n
Armenia; and she introduced to Europe not only the products of the
East, but their very names. Sarcenet is Saracen stuff; tabby is named
after a street in Baghd[=a]d where watered silk was made; Baldacchini
are simply "Baldac," _i.e._, Baghd[=a]d, canopies; samite is
Sh[=a]m[=i], "Syrian," fabric; the very coat of the Egyptian, the
_jubba_, is preserved in giuppa, jupe.[19] With the loss of her
Oriental commerce, which the hostility of the Turks involved, Venice
could no longer hold her own. She bowed to her fate and acknowledged
the Turkish supremacy by sea as well as by land. She even paid the
Sultan tribute for the island of Cyprus. When Suleym[=a]n the
Magnificent succeeded Sel[=i]m and took Belgrade (1521), Venice
hastily increased her payment and did homage for Zante as well. So
meek had now become the Bride of the Sea.

Turkey still suffered the annoyance of the Rhodian Corsairs, and till
they were removed her naval supremacy was not complete. Genoa and
Venice had been humbled: the turn of the Knights of St. John was
come. Sel[=i]m had left his son, the great Suleym[=a]n, the legacy of
a splendid fleet, prepared for this very enterprize. One hundred and
three swift galleys, thirty-five galleasses, besides smaller craft,
and 107 transports, "naves, fustes, mahones, tafforees, galions, et
esquirasses,"[20] formed a noble navy, and Rhodes fell, after an
heroic defence, at the close of 1522. For six months the Knights held
out, against a fleet which had swollen to four hundred sail and an
army of over a hundred thousand men commanded by the Sultan in person.
It was a crisis in the history of Europe: the outpost of Christendom
was at bay. The Knights realized their duty nobly, but they had the
best engineers in the world against them, and all the resources of a
now mighty empire, wielded by a master-mind. Suleym[=a]n surrounded
the city with his works, and made regular approaches for his advancing
batteries and mines; yet at the end of a month not a wall was down,
and the eight bastions of the eight Tongues of the Order--the English,
French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Provencal, and
Auvergnat--were so far unmoved. Gabriel Martinego of Candia
superintended the countermines with marked success.[21] At last the
English bastion was blown up; the Turks swarmed to the breach, and
were beaten back with a loss of two thousand men. A second assault
failed, but on September 24th they succeeded in getting a foothol