the enemy, and Candia was without farther delay surrendered to the Porte. The success of this attempt raised its projector at once to the highest point of favour with his sovereign,* which he took advantage of, to represent the imprudence of entrusting a duty so arduous and confidential as that of Interpreter to a mere slave or a stranger;† and Mahomet, convinced by his arguments, immediately invested the office with new and imposing dignity. Panayotaki received the title of Divan Terziman, or Drogueman of the Council; he was assigned apartments in the palace, and his salary was raised to a sum equivalent to the rank and importance of his situation. In the war which the Porte undertook for the Cossacks of the Ukraine, who refused submission to the crown of Poland, Panayotaki again accompanied his patron. Whilst the army lay before Kaminiec in Podolia, he was asked by Kiuprouli why he, who knew so much concerning the fate of others, could not predict his own? "Come to me at midnight," replied the interpreter, " and you will witness an event which will occasion you some astonishment, and perhaps regret." At the appointed hour the Vizir arrived at the * Cantemir, p. 261. + Carrel, 136. Ninety-four purses, Carrel, p. 150. Rab, p. 98. tent of his favourite, and found him expiring in the arms of his attendants. He entreated as a last favour, that his body might be conveyed to the capital: Kiuprouli complied, and the remains of the first Phanariot noble* were interred in the Monastery of the Trinity, in one of the isles of the Propontis.t To Panayotaki succeeded Alexander Mavrocordato, a Sciot by birth, and, like his predecessor, a medical student of Padua and Bologna. His first recommendation in the eyes of the Turks was his apparent magic in judging of the intensity of disease by the violence of pulsation; and a tract on the then newly-discovered theory of the circulation of the blood, contributed highly to raise him in the estimation of the Court. At the treaty of Carlowitz, 1699, he appeared as the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Ottoman Porte, and received the 崇 "Les Grecs du Fanar, avant cette mémorable époque, partageaient les disgrâces communes à tous les Grecs, et rien n'annonçait qu'il devait s'établir chez eux une aristocratie aussi vicieuse que puissante."- Zalloni, p. 238. † Cantemir, 262. Thornton, vol. ii. p. 305. Rabbe, p. 98. Resumé de Bory St. Vincent, p. 355. Mr. Hobhouse (Voyage in Albania, &c. Lett. 81.) has committed a slight error in confounding this individual with his son Nicolas, who subsequently became Hospodar of Wallachia. "Nicholas Mavrocordato, the first Greek Waivode of title of Bey and Mahremi Esrar, or "depositof secrets," which has descended to his official successors.* ary From the death of Panayotaki, the situation of Interpreter to the Divan continued to be held with even increased privileges by Greeks; and edicts were issued by the Sultans forbidding its enjoyment to either Jews or Armenians.† An ample field was thus opened for the ambition of the Phanariots; their children, from an early age, were educated in the accomplishments necessary to qualify them for the elevated office,§ and as an additional recom Wallachia chosen by the Porte, was elected about the beginning of the last century, after having been Plenipotentiary for the Sultan at Carlowitz." The same mistake has been made by another author, who is referred to by Zalloni, p. 239. Rizo, p. 58. "Son titulaire avait la qualification de très glorieux, et lorsqu'il était fils d'un Hospodar celle de très illustre.”—Rabbe, p. 98. "Depuis Panayotaki, le Secrétaire-interprète ou Drogman de la Porte fut toujours Grec de nation. Cette dignité fut solemnellement interdite aux Juifs et aux Arméniens, par des édits autographes des Sultans."-Rizo, p. 59. ↑ Zalloni, p. 17. Carrel, 137. § "L'étude approfondie de la langue Grecque, du Latin, de l'Italien, du Français, et des trois principales langues Orientales, le Turc, l'Arabe, et le Persan, étaient des préliminaires et des instrumens indispensables pour réussir dans la carrière restreinte et ambitionnée des charges auxquelles mendation, numbers of them assumed the ancient names of Greeks of the lower empire, in order to command a higher respect in the eyes of their countrymen.* As a peculiar mark of les Grecs de Constantinople pouvaient aspirer."”—Rizo, Cour. de Lit. Grec. Mod. part ii. p. 81. It was only, however, with the express permission of the Hospodar, by whom they were created Boyars, that the children of Phanariots were enabled to learn the language of their masters, (Zalloni, p. 195.) The concession of this favour, and the introduction of the Hotgia, or Turkish tutor, to his pupils, occasioned a kind of festival in the family to whom it was granted. The Hotgia, for his services, was obliged to be handsomely remunerated; since his office was one, which, owing to the prohibitions of the Koran, rendered him degraded in the eyes of his countrymen. The system adopted towards the Beyzades, or sons of the Prince, was totally different, no other language being taught to them, till they were perfectly masters of Turkish. Thornton, vol. ii. p. 306. "Les Fanariotes par vanité, ou par toute autre cause ont substitué, aux noms qu'ils donnaient vulgairement à leurs enfans, des noms plus historiques, plus pompeux, plus conformes à leur orgueil. Cette espèce de fourberie n'est pas très dangereuse pour les contemporains, mais il arrivera qu'un jour la Grèce ne sera peuplée que de faux descendans, des Ptolemées, des Perdiccas, des Comnènes, des Paleologues, &c. &c.-Zalloni, p. 171. See ib. P. 238. Hobhouse mentions the same. "It is true that some families boast a more noble descent from the Sovereigns of Constantinople, for the name of Catacuzenus has been once assumed by two Wallachian Greeks, but, as it ap respect, the Drogueman was allowed to cherish his long and glossy beard, a favour accorded only to the faithful, and permitted to dress in flowing robes, like his masters, with the exception of assuming, in lieu of a turban, a cap furred with ermine, similar to those of the interpreters to foreign embassies. Like the patriarch of his church, he might ride attended by four domestics through the streets of the capital, and neither he, his sons, nor twenty of his suite, were compelled to pay taxes or karatsch.* It was likewise one of the privileges conceded to Panayotaki, to be enabled to purchase Georgian slaves, a prerogative formerly accorded to Moslems alone; and no other court could take cognizance of any charge against the state interpreter, than the supreme tribunal of the Grand Vizir.t The duties of his appointment originally consisted in attending at the conferences of the Reis Effendi with European ministers, and in translating the letters and dispatches addressed pears, without their having had any just pretensions to that distinction." See also Wilkinson's Wallachia and Moldavia, ch. ii. p. 58. * Rizo, p. 59. + He had also "la faculté de sauver de l'apostasie quelques unes de ces chrétiens, et de les affranchir après les avoir rachetés."-Rizo, p. 59. |