Of the Turks who carried
the musket or arquebus few could handle them with the expertness of a
Christian soldier. The advantages which the League derived from its
galeases were heightened by the fact that a large proportion of its
other vessels were superior to their antagonists. The galleys of the
King of Spain were, in general, both more strongly built and more
carefully protected against boarders than those of the Sultan. Even
early in the battle the Moslems began to discover that they were
overmatched. In many of the galleys the guns were at once silenced by
the heavier artillery of the Christians, in whose hands the fire of the
arquebus and the musket, when they came to close quarters, proved so
withering that the enemy's deck was sometimes swept clean before they
boarded, and the turbaned heads of the janizaries were seen crouching
beneath the benches of the slaves. When the conflict was transferred to
the Turkish decks, the Christians, however, found themselves fiercely
met, and among other means of opposing their progress they perceived
that the central gangway (_corsia_) had been torn up, or they slipped
upon planking which had been smeared with butter, oil, or even, it is
said, with honey, to render the footing insecure. So efficient were the
nettings and other precautions with which Don John of Austria defended
the bulwarks of his ships that he was able to inform Philip II that not
a Turk had set foot upon a single deck belonging to his majesty.
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