Many writers describe the seizure of Gozo and the wholesale deportation of the Christians living there as being carried out by Barbary ‘pirates’, but this is of course absurd. It is difficult to imagine even a sizable company of pirates being able to cope with the problem of moving 6,000 men, women and children across the sea. What really happened was that privateers were working hand-in-glove with the regular Ottoman forces to effect the transfer of an entire population into slavery.
