MUSTAPHA III. during the first ten years of his reign maintained inviolate the treaty of Belgrade; and while Catherine II. was developing her plans of spoliation and aggrandisement in the dismem berment of Poland, he confined himself to remon strances against her outrages and usurpations. During this period he was assisted by his able and enlightened vizier, Mahomet Raghib, in restoring order and energy to his domestic government. The encroachments of Russia, however, upon his frontier at last compelled him to take up arms. The war was commenced by an irruption of Tartars under Krim Guary, who laid waste new Servia and carried the inhabitants into captivity; but this in defatigable chief by his superior skill and boldness had rendered himself an object of jealousy to the grand vizier Mahomet Emir, and, as he was pre paring for an irruption into Poland, he was cut off by poison. In the following year the inexperienced Mahomet rashly advancing to the Polish frontier was defeated by Prince Galitzin, and paid for his rashness with the loss of his head. His successor Moldovandgi, though a general of bravery and re putation, was equally unfortunate. He attempted to pass the Dneister in the face of the Russian army, when his bridges were swept away by a sudden swelling of the river, which excited such a panic among his troops that they fled in confusion, leav ing the strong fortress of Choczim an easy prey to Galitzin, who immediately advanced into Moldavia. These disasters induced Mustapha to think of peace, but the ambition of Catherine insisted upon the cession of Moldavia and Wallachia. The sultan, therefore, prepared for another campaign; but his army after two severe defeats was driven within the Danube, and the principal fortresses in Besserabia fell into the hands of the Russians. Bender was
also taken by assault, and the greater part of the garrison put to the sword.
While the Turks were every where repulsed in the north, Catherine sent a Russian fleet with troops into the Morea to excite the Greeks to throw off the Turkish yoke. The Ottoman fleet, after a severe action, was defeated, and was afterwards burnt by the enemy in the bay of Tehesme; but the Greeks were afterwards abandoned to their fate, and their attempt at emancipation served only to rivet their chains the more closely.
Repeated attempts were made at negotiation in 1771, and at the same time a desultory warfare was prosecuted on both sides, but without any decisive result. The Russians overran the Crimea, while the Turks took the fortress of Giurgevo, but were afterwards compelled to relinquish it. The cam paigns of the two following years were in general advantageous to the Ottomans, the enemy having been repulsed with great loss from before Silistria and Varna, and driven across the Danube. During these transactions Mustapha was carried off by an attack of dropsy in the stomach. He was a prince of considerable endowments, and notwithstanding his scanty education, he was held in high estima tion by his subjects as a wise and enlightened sovereign. He stood firm and undismayed amidst the reverses and dangers which surrounded his throne, and exhorted his successor to resist to the last the ambitious designs of the Russians.