ACCOUNT OF THE TREACHERY OF THE VENETIANS.
The Venetian infidels are a people famous for their great wealth, their extensive commerce, and their deceit and perfidy in all their transactions. Having by treachery taken most of the islands in their possession from the Hungarian princes, and these islands being on the borders of the Ottoman dominions, and deriving their subsistence and trade from them, the Venetians from necessity maintain a show of friendship, but are in reality the most inveterate of all the enemies of the faith. During the above expedition, they being unmolested, the governor of Gallipoli harbour, Ali Ketkhoda, happened to touch at Corfu with two galleys on his way to join the Moslem fleet, when Andrea Doria, who was there at the time, came out with the Corfiote vessels, and attacked him. A fierce engagement ensued, in which the superior numbers of the infidels overcame the warriors, and the battle having lasted from morning till afternoon,[38] most of the Gallipoli vessels were burnt or sunk, and the survivors were made prisoners.
On another occasion, another governor of Gallipoli, Boustan Ketkhoda, was sailing to Corfu with dispatches from Lutfi Pasha, when four of the Venetian ships gave him chase, and captured him. It was of no avail that he declared he was only going on an embassy. Fearing however that the affair might become known, they sunk the vessel and cruelly murdered all that were on board, except a youth who threw himself into the sea, and floated on a board till he was taken up by one of the ships of the fleet, which conveyed him to Lutfi Pasha. Lutfi Pasha laid the matter before the Sultan, who, on account of these two outrages, commanded that Corfu should be besieged.