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
Lepanto, the last battle of first-class importance in which the
Sea-wolves bore a leading part, is memorable in many ways. It is one
of the most sanguinary which was ever fought, the element of personal
hatred between the combatants, to which we have alluded more than
once, being singularly in evidence on this occasion. As we have said,
this campaign was brought about at the initiative of the Venetians,
and an incident which occurred not long before the battle exacerbated
the feelings with which the Turks were regarded by the Christians
to the point of madness. The city of Famagusta, in Cyprus, had been
captured by that Mustafa of whom we heard so much at the siege of
Malta. The Venetian defenders made an honourable capitulation, but
when the four principal Venetian captains were brought before Mustafa,
that general caused three of them to be beheaded on the spot; the
fourth, a noble and gallant gentleman who had been responsible for the
magnificent defence of the city entrusted to his charge, he caused to
be flayed alive in the market-square. He then had the skin stuffed
with straw, and, with this ghastly trophy nailed to the prow of his
galley, returned in triumph to Constantinople. Bragadino, the defender
of Famagusta, did not die in vain; his terrible fate excited such a
passion of anger in the whole of the armada of Don John that each
individual of which it was composed felt that the sacrifice of his
own life would be but a small thing if it only led to the destruction
of such fiends as those against whom they were arrayed.
[Illustration: DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA.]
Lepanto was a magnificent triumph for the arms of Christendom, and
taught a much-needed lesson to Europe that the Ottoman Turk was not
invincible upon the sea; it was not, however, an interesting battle
from the point of view of the student of war and its combinations. Of
all the high officers in command on that memorable day there was only
one who displayed real generalship and a proper appreciation of the
tactical necessities of the situation; that officer was Ali Basha,
the leader of the Sea-wolves. The account of the battle is somewhat
obscured by the fact that on the side of the Moslems the name of the
Ottoman Commander-in-Chief was also “Ali”; in order to avoid confusion
in this narration, we shall allude to the Basha of Algiers by the name
given to him by the Christians, “Occhiali.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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