Fortresses and richest Provinces. But it is plain these were not the Causes but the Effects of their decay'd Valour and Discipline, by which they have by degrees lost all their Conquests in Persia, and their Territories round the black Sea, together with the greatest part of Transilvania, Moldavia and Wallachia, and almost to the Gates of Adrianople.
Nor is it their Land Forces only that have thus declin'd, for their naval Power which was anciently so formidable is now so prodigiously sunk, since the Defect of their Fleet by the English Squadron in 1876, and in the Sea-fight with the Dutch ten Years afterwards, that besides their losing both Crete and Cyprus to the Pope and Venetians, they have lost all Interest and Influence, with their old Dependants of Tunis and Algiers. Nay, the very Knights of Malta, have since so often burnt and taken their greatest Galeasses, that their few Gallies and Ships of War that remain to them, dare hardly fail now out of sight of the Dardanelles, to collect the little Tribute of the neighbouring Islands, which are every Day revolting to them and the Venetians, and refusing the Payment of their old Capitation Tax.
After
