operations. He says that the forty redeemed captives were all the English in Algiers. Other and official authorities give very different numbers. 66 oner. And then there was His plan of operations now carried him to the Balearic Islands and the coast of Sicily. He began to take prizes. Some were mere half-decked coasting craft, but there were better among them. And they were fair captures, for we were at war with France and Spain, and Sir Kenelm had his warrant. His gains were so important that he thought it advisable to send one of his gentlemen, Mr Vernon, home with his good news-by way of Leghorn one supposes. One of his prizes, a flotie " ship that is, one of small draughting to the practice of his time. looked so useful that he manned her, turned her into his rearadmiral with the name of the Hopewell, and gave the command to Stradling's brother Henry. As he left England with two ships only and had suffered from disease among his men, it appears surprising that he could provide prize crews. But the puzzle is easily solved. The forty redeemed captives he brought from Algiers went some way to make good his losses. And then nothing was more simple than to press or persuade the men in his prizes to serve him. It is probable that he had no difficulty in recruiting them. A poor sailor must live. was better to sign on for pay and a chance of booty than to be an obstinate pris 66 It The officials in the Tower who suspended John Gerrard by his wrists and left him hanging in agony were sure they were doing their duty. A few thought the work disgusting, and threw it up. But they one were exceptions. By method or the other Digby obtained the services of Frenchmen, Italians, Greeks, and Turks in sufficient numbers. He had now a squadron of seven about him. Two of the prizes were valuable. To all seeming he had made his voyage, could pay all his expenses, and look forward to a fair profit. But there are sorrowful chances in the life of a sea rover. On the coast of Sicily a nipping frost fell on all his hopes. There came down on him one of those scratching As and screaming tantrums of accusations of pilfering, and squall well known in the Medi- so forth. The whole crew of terranean. His fleet was scat- one of his prizes went off with tered. His best prizes were the money given them to buy lost, and he found himself provisions. When we rememalone-no better off, if not ber how his crews were now worse off, than when he started. composed, no surprise can be The disaster was not so great felt that such things happened. as it seemed to be at first. In fact all his men were getting But for the present he was in into the suspicious frame of trouble. No rendezvous had mind. Sailors always did bebeen appointed, and, of course, lieve that the gentlemen adhe could not know what had venturers cheated them. They become of his consorts. had the ultimate destination of them all was the Levant, the most promising direction in which to work for them was to the eastward. So Sir Kenelm, still trying for prizes as he sailed along, steered for the Ionian Islands. Provisions were to be found there, and booty could be sold. On his way he met a passing English trader, who gave the news that his vice- and rear-admirals were at Zante, and were already selling prizes which had escaped the gale. He went himself to Cephalonia. The transactions in the Ionian Islands figure largely in Sir Kenelm's narrative, but do not tempt us to linger. Of course, the Venetians, who then held the islands, were open to buy at the best price for them which his necessities might constrain him to accept. They were no less ready to sell at figures which were acceptable to them. Certain incidents which recur steadily in privateer voyages began to make their appearance-quarrels among men and officers, a way of asking for divisions of plunder as they went along. Sir Kenelm's did actually reach the point of mutiny, and clamoured for a distribution at the the capstan head. He says that he reduced them to order by the method which always answers best with the lower orders, to wit, measures of rigour fol lowed by kind words. His details are but scanty. On the whole it appears that he must have consented to make advances on shares of prize. That the men were persuaded to be patient by being told that it would be most unbecoming in them to presume to decide how much of their booty was to be set aside at once as the share of the Lord High Admiral, is one of those statements which no human credulity can swallow. On his own showing he did open chests containing ready money captured from the French on his way home. The total amount was only 10,000 “reales de á ocho," pieces of eight, or dollars worth four shillings and twopence, which was only two thousand pounds. Such unruly guests as they were could not fail to become tiresome to the Venetian authorities, who found that they were upsetting the trade of the islands. The High Commissioner, the Proveditore, ended by politely but firmly inviting Sir Kenelm to go on his way, and he went. This time his destination was Scanderoon, a chief place of trade for all nations at that time. He knew that the French, like other traders, carried not only goods but bullion. From a passer-by he learnt that four French vessels were to be found at the port, and that they carried 100,000 reales de á ocho, a prize worth taking, for it amounted to £20,000. If he could have met the four at sea he would indeed have made his voyage. The misfortune was that they were at anchor in a Turkish port, and that there were Venetian gallies and galliasses which might prove troublesome. The Venetians were at peace with us, but in 1628 and at a great distance from home seafaring men were but little governed by the comity of nations. The Venetian captain, Antonio Capello, might look to be rewarded by the French for any help he gave them, and then he had very good reason for being useful to the Turks. By modern rules there was only one correct course open to Sir Kenelm-to lie off the harbour and wait till he could meet the French coming out. But that was not the way to make his voyage. It was highly improbable that the French would come to sea while he was waiting for them, and it was quite certain that they would not bring the 100,000 reales de á ocho with them if they did. There was nothing for it but to make a dash at them in the harbour, grab the bullion, and be off to sea, leaving the Levant Company and the Sublime Porte to complain or do whatever else they could. And that was the line he decided to adopt. It was a chancy game, if only for the reason that the French had time to land the bullion before he was on them. This was what they did—at least as regards most of the treasure, and they also beached some of their ships. Sir Kenelm may have foreseen this, but he might gain if he tried, and if he did not, then sure as fate he would get nothing. So with his original two and his armed prizes he stood in. It would on the whole be better not to come into collision with Signor Antonio Capello. The galleys were but feeble craft, and the galliasses were not formidable. Moreover, the spirit of the Venetians had sunk with the strength of the Republic. Digby would have gone in even if they did offer opposition, but a wise man will keep to windward of the law if he can without sacrificing the venture in hand. So he wrote a letter to Signor Antonio explaining that no attack was intended to be We have other and sufficient authority for believing that the local representative of the Levant Company, their Vice-Consul, came aboard the Eagle, and in great perturbation implored him to be off, for, said he, the Turks will ruin us with fines if you don't. After delays Sir Kenelm did sail away. The voyage home may be taken as told, though the incidents were slightly different. He hunted for antiquities at Delos in vain, a characteristic touch in a man who was certainly cultured, and who loved to read the 'Faerie Queen.' He resisted the aggressions of the Greek beauties in the islands with all the virtue proper to a gentle knight who was loyal to his lady at home. He chastised the licentious excesses of his men when in port, but records at the end that they made a very fine crew indeed. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. made on him. The friendly have only Sir Kenelm's word message was brought by a boat for it, and everybody, if we just as the English vessels are to believe him, grovelled stood into the harbour and at the sight of his Olympian began firing at the French. frown. Their bullets were flying in a crowded anchorage, and could not but be a danger to all vessels moored in the harbour. Whether in sheer anger, or for hope of some advantage to himself, the Venetian captain struck in. The action became general. In the absence of precise details it is impossible to describe the course of the fight such as it was. There were the English vessels blazing into all around; the French running their ships on to the shore, and escaping with the ready money; and there were the Venetians making play with the one or two small guns they carried in the bow of their galleys, and the not much more powerful armament of their galliasses. Ashore were the Turks looking on at it all with the patience of officials who saw a fine excuse for levying an avania. And there were the factors of the Levant Company's local branch, who could foresee that avania, and who would have been delighted to know that Sir Kenelm had gone to the deepest depth of the Mediterranean before ever he came to Scanderoon. While on his way to England, Sir Kenelm was told by a flattering acquaintance, who was saying what he knew would be likely to please, that Sir Thomas Roe had been much rejoiced to hear of his high dealings with the Venetians at Scanderoon. We happen to have Sir Thomas's opinion written out by himself about a month after the action. He The action ended in a normal way. Captain Antonio Capello dropped his opposition after his vessels had been roughly handled. Sir Kenelm says that the Venetian grovelled. Perhaps he did. But then we did not love the Venetians, who had given him cause for taking offence while he was in Constantinople. They had insulted him by opening the letters he sent by their post. But he was a man of sense, and a statesman who could see things clearly and see them whole, and he wrote: "Whatever Sir Kenelm Digby's commission may be, Scanderoon is no fit place wherein to execute it, to disturb the quiet trade of merchants that pay better tenths than any rover, and to give occasion to the greedy and needy Turks to prey upon us. Roe, who had had a tussle with the Jesuits at Constantinople, avowed his utter dislike of the liberty given to men of Digby's religion, "for, however they may be honest and brave moral men, yet either they or some that look further than they, may have other and vaster designs than only punishing the foolish French, or enriching the Admiralty, to cast petrum scandalum, a rock into our best trades, and if possible to work a breach with this rash state "-i.e., Turkey. Perhaps there may be in this a touch of preternatural suspicion, and Sir Thomas scented a deep-laid Jesuit plot to provoke a quarrel between England and Turkey, and thereby in an indirect way further the Roman Catholic cause in the East, and in the furious struggle called the Thirty Years' War raging in Central Europe. But he thought as became a modern man and a man of sense, when he insisted on the folly of throwing a rock into our commerce by tolerating such enterprises as Digby's. There is no sign of deep plotting in his venture. The fault there was that he acted in the spirit of a sheer "Romantiker," of the imaginative impractical person who wishes to play old games, and imitate old deeds, in new circumstances. In 1628 the memory of Hawkins and of Drake was fresh. Sir Kenelm and certain others, the future Admiral of the Parliament in the Civil War, the Earl of Warwick, being another, assumed that they could be even as the Elizabeth sea rovers had been in the Spanish West Indies and the Pacific. But the world had altered since then. England had acquired settled interests which were open to retaliation. In the Eastern Seas the Honourable Company was driven to suppress an adventure of the Earl of Warwick's which was certain to embroil its rising factory at Surat with the Great Mogul. In the Mediterranean there were the factories of the Levant Company. Sir Kenelm's feat at Scanderoon was punished by a tremendous avania imposed on the factory at Aleppo. The time was coming when the State would police remote seas to protect its subjects not only from local barbarians, but from its own reckless subjects. Sir Kenelm lived to see this work well begun when Blake gave the Dey of Tunis his memorable lesson. |