of the Great Port, and
continued on a line that stretched to Mount St. Salvador. Where the soil
was too hard to be readily turned up, the defences were continued by a
wall of stone. Along the heights, on different points of the line,
batteries were established, and mounted with guns of the heaviest
calibre. Batteries were also raised on the high ground which, under the
name of Mount Sceberras, divides Port Musiette from the Great Port,
terminating in the point of land crowned by St. Elmo. A few cannon were
even planted by the Turks on the ruins of this castle.

Thus the Christian fortresses were menaced on every point; and while the
lines of the besiegers cut off all communication on the land side, a
detachment of the fleet, blocking up the entrance to the Great Port,
effectually cut off intercourse by sea. The investment by land and by
sea was complete.

Early in July the wide circle of batteries, mounting between sixty and
seventy pieces of artillery, opened their converging fire on the
fortresses, the towns, and the shipping, which lay at anchor in the Port
of Galleys. The cannonade was returned with spirit by the guns of St.
Angelo and St. Michael, well served by men acquainted with their duty.
So soon as the breaches were practicable, Mustapha proposed to begin by
storming St. Michael, the weaker of the two fortresses; and he
determined to make the assault by sea as well as by land. It would not
be possible, however, to bring round his vessels lying in Port Musiette
into the Great Port, without exposing them to the guns of St. Angelo. He
resorted, therefore, to an expedient startling enough, but not new in
the annals of warfare. He caused a large number of boats to be dragged
across the high land which divides the two harbors. This toilsome work
was performed by his Christian slaves; and the garrison beheld with
astonishment the Turkish flotilla descending the rugged slopes of the
opposite eminence, and finally launched on the waters of the inland
basin. No less than eighty boats, some of them of the largest size, were
thus transported across the heights.

Having completed this great work, Mustapha made his preparations for the
assault. At this time, he was joined by a considerable reinforcement
under Hassem, the Algerine corsair, who commanded at the memorable
sieges of Oran and Mazarquivir. Struck with the small size of the castle
of St. Elmo, Hassem intimated his surprise that it should have held out
so long