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CHAPTER XXI: Russians

The protection which the confederates received in Turkey, and mutual complaints concerning the incursions of the wandering hordes of Tartars and Cossacks, had, some years before, furnished a pretence for war between the Porte and the Russians. It was impossible that Mustapha III. could any longer contemplate with indifference the transactions which took place in Poland: not only was the security of his northern provinces endangered, but he felt justly indignant at the violation of his dominions. He, accordingly, remonstrated with the empress; and she speciously replied, that having been requested to send a few troops to the assistance of her unhappy neighbor, in order to quell some internal commotions, she could not refuse. But a body of Russians having afterwards burned the Turkish town of Balta, and put all its inhabitants to death, war was declared, and the European and Asiatic dominions of the Porte summoned to arms. While all the officers who were to compose the suite of the grand vizier were preparing at Constantinople for their departure, the multifarious hordes of militia assembled themselves out of Asia, and covered the Bosphorus and Hellespont with numerous transports. On the other hand, the different nations composing the extensive empire of the autocrat of all the Russias, most of whom were but few degrees removed from barbarism, put themselves in motion; and a body of troops selected from among the corps dispersed over Poland was assembled on the side of the Ukraine. The capitation tax of the Russian empire was raised, and a war contribution of

20 per cent. levied on all salaries. Large armies both sides advanced against the Danube; and in the spring of 1769 the Turkish on standard was displayed on the frontiers of Russia, where the Ottoman troops committed frightful ravages, and drove the enemy across the Dneister: they, however, suffered a severe defeat at Choczim; and a more decisive blow was soon after struck by the Russians, who twice defeated the Turkish fleet, and at length burnt fifteen of their ships of the line in the bay of Chesmé. Meantime, the Russian land forces were equally successful; the grand Ottoman army was totally overthrown near the Pruth, and the capture of Bender, Ismail, and other places, quickly followed.

Greece, long accustomed to subjection, was but ill-provided with troops, and the inhabitants pursued their own affairs unmolested: but when they received intelligence of the enterprise of the Russians-a Christian people of the Greek church-to deliver the Greeks from the yoke of the barbarians, the love of liberty was rekindled in many of their hearts. All Laconia, the plains of Argos, Arcadia, and a part of Achaia, rose in insurrection, and spared none of their former rulers. The Turks, in the meantime, crossed the isthmus in order to relieve Patras; and the pasha of Bosnia, with 30,000 men, advanced with little resistance into the ancient Messene : at Modon the Greeks were defeated with great loss, and it was evident that their hope of regaining their liberty was a delusive one. At the end of the campaign the plague broke out at Yassy, and spread to Moscow, where it carried off 90,000 persons, at the rate of nearly 1,000 victims daily.

The Crimea was seized by the Russians, and the grand vizier was forced to retreat; the janizaries rose, put their aga to death, and set fire to their camp. The Porte in the meantime was delivered from Ali Bey, the Egyptian pasha, who fell in battle against his brother-in-law, Mohammed. Europe had taken a more lively interest in his adventures, because he appeared to be elevated above national prejudices; but his fault consisted in manifesting his contempt for those errors too early, and in too decided a manner. The Russians at length crossed the Danube, and the janizaries gave way. They were twice compelled to abandon the siege of Silistria, and they lost a great part of their artillery near Varna. But a reverse of fortune was nigh; for not long after, Hassan Pasha, a man of great courage and intelligence, by birth a Persian, and who was high in the favor of the sultan, swore that not a Russian should pass the autumnal equinox on the Turkish side of the Danube; and he faithfully kept his word.

Mustapha III. died in 1774, and was succeeded by his brother, Abd-ul-Hamed. But neither the sultan nor his people appeared inclined to prosecute the war. About the same time, Pugatcheff the Cossack, at the head of many warlike hordes, broke into open rebellion; and this convinced Catherine that peace was not less desirable for Russia than for the Porte. A treaty was accordingly entered into, by which the latter ceded a considerable portion of territory to the empress, together with a right to the free navigation of the Black Sea.

We now return to notice the melancholy fate of Poland. An attempt on the personal liberty of Stanislaus having been made by the turbulent and bigoted nobles, it served as a pretext for the empress of Russia, first to send an army into the country, and afterwards, in conjunction with Prussia and Austria, to plan its dismemberment.

Each party to the compact had some old pretended claims to urge in behalf of the robbery; and as the other nations of Europe were not in a condition to wage war against the powerful trio, their mediatorial interference would have been ineffectual.

A diet was called to give a color to the transaction, and a majority of votes being secured, the armies of the spoilers severally took possession of the districts which had been previously parcelled out; and little else remained of Poland-independent Poland-but its language and its name: A. D. 1773 .