HAd not the manifold disobligations, which some of the said Company, in the name of the whole, have laid upon me (since it pleased his Majesty to re-call me from that Negotiation) cast some umbrage upon my name and reputation in the eye of the World (which will not easily believe such unkindnesses could come unpro­voked on my part) I could have easily sat down in silence, content with the Conscience of having discharged my Duty therein, as be­came the honour of a Gentleman, and have imputed their ingrati­tude and forgetfulness to the common chance that attends upon all humane affairs, and especially upon those, that have to do with men, whose principles direct them to no higher end then their own profit and advantage.

But since, to absolve themselves from that just satisfaction they [Page 2]ought in honour to make me, they have found out so ignoble a way, as not onely to prosecute me with Suits in Chancery, upon feigned pretences of my being their Debtor, but to load me also with disho­nour and reproach, and to stigmatize my name with scandals, and crimes of a most horrid and odious nature; I find my self so farr in­debted to the honour of my Family, as not to suffer the yet unspot­ted Reputation thereof (transmitted to me by my Ancestors) to be lost in me for want of a just and necessary Vindication.

And though I am not apt to glory in mine own actions (holding it for a rule, who boasts his own good deeds, does in the very act thereof forfeit his reward) yet, if in wiping off that Dirt which hath been thrown upon me, I am forced to recount my Services, with those just advantages they have merited (from those at least who have reaped the benefit of them) I hope the candid and ingenious Reader will make a fair Interpretation thereof, by distinguishing so necessary a Justification, from a vain and empty Boasting.

What the advantage and benefit of the Turkie Trade hath hereto­fore been, and now again is (not onely to this Nation in general, but more particularly to the Levant Company) is not unknown to any who have considered how many thousand Woollen Cloths (the Staple Manufacture of this Kingdom) are yearly exported from hence thither, and what vast returns thereof are made from thence in Raw Silk, Cotton Woolls, Cotton Yarn, Grogerin Yarn, and other like Commodities, upon the conversion of which into Ma­nufacture, so many thousands of his Majesties Subjects are daily set on work, and thereby enabled to maintain themselves and families. But in how low and unsettled a Condition I found this Trade at my arrival in Constantinople, and how flourishing I left it, at the end of my well-neer fourteen years Negotiation, since some of the said Company have so willingly, and unworthily forgotten, I must crave leave to put them in mind thereof, that by comparing the difference, they may be convinced (if it be possible) of their own ingratitude, and the World inform'd of their injustice towards me. Wherein yet I would be understood, not to reflect upon all the Members of this Society, knowing many of them to be Persons of much honour and worthiness, and such as wholly dislike the proceedings of the rest; I call therefore to those others to remember;

That some time before my arrival, the Fence and Security of all their priviledges (founded upon former Treaties and Capitulations [Page 3]between the Crown of England and the Grand Seignior) had been thrown down and trodden under foot: And that the report of that unnatural Fire which was then burning in England (being kindled by Rebells against their natural Prince) had rendred the English, without distinction, odious, and contemptible, even in all parts of the World where they resided, especially in Constantinople; of which the Vizier, (the great Minister, and sole Governour of the Empire) taking advantage, and looking upon the English Nation, as men with whom no faith was to be kept, willingly suffered all manner of depredations to be done unto the Residers there.

And hence it was, that at my arrival, I sound the Factory in so great disorder, and confusion, as that their goods and merchandize were, by Turkish violence, frequently torn from them by the Vizier himself, and other Officers, not onely out of their Ships, and Vessels, but out of their very Houses too, without price, or hope of payment; their persons affronted, reviled, yea, and kick'd in the very streets, their Mariners beaten aboard their Ships, and nothing wanting to make them perfectly miserable, but captivity it self; and that which aggravated all these calamities, was, that it admitted of no redress or cure, but by the same hand that was the cause of all their grie­vances, even the Vizier himself.

To him therefore (after advice, and counsell with the Factory, though hopeless of any good success) I made my application, en­deavouring by all fair means (for there was no other then to be offer'd at) to make him sensible of the wrongs done, and to obtain justice, and satisfaction, for the goods taken away, as aforesaid.

Now, so far was he from granting my desire (though making many fair promises, and protestations, at the first) that in fine, I receiv'd no other Answer, then a flat and peremptory Denyal, and, instead of restitution, a demand of our Ships (being seven in num­ber) to serve the Grand Seignior against the Venetians; and to shew that he was in good earnest, command was then immediately given by him to the Captain Bassa, to force them into the said ser­vice the next morning; most of them being then laden, and ready for departure.

This being the state of affairs in this juncture of time, I shall desire the Company (if at least they have any sense of honour, or any gratefull remembrance of the course I took then, with the de­sperate hazard of my life, and all that was dear to me, to extricate [Page 4]them out of this labyrinth) to look back, and call to mind the great danger which hung over their Factors heads, and their own estates, being then deprived both of Ships to supply their Trade, and of goods to trade with; and to consider what they then, or their Factors were able to have done, save to lament their losses, and stand as so many Ciphers to make the accompt of their miseries the greater? had not the providence of God directed me to a course no less desperate then their condition, and made me therein successfull.

The Vizier, as much incensed as the haughtiness and avarice of an enraged Barbarian could make him, and therefore not at all to be dealt with; The Grand Seignior himself inaccessible, but by, and through his means: In this extremity of their condition, what was now to be done, but to make my publick Appeal unto the Gr. Seignior with fire upon our Ships? (a course as hazardous, as it was rare and unusual) But the honour of the King my Master, under whose Commission I was, the interest of the English Nati­on, and, in particular, of the Turkie Company, together with mine own Reputation lying at stake, I made no difficulty to break through all considerations of danger, and to make my Appeal against the Vizier, in the form before mentioned.

Which (to let pass the passages in the managery thereof, lest I should be thought to glory in mine own actions) took its desired effect, and was the means of restoring the Factory, in less then two days, to the full height of their Privileges, honour, and estate, and that in a greater splendour then ever they formerly enjoy'd them; for thereupon, the Ships were released from the Grand Seignior's service, the Customs which, before my time, had been raised from three to six per Cent. were reduced again to three; ten thousand Dollers were brought in ready mony into the Ships, to­wards the satisfaction of those goods the Vizier had taken away, and security given for what remain'd unpaid; debts, old and de­sperate, due to the Company from Jews and others, before my time, were by the power of the Vizier (who then saw himself in­dangered by the Appeal) forced to be satisfied, and all possible assurance given, that we should be civilly treated in the future, and that the Capitulations should be inviolably preserv'd: And thus far they have been as as good as their words, that from the day of their promise to the time I left Constantinople, they never attempted to take by force any goods whatever, either from our Ships, or Merchants houses, which before was usual.

And however the memory of this eminent Service (pardon the expression) comes to be obliterated, yet, as it pleased his late Majesty, of ever blessed memory, to own it in a Letter to me from the Isle of Wight, and, in his royal sense of my Service therein, to honour that action with the title of a Discreet and stout behaviour; so time was, when this very Company (who now blast my Reputation with so much violence, and so little cause) were not backward to acknowledge it in a Letter, sent to their Factory in Constantinople.

Wherein their words were, That, they were onely sorry that their present condition was such, as made them unable to remunerate my care according to my merit, which yet they hoped they might in time be in a capacity to do. Which, how far they have been mindfull of, I leave to the World to judge, when I shall have inform'd them, that to blot out the memory of this obligation (which they have not honour enough to recompense) they have unjustly loaded me with disgrace, and, in their malicious Bills, exhibited against me in the Chancery, have taxed me on Record, with breach of Trust, Confederacy against them, and Conversion of their monies to my own use, though they know themselves not able to make good one particle of that Charge, or that I ever touch'd one penny of their money.

But this is not the only Service for which they have made me re­compence in this coin; they may please to call to mind, that I (not satisfy'd in having restored them by the means aforesaid, to their old Privileges, and therewith to their Estates, their Ships & Trade) still went on obtaining new ones, and strengthening the old. To which end, after the horrid murther committed upon his late Ma­jesty (that I might not in the least measure seem to comply with those execrable Usurpers) I renew'd the Capitulations in the name of his present Majesty King Charles the second, to the no small danger of my life the second time, being for it accused in England of high Treason against the then pretended State; and to those renewed Ca­pitulations, I procured the Grand Seignior's own hand (called the Hatsheriff) an honour and security never granted before, nor since, to any Christian Emperor, King, or State whatever in way of Trade; and in the renewing of them, I gain'd an addition of such Privileges, as might any ways advantage the Trade, or secure the Factories, and in particular, several clauses against the Customers of Aleppo, for [Page 6]taking Customs upon moneys, and raw Silk; the abolishing of which exaction, hath saved many thousand pounds in the Companies Purse.

It was by my means and negotiation, that the Companies estate was discharg'd from a Fine laid upon it in Aleppo of 10000 l. It was by Gods blessing upon my endeavours, that (without expence to the Company, the Grand Seignior was pacify'd touching that great affront put upon him by Blake in battering his Castles, and sinking eight of his Ships in Farine (a Harbor near Tunis) for which otherwise, he would, no doubt, have seized on the estate in the Countrey, as formerly upon less provocation he hath done, and as the Company then feared, could not be prevented. It was by my industry, and with much labour and patience, that I wrought out by degrees, and obtain'd for them that advantageous Privilege whereof the Merchants of no Nation but ours have the benefit at this day; viz. That no English man shall be condemned upon any pretence of debt laid upon him by the testimony either of Turks, Jews, or Christians, but what he had himself acknowledg'd be­fore a Cadde, or Judge, in writing. By vertue of this Privilege I de­fended the Companies estates against all false pretences or Avaneas, and especially at Smyrna, against the pretence of 75000 l. sterling, demanded of them by one Halillaga a Turk of great power with the Vizier, because he was with his treasure, together with 120 of the Grand Seignior's Subjects, delivered up to the Venetians by a Commander of one of our Ships. And in another case I satisfied the Grand Seignior's demand of above twenty thousand pounds more, with a few rotten and decayed Goods, and less then 4000 l. in money, for certain provisions of his (which one Ell, another English Commander, ran away with from Alexandria to Legorn.) Moreover, by timely finding out and preventing a false pretence made by the Customer of Aleppo to the Bassa, and by him recommended to the Vizier (who had allow'd of it) I saved the Factory there from an intended seizure upon all their estates, under pretence of arrears of Customes (many years due) for Silk & money.

Unto which I may justly add, as not the least of those Services I did the Company in the time of my Negotiation (which with the rest, they have wholly forgot) that I reduced the annual expences of the Port of Constantinople from 25. and 30000. Dollers (which it was at before my time) to 20000. Dollers per annum onely; which of it self may sufficiently answer those vast and unjust pretences they [Page 7]make upon me; for, if their expences in the general have (by my fru­gality for them) been made less by many thousands of Pounds, then what they were before my time; how is it possible, or from whence can it arise, that I should wrong them in any part of their Estate? Moreover, had I really done them any kind of injury, how untruly did their own mouths assure his Sacred Majesty of my honest and just dealings with them, when they for that Cause so earnestly peti­tioned Him for my longer stay in Turkie. Yet, what honesty so up­right, or reputation so cleer, that may not be abused by such, as neither regard their words, examine their Consciences, nor value their expences, which they impose on every trading Member of their Company, how averse soever he be to their proceedings.

What I did in right of the Kings Majesty, by whose onely Com­mission, and in whose Name, I resided there (without accepting any Commission or Authority from any of those usurping Powers then in England) and how farr I insisted to support his Majesties Honour and Interest in Turkie, during my Negotiation, I shall not reckon among my Services done to the Company, being lead to those per­formances by the more powerfull obligation of my duty, and alle­giance, and not from any other respects whatsoever, which were but secundary, and subservient; neither was it then looked upon by them, as any service at all (but rather the contrary) when, with the great expence of my private Estate and Purse, I prevailed so farr with some of the Ministers of those usurping Powers, as to prevent the sending of two or three persons to Constantinople with Oliver's Commission, whom the Company had chosen in their Courts to sup­plant me. Likewise I did oppose, and dismiss from Constantinople, one called Major Lawrence, whom they sent thither with the like Commission to supersede and make null that of his Majesties. And I have no slender grounds to believe, that the true, and secret cause of their so unjust prosecutions at this time, is, the revenge they me­ditate against me for those very actions.

But it sufficeth me, that as against all their malicious darts I have the witness of a good Conscience within me, so I hope I am able to make it appear to all the world without, that I have in all my proceedings demean'd my self carefully, honestly, and uprightly towards them, and not onely so, but, in some sort, have superarro­gated, by augmenting their Privileges, preserving their Estates, and Persons, from many threatning dangers, and have saved and pro­cured [Page 8]them, through my care and pains, many hundred thousand Dollers in their Purses, having, in the mean time, worn out and con­sumed the best part of my time and strength, without any advantage to my self or family.

To summ up all, I found at my arrival, that the swelling Torrent of Turkish Justice had, in a manner, drowned all their Interest of Trade and Commerce there; to reduce which, and to confine it within its proper Channel, cost me neer seven years perpetual labour and pains, with the expence of many thousand pounds extraor­dinary out of mine own Purse (of which I never placed one penny to their Accompt) and having by this means fortified the banks, and so kept them, for the space of seven years more from any such like inundation, the Channel of their Privileges is now worn so deep, and runs so cleer, that it is a thing almost impossible, the like should ever break out again.

After all which, to be branded by them with the odious Character of a Trust-breaker, and Confederate against them; to be unjustly charged with conversion of their Treasure to my private and extra­vagant expences, and to be violently prosecuted as their Debtor, at the same time, when, upon a just and equal accompt, they owe me (beside what before mention'd) above a thousand pounds for so much paid me short of their agreement with me in the weight and value of their Dollers; and the result of all, to be the murthering of my Name and Reputation, thereby to render me contemptible, and incapable of all future Trust and Imployment; I appeal to all the World, who have the least sense of Honour, and Justice in them, whether these are not injuries above all possibility of satisfaction? and whether, by so igno­minious an ingratitude, they do not loudly tell the World, what re­compence all those persons, who shall hereafter receive the honour to be imploy'd by his Majesty in the same Negotiation, must expect at their hands, for all the Services they can, or shall endeavour to do them?