European suburb of Constantinople, called Galata, and the Bosphorus was one of the scenes on which the most obstinate contests were maintained between their fleets and those of their rivals. Orchan hated the Venetians, whose fleets had insulted his seaward provinces, and who had met his diplomatic overtures with contempt, as if coming from an insignificant barbarous chieftain. The Venetians were allies of Cantacuzene; but Orchan sent an auxiliary force across the straits to Galata, which there co-operated with the Genoese. Orchan also aided the Emperor's other son-in-law, John Palæologus, in the civil war that was kept up between him and the Greek Emperor. In the midst of the distress and confusion with which the Byzantine empire was now oppressed, Orchan's eldest son, Solyman Pacha, struck a bold blow in behalf of his own race, which gave the Turks a permanent establishment on the European side of the Hellespont. This important event in the world's history took place in 1356. The Ottoman writers pass over in silence the previous incursions of the Turks into Europe, which gained no conquest and led to no definite advantage; but they dwell fully on this expedition of Solyman, and adorn it with poetic legends of the vision that appeared to the young chieftain as he mused on the sea-shore near the ruins of Cyzicus. They tell how the crescent of the moon rose before him as the emblem of his race, and united the continents of Europe and Asia with a chain of silver light; while temples and palaces floated up out of the great deep; and mysterious voices blended with the sounding sea, exciting in his

*

heart a yearning for predestined enterprise, and a sense of supernatural summons. The dream may have been both the effect of previous schemings, and the immediate stimulant that made Solyman put his scheming into act. With but thirty-nine of his chosen warriors, he embarked at night in a Genoese bark on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont, and surprised the castle of Tzympe, on the opposite coast. Reinforcements soon pushed across to the adventurers; and in three days Tzympe was garrisoned by three thousand Ottoman troops.

At this crisis, Cantacuzene was so severely pressed by his rival John Palæologus, that, instead of trying to dislodge the invaders from Tzympe, or even remonstrating against their occupation of that fortress, he implored the help of Orchan against his domestic enemy. Orchan gave up his brother-in-law's cause, and provided assistance to the old Emperor. But he ordered that assistance to be administered by Solyman, the conqueror of Tzympe, an auxiliary the most formidable to those with whom he was to co-operate. Ten thousand more Turks were sent across to Solyman, who defeated the Sclavonic forces which Palæologus had brought into the empire: but the victors never left the continent on which they had conquered.

Cantacuzene offered Solyman ten thousand ducats to retire from Tzympe. The sum was agreed on; but before the ransom was paid, a terrible earthquake shook the whole district of Thrace, and threw down the walls of its fenced cities. The Greeks trembled at this

* Von Hammer, vol. i., p. 132.

visitation of Providence; and the Turks saw in it the interposition of Heaven in their favour, and thought that the hand of God was smoothing the path for their conquest of the Promised Land. Two of Solyman's captains, Adjé Bey, and Ghasi Fasil, instantly occupied the important town of Gallipoli, marching in over the walls which the earthquake had shattered, and unresisted by the awe-struck inhabitants. The fields in the neighbourhood still are called after Adjé; and the tombs of these two captains of the Ottoman host are yet to be seen in Gallipoli. They were buried on the scene of their great exploit ; and Turkish pilgrims throng thither in veneration of the warriors, who gave to their race the strong city, the key of the Hellespont, the gate of easy passage into Europe.

Solyman, on hearing that his troops had occupied Gallipoli, refused to give up Tzympe; and drew large colonies of Turks and Arabs across the straits, which he planted in the territory which had been thus acquired. The fortifications of Gallipoli were repaired, and that important post was strongly garrisoned. Solyman took possession of other places in the Thracian Chersonese, which he strengthened with new walls and secured with detachments of his best troops. The Greek Emperor made a formal complaint of these aggressions to Orchan, who replied that it was not the force of arms that had opened the Greek cities to his son, but the will of God, manifested in the earthquake. The Emperor rejoined that the question was not how the Turks had marched into the cities, but whether they had any right to retain them. Orchan asked time to

consider the subject; and afterwards made some proposals for negociating the restoration of the cities; but he had firmly resolved to take full advantage of the opportunities for aggrandising the Ottoman power, which now were afforded by the basis for operations in Europe which had been acquired, and by the perpetual discussions that raged between Cantacuzene and his son-inlaw Palæologus; each of whom was continually soliciting Orchan's aid against the other, and obtaining that aid according to what seemed best for the interests of the Turkish sovereign-the real enemy of them both.

Orchan only lived three years after the capture of Tzympe and Gallipoli: his son Solyman, to whom he owed those conquests, and in whom he had hoped to leave a successor who should surpass all the glories hitherto won by the House of Othman, had died before him. An accidental fall from his horse, while he was engaged in the favourite Turkish sport of falconry, caused the young conqueror's death. Solyman was not buried at Brusa; but, by Orchan's order, a tomb was built for him on the shore of the Hellespont, over which he had led his race to a second empire.

Orchan died in the year 1359 of our era, at the age of seventy-five, after a reign of thirty-three years, during which the most important civil and military institutions of his nation were founded, and the Crescent was not only advanced over many of the fairest provinces of Asia, but was also planted on the European continent, whence its enemies have vainly sought to dislodge it during nearly five hundred years.

VOL. I.

D

CHAPTER III.

AMURATH 1.-CAPTURE OF ADRIANOPLE-BATTLE OF THE MARIZZA-CONQUESTS IN EUROPE AND ASIA-VICTORY OF KOSSOVA-DEATH OF AMURATH-BAJAZET'S ACCESSIONCONQUESTS-DEPRAVITY OF MANNERS-VICTORY OF NICOPOLIS-TIMOUR-DEFEAT OF BAJAZET AT ANGORA.*

THE death of Solyman Pacha had opened to his younger brother Amurath (or, as the Orientals name him, Murad), the inheritance of the Ottoman throne. Amurath was forty years of age when he succeeded his father, Orchan; and he reigned thirty years over the Ottomans in prosperity and glory. His first projects after his accession were to extend the European conquests of his father and brother; but he was checked for a time by the enmity of the Prince of Caramania, who stirred up a revolt in the Ottoman dominions in the centre of Asia Minor. Amurath marched an army rapidly to the scene of the insurrection, which he completely quelled. He then (in 1360) led his troops to the passage of the Hellespont; and commenced a series of victories in Europe, which were only terminated by his death on the field of battle at Kossova in 1389. Besides wresting from the Greeks

See Von Hammer, books v. vi. vii. viii.