Everything else has been forgotten; the name of Pescatore alone survives amongst the ruins of “Africa.” He was probably a native of Novara in Italy, and arrived in Malta during the year 1545, as the bearer of a letter from the Pope requesting the then Grand Master of the Order to appoint his nephew Carlo Sforza (Prior of Lombardy) to the command of the fleet of the Hospital. He subsequently obtained high rank at Malta, and in September 1553 became Governor of Fort St. Elmo. Five months later (February 1554) he died at Mehdia,[9] “his friends declaring that he had been poisoned by a confidential servant (_servitore intrinseco_) of the Prior Strozzi, Biagio Pesce by name, who was in turn stabbed a few months afterwards by the Knight Aleramo Parpaglia, on account of a rumour and strong suspicion that he had caused in a similar manner the death of his brother, Knight Bernardone Parpaglia, as well as that of the Conventual-Conservator Knight George Vagnone, and this on account of certain opposition and contradiction offered to his master in the matter of the magistracy. The historian of the Order comments with pious indignation on such a scandal having happened amongst the knights while endeavouring to plant their banner _in partibus infidelium_. The commission at length reported adversely to the acceptance of Mehdia, and its concomitant responsibilities, and in the autumn of 1554 it was evacuated by the Christian troops, its walls and fortifications having being carefully destroyed. · · · · · · · · · ·