You see I am very exact in keeping the promise you engaged me to make.  I know not, however, whether your curiosity will be satisfied with the accounts I shall give you, though I can assure you, the desire I have to oblige you to the utmost of my power, has made me very diligent in my enquiries and observations.  ’Tis certain we have but very imperfect accounts of the manners and religion of these people; this part of the world being seldom visited, but by merchants, who mind little but their own affairs; or travellers, who make too short a stay, to be able to report any thing exactly of their own knowledge.  The Turks are too proud to converse familiarly with merchants, who can only pick up some confused informations, which are generally false; and can give no better account of the ways here, than a French refugee, lodging in a garret in Greek-street, could write of the court of England.  The journey we have made from Belgrade hither, cannot possibly be passed by any out of a public character.  The desert woods of Servia, are the common refuge of thieves, who rob fifty in a company, so that we had need of all our guards to secure us; and the villages are so poor, that only force could extort from them necessary provisions.  Indeed the janizaries had no mercy on their poverty, killing all the poultry and sheep they could find, without asking to whom they belonged; while the wretched owners durst not put in their claim, for fear of being beaten.  Lambs just fallen, geese and turkies (sic) big with egg, all massacred without distinction!  I fancied I heard the complaints of Melibeus for the hope of his flock.  When the bassas travel, ’tis yet worse.  These oppressors are not content with eating all that is to be eaten belonging to the peasants; after they have crammed themselves and their numerous retinue, they have the impudence to exact what they call teeth-money, a contribution for the use of their teeth, worn with doing them the honour of devouring their meat.  This is literally and exactly true, however extravagant it may seem; and such is the natural corruption of a military government, their religion not allowing of this barbarity, any more than ours does.

I HAD the advantage of lodging three weeks at Belgrade, with a principal effendi, that is to say a scholar.  This set of men are equally capable of preferments in the law or the church, these two sciences being cast into one, and a lawyer and a priest being the same word in the Turkish language.  They are the only men really considerable in the empire; all the profitable employments and church revenues are in their hands.  The grand signior, though general heir to his people, never presumes to touch their lands or money, which go, in an uninterrupted succession, to their children.  ’Tis true, they lose this privilege, by accepting a place at court, or the title of Bassa; but there are few examples of such fools among them.  You may easily judge of the power of these men, who have engrossed all the learning, and almost all the wealth of the empire.  ’Tis they that are the real authors, though the soldiers are the actors of revolutions.  They deposed the late sultan Mustapha; and their power is so well known, that ’tis the emperor’s interest to flatter them.