Under the Turk in Constantinople: A record of Sir John Finch's Embassy, 1674-1681

How Lord Chandos would have acquitted himself of his delicate mission, had he been left to his own resources, it is impossible to say. As it was, the unaccountable Power which,...

Early in March 1677 Mohammed IV. returned to Constantinople, followed three weeks later by his Vizir; and behold, all of a sudden, the government which hitherto had been a model...

It was apparently an invincible fatality that compelled Sir John Finch to accept, in the month of November 1672, the appointment of English Ambassador to the Porte, in place of...

Not the least of the many features that differentiated the Constantinople Embassy from all other embassies was the institution of the Dragomans[54]--persons through whom all tra...

We left him in the middle of 1674 at Pera, and there we still find him at the end of the year. In the interval the Grand Vizir, after a successful summer’s campaign, had returne...

Our Ambassador bad every right to expect that the ransom he had paid down would be accepted by Kara Mustafa as a price of immunity from persecution for the remainder of his sojo...

Our Ambassador’s first interview with the Kehayah had for its primary object a demand of the greatest delicacy, though no way connected with English interests in the Levant: a s...

Sir John Finch, on second thoughts, did not hold the Ashby “accident” entirely responsible for the grievous _dénouement_ at which we have assisted. That bit of ill-luck, he beli...

Hussein Aga, whom our Ambassador considered, in point of influence with the Grand Vizir, to be the third man in the Empire, continued most friendly. He swore by his head that he...

The Plague over, Sir John resumed his quiet life at Pera; and for the space of a twelvemonth we find him resting on his laurels and garnering the fruits of his labour complacently.

“God be praisd’ that I can once write your Lordship Good Newes out of Turky: the Kehaiah of the Gran Visir is cut off!”--with these words Sir John Finch began his next despatch;...

Having duly “wiped the dust of the Sublime Threshold with his face”--a Turkish figure of speech not far removed from a literal statement of fact--Sir John expected that the Capi...

On Sunday, the 2nd of May 1675, after morning prayers and a sermon by the Rev. John Covel, his Excellency set out from Pera with a very great retinue. Besides the Embassy staff...

The price had been paid. Yet the goods were not forthcoming. The pashas were always about to act, but never acted. And, in the meantime, the Plague grew fiercer and fiercer. The...

To a man who had passed the better part of his life in the elegant cities of Italy--cities like Florence, famous for its neat streets and palaces of sculptured stone--Constantin...

For about ten months--that is, till the summer of 1680--Sir John Finch had no further opportunity of displaying his skill as a pilot. He was a mere passenger in the diplomatic v...

Whenever Sir John thought of his miscarriage over the Soffah--and hardly a day passed without his thinking of that melancholy event--he comforted himself with the reflection tha...

Among the numerous devices for the collection of cash to which the Grand Vizir had recourse before setting out on the war path, were some that touched foreign residents directly...

As soon as the Feasts ended (June 25th) the Ambassador applied for his Audience--“and here,” he says, “I find I was mistaken, that it was not the Feasts that hinderd’ my Audienc...

Recking nothing of State affairs, the Turks, from the highest to the lowest, rejoice as they have not rejoiced for many a long year. The scene is the plain outside the walls. Th...

Sir John regarded his audience with the Kaimakam as nothing more than a prologue: the real action had yet to begin. His first business was “to make my selfe an Ambassadour by de...