That Sir John, eminently a man of peace though he was, prayed for war, is plain from the eagerness with which he dwells on every symptom of a bellicose intention, from the disappointment with which he notes the absence of any bellicose preparations. Hopeful and despondent by turns, he ends with the sad admission, “Wee are like to have the Gran Signor’s and Visir’s company here, much to the advantage of our commerce but as much to the disquiett of all Ministers here.”
Our Ambassador’s sentiments can easily be understood. For at this time Kara Mustafa, who was always most at ease when he was violent, appears to have indulged his peculiar genius at the expense of foreign Ministers a little too far.
We know already the “avania” brought against the Bailo of Venice. Sir John had since learnt from a person present at the inspection of the Venetian Treasurer’s books after his death, that the sum extorted was not, as he had been told, 45,000, but 85,000 dollars. Now a fresh claim for Customs-duties lay upon the Signoria, and the Vizir threatened that, if a bond for 20,000 dollars was not given him, he would bring the case before the Divan and there condemn the Bailo to more than double that amount and shut him up in the Seven Towers till it was paid: afterwards His Excellency might complain to the Sultan, if he liked. Signor Morosini had no option but to comply. Including the supplementary fleecing by the Vizir’s Kehayah, Treasurer, and Rais Effendi, Sir John reckoned that the operation would come to 40,000 dollars. This treatment made so painful an impression upon the Bailo that he told Finch that he intended, on his return home, to advise the Senate to break off relations with Turkey once for all rather than “be thus eaten up by degrees.”[234]
A new Venetian Ambassador who arrived to relieve the much-tried Morosini was treated like an envoy from a vassal State. The Turks searched the men-of-war that escorted him, and detained them on the plea of having stolen slaves and killed them. Several corpses found floating about the vessels lent colour to the accusation, though the Venetians protested that the corpses came from shipwrecks in the Black Sea. Be that as it may, the affair was finally settled for an amount which no man knew: it was said that both the Vizir and the Bailo wished to keep it private, for, if the Grand Signor heard of it, he would want his share. And so at length the new-comer had his audience. From the Venetians themselves Sir John obtained a graphic account of the function. The Commander of one of the men-of-war told him that, just as he went out of his boat, a ragged Turk stepped up to him and, calling him “Giaour,” gave him a blow with his fist in the nape of the neck, which for some time deprived him of consciousness: and this was done in the presence of the Turkish officers who conducted the Ambassador. The Ambassador’s own son informed Finch that his father sat at a great distance from the Vizir, who, for all welcome, brusquely asked him, “When do your ships depart?” though he very well knew that he was the person who detained them, and throughout the interview looked another way.[235]