The Virginia Gazette

CONSTANTINOPLE, April 20.

The Sublime Porte was never so much at a Stand, never so much distressed to carry on a War, as they are in the present renewed one against the Russians. The Treasury of the Ottoman Empire is nearly exhausted; the Army, though numerous, is but in an indifferent State, and distracted with Mutinies; the Navy is in the same Predicament, and every Preparation which ought to have gone forward with Spirit is relaxed, nay omitted, through the innate Fear which the Turks harbour against the Russians; in short, every Thing is in a State of Desperation, and it must be next to a Miracle that the Turkish Empire is not soon shook to its Basis.

This City was lately set on Fire in five different Parts; two Women Slaves, who were accused and convicted of being the Authors of it, have been strangled. Last Tuesday a Tartar arrived here with the News that three Days after the Plenipotentiaries had separated there had been a sharp Skirmish, near Kouie, between the Ottomans and the Russians, to the Disadvantage of the former; and that the Russians had advanced as far as Kouig, within twelve Miles of the Grand Vizier's Camp. Nevertheless, a Report prevails that there has been an Action between the Turks and the Russian Cossacks, between Silistria and Kouig, in which the latter were defeated; moreover, that the Maniottes, who have been joined by some Hundreds of Albanians, are destroying Part of the Morea.