ll vessels becalmed near one or other of the islands,
the attacks being made in boats, but that it was among the numerous
islands lying off the coast of Asia Minor between Nicaria and Samos on
the north, and Serrest and Piscopia on the south, that piracy was most
frequent.

As a rule, they said, vessels coming down from the Dardanelles kept well
west of Mitylene and Chios, rounded Naxos and Syra and bore south to
Santorin before shaping their course east, if bound for Syria, so as to
avoid the dangerous neighbourhood. To begin with, they advised that the
course should be laid so as to pass a short distance east of
Astropalaia. This, they said, had long been one of the headquarters of
piracy. It had, before the war began, been several times attacked by
Turkish or European ships of war, the craft found there burnt, and the
coast villages destroyed; but since then it was believed that it had
again become the headquarters of pirates from some of the other
islands, as its position was a favourable one for attack, lying in the
direct lines of traffic between both Constantinople and Greece and the
eastern trades with Rhodes, Cyprus, Syria, or Egypt.

The night was fine, with a gentle breeze. A sharp look-out was kept for
two groups of tiny islands that were scarce more than rocks, that had to
be passed before nearing Astropalaia. The breeze died away at daybreak,
and left the vessel becalmed at a distance of some six miles from the
island.

"We could not be better placed," one of the Turks said. "You see the
group of islands at the mouth of that bay; they are called the Pirate
Rocks, and in the old days every one of those rocks was the stronghold
of a pirate ship. Thirty years ago four Turkish frigates caught eighteen
piratical craft lying at anchor behind their shelter, and destroyed
every one of them, but it was not long before others took their places."

"If there were a good wind blowing, Edgar, I should like nothing better
than to sail right in there," Wilkinson said, "but in this light breeze
those fellows would run away from us with their big sails and their
sweeps."

"If there are any of them in there now," one of the Turks remarked as
Wilkinson closely surveyed the islets through his glass, "most likely
they have made you out before this. I only hope there will not be too
many of them."

"The more the merrier!" Wilkinson laughed as Edgar translated this.
"With ten guns and sixty blue-jackets we ought to be able