the Air and the smoke being but little gave us that lamentable convenience Some of the Christians were blown alive into the Trenches of the Turks and some of the Turks wasted into the Ditch others upon the Ramparts of the Town with their Arms in their Hands It was like a horrible shower of flesh to behold the separated Members come down whilst others were bruised and blown about from one side to another We ran with all speed to disingage such as were buried alive some we found only frighted without any hurt They shew me an Azappe or one of their Perdu's who had been twice digged out of the ground but all were not so happy for some of them were half buried stuck fast from the Girdle downwards and cried out with all their might but they had as good have been quite under ground for the Christians ran out and chopped off their heads The effect of these three Mines was only to have blown up some of the Guards to have destroyed some Works and in some measure inlarged the Breaches The quantity of Powder required for a Mine is fifteen sixteen sometimes Twenty and Five and Twenty Barrels according to the weight and thickness of the ground they would blow up The Venetians to blow up the Placca made use of a Hundred and Fifty Barrels and they were no more than was necessary being to blow up a Rock of Two and Twenty foot thick It was in my power to have learned the construction of their superficial Furnaces as they called them in Candia where only they are in use but I had not that curiosity and indeed I found I had had already too much Osman Chelebi came to Complement me at my coming out of the Works and to cajole me told me I had done wonders That it was taken notice of by the Turks that I was to value my self much upon their approbation That I should doubtless have the honour to be continued and be by degrees infallibly advanced to some imployment more worthy my address He told me moreover that there was a design on foot to commit the conduct and firing of one of their superficial Furnaces to me and the manner of those Furnaces is thus Three or four Bombes or Fire-balls are shut up close in a Wooden Box and the Box conveyed as near the Enemies Work as possible when 't is as near as you can get you hide it in the ground and cover it over with earth There is nothing in the world better nor quicker at ruining an Approach There is no great difficulty to give fire to it because it may be done with a Saucidge as they call them or a Train at what distance you please The great danger is in placing the Box which though done for the most part in the night does not make it altogether safe for the Engineer is obliged to have a special care of his head Osman Chelebi presented me with one of them but God knows how joyfully I received it The Christian Engineers have no sooner invented a new way either for their Fortifications or Fire-works but the Meymars have present advertisement by some of the Renegado's from the Town The stories they have told of him in the Camp have not only discovered but recommended to the estimation of the Turks the Inventions and Experiments of the Chevalier Verneda who commands all the Engineers in the Garison and the address and dexterity of Giovine who is excellent at Countermines I found it was not true though I had often been told it that there were certain well disciplined Troops of Christians in the Turkish Service At the beginning of the Siege indeed the Turks being willing to have wheedled the Greek Nobless that belonged to the Isle of Sfacciottes did promise them free exercise of their Religion if they would serve against the Venetian but they were so far from accepting the Proposal that to show their detestation during the first years of the Mahumetan Invasion they made the Turks sensible of their indignation and courage by many atchievements against them Of this Island of Sfacciottes were the famous Colonels Zymbi Balzamo and Calamo of whom the Caloger at Athens had given so fair a character and of whose bravery I may perhaps give you a relation hereafter Many of the Inhabitants were Originally Italians from whence their Fore-fathers had been invited by the Grecian Emperours into the said Island after the devastation made in it by the Sarazens I must needs confess I have slept better than I did the twelfth of May at Night I fancied my self called every moment to go away with my superficial Furnace and see it do execution I had no maw to the Service I found my Conscience not so good proof against the remorses I felt for having served against the Christians already and if you will have the truth perhaps there was some little mixture of fear But the 13 th of May in the morning beyond my expectation Osman Chelebi having left me three hours before came back again to me in great haste and told me he had a request to me that I must not deny him I thought of nothing but that I had been to go along with him upon service to enter some Breach or spring some Mine with him but he told me I must needs do him the favour to return to Emporion for him for the Grand Vizer had given him a very good Timar in those parts he himself being unable to quit the service was constrained to desire the courtesie of me to carry his Letters of Provision to his Father in Law and to press him to take possession of the Timar by turning out a person who by surprize had got a Grant of it from the Beglerbey of Romulia My Spirits began immediately to revive He needed no such fine language to perswade me I offered my self with the greatest willingness imaginable not so much as straining a complement so far as to let him know how much pain and trouble it would be to me to leave him behind He gave me his dispatches under the hand and seal of the Vizer's Caimacan The Caimacan is an Officer considerable has a share in the Civil Affairs and manages them in part In all Turkie there are never but three contemporary Caimacans and sometimes but two One is constantly Resident at Constantinople another alwayes attends the Grand Signior and if the Grand Vizer be remote from the Court he has another with him but when he returns to the Sultan's Court that Caimacan is suspended The Grand Vizer's Caimacan was like a Secretary of State or President of the Council and at that time had the Superintendency of the Army in Candia A Saique being in ten dayes time to depart from Fraskia it was resolved I should take that opportunity to pass into Greece so that as it pleased God I sate still in the Camp all the 13 th of May not troubled with the fatigues or dangers of the Mattock and Scuttle and Osman hired some of the Azappes and Greek Pioneers to discharge the Duty that was upon him in respect of his Timar In the Evening one of the Christians running to us out of the Town brought News that one of our Bombes falling into the Basâ—ion of Saint Andre had killed the Magnifico Cornaro Proveditor General for the Republick of Venice a Person who being the very Soul of their Army gave the Christians the greatest occasion of Consternation that they had hitherto expressed and the Turks on the other side that their Joy might hold some proportion with the sadness of their Enemy testified it by their continual Salvo's both from their Cannon and Small-shot It was above a Twelvemonth since the Vizer had Summoned the Town Upon this accident he caused a White Flag to be hung out and sent them a Summons but the Christians reposing still upon the Conduct of the Marquess de Saint Andre by their great Firing gave him to understand that they were not yet reduced to Terms of Capitulation Whereupon for the incouragement of his Camp the Vizer caused it to be spread abroad that he expected within three or four dayes an Ambassador from Venice to beg Peace upon his knee adding that Venice it self was Tumultuous and full of Factions upon the protraction of the War and that the People being ruined and exhaust with insupportable Taxes were ready upon the first opportunity to throw themselves under the protection of the Turks This was the great Artifice of their General and the common discourse and belief of his whole Army To conclude I departed from the Camp the 21. of May with a Pass-port from the Caimacan and Letters from Osman Chelebi About midnight I arrived at Fraskia where I embarked in the aforesaid Saique and left the Coast full of Horsemen who at that time kept better and more exact Guards than formerly upon expectation of a descent by the Troops of the League and the Christian Princes They had News already that their several Fleets were come out some from Thoulon some from Civita-Vecchia and some from Malta and the Renegadoes had made the Camp ring with the names of the Generalissimo Vincenzo Rospigliosi of the Duke de Beaufort the Duke de Navailles the Comte de Vivonne and the Chevalier Acarigi General of the Gallies of Malta So that 't is an errour to believe the Turks are ignorant of the very particulars of our Affairs when it is their interest to know them The English and Dutch Vessels which are imployed daily in carrying over Men and Ammunition to Canea do tell them all our designs 'T is true by an effect of their great courage and prudence the Turks do not seem to regard it yet they have their constant Intelligences and make preparations privately against them and sometimes 't is possible they are abused as the Christians are however let their reports or assurances as to this approaching great action be what it will God grant there may be a good understanding betwixt the Commanders of the several Nations which make up the Succours expected If there be it may please God they may prosper if otherwise there is great danger they will miscarry FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
it and conspired with certain of his Accomplices like himself to gain her by force They have a certain Feast like our Easter which they call Bairam Coutzong at which time having more freedom of debaucherie than ordinary they resolved to put their designs in practice and accordingly entred by force into the young Athenians house who was at home along with no body but her Mother who was a Widow In apprehension of their violence they both of them cry'd out as soon as they saw them but no body came into their rescue for besides that during the liberty of the Bairam the Christians do generally keep themselves close their house was in a by-place and somewhat out of the way The resistance and refractoriness of this young Damoisel inraged them to such a degree that finding their importunity unsuccessful they fell to blows and gave her seven or eight stabs with a poinard that which was most admirable in the passage was that still as they stab'd she presented her face as if she had been desirous to be wounded there to ruine that part which had caused such extravagant passion in those Brutes They left her for dead and 't is reported that the only thing that recovered her was the joy she conceived to find her self disfigured beyond any such influence for the future But the Assassines were glad to fly and never appeared since for complaint was made to the Keslar-Agasi who would without all doubt have punished them severely Since this accident in â—ll the Families of Athens both Turk and Christian no discourse is held among the â—oung Maidens but up comes this story â—nd the good women have no better lesson â—o each their Daughters than to imitate â—his Damoisel nor better memorial for â—hem than to show them the scars of her face When we were in Athens the poor Girle was living in the Isle of Engia If the Christian Religion was not sufficient to move these Athenian Damoisels to Chastity the fear of punishment would do it effectually Those who are defective that way are condemned to be sold for slaves and upon conviction 't is not easie to escape 'T is the Cadi's interest to see that Law strictly executed for the profit is his and upon the least accusation he causes them to be inspected by the Midwives Not but there are wayes of evading it and a thousand artifices are found out to prevent their slavery sometimes the Confessor intercedes and suggesting the danger of their turning Mahumetans abates the rigour of their Laws and conceals the dishonour of their Families In a word in all Greece manifest immodesty is no where so severely punished as in Athens The Virgins in Athens are generally handsom witty and vindicative you may judge what they were formerly by the single example of Thais who followed Alexander the Great in his Expedition into Persia Being with that Monarch one day when he was in a good humour she proposed to him to burn the Palace-Royal at Persepolis and was so plain as to profess a desire of putting fire to it her self that the world might say that the very Damoisels which attended in his Conquests in Persia had revenged the burning at Athens when of old it was set on fire by Xerxes and her beauty and eloquence so far recommended her ambition that she was gratified in her motion and the Palace set on fire that very night Our curiosity carried us from thence out of the Castle to the Southward betwixt the Phalerum and the Porto-Lione where was anciently the old City of Athens called by way of excellence Asti or the City the foundation of which according to the testimony of Pliny began there The two Brothers Euryalus and Hyperbius were the first who built houses there before which time they were lodged in Grottos still to be seen at the foot of the Castle The quarters of Lymnae Coepi Diomea Cynosarges and Alopece are still on that side and were all we saw that Walk We returned by the Temple of Jupiter and keeping still by the foot of the Castle we passed behind the house where the Jesuites had formerly their retreat and on our right hand we saw the remains of a building at present called To Palati tou Themistocles or Themistocles his Palace Among the Ancients there was nothing could give Authority to the Modern Appellation for by them it was called the Palace of the five hundred which was the number of Select Men chosen every year by the Ten Tribes of Attica each Tribe naming fifty who alternatively and according to the rank of their several Tribes had the supreme management of affairs for five and thirty dayes together and their Court being held in the place called Prytane gave the name of Prytanes to the said fifty Senators Cajetan Drogoman to the Consul Giraud had his Lodgings in this Palace of Themistocles A little beyond it we saw the Temple of Neptune a very admirable Structure Of the three Temples Dedicated anciently to that God we could meet nothing that could assure us whether this was the Elates the Cynades or Asphalius It is at present a Greek Church govern'd by the Caloger Damaskinos whose house being hard by and upon the brow of a Rock is the highest in the whole City 'T is reported that many rare Manuscripts are kept in that house Near the Temple of Neptune there is a Fountain of the same name whose waters are turned for the benefit of the Castle From thence we came into the Vicus Ceramicus where we saw on our right hand the place where formerly stood the Leocorion or Monument of Leos who having sacrificed his Daughters for the safety of the publick deserved well to have a Tomb in the City Facing about to the left we saw the ruines of a magnificent Building called the Kings Portico that is to say the Portico of the King of the Sacrifices or the second of the Archontes The Portico of Jupiter Elutherion was behind it and Eudancon or the Tomb of Heros Eudanos was hard by which Eudanos was sirnamed Angelos the Son of Neptune Thence towards the Castle we observed the Metroon or Chapel of the Mother of the Gods in which place died Lycurgus the Son of Lycophron as famous in Athens as the Legislator Lycurgus was in Sparta The Barathron or Orygma that famous dungeon into which their criminals were tumbled was behind that Metroon at the foot of a steep Rock in the Castle and near the Barathron was the Tribunal called Parabysthus in which only small Causes were tryed and that Court consisted of eleven Judges The nearness of this Court to the Barathron which was an ignominious place was the occasion that some Authors have said that the Parabysthus stood in a vile and abominable place At small distance from the Kings Portico we saw the Bucoleon or Court where the King of the Sacrifices had his Tribunal Not far from that we saw the ruines of a small Chapel called Agios Dionysios where
perpetually counselling to make War upon the Turks representing them Cowards and Sots and easily conquered By their account the taking of Constantinople is a trifle and so easie 't is not worth the name of an Enterprize I wonder they can forbear disposing before-hand of the plunder of that great City and that every one of them has not reserved three or four of the Principal Odaliques in the Seraglio for himself What then must be the odds betwixt us in Martial Discipline Why the Turks are more obedient to their Officers are more at unity among themselves more sober and less fugitive and this certainly must be the reason for their skins are no harder than ours unless possibly it be that Empires have their periods like particular men On Saturday 11. of May on the morning the whole Camp put themselves in arms to begin the Festivity of their Bayram which they signified to the Christians by three rounds of great shot from their Batteries and as many salvoes of small shot from their Infantry who gave very good fire But the whole Army was not drawn up as I expected Every Quarter rejoyced by it self I think there could not be braver men seen in the world than the Grand Vizer's Janizaries Their Arms were so bright they were able to dazle a mans eyes the fierceness of their looks and the Majesty of their Motion presaged their success their Dolimans or Coats were as good as new very well shaped though made of a course cloth from Salonica they had not had them above two months Once every year the Sultan gives them new Coats at his own charge and the time that they are delivered is about the month of Cheuval that they may be neat and spruce against their Grand Bayram they had not their Zercola's or long Coifs upon their heads which they wear upon Solemnities in the Army they would be troublesome they had only Bonnets or Caps of wooll or coloured cloth with their handkerchiefs roll'd about them to make them look like Turbans They wear no beards but not upon the score that we pretend who would have it a mark that they are the Sultan's real slaves for as they say he who is a Musleman what is he else All the rest of the Sultan's Subjects wear their Muschatoes very long and they would let their under lips grow so too were not they fearful of being taken by the beard in their Battels and so put to the worst 'T is most certain that for the same reason Alexander the Great commanded his Captains that all the Macedonian Souldiers should cut off their beards And the Abanthes a war-like People of Eubea do use it at this day In the Grand Vizer's Quarter there was near fifteen thousand Janizaries besides a party of them sent about to the Post of Sabonniera I judged the whole Army to consist of about forty five thousand men and near as many others Cannoniers Pioniers Sutlers half of which upon occasion were able to bear Arms Should I tell this among the Christians I should hardly be believed for they please themselves in debasing the numbers and courage of the Turks and perhaps it is a stratagem of the Venetians to wheedle their Allies So among them the Turkish Army must not be above thirty thousand strong 'T is true about a year since the Plague and incommodities of the Army had reduced them to that number and I know at Tunis where I was at that time the Turks confessed it themselves to excuse the smallness of their Progress they pretended likewise that the Town of Candia stood upon an impenetrable inaccessible Rock and was defended by a Garrison of sixty thousand men It was great pleasure to hear how they magnified our numbers and the strength of the City and yet kept us all in with an Army of twenty five thousand men at the most Not that the Emperour could have wanted more men but the Vizer in gallantry had made an Oath with that small number of Turks to beat and destroy the sixty thousand lubberly Christians that had pin'd themselves up in that inaccessible Rock That was a day of great Execution one of the Turks Mines blew up a Post of the Christians near Saint Andre where many a brave man of the Garrison perished the Vizer was in no little danger himself for having laid aside his Perspective and advanced in the Trenches to the very Ditch of the Town to survey their Works and observe his advantage he stood personally exposed to all the fire from the Garrison for a complete half hour together and Kiaca-Bey the Lieutenant General of the Janizaries was shot in the Arm not two steps from him the Vizer when he saw it with an angry kind of smile said I think these rude Christians would not have us Celebrate our Bayram to day but for all that he stirred not till a Lodgement was finished that he had ordered and to that end he caused his dinner to be brought to him into the Trenches The rest of the day was spent in Dounama or publick rejoycing The Turks according to their custome on their Bayrams send one another Presents as we do at New-years-tide One Janizary gives his Camerade Tobacco and he to requite it takes him to the Sutlers and gives him a dish of Coffee or strong waters The Vizer augmented the pay of those who did any thing signally if their pay was six Aspers before he advanced it to twelve and God knows what emulation and courage that raised in the several Oda's The Principal Officers regal'd the Grand Vizer The Beglerby of Natolia sent him six black Eunuch Boys and received from him a rich Saber or Sword of a more than ordinary temper The Vizer sent a noble Tent to Zambatag-Ogli-Houssekni Such of the Spahi as had been defective in their duties and were to be drubb'd according to their discipline of War were pardon'd in respect of that day as also such of the Janizaries as for their misdemeanours were condemned to be beaten with cudgels on their buttocks A Timariot or Teskerectis that before was worth but five or six thousand Aspers a year was advanced to a Teskereber or a Timar of twenty thousand pound Some of the Janizaries produced the heads of Christians that they had concealed three or four days together to have their recompence inlarged that day The Kaimacan gave three Sequins to a Pioner for having taken a pair of Gloves from a Christian and to take a pair of Gloves is looked upon as a great prize for the Turks wearing none themselves 't is no easie matter to come by them any other way I saw the Vizer as he passed to the Eouylai which is one of their services of devotion he was talking to Mehemet-Aga his Kiaia or Intendant of his house an honest man moderate and one who has done many good offices to the Christians The Grand Vizer was going to his own Mosque for he had one belonging to his own Quarters to which
not made so methodically as ours with lines parallel to the front of the place besieged The way of the Turks is to advance as much as they can and every forty paces to make an elbow or little turning which yet does not hinder their line Their Intrenchments or Approaches are twice as broad as ours which at the bottom are at most but seven or nine foot whereas the Turks Trenches when the ground will permit are fifteen or sixteen foot wide that the Troops appointed to sustain the Pioneers may make a large front the better to repel the Salleys of the Garrison One thing I observed among them that is practised among us They never begin to post their Soldiers in the Trenches till they have brought their approaches to the Counter-scarpe for till they be advanced thither their Troops are lodged in the Redoubts or places of Arms. Their places of Arms are open behind like ours for the better drawing themselves into Battalia to repulse a Salley Their Redoubts are generally faced with Stone Their Trenches are made with Blindes and their Blinds are made with thick pieces of Timber covered over with Faggots and Earth upon them to shelter the Pioneers while they are at work We drew out about fifty or sixty Pioneers to repair a battery which the Canon from the Town had beaten down I saw some of their Guns there that carried six and twenty pound Bullet From this Platform it was that looking towards their works I saw as it were a Forest of Palisado's that frighted me exceedingly Imagine you saw a great Battalion of Pikes with their Pikes advanced their works were set as thick with Palisado's whereas in some places the Palisado's in the opposite works were ten foot asunder The ground had been blown up a hundred times by the Mines of one side or the other In short there was not one foot to spare but immediately some Trench or other was thrown up in it either a Bonnette a Caponniere or an Antestature and that you may not be perplexed with those terms being a sort of works almost quite unknown in France I shall explain them as follows The Bonnette is a kind of Ravelin set round with Palisado's 't is filled three foot thick with Earth to cover them from shot but without any Ditch The Antestatures are little Traverses or Retrenchments thrown up in haste with bags of Earth or Palisado's in some place that they cannot keep entire but the Enemy having possessed themselves of one part they would willingly preserve the rest In spight of the danger I was in I could not but admire that prodigious ground where more than once or twice ten thousand men had been imployed a month together to force a single man back but four yards No ground in the world did ever cost so dear though it were a Mine of Gold The possession of four Fathoms of ground in Candia had been in dispute above twenty years and gained at last with Rivers of blood and many times the best blood in Europe But I was taken from my contemplations to work in a Gallery that was to be carried on to the very wall of the Town A Gallery is a way under-ground carried on under the Enemies works for the passage of the Miner when he goes to prepare the Chamber of the Mine with intention to blow up some work The Galleries of both parties do often meet and then they who can drive out the other either with sire or smoke are masters of both and the vanquished must retire We no sooner struck a stroke with our Mattocks but we clap'd our Ears to the ground to listen whether the Christians were not at work as well as we for many times both sides are working not above a foot from one another At some times and in some places the Pioneers for fear of being heard have been glad to loosen the Earth with their Nails or work it out with the point of their Knives If any Mine be near 't is immediately sprung to blow up the Pioneers and oftentimes the condition of the Earth deceiving the Engineer that causes it to be blown up falls back upon those who gave fire to the Mine and the great art is to make them evaporate In the little time I was digging there I met more bones and carkases of men than shovels-full of earth Sometimes I digged a man up from under my feet and perhaps had I digged there but one hour before I might have found him alive and had him begg'd of me to pull him out I must confess I had at that time great horrours upon me and being perceived by a young Turk that had been used to the Trade I was laught at for my pains Upon the same occasion he had many times leaped into the Christians Galleries and brought away several of their Heads He told our Camerades aloud that I was so afraid of the Swords of the Venetians that he saw me three or four times put my hand to my neck to feel whether my head was not cut off I opened my Eyes as well as my Ears to inform my self whether the Christians were not at work near me and to speak truth for the security of my head I found an obligation upon me to have a care how I slept in that Quarter At length the Mine being fitted we retired to see it play when we came forth of the Gallery we saw several Janizaries laughing to see us in that condition There is a mortal hatred betwixt the Janizaries and the Timariots for the Janizaries being never imployed but at handy-strokes have them in contempt who are imployed in the Mines Osman Chelebi was not a person that would be abused and therefore seeing one of the Janizaries deriding him told him You are a happy man for I have digg'd you a hole to hide your self in Another Timariot that was not commanded along with us but expected us when we came off at the end of the Gallery came to congratulate with one of his friends and embracing him demanded Do you come back empty handed have you made your fortune upon the Christians and brought ever a head along with you Yes one replied his friend and that is my own which I assure you was in no little danger 'T is not to be imagined how much the Janizaries despise the Timariots and all the Spahi in general They call them in derision Sinek which is as much as Flies and this the Spahi are forced to indure because of the authority and strict union among those sort of people The nick-name that the Spahi and Timariots give the Janizaries is Toslouk or Buskins because they wear such kind of things about their Legs but then they will be sure to be the stronger or they will never venture to provoke them At the same time that we gave fire to our Mine the besieged sprung two of their own It was a dismal spectacle to behold the Men and the Earth thrown up promiscuously into