The misgovernment which had culminated in the troubles which we have described led the Porte to make another change in the administration, whether of its own motion or, as Michael de Vezin suggests,1 at the instigation of the Bishops and the Dragoman of the Saray (who was a connexion by marriage of the Archbishop), in concert with the Kapudan Pasha. Hitherto the island had been leased from the Grand Vezir for 310,000 piastres by the Muhassil and two other capitalists. Now the Porte was persuaded to withdraw the island from the tenure of the Grand Vezir and transfer it once more to the Kapudan Pasha. This was in the year 1785, when the Porte, ‘for secret reasons of high policy’, put up for sale the revenues of many of its provinces. The Kapudan Pasha continued the old vicious system, and appointed a governor who came from Rhodes and who, according to de Vezin, did nothing except on the advice of the Bishops and the Dragoman of the Saray, the latter being the chief collector of taxes and duties. ‘The differences between the former Musellim and the bishops were the reason that the island is now farmed out for the fixed yearly sum of 900 purses, or 450,000 piastres. The income of the Governor is undefined, he can amass just as much as his conscience allows. The bishops do their best to keep on good terms with him.’