as a maritime nation, were themselves
ever a predatory race. Might alone made right in the waters of the
Levant, and especially so in the Grecian archipelago. No candid writer
can defend the marine policy of the Greeks, and perhaps the Knights of
St. John only meted to these rovers the same treatment which they (the
Greeks) were used to accord to others. All history shows that the
eastern basin of the Mediterranean was for centuries a swarming nest of
corsairs of various nationalities, Greeks, Turks, and Algerines. Any
attempt to transfer a legitimate cargo of merchandise from an Asiatic to
a European port by way of the Straits of Gibraltar was to run the
gauntlet of a fleet of piratical vessels which preyed indiscriminately
upon the commerce of all nations. Those we have named were the most
numerous among these sea robbers, the Turks and Algerines making war
together upon the Knights of Rhodes, who retaliated upon them with
interest, both on the land and on the sea. The Knights pursued these
powers with most unchristianlike vengeance, pertinacity, and success.

The adventurous life followed by the order proved to be terribly
demoralizing to the individual members, and especially incompatible with
the observance of their religious vows and discipline. The frequent
division of prize money, the constant capture of luxuries of all sorts,
and of female prisoners, led to gambling, drinking, and debauchery on
shore, until all semblance of respect for monastic ties utterly
vanished. This was not because the Knights were so much worse than the
average people of their time, for lawlessness was the characteristic of
the age, but it was the natural outgrowth of the extraordinary
circumstances in which they were involved,--circumstances which created
an overstrained energy neither natural nor healthful. Insubordination
and jealousies frequently broke out among the order, to quell which the
severest measures were promptly adopted. The Grand Masters more than
once resorted to the extremest punishment, even including the death
penalty.

Following up their supremacy on the sea, the Knights continued to fight
the Turks and Greeks, wherever found, until at last scarcely a vessel
bearing the flag of either of them dared to venture out of port. Four
times the Mussulmans made prodigious efforts to dislodge the Knights
from Rhodes; but on each occasion they were signally defeated. The
warlike Turks grew more and more formidable, while they