The Story of the Barbary CorsairsLane-Poole, Stanley
History
The Story of the Barbary Corsairs
Lane-Poole, Stanley
Africa, North -- History -- 1517-1882; Pirates
In the following year he retrieved his fame by a brilliant expedition
to the coasts of Greece. With thirty-five sail and forty-eight galleys
he attacked Coron, by way of making a diversion while Sultan
Suleymān was invading Hungary,[23] and after a heavy bombardment
succeeded in landing his men on the curtain of the fort. The Turkish
garrison was spared and marched out, and Mendoza was left in command,
while Doria bore up to Patras and took it, occupied the castles which
guard the Gulf of Corinth, and returned in triumph to Genoa before the
Turkish fleet could come up with him. This was in September, 1532. In
the following spring a yet more daring feat was accomplished. Coron
was running short of supplies, and a Turkish fleet blockaded the port.
Nevertheless Cristofero Pallavicini carried his ship in, under cover
of the castle guns, and encouraged the garrison to hold out; and
Doria, following in splendid style, fought his way in, notwithstanding
that half his fleet, being sailing galleons, became becalmed in the
midst of the Turkish galleys, and had to be rescued in the teeth of
the enemy. Lutfi Pasha was outmanoeuvred and defeated. This
revictualling of Coron, says Admiral Jurien de la Gravière, was one of
the skilfullest naval operations of the sixteenth century.[24]
It was clear that, while Doria had effected almost nothing against the
Barbary Corsairs, he always mastered the Turks. The Sultan was eager
to discover Kheyr-ed-dīn's secret of success, and counted the days
till he should arrive in the Golden Horn. The Corsair, for his part,
had heard enough of Doria's recent exploits to use more than his
habitual caution, and he was not disposed to cheapen his value in the
Sultan's eyes by a too precipitate compliance with his Majesty's
command. At last, in August, 1533, having appointed Hasan Aga, a
Sardinian eunuch, in whom he greatly confided, to be viceroy during
his absence, Kheyr-ed-dīn set sail from Algiers with a few galleys;
and after doing a little business on his own account--looting Elba and
picking up some Genoese corn-ships--pursued his way, passing Malta at
a respectful distance, and coasting the Morea, till he dropped anchor
in the Bay of Salonica.[25] By his route, which touched Santa Maura
and Navarino, he appears to have been looking for Doria, in spite of
the smallness of his own force (which had, however, been increased by
prizes); but, fortunately, perhaps, for the Corsair, the Genoese
admiral had returned to Sicily, and the two had missed each other on
the way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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