y the notary Trivan, quoted by_
PASHLEY, chap. 33. These atrocities were perpetrated in the
early part of the 16th century.

Though the coasts had often been ravaged in former wars by the Turkish
fleet, particularly under Barbarossa in 1538, no attempt appears ever to
have been made to effect the conquest of the island by the reduction of
the fortified cities of the coast, in which the main strength of the
Venetians lay: and since the treaty of 1573, Venice had remained more
than seventy years at peace with the Porte. In 1645, however, a fresh
rupture arose from the capture of a richly-laden Turkish vessel by the
Maltese cruisers,[14] who were allowed, contrary to the existing
conventions between the Porte and the Republic, to sell the horses which
were on board their prize in one of the remote havens of Crete, beyond
the surveillance of the Venetian authorities. Slight as was the ground
of offence, it produced an instantaneous ferment at Constantinople: the
janissaries, calling to mind similar omens said to have preceded the
conquest of Rhodes and of Cyprus, exclaimed that the land whose soil had
once been trodden by Moslem horse hoofs, was the predestined inheritance
of the Faithful: and the flame was fanned by the capitan-pasha Yusuf, a
Dalmatian renegade, who, independent of the hatred which from early
associations he bore Venice, dreaded being sent on a bootless expedition
against the impregnable defences of Malta--an enterprise which, since
the memorable failure in the last years of Soliman, had never been
attempted by the Osmanlis. Preparations for war, meanwhile, were carried
on with unexampled activity, though the destination of the armament was
kept profoundly secret; till, on April 30, 1545, the most formidable
expedition which had ever been equipped in the Turkish ports, set sail
from the Bosphorus. Eight thousand janissaries, 14,000 spahis, and
upwards of 50,000 _timariots_ or feudal militia, were embarked on board
the fleet, which consisted of eighty galleys, and more than 300
transports, besides the auxiliary squadrons of the Barbary regencies,
which joined the armada, May 7, at the general rendezvous at Scio.

[14] Among the captives was the ex-nurse of the heir-apparent,
afterwards Mohammed IV., with her son, who was mistaken for a
prince of the Imperial family; and being carried to Malta, was
brought up there as a monk under the name of Padre Ottomanno!
During the siege of