THE OCEAN AS A BATTLE-FIELD 277 



passage to joys unutterable, were no less skilful 

 mariners than they were soldiers. They were also 

 astute enough to welcome into their ranks some of the 

 ablest of their Christian foes, who, becoming renegades, 

 outdid their Muslim masters in deeds of cruelty and 

 daring. While their armies on land pressed ever 

 westwards towards the strongholds of Christendom 

 with the irresistible momentum of the avalanche or 

 glacier, they accumulated fleets of galleys, whereof the 

 motive-power was Christian slaves, and the fighting 

 complement the fiercest of their own ruthless tribes. 

 Well informed of all that went on in Europe, they 

 knew how weakened by luxury and dissensions were 

 the Italian republics, notably that of Venice, which 

 for so long had proudly withstood them, and had even 

 carried maritime warfare into many of their chief ports. 

 They were also fired with a determination to win back 

 again the Iberian peninsula, from whence the brave 

 Christian warriors had expelled their Moorish confreres, 

 and thus at one fell swoop establish Mohammedan 

 ascendency in the very stronghold of Christianity. 



And so it came to pass that an almost despairing 

 cry arose throughout Christendom ; ancient jealousies 

 were put aside ; and the allied fleets of the Christian 

 Mediterranean met, on October, 1571, with the armada 

 of the infidel in the Gulf of Lepanto. 



