“In this spacious harbour [Messina] there were collected the squadrons of the League; the people who managed the oars and sails and the innumerable combatants making an immense number when added together.  Since the days of Imperial Rome, never had been seen in these seas so imposing a spectacle, never had there been collected so many ships moving towards a single end dominated by a single will.  Never was there a spectacle more gratifying in the eyes of justice, nor of greater incentive to men to fight for the cause of religion.”

The Spanish fleet comprised 90 royal galleys, 24 nefs, and 50 fregatas and brigantines “los mejores que en tiempo alguno se habrian visto” (the finest that ever were seen at any time), as they were described by Don John.  The Pope sent 12 galleys and 6 fregatas, under the command of Mark Antony Colonna.  The Pope had also made a grant of the “Crusada” and “Excusada,” and other ecclesiastical revenues which he drew from Spain, to the King of that country, to meet expenses.

Venice appointed Sebastian Veniero to the command of her fleet, which consisted of 106 galleys, 6 galeasses of enormous bulk and clumsy construction carrying each 40 guns, 2 nefs, and 20 fregatas.  These vessels were, however, so miserably manned and equipped that Don John had to send on board Spaniards and Genoese to complete their complements.  In a manuscript of the Bibliotheque du Roi (Number 10088) is an account of the battle of Lepanto by Commandeur de Romegas.  He gives the number of the Turkish fleet at 333 ships, of which 230 were galleys, the rest galeasses and smaller craft.  The total which he gives for the Christian fleet is 271.  Ali Basha was in supreme command of the Turkish forces, “a man of an intrepid spirit, who had given many proofs of a humane and generous mature—­qualities more rare among the Turks, perhaps among all nations, than mere physical courage.”  With Ali was the Basha of Algiers, that other Ali, the corsair, who since his arrival at Coron had done more than his share of the fighting, marauding, and devastating which were the preliminaries to the battle of Lepanto.  In this historic conflict he was to show once again how, on the face of the waters, the Sea-wolves were supreme; as it was he and his corsairs, out of the whole of the Moslem host, who acquitted themselves with the greatest credit on that day so fatal to the arms of the Ottoman Turk.

CHAPTER XXII

LEPANTO

  How Ali Basha fought at the battle of Lepanto:  his subsequent
  career—­Conclusion.