Ragusan trade was now in a somewhat depressed condition owing to these various disturbances. Many Ragusan ships in the Spanish service had been lost in the expedition to Algiers,[464] and the pirates under Dragut Reis wrought much havoc among their ships elsewhere. While the Emperor Ferdinand was invading the Hungarian provinces occupied by the Turks, the Ragusan factories there suffered considerably; and the land trade was disturbed by the depredations of the Sandjakbeg of the Herzegovina. In 1544 the bankruptcies at Ragusa amounted to 80,000 ducats.[465] In 1545 peace was made between the Sultan and the Christian Powers, and the former issued severe injunctions to the Algerine corsairs not to molest ships flying the Ragusan flag. In the somewhat quieter period which followed, there was a partial revival of the city’s trade, which now extended to America by means of the favour of Spain. But in 1566 Suleiman the Magnificent died, and his successor, Selim the Drunkard, at once began to cast covetous eyes on Cyprus, instigated, it is said, by a Jew named Nassi, who had given him a glowing description of the Cyprian vintages.[466] War between the Turks and the Christian Powers was again imminent, and Ragusa began to fear that she might get into difficulties with either of the belligerents. She therefore applied to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, with whom she was then on excellent terms,[467] and he recommended them to the King of Spain on the plea that if their trade failed so would the greater part of their income cease, and they would be unable to pay the tribute to the Sultan. The latter would seize on this as a pretext for occupying the city, to the great detriment of Christendom.[468] The plea was successful, and, moreover, the same year Pius V. renewed the exemption to trade with the Infidel, because the city “in faucis infidelium et loco admodum periculoso sita est.” Ragusa now acted once more as intermediary between Christian and Turk, and obtained the liberation of many Venetians and Dalmatian prisoners captured by the Turkish pirate Ali-el-Uluj, or Occhiali as the Christians called him.[469] In spite of the citizens’ not altogether undeserved reputation for double-dealing, they were also true to their better reputation for hospitality. Their hospitality towards the Papal admiral Marc’ Antonio Colonna and the Venetian general Sforza Pallavicini, who were shipwrecked on the Ragusan coast in 1570, won them the gratitude of the Pope and of Venice.[470] Francesco Tron, who was pursued by Turkish corsairs, took refuge in the harbour of Gravosa, and in spite of the threats of the pirate commander the Senate refused to give him up. Finally they bought off the cousin with a sum of money, but he sacked the monastery of Lacroma. Complaints were sent to Constantinople, and the Sultan delivered up the pirate Karakosia to the Ragusan Government to do what it pleased with him; but it was deemed best to set him at liberty with a warning.