Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean: The grand period of the Moslem corsairsCurrey, E. Hamilton (Edward Hamilton)
History
Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean: The grand period of the Moslem corsairs
Currey, E. Hamilton (Edward Hamilton)
Africa, North -- History; Pirates
By the year 1540 Dragut had distinctly “arrived”; that is to say, he
had succeeded in making himself so dreaded that Charles V. ordered
Andrea Doria to seek him out and destroy him at any cost. The Christian
admiral was “to endeavour by all possible means to purge the sea of so
insufferable a nuisance.”
Andrea got ready a fleet, which he entrusted, together with the care
and management of this affair, to his nephew Jannetin Doria. This was
the nephew who, in the disastrous attack by Charles on Hassan Aga
at Algiers in the following year, was so nearly lost in the storm
which destroyed the fleet of the emperor; and of whom Andrea Doria is
reported to have said, “It was decreed that Jannetin should be reduced
to such an extremity purposely to convince the world that it was not
impossible for Andrea Doria to shed a tear.” Certainly from what we
know of the celebrated Genoese admiral it is hard to imagine him in a
tearful mood. Jannetin Doria put to sea, and, after a long hunt, found
the object of his quest at Andior on the coast of Corsica; Dragut was
at anchor in the road of Goialatta, under a castle situated between
Cabri and Liazzo. The corsair knew nothing of his enemies being at sea,
and was in consequence keeping no particular look-out. Although we are
not told the composition of the fleet of Jannetin Doria, it must have
been a large one, as Dragut had under his orders thirteen galleys, and
was unable to withstand the attack to which he was subject. He was also
assailed from the shore, as well as the sea, as the castle under which
he was at anchor opened fire upon him as soon as it was discovered by
its garrison that the new arrivals were Christians. The fire was too
hot for the corsair to withstand, and, to add to his embarrassments,
the beach soon became lined by hundreds of the fierce Corsi, awaiting
the inevitable end when they should be able to fall upon the defeated
Moslems and wipe them from off the face of the earth; it was a warfare
in which there was no mercy, and if the pirates were to fall into the
hands of the islanders they knew well that they would be exterminated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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