Page 112 - A Knight of the White Cross

"The risk that you will run has not escaped me," the Turk said, "and indeed,
I now regret that you were chosen as my escort. I almost wish that my son

had not purchased my freedom at the present time, since it involves the risk
of you losing yours. There is no doubt that the sea swarms with pirates; the

sultan is too busy with his own struggles for Empire to bestow any attention
upon so small a matter. The pashas and the officers of the ports have not
the power, even had they the will, to put down piracy in their districts, and

indeed are, as often as not, participators in the spoils. Your Order, which,
years back, scoured the seas so hotly that piracy well nigh ceased, have

now for forty years been obliged to turn their attention chiefly to their own
defence. They possess a comparatively small fleet of galleys, and their
wealth is expended on their fortress.

"What with Egypt and the sultan their hands are too full for them to act as

the police of the sea, and the consequence is that from every port, bay, and
inlet, pirate craft set out -- some mere rowboats, some, like those under the
command of Hassan Ali, veritable fleets. Thus the humblest coasters and

the largest merchant craft go alike in fear of them, and I would that the
sultan and Egypt and your Order would for two or three years put aside

their differences, and confine their efforts to sweeping the seas of these
pests, to storming their strongholds, and to inflicting such punishment upon
them as that, for a very long time to come, peaceful merchants might carry

on their trade without fear.

"I heard you tell the captain that he was to steer straight for Acre, and I
think you are right in avoiding the coast, where the most harmless looking
fishing boat may carry a crowd of pirates hidden in her hold. At the same

time, if you will take my advice you will head much more to the south, so
as to be out of the regular track of ships making from Constantinople or the

islands to Acre. You may meet pirates anywhere, but they are assuredly
thicker along the more frequented routes. The safest plan of all would
probably be to bear south, and strike the Egyptian coast well to the east of

the mouth of the Nile. Thence, till you get to Palestine, the country is
utterly barren and uninhabited, while, running up the coast to Palestine,

there are, save at Jaffa, no ports to speak of until you arrive at Acre; and
besides, the inhabitants there, even if pirates, would not venture to