Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 5, BUR-CHI

CAN [ x
perfon in the city ivas in arms. The Greek monks
took up mufkets } and the women, forgetting the deli
cacy of their fex, appeared on the walls among the de¬
fenders, either fupplying the men with ammunition and
arms, or fighting them'"elves j and feveral of thofe dar¬
ing heroines loll their lives.
For <;o days the city held out againft all the forces
of the Turks. If, even at the end of that time, the
Venetians had font a naval armament to its relief, the
kingdom of Candia might have been faved. Doubtlefs,
they were not ignorant of this we 1-known fafl. I he
north wind blows llvaight into the harbour of Canea.
When it blows a little brilkly, the fea rages. It is
then impoffible for any fquadron of ‘1 ips, however
numerous,' to form in line of battle in the harbour, and
to meet an enemy. If the Venetians had let out from
Cerigo with a fair wind, they might have reached
Canea in five hours, and might have entered the har¬
bour with full tails, without being expofed to one
cannon Ihot j while none of the Turkilh flips would
have dared to appear before them ; or if they had ven¬
tured, mud have been driven bacK. on the Ihore, and
dallied in pieces among the rocks. But, inftead of thus
taking advantage of the natural circumllances the
place, they fent a few galleys, which, not daring to
double Cape Spada, coalled along the fouthern Ihore
of the iiland, and failed of accomplilhing the defign of
their expedition.
At laid, the Cancans, defpairmg ©f relief from Ve¬
nice, feeing three breaches made in their walls, through
which the infidels might eafily advance upon them,
exhaulled with fatigue, and covered with wounds, and
reduced to the number of fQO men, who were obliged
to fcatter themfelves round the walls, which were hair
a league m extent, and undermined in all quarters,
demanded a parley, and offered to capitulate. They
obtained very honourable conditions j and after a glo¬
rious defence ‘of two months, which coll the 1 urks
20,000 men, -marched out of the city with the ho¬
nours of war. Thofe citizens who did not choofe to
continue in the city, were permitted to remove •, and
the Ottomans, contrary to their ufual practice, faith¬
fully obferved their llipulations.
The Venetians, after the lofs of Canea, retired to
Retimo. The captain-pacha laid fiege to the citadel
of the Sude, fituated in the entrance of the bay, on a*
high rock, of about a quarter of a league m circum¬
ference. He raifed earthen-batteries, and made an in¬
effectual attempt to level the ramparts. At lalt, de-
fpairing of taking it by affauit, he left fome forces to
block it up from all communication, and advanced to¬
wards Retimo. That city, being unwalled, was de¬
fended by a citadel, Handing on an eminence which
overlooks the harbour. General Cornaro had retired
thither. At the approach of the enemy, he advanced
from the city, and waited for them in the open field.
In the aftion, inattentive to his own fafety, he en¬
couraged the foldiers, by fighting in the ranks. A
glorious death was the reward of his valour j but his
fall determined the fate of Retimo..
The Turks having landed additional forces on the
ifiand they introduced the plague, which was almoft
a conilant attendant on their armies. This dreadful
neft rapidly advanced, and, like a devouring fire, waft¬
ing all before it, deftroyed raoft part of the inhabi-
4
20 ] CAM
tants. The reft, fiying in terror before its ravages, C
efcaped into the Venetian territories, and the ifiand ^
was left almoft defolate.
The fiege of the capital commenced in i6q6, and
was protracted much longer than that of Iroy. Till
the year 164b, the Turks fearce gained any advan¬
tages before that city. They were often routed by the
Venetians, and fometl^nes compelled to retire to Re¬
timo. At that period Ibrahim was folexnnly depofed,
and his eldeit fon, at the age of nine years, was raifed
to the throne, under the name of Mahomet IV. Not
falisfied with confining the fultan to the horrors and
obfeurity (if a dungeon, the partizans of his fon ftrangled
him on the 19th of Auguft, in the lame year, i hat
young prince, who mounted tne throne by the death
of his father, was afterwards exp; lied from it, and
condemned to pais the remainder of his life in con¬
finement.
In the year 1649, Uffein Pacha, who blockaded
Candia, receiving no fupplies from the Porte, was
compelled to raile the fiege, and retreat to Canea.
The Venetians were then on the fea with a ftrong fqua¬
dron. They attacked the Turkilh fleet in the bay of
Smyrna, burnt 1 2 of their ftnps and tw'o galleys, and
killed 6coo of their men. Some time after, the Ma¬
hometans having found means to land an army on Can¬
dia, renewed the fiege of the city with great vi¬
gour, and made themlelves mailers of an advanced
fort that Was very troublelome to ihe befieged j which
obliged them to blowT it up.
From the year 1650 till 1658, the Venetians, con¬
tinuing mailers of the fea, intercepted the Ottomans
every year in the ftraits of the Dardanelles, and fought
them in four naval engagements j in which they de¬
feated their numerous fleets, funk a number of their
caravels, took others, and extended the terj.or of their
arms even to the walls of Conllantinople. d hat capi¬
tal became a feene of tumult and disorder. Ihe Grand
Signior, alarmed, and trembling for his fafety, left the
city with precipitation.
Such glorious fuccefs revived the hopes of the Ve-*
netians, and depreffed the courage of the Turks. They
converted the fiege of Candia into a blockade, and
fuffered confiderable Ioffes. 1 he lultan, in order to
exclude the Venetian fleet from the Dardanelles, and
to open to his own navy a free and iafe paffage, caufed
two fortreffes to be built at the entrance of the ftraits.
He gave orders to the pacha of Canea to appear again
before the walls of Candia, and to make every pcfftble
effort to gain the city. In the mean, time, the repub¬
lic of Venice, to improve the advantages which they
had gained, made feveral attempts on Canea. In 1660,
that city was about to furrender to their arms, when
the pacha of Rhodes, haftening to its relief, reinforced
the defenders with a body of 2CCO men. He happily
doubled the extremity of Cape Melee, though wiihm
fight of the Venetian fleet, which was becalmed off
Cape Spada, and could not advance one fathom to
oppefe an enemy confiderably weaker than them¬
felves.
Klopruli, fon and fucceffor to the viur of that nanie^
who had long been the fupport of the Ottoman em¬
pire, knowing that the murmurs of the people, againft
the long continuance of the fiege of Candia
jifmg to a height, and fearing a general revolt, winch