Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/639

Rh graphic account of this action, which may be regarded as a type of most of those which about this period were of constant occurrence between the rival fleets:—

“London, September, 1656, from Venice, August 15, stili nose. The particulars of our last victory are now brought hither by the Sieur Lazaro Mocenigo, who entered here on the 1st of this month in a Turkish galley which was taken from those Infidels, and all the men in her had turbans on their heads. At his arrivall the people declared an extraordinary joy. All the shops were shut up, and the duke, accompanied by the senators, went and sang Te Deum, and the ringing of bells continued till next day in all churches. On the third day a solemn mass was celebrated by the duke and senators in the church of St. Marke, where all the ambassadors of princes were present. And that the rejoycing might extend to the very prisons, the senate took order for the releasing of all persons imprisoned for debt, and some of the banditi were also set at liberty.

“In the mean time the said Sieur Mocenigo, who had contributed so much of prudence and courage to the gaining of this victory, had first the honour of knighthood conferred on him by the senate, with a chain of gold 2,000 crownes value, and then was declared generallissimo in the room of the late slain Lorenzo Marcello, in memory of whom it is ordered there be a publick service celebrated next week at the publick charge.

“Now that so renowned a victory may in some measure be known, take the following relation:—

“A particular relation of the manner of the late victory obtained by the Venetians against the Turk.

“After the Venetian fleet had made a month’s stay at the mouth of the Dardanelles to wait for and fight the enemy, in the meanewhile arived the squadron of Malta, which consisted of seven galleys. On the 23rd of June last past the Captain Basea appeared in sight of the castles; his fleet consisted of twenty-eight great ships, sixty galleys, nine galeasses, and other small vessels.

“The navy of the republick was composed of twenty-eight great ships, twenty-four galleys, and seven galeasses, to which joyned (as was said before) the galleys of Malta, commanded by the lord prior of Roccelia. The navy of the republick kept