[226] ‘The Persians dwell with rapture on the character of Ismael, deeming him not only the founder of a great dynasty, but the person to whom the faith they glory in owes its establishment as a national religion.’—Malcolm, History of Persia, i. p. 328. On his accession Ismael declared Schiism to be the national religion. See also note 2, p. [299] and note p. [161].
[227] For a fuller account of the siege and capture of Gerba or Djerbé or Gelves the reader is referred to Prescott’s Philip II., vol. ii. book iv. chap. 1, and Von Hammer, book xxxiii. The Spanish historians cited by Prescott are so conflicting that he defies the reader to reconcile them, but Busbecq’s narrative, as far as it goes, may be considered of the highest authority, as no doubt it was founded on what he heard from his friend Don Alvaro de Sandé, who commanded the garrison. In the spring of 1559 the Duke of Medina Celi, the Viceroy of Sicily, was ordered to fit out an expedition against Tripoli and its corsairs, to which Tuscany, Rome, Naples, Sicily, Genoa, and Malta furnished contingents. John Andrew Doria, nephew of the great Andrew Doria, commanded the Genoese forces. The fleet consisted of more than 100 sail, including 54 galleys, and had 14,000 troops on board. The armament assembled at Syracuse, from which they sailed in November. They met with such bad weather, however, that they were forced to put into Malta, where they stayed more than two months refitting. So much time had now been lost, that they gave up the attempt on Tripoli as hopeless, and attacked Djerbé instead. They took it without much difficulty on March 14, and spent two months there fortifying it, and placed in it a garrison of 5,000 men, commanded by Don Alvaro de Sandé. As the troops were preparing to re-embark, news was brought of the approach of the Turkish fleet. A council of war was held, in which opinions were divided; but the arrival of the Turkish fleet under the command of Pialé, which included 86 galleys, each with 100 Janissaries on board, saved them the trouble of deciding (May 14). The Christians were seized with panic. Many of their ships were sunk, and many more surrendered. A few took refuge under the guns of the fortress. The Duke of Medina Celi and Doria were among those who escaped, and they took advantage of the darkness of the following night to fly to Sicily in a frigate. Next morning Pialé commenced the siege. After a breach had been made, he assaulted the fortress, but was repulsed with great loss, and several other attacks of the Turks met with the same fate. The siege lasted nearly three months, although at the end of six weeks provisions and water had begun to fail. On July 31, 1560, two hours before dawn, Don Alvaro, accompanied by hardly 1,000 men, sallied out and tried to cut his way through, with the intention of seizing a vessel and escaping, but the attempt proved unsuccessful, and the same day the rest of the garrison surrendered. On September 27 the victorious fleet returned to Constantinople, as described in the text. Don Alvaro lived to take ample vengeance for all he had suffered. When the Spaniards raised the siege of Malta in 1565 Don Alvaro, as second in command, again encountered his old opponent Pialé. The gallant Spaniard was in the thick of the fighting, had a horse killed under him, and was one of those who contributed most to the defeat of the Turks.
[228] Chios was first brought under the immediate dominion of the Sultan by Pialé Pasha in 1566, though it had previously acknowledged his suzerainty and paid tribute. It had been conquered by the Genoese admiral, Simon Vignoso, in 1346. The form of government was so peculiar as to deserve some notice. It is the first example of the territorial administration of a mercantile company of shareholders exercising in a distant country all the duties of a sovereign. Of this form of government the East India Company is the best known specimen. The Genoese treasury in 1346 was so exhausted that the funds for fitting out the twenty-nine galleys of Vignoso’s fleet were raised by private citizens, who subscribed the money in shares. The Republic promised to secure them against all loss, and pledged a portion of its annual revenue to pay the interest. After the conquest of Chios, Vignoso, in virtue of the full powers with which he was invested, established a committee of the subscribers, who administered the Government of Chios, and collected the revenues under the sovereignty of the Republic of Genoa. The contributors had formed themselves into a joint-stock company, according to the established usage at Genoa; and this society or maona assumed the name of the Maona of Scio. The Republic being unable to repay the advances, a convention was concluded between the State and the Maona, by which the shareholders were recognised as the lawful proprietors and administrators of Chios, subject to the terms on which the Greek population had capitulated, for a term of twenty years, during which the Republic reserved the right of resuming possession of the island on repayment of the sum advanced. This, however, the Republic was never able to do, so the arrangement became permanent. The greater part of the shares passed into the hands of the family, or, more correctly speaking, the firm of the Justiniani, and the Joint-Stock Company of Scio was generally called the Maona of the Justiniani. For further details as to the Government of Scio while held by this company, see Finlay, History of Greece, vol. v. ch. ii., from which this note is taken. It must, however, be added that the Government of the company, notwithstanding its defects, was for a long period the least oppressive in the Levant.
[229] Petremol, the French chargé d’affaires, mentions some Spanish slaves being brought to Constantinople from Chios. The Sultan, it was said, did not intend to keep them in servitude, but wished to see whether Roostem’s contention was true, namely, that Pialé had stolen all the prisoners of high rank, and had presented to the Sultan, under the names of the different officers, common soldiers who could pay no ransom. Charrière, Négotiations de la France dans le Levant, ii. 671.
[230] Adam von Dietrichstein was born in 1527. He accompanied Maximilian on his journey to Spain, when he went to marry his cousin, the Infanta Maria. In 1561 he was sent by Maximilian to the Pope as ambassador. Maximilian appointed him his High Chamberlain in 1563, and sent him to conduct his sons to Spain as head of their household. Busbecq therefore served under him on this mission (see page 61). About the same time Ferdinand appointed him his ambassador to Spain, and after Ferdinand’s death he remained there as Maximilian’s representative. In this post he had the delicate task of keeping the bigoted Philip and the tolerant Maximilian on friendly terms. In 1573 he escorted the Archdukes home, and was appointed Privy Councillor and Governor of Rodolph’s household. He died in 1590, and was buried at Prague, at the feet of his master Maximilian. He married in 1555 Margaret, daughter of Don Antonio de Cardona.
[231] In Wervicq Church, about a mile from Busbecq’s home, stands a life-size figure of a galley-slave, with this inscription: ‘Vrais Chrétiens, soyez touchés de cœur à faire charité aux esclaves Chrétiens.’ The utter, hopeless misery there depicted illustrates the force of this appeal.
[232] July 8, 1561.
[234] One of the Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmora, where the British Fleet was stationed during the spring of 1878.
[235] We have here a good description of a serious attack of the plague. Compare pages 163-4.