As the Venetian and Moslem fleets did not come to an engagement, after the former were driven from Mitylene, the necessity of silence and of refraining from their intended revenge, on their part, and various causes on the part of the latter, induced them to consider an armistice desirable. After this no attacks were made on any of their districts either by land or sea, and the fleet was employed only in protecting the Ottoman dominions. When however the power of the Persian kings in the East began to increase, the disturbances of the _Rafezis_,[17] and the retirement of Sultan Bayezid Khan on account of his great age, produced negligence in the ministers, and tended to injure the prosperity of the state; and Sultan Selim, after his ascension to the throne, being occupied in matters that demanded immediate attention,—in punishing the Persians,[18] and subjugating the countries of Egypt and Syria,—the possessions of the infidels thus remained unmolested. The Venetians and Hungarians also, duly appreciating this peace, did not make the least stir. On the decease of Sultan Selim, Soleiman Khan coming to the throne, began to subjugate all those places which he thought proper should be annexed to the Ottoman dominions; and opening both by land and sea the gates of war, he terminated that armistice which from necessity had been adopted during the reign of his illustrious father, and in his second expedition succeeded in the capture of Rhodes. PREPARATION OF A FLEET FOR RHODES. In the year 923 (A. D. 1517), during the reign of Sultan Selim the First, the countries of Egypt having been subdued and added to the Ottoman dominions, in 925 it was considered necessary to open a road for the importation of the productions of that country. For this purpose the capture of Rhodes, the seat of pirates, was suggested to the victorious Sultan, who immediately began to prepare a fleet; but although for a long time reports of an intended expedition were heard from the ministers and nobles, yet from the movements of the Sultan nothing to that effect could be perceived, till one day with his nobles and attendants he went out to visit the tomb of Abi Aiub Ansari, and standing on his usual spot beside the high dome near his nurse’s tomb, he read the _Fatihat_.[19] Looking towards the channel, he saw one of the newly built vessels cruising about, and in a rage demanded to know by whose authority they had put it to sea, before an expedition had been determined upon; at the same time giving orders for the execution of the Capudan Jafar Aga. Piri Pasha with some difficulty satisfied him, by saying that the vessel had been put to sea merely to try it. On his majesty’s return he severely reprimanded the veziers, saying, “Whilst I am accustomed to subdue kingdoms, you waste the means in taking a single castle, the requisite for which is ammunition. How many months will your ammunition last? and are the necessary stores