ut thirty miles
to the eastward, standing directly for Malta. A gun, the signal agreed
on, was fired from each of the forts, to warn the inhabitants of the
country to withdraw into their villages. The fleet amounted to one
hundred and thirty royal galleys with fifty of lesser size, besides a
number of transports with the cannon, ammunition, and other military
stores.[1305] The breaching artillery consisted of sixty-three guns, the
smallest of which threw a ball of fifty-six pounds, and some few, termed
_basilicas_, carried marble bullets of a hundred and twelve pounds'
weight.[1306] The Turks were celebrated for the enormous calibre of
their guns, from a very early period; and they continued to employ those
pieces long after they had given way, in the rest of Europe, to cannon
of more moderate and manageable dimensions.

The number of soldiers on board, independently of the mariners, and
including six thousand janizaries, was about thirty thousand,--the
flower of the Ottoman army.[1307] Their appointments were on the most
perfect scale, and everything was provided requisite for the prosecution
of the siege. Never, probably, had there been so magnificent an armament
in the waters of the Mediterranean. It was evident that Solyman was bent
on the extermination of the order which he had once driven into exile,
but which had now renewed its strength, and become the most formidable
enemy of the Crescent.

The command of the expedition was intrusted to two officers. One of
these, Piali, was the same admiral who defeated the Spaniards at Gelves.
He had the direction of the naval operations. The land forces were given
to Mustapha, a veteran nearly seventy years of age, whose great
experience, combined with military talents of a high order, had raised
him to the head of his profession. Unfortunately, his merits as an
officer were tarnished by his cruelty. Besides the command of the army,
he had a general authority over the whole expedition, which excited the
jealousy of Piali, who thought himself injured by the preference given
to his rival. Thus feelings of mutual distrust arose in the bosoms of
the two chiefs, which to some extent paralyzed the operations of each.

The Turkish armada steered for the south-eastern quarter of the island,
and cast anchor in the port of St. Thomas. The troops speedily
disembarked, and spread themselves in detached bodies over the land,
devastating the country, and falling on all stragglers whom t