In addition to this mass of manuscript, there exists for the period a surprising amount of printed material, some of which, though available for centuries, has not yet been exhausted, and the rest was but recently made public. It so happened that, besides our Ambassador, there resided at the time in Turkey three other Englishmen who left behind them records of current events. They were our Consul at Smyrna, Paul Rycaut; our Treasurer at Constantinople, Dudley North; and the Chaplain, John Covel: all three men of leading and light in their day. Their letters, memoirs, and journals, written independently and from different angles of vision, go a long way towards supplementing, confirming, or correcting the Ambassador’s reports, as well as the information handed down by several foreign contemporaries.[1] For, by another rare coincidence, the representative of France, Nointel, whose history blends with that of Finch, also had round him a number of Frenchmen busy writing. Joseph von Hammer had access to some of these sources and drew in some small measure upon them; but it was left for a modern French writer to turn them to full account in a book which I have consulted with much pleasure and some profit.[2] Lastly, reference should be made to two new works bearing on the subject. Although both publications deal with matters mostly outside the scope of this book, they have furnished me with a number of suggestive details.[3] I may take this opportunity of mentioning that, in my dates, unless otherwise stated, I follow the Old Style, which still was the style of England, and, in the seventeenth century, lagged behind the New by ten days; but I reckon the year from the first of January. All lengthy notes are relegated to an Appendix, so that matters calculated to benefit the seeker after solid instruction may not bore the reader who seeks only entertainment. G. F. A. CHELSEA, _March 1920_. FOOTNOTES: [1] My references are to the following editions:-- _The Memoirs of Paul Rycaut, Esq._, London, 1679; _The Present State of the Ottoman Empire_, by Sir Paul Ricaut, Sixth Edition, London, 1686; _The Life of the Honourable Sir Dudley North, Knt._, by the Honourable Roger North, Esq., London, 1744; _Extracts from the Diaries of Dr. John Covel, 1670-1679_ (in _Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant_), edited by J. Theodore Bent, The Hakluyt Society, London, 1893; _Some Account of the Present Greek Church_, by John Covel, D.D., Cambridge, 1722. [2] _Les Voyages du Marquis de Nointel (1670-1680)_, par Albert Vandal de l’Académie Française, Paris, 1900. [3] _Report on the Manuscripts of Allen George Finch, Esq., of Burley-on-the-Hill_, edited by Mrs. Lomas for the _Historical Manuscripts Commission_, vol. i., London, 1913; _Finch and Baines_, by Archibald Malloch, Cambridge, 1917. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE A DIPLOMAT IN SPITE OF HIMSELF 1