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.
THE EXPEDITION TO MITYLENE.
The Venetians, in order to revenge themselves for the loss of Enabekht, Motone and Corone, sent to beg assistance from the king of France,[16] who, having equipped some vessels and appointed his nephew commander, sent them to join the Venetian fleet. The whole, amounting to two hundred vessels, set sail, and in the month of Rabia-al-Avul 907 (A.D. 1501) came upon Mitylene. The Prince Korkud, being informed of this, sent one of his agas with eight hundred men to Ayazmend, whence one dark night they sailed for Mitylene, and with the assistance of Krassi Beg and his troops, massacring the infidel tribes, they entered the castle; in doing which the aga was killed. When this unpleasant news reached the Sultan, his majesty without loss of time filled the vessels that were at hand with troops, of which Hersek Oghli Ahmed Pasha was commander; and Senan Pasha, the governor of Anatolia, was also ordered to join the fleet with the forces of his district. When Ahmed Pasha arrived in the neighbourhood of Mitylene the infidels had blockaded the castle; but as the French general was about to enter it he was killed; and all the troops that had been stationed about the castle seeing this betook themselves to flight. The Venetians also took refuge in their ships and went off. The protection of the fortress being left to the begler-beg of Anatolia, Ahmed Pasha returned to the Porte.
This Ahmed Pasha, after being made grand vezier, was dismissed. In 912 he was made a capudan, which office he held for five years, and in 917 he again became grand vezier.
It is recorded that this expedition gave rise to the levying of taxes and enlisting galley-men. Formerly these impositions were not made on the subjects; but from that time to the present they have been authorised by law, and are raised annually.
As the Venetian and Moslem fleets did not come to an engagement, after the former were driven from Mitylene, the necessity of silence and of refraining from their intended revenge, on their part, and various causes on the part of the latter, induced them to consider an armistice desirable. After this no attacks were made on any of their districts either by land or sea, and the fleet was employed only in protecting the Ottoman dominions. When however the power of the Persian kings in the East began to increase, the disturbances of the Rafezis,[17] and the retirement of Sultan Bayezid Khan on account of his great age, produced negligence in the ministers, and tended to injure the prosperity of the state; and Sultan Selim, after his ascension to the throne, being occupied in matters that demanded immediate attention,—in punishing the Persians,[18] and subjugating the countries of Egypt and Syria,—the possessions of the infidels thus remained unmolested. The Venetians and Hungarians also, duly appreciating this peace, did not make the least stir. On the decease of Sultan Selim, Soleiman Khan coming to the throne, began to subjugate all those places which he thought proper should be annexed to the Ottoman dominions; and opening both by land and sea the gates of war, he terminated that armistice which from necessity had been adopted during the reign of his illustrious father, and in his second expedition succeeded in the capture of Rhodes.
PREPARATION OF A FLEET FOR RHODES.
In the year 923 (A. D. 1517), during the reign of Sultan Selim the First, the countries of Egypt having been subdued and added to the Ottoman dominions, in 925 it was considered necessary to open a road for the importation of the productions of that country. For this purpose the capture of Rhodes, the seat of pirates, was suggested to the victorious Sultan, who immediately began to prepare a fleet; but although for a long time reports of an intended expedition were heard from the ministers and nobles, yet from the movements of the Sultan nothing to that effect could be perceived, till one day with his nobles and attendants he went out to visit the tomb of Abi Aiub Ansari, and standing on his usual spot beside the high dome near his nurse’s tomb, he read the Fatihat.[19] Looking towards the channel, he saw one of the newly built vessels cruising about, and in a rage demanded to know by whose authority they had put it to sea, before an expedition had been determined upon; at the same time giving orders for the execution of the Capudan Jafar Aga. Piri Pasha with some difficulty satisfied him, by saying that the vessel had been put to sea merely to try it. On his majesty’s return he severely reprimanded the veziers, saying, “Whilst I am accustomed to subdue kingdoms, you waste the means in taking a single castle, the requisite for which is ammunition. How many months will your ammunition last? and are the necessary stores in readiness?” The veziers informed him of what stores they had, but declined giving any account of their ammunition till the next day, and thus they departed with many reproaches. The next morning they reported to his majesty that their ammunition was sufficient for four months. His majesty in a scornful manner replied, that whilst his grandfather Sultan Mohammed Khan’s disgrace with respect to Rhodes was not yet forgotten, they wished to double it on him, especially as four months ammunition was by no means sufficient for the reduction of a fortress like Rhodes, which, if it were taken in double that time, would be highly creditable: that he was determined to undertake no expedition on such vain counsel, nor by the advice of any one; and concluded by saying, that for himself he had no voyage in view, except the one to eternity. According to his prediction, the fortress was with difficulty taken in the time he specified; and about six months after this conversation he departed to the world of spirits.