La Roche was the owner, as well as the master, of his vessel, which he called the _Britaine_, in honor of his native province. It was a heavily armed ship of two hundred tons burden, carrying a crew of sixty men. Such a number were not of course needed to manage a ship of that size. The excuse for their presence was found in the prevalence of piracy but, as we shall see, their duties were not entirely of a defensive character. The truth of the matter is that La Roche, like many another reputable ship-captain of his time, was himself more than half a pirate. His vessel was a combination of merchantman and privateer with authority to attack the ships of nations at war with his country. The condition was very laxly observed, however, and might, more often than political considerations, governed in such matters. When the relations of the powers to one another were constantly changing and a voyage frequently occupied a year, a captain’s safest course was to treat every foreign sail as an enemy and either to attack it or to run from it. With a valuable cargo such as La Roche had on this occasion, the master of a vessel would generally try to make a peaceful voyage to the port of destination. If a similar cargo could not be secured for the return voyage, he would try to compensate himself for the failure by taking a prize. The voyage to Alexandria was completed without incident of importance. John improved the opportunity to learn all that he could about seamanship and the handling of big guns. Before the vessel made port Captain La Roche pronounced his pupil a very creditable mariner and almost capable of sailing the ship himself. Having discharged his cargo, the captain proceeded to the Ionian Sea for the purpose, as he said, of learning “what ships were in the road,” or, in other words, to see if there was anything about upon which he could prey. A few days had been spent in this quest, when a large Venetian argosy was sighted in the straits of Otranto. Now the Venetians, sinking all other considerations than those of greed and self-interest, had entered into a treaty with the Turks. In this fact Captain La Roche might have found sufficient excuse for attacking the richly laden ship, but a better was forthcoming. It was one of those great unwieldy craft in which the merchants of Venice sent cargoes of fabulous worth to all parts of the world. Its size was more than twice that of the _Britaine_ and its armament at least equal to hers. The latter, however, had all the advantage in speed and ability to manœuvre--a highly important quality, as the Spaniards had learnt a few years previously when their great Armada was destroyed by the comparatively small English ships.