenge upon us: And, consulting his jackals, the great customers of Constantinople and Smyrna, he was by them put into the following way.

A Seventh Avania, of about Three per cent. Custom of Silk outward.

"IN Turkey, as in all countries, the importer pays one custom, and the exporter another; but, at Smyrna, to avoid stealing of custom, which the Franks performed more cunningly than the people of the country, the Turks found it least liable to cheats to receive the exporting custom of the seller; so that the Frank, by his own hands, as exporter, pays no custom. But, in the form of the capitulations, we are to pay three per cent. custom outwards, as well as inwards. Upon which foot, the vizier demands three per cent. on all

silk that had been shipped in five years time last past; which account would have produced near two hundred purses of money, or a hundred thousand dollars. The vizier, having had so ill success in meddling with the ambassador himself, thought fit to send him word, he had nothing to say to him, but, the customer demanding against the merchants, he must and would do him justice. Upon this account, the ambassador is sent for to the vizier's, with positive orders to bring all his merchants with him; which he was forced to obey; and there found many of the great officers of the empire.

"The Turks at first were very civil to the ambassador, declaring that this was the customer's demand against the merchants, in which the vizier must do justice. The kaia went into another apartment to the grand vizier; and, returning to the ambassador, declared, that the vizier had ordered the merchants to be put in prison, till they paid the custom of silk exported. To which the customer replied, there was no occasion for such a crowd, two of the chief were enough. So two merchants of the chief house were seized by the chiauses. The ambassador urged what was possible to be alleged in our defence, but could not be effectual; when, taking one of them by the hand, he had great affronts put upon him; which farther to prevent, they stole away with their

chiauses; and his lordship retired to his house, hoping time would show some remedy to this desperate business.

"But, to show how great a height of irreligion the Turks are come to, in acting this violence contrary to their own law, take this passage, which happened to one of the merchants, who was a chief actor in this affair. He finding that, with his companion, he was going to prison, which, in Turkey, is extreme bad, and the prisoners exposed to great cruelties and tortures, thought best to say somewhat for himself; and thereupon he cried out, in the Turkish language, 'That the Vizier Azem's command was to put the silk merchants in prison for custom due from them; and that he was no silk merchant, and had never shipped any, and appealed to their law.' Now, the Turkish religion hath this article in it, that the Turk, who refuseth to go to the law, when required, is divorced from his wife, his children are bastards, and he an infidel. All the great officers were startled at this appeal; but the customer of Constantinople, with great threats, told the merchant that he would prove it upon him; and so bade the officers carry him away, which they did.

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They continued in prison, in all, forty-two days; in which time there wanted not treaties to accommodate the business, which, at last, with