Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/663

Rh The new Grand-Master elected to supply the place of Cot- toner was Gregory Caraffa, prior of La Rocella, and the cornmander of the Maltose galleys at the battle of the Dardanelles. This was the first time for 100 years that an Italian knight had been raised to the supreme dignity; his accession was consequently hailed by his countrymen with the most lively satisfaction. The peace and unanimity which had prevailed within the convent in the days of the brothers Cottoner still continued, and rendered the rule of Caraffa prosperous and happy. The bishop who occupied the see of Malta was a prelate of liberal views and enlightened piety. He did not, like so many of his predecessors, interfere in political matters; far less did he endeavour to subvert the authority of the Grand-Master in order to increase his own influence. Whilst peace thus reigned at home, Caraffa was not an idle spectator in the war raging between the Turks and the Austrians, the galleys of Malta having been most successfully engaged in the waters of the Levant during this period. Thus we find the emperor Leopold, in 1683, addressing a special letter to Caraffa, in which he thanks him in the warmest terms for preserving Christendom from the Turkish fleet, and in the same year John Sobieski sent him two letters, in which he related the particulars of the glorious victories which he had gained over the Turks, one under the walls of Vienna on the 13th September, and the other crossing the Danube, on the 10th October, 1683. The fact that this chief should have deemed it advisable to forward a detailed account of his movements to Malta proves that the knights of St. John still ranked high in public estimation as opponents of Turkish domination.

The brilliant successes of John Sobieski led to the formation of a new league against the Turks, the principal members of which were the Pope, the republic of Venice, and the Order of Malta. For several years this alliance subsisted in full force, and the shores of Barbary and the Moron felt the weight of its power from end to end. Previsa and Santa Maura both fell by the prowess of the knights, and afterwards, in conjunction with the Venetian and papal galleys, they attacked the port of Coron, and notwithstanding a most desperate resistance, carried it by storm. On this occasion Correa, the general of the galleys,