The work was written in 1804, by order of the then reigning Sultan, Selim III., with the view of explaining the important advantages of the new military institution, called Nizam-y-Gedid, by which the Ottoman armies were trained into a regular form of discipline. This institution, however necessary, and although strongly supported by all the higher classes, was so violently opposed by the clamorous janissaries, that at length it became impossible to continue it, and since the year 1805, the former regulations, or rather irregularities, have again been prevalent in the Ottoman armies. The same disorders which the Turkish author so faithfully describes as having existed before the introduction of the Nizam-y-Gedid, have necessarily followed its abolishment, and Turkey will no longer trust to her own means for salvation in future war. Her last one with Russia has made her feel but too sensibly how far the present form of discipline of her armies may prove fatal to her existence, if ever she is abandoned to herself for defence. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Geographical position and extent of Wallachia and Moldavia—historical remarks from the decline of the Dacians to the last century Page 1 CHAPTER II. Inauguration of the Hospodars.—Present form of government.—Local laws.—Tribunals of justice.—Members of the divan, and other public functionaries.—Districts.—Caïmacam of Crayova.—Ispravniks. 46 CHAPTER III. Population.—Tribute and taxes.—Other branches of revenue.—Metropolitan dignity.—Monasteries. 60 CHAPTER IV. Gold and silver mines.—Productions.—Restrictions on their exportations.—Navigation of the Danube.—Trade of importation. 72 CHAPTER V. Bukorest and Tirgovist, the capitals of Wallachia.—Yassi, the capital of Moldavia.—A description of them.—Mode of travelling.—Breed of horses. Page 86 CHAPTER VI. Observations on the Greeks in general.—Their introduction to the government of the principalities.—Their political system.—Causes of the declaration of war between England and Russia, and Turkey in 1806.—Those which occasioned the failure of the English expedition to Constantinople.—Subsequent change of policy of the Ottoman government.—Peace with England.—Peace with Russia, and circumstances which mostly contributed to it.—Hospodars, Callimacki and Caradja.—Prince Demetrius Mourousi’s death.—Caradja’s flight from Wallachia.—Reflections on the conduct of the Porte relative to the two principalities. 95 CHAPTER VII.