ABDUL-HAM1D made extraordinary efforts to main tain his position on the Danube; but though his forces were superior in numbers to the enemy, they shrunk from the contest, and Marshal Romanzow passed the river and proceeded to attack the Turkish camp at Schumla. By a masterly movement he cut off all communication between the vizier and his military stores, which produced such conster nation in the Ottoman army that they abandoned their standards and fled in all directions, leaving, of all their host, only 12,000 men to defend the standard of the prophet. The vizier immediately sued for peace. The preliminaries were dictated by the Russian general, and were signed in the Russian camp at Katchouk Kainardghi. The in terference of Austria preserved to the Porte the provinces of Moldavia, Wallachia, and Besserabia; and she had also restored to her the Grecian islands which had been captured during the war; the Cri mea was declared independent of the Porte; Russia retained her conquests between the rivers Bogh and Cuban, and her merchant vessels were admitted to the navigation of the Bosphorus.
The nominal independence of the Crimea was but of short duration. The empress soon found means of exciting domestic troubles in that country, of which she made a pretext to unite it to her own empire. The weakness of Turkey compelled her to submit to this new aggression. A repetition of insults, however, from the ambitious Catherine, who with the emperor Joseph had formed the design of dividing between them the Ottoman dominions, as they had formerly done those of Poland, drove the Turks to take up arms, as their only hope of de feating this project.* The Austrians also hurried into the contest, and assaulted Belgrade without the formality of a de claration of war. They were however repulsed on all sides; and the grand vizier entering the Bannat swept it of its inhabitants, and spread consternation and alarm to the very gates of Vienna. The Rus sians were more successful. The Ottoman fleet was destroyed in the mouth of the Dneiper, and the important fortress of Oczakow, after an obsti nate and courageous defence, was taken by assault, when the whole of the garrison and most of the in habitants were put to the sword. At this stage of the war, Abdul-Hamid was succeeded by his ne phew SELIM III., who instead of giving his atten
tion to the depressed state of his affairs, commenced his reign by a course of thoughtless folly and disso lute extravagance. Several years after, however, when his natural talents were developed, he became one of the mildest and most humane sovereigns that ever sat upon the Ottoman throne.
The Austrian and Russian armies, under the prince of Cobourg and general Suwarroff had form ed a junction in Moldavia, and having defeated a Turkish force commanded by Hassan-bey, advanced along the Siret to the plains of Rimnik. Here the Turks, led by the grand vizier, were routed with terrible slaughter, and with the loss of all their cannon and military stores. The Austrians then diverged into and ,took possession of Bucharest; while Suwarroff, having received the submission of Bender and other fortresses in Bes serabia, laid siege to Ismail. This fortress was de fended by 40,000 Turks; but Suwarroff was com manded to take it at any cost. Ten thousand Rus sians fell in the assault; but the laurels of the mer ciless victor were indelibly stained by the sack of the city, and the massacre of its brave garrison. Belgrade also capitulated to marshal Loudon, and the strong fortress of Nissa was the only barrier between his victorious army and the Ottoman capi tal. The enemy were thus advancing triumphantly on every side, and threatened the very existence of the Ottoman power in Europe. At this juncture the emperor Leopold succeeded to the Austrian sceptre; but instead of prosecuting the advantages which his troops had gained, he maintained merely a defensive position, and soon after, through the mediation of the courts of London and Berlin. en tered into a treaty with the porte, by which Bel grade and all the Austrian conquests were restored, except the temporary retention of the city of Choc zim. The Russians continued to prosecute another successful campaign, when Catherine also became desirous of peace, and the treaty of Jassy put a pe riod to the war. Of all their conquests, the Rus sians retained only the fortress and territory of Oczakow, and demanded 12,000,000 of piastres as an indemnity for the expenses of the war. This sum, however, was afterwards generously renounced by the Russian empress.