THE EXPEDITION TO MOTONE AND CORONE.
Although the greater part of the Morea had been subjugated in the time of Abul-Fat’h (Mohammed II.), the fortresses of Motone and Corone on the coast still remained in the hands of the infidels. For the subjugation of these, the beg of Prevesa, Mustaffa Beg, was directed to prepare before the approaching spring forty vessels, which were to be added to the fleet. During the summer he built twenty vessels, and was just finishing them, when one dark night the infidels came and set fire to them all. Mustaffa Beg now began to finish the other vessels, and about this time the combination of the infidel tribes to attack the Ottoman territory by sea was made known to the Sublime Porte; in consequence of which Iacub Pasha, and several noble begs, with ten thousand infantry and twenty thousand cavalry, were sent to assist in repairing the fleet then wintering at Enabekht, whence they had orders to sail with the fleet in the spring for Motone. The Khoonkar[14] also, in the month of Ramazan 905,[15] (A.D. 1499) left Adrianople and proceeded to the Morea. When the arrival of Iacub Pasha and his fleet at Motone was announced to his majesty, after having rested twenty days at Londar, he proceeded to the neighbourhood of the castle of Motone. The troops then surrounded the castle by land and sea, and with their cannon razed its walls to the ground. They were on the point of taking it when the enemy’s fleet arrived, and made preparations for an engagement. The Moslem troops took two of the enemy’s ships, and punished the infidels found in them opposite the castle. They also sunk one of their triremes, and burnt several of their other ships. While they were thus on the point of victory, four galleys arrived from Venice, carrying ammunition, and some thousands of artillery-men, passed through the fleet at a time when the Moslems were off their guard, and as soon as they had landed their cargo within the castle, set fire to the four galleys. This being reported to the Sultan, his majesty in a rage gave orders that as soon as the enemy began to remove the ammunition that had been taken in, they should make a general attack. Upon this Senan Pasha, the begler-beg of Anatolia, entered the castle by a ladder, through a breach which he had made, and the whole army attacking it furiously, they continued to fight from mid-day till sunset in a manner that baffles description. At this time fire broke out in the castle, and the infidels being terrified, the Moslems took possession of the castle and put the enemy to the sword. This victory happened on the fourteenth of Moharrem 906.
For the subjugation of Corone Ali Pasha was sent by land, and the capudan with his fleet by sea. Ali Pasha having announced his intention of besieging Navarin, the inhabitants gave up the castle on condition that they should be permitted to go out of it. When the troops arrived at Corone, the inhabitants of that place also surrendered, and with their families and property departed to Frankestan.
The Sultan having returned to the capital, Ali Pasha turned his attention to the capture of Astaffa; but in the mean time the infidels, by some means or other, retook the castle of Navarin. When the pasha was informed of this, he reported it to the Divan, and immediately returned to Navarin. He also sent thither Kemal Reis with thirty vessels. When they arrived at the castle they attacked the fleet lying in the harbour, and in their first attack took eight of the enemy’s ships, and killed the infidels that were in them. Several brave men who had come with the pasha then scaled the walls, bound the chiefs, and made about three thousand infidels food for the sword.