Arms has ever been the great Source of the Propagation of their Faith, it is not to be wonder'd at, if those who had privately made a Defection from this last, did not fight with the utmost Resolution and Obstinacy, for the Power and Glory of a Mahometan Emperour.
But the dreadful Custom of giving the Soldiery such perpetual Largesses, and as it were, rewarding their Seditions whenever they resolved to depose one and set up another Emperour, (and confirm or destroy the Grand Viziers and Principal Bassa's, as the Fancy took them) absolutely overturn'd what little Spirit, Virtue or Discipline was left among them. Let us join to this abominable Insolence, the horrible Licence of daily guzling Wine in the Streets, and almost the very Mosques of Constantinople, and their Debaucheries of all kinds that accompany'd it, and we need not seek for any other causes of their surprizing Degeneracy.
Some indeed, have also accounted for it from their frequent Defeats in their Battles with the Germans and the Poles, and their being so often vanquish'd by both the Muscovites and Persians, who have all of them strip'd this Empire of some of its strongestFor-
