[18] Winchilsea to Nicholas, March 4, 1660-61, Nov. 11-21, 1661, _S.P. Turkey_, 17; Rycaut’s _Memoirs_, p. 68; J. von Hammer’s _Histoire de l’Empire Ottoman_, vol. xi. p. 111. Winchilsea mentions only the “six thousand Bashaws and great men,” whom Mohammed put to death “partly by his own hands and by his commands.” Rycaut gives the total of the Vizir’s victims as “thirty-six thousand persons.” Hammer, though he does not consider this statement excessive, is content with an estimate of “trente mille personnes,” or an average of 500 executions a month--figures which, even if reduced by a nought, would still appear respectable. [19] Winchilsea to Nicholas, May 20, 1662, _S.P. Turkey_, 17. [20] Harvey to Arlington, Jan. 31, 1669 [-70], _S.P. Turkey_, 19. [21] See Appendix IV. [22] For illustrations of this timorous attitude see Winchilsea to Nicholas, March 4, 1660-61, Feb. 11, 1661-62; the Same to Arlington, March 26, 1668; Rycaut to Arlington, July 18, 1668; Letters from Messrs. Thomas Dethick & Co., Smyrna, Feb. 7, March 1, 1667-68; Harvey to Arlington, June 19, 1669, _S.P. Turkey_, 17 and 19. [23] Harvey to Arlington, Aug. 18, 1669, _S.P. Turkey_, 19. [24] See Appendix V. [25] Harvey to Arlington, Jan. 24, March 15, 1671-72, _S.P. Turkey_, 19. [26] “A Relation of the Damage rec. by me, Thomas Parker, Master of the _Lyon_ pinke from a Corsair near the Island of Delos. Smyrna, 9 Dec. 1671,” _ibid._ [27] _Register_, p. 39, _S.P. Levant Company_, 145. [28] _Ibid._ pp. 40-41. This letter, written in Latin, is dated “ex pallatio nostro Westmonasteriensi, Quarto die Augusti, Anno Doñi 1673, Regni nostri 25^o.” [29] Sir John Finch’s own Narrative, Sept. 24, 1680, _S.P. Turkey_, 19. [30] Rycaut’s _Memoirs_, p. 312. [31] Finch to Arlington, May 25, 1674 (with Inclosure), _Coventry Papers_. [32] Sir Thomas Baines to Conway, May 25, 1674, _S.P. Turkey_, 19. The letter, though unsigned and unaddressed, carries within it conclusive proof of its authorship and destination. CHAPTER II SIR JOHN’S PROGRAMME Sir John regarded his audience with the Kaimakam as nothing more than a prologue: the real action had yet to begin. His first business was “to make my selfe an Ambassadour by delivering His Majesty’s Credentials to the Gran Signor and His Letter to the Gran Visir.”[33] But that could not be done at Constantinople. For over a dozen years the seat of the Ottoman Empire had been at Adrianople.