ing in private with the ministers of the Sultan, on those matters which European officers could do no more than propose in public. When Turkey condescended to send an ambassador to an infidel power, it was with difficulty that she could find a subject who had so far subdued his prejudice and ignorance as to accept the office; and those who had, were so totally devoid of all knowledge of the language, policy, or manners of the country to which they were dispatched,* that their services, if not prejudicial, were seldom favourable to the interests of their sovereign. The trouble attendant on such a situation was, under these circumstances, a matter to be anxiously avoided by the apathetic Moslems: and Greeks were, in consequence, nominated as chargés d'affaires at the capital of every power with whom the Porte had amicable intercourse. Equally ignorant of the interests or

*Jusuph Agliah Effendi was, in 1796, Ambassador to the Court of London; on his return to Constantinople, he was interrogated on the remarkable things which he had witnessed. in England." As to their famous House of Commons," said he, "it is a gathering of insolent chattering knaves; for my part, I never saw any thing so miserable in my life. But one thing I did see in London really surprising-a feat beyond all admiration. It was a man who, holding four oranges in one hand, and four forks in the other, cast them alternately into the air, and planted a fork in each orange as it fell, with inconceivable precision and celerity."

laws of commerce, the Ottomans, in like manner, abandoned its protection to their versatile subjects; and the consuls, and vice-consuls of the Porte, were all chosen by the State Interpreter, and by him recommended for nomination to the Vizir, or his Kaimakam.*

Another office of similar importance, instituted after that of the State Drogueman, was. the place of Interpreter to the Capitan Pacha. In rank and influence he was beneath his colleague, but in point of revenue and wealth, he infinitely excelled him. His duties were chiefly confined to the affairs of the Cyclades, in which he had the appointment of all the important offices, and he accompanied the Capitan Pacha in his annual visitations throughout the Archipelago. In this department his influence was as absolute as that of the Divan Terziman‡ on shore, and in every council and treaty he appeared rather the colleague than the secretary of his principal.§ A place of so much * Rizo, p. 66.

"Les revenus fixes du Grand-Interprète montaient à quatre-vingt-quatorze bourses; les fonctions de Drogman de la flotte rapportaient jusqu'a trois cents bourses."-Carrel, P. 150.

The Turkish title for the State Drogueman.

For an accurate account of the state and influence of the Drogueman to the fleet, the reader is referred to the first volume of Mr. Hope's "Anastatius," a work as replete with

power was unfortunately liable to proportionate corruption; a considerable part of the annual revenue of the admiral must be raised by exaction, and as the direction of this rested chiefly with the Drogueman, his reputation with his master, and his future advancement, depended exclusively on his capacity for financial extortion.* By this means his severities towards the rayahs of the islands rendered him an object of dread and detestation, whilst all the injuries he inflicted were felt with double poignancy, as coming from the hand of a Greek.†

Exalted as these offices were, however, they served but as intermediate steps in the scale of

Oriental information, as remarkable for the charms and elegance of its composition.

* "La rentrée des impôts annuels, ou du tribut que doivent les insulaires de l'Archipel à la Sublime Porte, est une époque remarquable pour le Drogman de la Marine. Plus il a persécuté les Grecs, plus il a montré du zèle, et c'est alors qu'il obtient quelques fois à son retour, à titre de récompense, la charge de Drogman du Divan, et par la suite la dignité de Prince Hospodar." Zalloni, p. 152.

"Il n'est pas besoin, je pense, de vous faire sentir combien est affreuse cette conduite de la part d'un Grec, et combien elle doit vous paraître odieuse cette politique des Fanariotes visible dans les actes de ce Drogman."-Conversation of the Archbishop of Derkon, Zalloni, p. 155.

Phanariot ambition. There was still a higher honour to aim at; and the Hospodariats of Wallachia and Moldavia, which in the commencement of the last century were thrown open to the Greeks, afforded a more distinguished field for that political aspiring and restless intrigue, which, in the brief space of less than fifty years, succeeded in elevating them from slaves to princes.

These two provinces, which with Transylvania, and the Bannat of Temeswar, composed the kingdom of Ancient Dacia, were originally peopled by a Sarmatian race, whose incursions into the Roman territory were a source of frequent annoyance to the early emperors. Domitian, instead of reducing them to subjection, was compelled, after a fruitless war, to sue for peace, which he obtained on the terms of becoming tributary to their King Decebalus; and his successors down to Trajan submitted to the degrading impost. That active prince, however, refusing to continue a custom derogatory to the honour of the Romans, the Dacians promptly crossed the Danube, and attacked the northern provinces of his empire. A war of five years' continuance ensued, and terminated in the final and absolute submission of the barbarians, whose country be

"The remains of his bridge yet mark the spot where he

came thenceforth a province of Rome:* thirtythousand colonists were transported to it by the victorious emperor, and in the modern language and costume of Wallachia, may still be traced the characteristics of their early settlers.† Dacia continued from this period to be governed by Roman Prefects, till Aurelian, in his politic treaty with the Goths, in the third century, ceded it to them as a conquest whose hostile tenure was a source of weakness, but whose amicable independence rendered it a bulwark against foreign aggression. The subsequent expulsion of the Goths by the Huns, and their wars with the Emperors Valens and Theodosius, I have alluded to elsewhere ;§ Dacia, from their defeat, was occupied by its invaders, till conquered, after the death of

(Trajan) crossed, considerably higher up the Danube: some piles, when the water is low, project three feet above the surface, and impede the navigation of the river."-Walsh, p. 266.

Gibbon, vol. i. ch. i. p. 6.

+ Dr. Walsh, in his voyage from Constantinople to England, has given numerous specimens of the language of Modern Dacia. See p. 267 and Appendix No. 5.

A. D. 274. The Goths, in A. D. 361, introduced Christianity, which has since continued the national religion of Wallachia.

§ Vol. i. p. 35.