Note 25 — EVENTS of the Year 1023, H.

The letters which had been sent from the fleet stated that the descent had been altogether sudden and unexpected at first. The fleet, these letters said, on arriving before or opposite a monastery on the island not far from the city, the admiral forbade Mímí Beg to leave his ship; but he landed his janissaries and other troops, who as soon as they individually reached the shore, such was their eagerness, cried out Allah! Allah! as they proceeded; which so alarmed the inhabitants that they all fled into the city with their servants. The Moslems, on reaching the monastery, were obliged, by reason of the cannon which played upon them from the fortress, to give up; and because they found it impracticable to keep the footing they had gained, they were constrained to return to their vessels. Forty or fifty were left on the island, but they effected no good whatever. The fleet, we are told on the same authority, seized, between Messina and Malta, on its return, a vessel, the crew of which informed the admiral that the twenty-seven ships he had been in quest of had entered Messina, where there were several other vessels belonging to the enemy.