A Steam Voyage down the Danube, Vol. 2 of 2 by Michael J. Quin

Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi -- Its substance -- Third article -- Remaining patent articles -- Audiences of the Sultan -- Count Orloff -- Secret article -- Its effect -- Law of the Dardanelles -- Outrage on international law -- Treaty of Petersburg -- Boundaries -- The provinces -- Firman -- Russian ascendancy.

Left to struggle single-handed against an enemy for whom every fresh battle became a triumph, the Sultan was reduced to the necessity of applying to Russia for that succour which was denied him elsewhere. If ever the secret history of Ibrahim's expedition be revealed, it will probably exhibit the extent to which Russian agency was concerned in that enterprize. Its coincidences with the entanglements of France and England, both foreign and domestic, if not designed, were curiously fortunate for the views of Russia upon Turkey. No sooner was the request made than a Russian fleet of ten ships of the line and several frigates was dispatched to the Bosphorus, and a Russian army of fifty thousand men shortly after occupied the heights of Unkiar Skelessi, or "Giant's Mountain," on the Asiatic side of that canal -- the same heights which were once covered by the tents of the Crusaders who had assembled under the command of Godfrey of Boulogne.