By the year 1540 Dragut had distinctly “arrived”; that is to say, he had succeeded in making himself so dreaded that Charles V. ordered Andrea Doria to seek him out and destroy him at any cost.  The Christian admiral was “to endeavour by all possible means to purge the sea of so insufferable a nuisance.”

Andrea got ready a fleet, which he entrusted, together with the care and management of this affair, to his nephew Jannetin Doria.  This was the nephew who, in the disastrous attack by Charles on Hassan Aga at Algiers in the following year, was so nearly lost in the storm which destroyed the fleet of the emperor; and of whom Andrea Doria is reported to have said, “It was decreed that Jannetin should be reduced to such an extremity purposely to convince the world that it was not impossible for Andrea Doria to shed a tear.”  Certainly from what we know of the celebrated Genoese admiral it is hard to imagine him in a tearful mood.  Jannetin Doria put to sea, and, after a long hunt, found the object of his quest at Andior on the coast of Corsica; Dragut was at anchor in the road of Goialatta, under a castle situated between Cabri and Liazzo.  The corsair knew nothing of his enemies being at sea, and was in consequence keeping no particular look-out.  Although we are not told the composition of the fleet of Jannetin Doria, it must have been a large one, as Dragut had under his orders thirteen galleys, and was unable to withstand the attack to which he was subject.  He was also assailed from the shore, as well as the sea, as the castle under which he was at anchor opened fire upon him as soon as it was discovered by its garrison that the new arrivals were Christians.  The fire was too hot for the corsair to withstand, and, to add to his embarrassments, the beach soon became lined by hundreds of the fierce Corsi, awaiting the inevitable end when they should be able to fall upon the defeated Moslems and wipe them from off the face of the earth; it was a warfare in which there was no mercy, and if the pirates were to fall into the hands of the islanders they knew well that they would be exterminated.

In all his venturesome life things had never gone so badly with Dragut as upon this occasion.  On the one side, should he and his men land they would be massacred; on the other hand, his road to the open sea was barred by an immensely superior force.  Recognising the logic of circumstances, and seeing no way of escape, the white flag was hung out by the Moslem leader.  The only terms, however, which he could obtain were immediate surrender or instant death.  It must have been a moment of anguish to the man who hitherto had always ridden on the crest of the wave of success and achievement to be thus trapped like a rat; and to have the added bitterness of the thought that had he exercised seamanlike care and precaution in keeping a good look-out he might have escaped.  As it was, he was allowed no time for reflection, but had to decide on the instant:  he did the only thing possible in the circumstances, which was to haul down his flag and to become the thrall of his lifelong foes.