SEA-ROVERS 



bigoted old Grand Master, Jean de la Valette, a grand fighter still in 

 spite of his seventy years, the garrison put up a defence unequalled in 

 history. Finally, after terrible casualties and the loss of their leader, 

 Dragut Reis, the Turks withdrew before the arrival of the Spanish relief 

 force. Only five thousand Turks reached home ; the gallant defenders 

 were reduced to six hundred skeletons of whom scarcely one was 

 unwounded. But the corsairs' reputation for invincibility was broken. 



Leparito. 



Smarting under the defeat at Malta the activities of the corsairs 

 were for a time increased, and were helped by the mutual jealousies of 

 the Christian leaders sent against them. Dragut Reis had his successor 

 in Ochiali, called by the Turks Fartas, " the scurvied." A Calabrian 

 training for the priesthood, he was captured by the Turks and saved his 

 skin by joining them and becoming one of their most successful, and 

 certainly one of their most cruel, leaders. He was in the Western 

 Mediterranean when the Turks conquered Cyprus in 1570, but later 

 joined forces with Ali Pasha and ravaged the whole sea. Meanwhile 

 the Christians were collecting their forces from all the maritime states 

 and, to avoid the jealousies that had so often ruined their plans, placed 

 them under the command of Don Juan of Austria, the twenty-two year 

 old natural son of the Emperor Charles V, who was to prove himself 

 one of the greatest heroes and finest leaders in Christendom. The two 

 forces met in the Bay of Lepanto on October 7th, 1571, the Christian 

 fleet of 285 sail carrying 29,000 men and the Turkish of 352 ships and 

 25,000 men. At the last minute Giovanni Doria with the right wing 

 nearly wrecked the Christian chances by carrying out a fatuous and 

 unauthorised manoeuvre of which the redoubtable Ochiali took full 

 advantage. Thanks to the leadership of Don Juan and the gallantry 

 of his followers even this was unavailing and the day resulted in the total 

 rout of the Turks with the loss of practically all their leaders except 

 Ochiali. A hundred and ninety ships were captured, excluding those 

 sunk, twelve thousand slaves were freed, and it was reckoned that twenty 

 thousand Turks had been killed. The butcher's bill on the Christian 

 side was terribly heavy, but the battle put an end to the Barbary piracy 

 on a grand scale and left only the minor freebooters who preyed on com- 

 merce for many years more but who could not be reckoned as one of the 

 great military powers. Ochiali died after many years' service in more 

 legitimate naval operations under the Sultan. 



The Dutch Beggars of the Sea. 



The Beggars of the Sea or Water Beggars came into existence dur- 

 ing the gallant fight which Holland put up against Spain and were 

 originally a purely patriotic society who found that amphibean qualities 

 were of the greatest value in their guerilla warfare. When the 

 Spaniards had the upper hand they were forced more and more to sea 

 and were then none too particular as to whom they plundered, but they 

 were principally patriotic in their aims and the organisation did not last 

 any considerable time after the end of the war. 



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