Comte de Césy (full name Philippe de Harlay, comte de Césy) was the French Ambassador to Istanbul (then Constantinople) during the early 17th century. According to de Cesy, even a relatively small number of Cossacks chaikas long-boats spotted at the entrance to the Bosporus in 1621 caused a panic:
“The fright is so great that it is not possible to express it. Sixteen boats of the Cossacks have these last days passed up to the column of Pompey near the entrance of the canal ofthc Black Sea [i.e., the Bosporus] taken some kara miirsel [cargo ships], burned and sacked, some villages from which the sudden panic was such that many people from Pera and Kasun Pasha as far as the arsenal have begun to move their possessions to Constantinople.” (Dispatch of 17 June 1621)
De Cesy observed that even “the rumor of four boats of the Cossacks in the Black Sea troubled them here [in Istanbul] more than would the plague in the Morea or in Barbary, so much do they fear this side [i.e., the Black Sea]”. (Dispatch of 18 June 1622).
Sir Thomas Roe (1581 – 1644), an English diplomat and Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1621 to 1628 reported that the news of Cossack presence in the Black Sea and rumor that their number exceeded 300 chaikas brought about the following scene: “All the inhabitants of the Bosphorus do daily retire to the [walled] city [of Istanbul]. The feare is generale“. (Dispatch of 22 March 1625)
In the following spring, Roe wrote that with a rumor of 700 Zaporozhian boats, now with Polish support, ready to set out and attack near Istanbul,
“…all the villages on the Bosphorus, to the gates of Constantinople tremble, and the city is not without fear; softened by certain prophecies and astrologians, who foretell a great blow from a Northern people. Twenty galleys keep watch at the mouth of the channel (the Bosporus): the captan bassa (grand admiral) with about 40 more will depart within 10 days, almost already conquered by his own and the common fears“. (Dispatch of 16 May 1626).
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