The Moors were not slow to retaliate. Two years afterwards five hundred of them landed at Pollenza, but were repulsed with heavy loss. Several other descents were made on the island by Dragut and his subordinate corsairs, and there was much hard fighting, with slaughter on both sides, but serious loss of unfortunate people carried off into slavery. It was in September 1552 that Valdemosa was attacked by the crews of the Algerine galleots. About five hundred Moors landed in the night and entered the town without opposition. Loading themselves with spoils and taking four hundred captives with them, they began their retreat to the ships. Raimondo Gual had command of only thirty-five men at Valdemosa. Open resistance would have been futile; still, he watched his opportunity. In a narrow pass, since called ‘Pàs dels Mòros,’ he made a sudden attack on the retreating pirates, who were panic-stricken, and very few escaped. No quarter was given to them. Their banner was hung up in the parish church. Valdemosa was again unsuccessfully attacked by the Moors in 1582. Next it was the turn of the town of Andraix, at the south-west end of the island, which was attacked by twenty-four piratical vessels in 1553. The inhabitants fled, some taking refuge in a small castle. Don Jorge Fortuñy, a neighbouring proprietor, put himself at the head of a small body of cavalry, and his name alone led the invaders to make a hasty retreat to their ships. But Andraix was attacked and pillaged in 1555, and again in 1578. In 1561 a piratical expedition was fitted out at Algiers, consisting of twenty-two vessels, under the command of a renegade named Ochali, to attack the town of Soller. Measures were taken for its defence, and troops arrived under a commander named Miguel Angelats. Fearing the fortress at the port of Soller, the pirates landed at a place called ‘Coll de la Illa’ 1,700 men in two divisions. One division marched to the port, while the other advanced by the bridge of _Binibaci_ to attack the town. Angelats had left the town, leading his troops to oppose the landing, but was too late. Thus the Moors entered and pillaged Soller without opposition. But the Majorcans returned with all speed and, in a desperate fight, completely routed the pirates, who lost at least five hundred of their number. Don Guillem de Rocafull, the Viceroy of Majorca, hurried across the island with succour, and found that the victory was already won. There were other piratical raids on the island, showing the great need for vigilance and for a protecting fleet. But the maritime power was not so strong or efficient in the sixteenth century as it had been in the more flourishing times when the Aragonese kings reigned and so successfully promoted the maritime eminence of their subjects. Nevertheless, the sailors of Majorca continued to maintain the fair fame of their ancestors, and have done so to the present day. CHAPTER XV The Comunidades