The context of Fajardo's raid was the tangled geopolitics of early 17th-century Mediterranean piracy. Spain was in the midst of expelling its Morisco population, and Barbary corsairs based in Tunis, Algiers, and other North African ports were exploiting the upheaval, raiding the Spanish coast and fueling a lucrative slave trade. Among the pirates operating from Tunis were renegades from across Europe: the Dutch privateer Zymen Danseker terrorized shipping near Cape St. Vincent with an 18-ship fleet, while English adventurers like Ward had built entire pirate kingdoms from their North African bases. Fajardo's orders were to disrupt these operations while Spain's southern coast was left vulnerable by the Morisco deportations.

Fresh from victories against the Dutch in the Atlantic, Fajardo assembled a fleet composed entirely of sailing ships -- galleons and caravels rather than the oar-driven galleys that had dominated Mediterranean warfare since antiquity. This was a deliberate choice. After the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, Spain had begun viewing galley fleets as expensive to maintain, and Fajardo wanted to prove that his Atlantic sailing vessels could operate effectively in the narrower waters of the Mediterranean. His first target was Danseker, and the hunt took him along the North African coast. Near the island of Limacos, his men captured a ship carrying weapons, crewed by Englishmen and Jews, that belonged to Danseker's fleet. At Algiers, they spotted eight sailing ships and four galleys sheltering in the harbor, but the defenses were too strong. Fajardo pressed on toward Tunis.

Arriving at La Goulette, Fajardo found a harbor crowded with pirate vessels. Along the way, he had captured two more ships belonging to Danseker and encountered a battered French flotilla commanded by Philippe de Beaulieu-Persac, who warned of at least 23 enemy ships being resupplied in Tunis. Due to the Peace of Vervins between Spain and France, Beaulieu joined Fajardo's force with his one remaining combat-ready galleon. What followed was methodical destruction. As pirate ships realized a Spanish fleet had arrived, some were abandoned and scuttled by their own crews. Others ran aground as sailors tried to escape overland. Fajardo's men seized cargoes of stolen goods and liberated 40 French prisoners found aboard one captured vessel. Rather than risk a prolonged siege, Fajardo sent negotiators into Tunis, ransoming additional prisoners for 2,000 gold sequins before departing on August 4.

Fajardo returned to Cadiz loaded with booty and was immediately reassigned to assist with transporting expelled Moriscos to Africa from Cartagena. His raid had not extinguished Barbary piracy -- Ward and other renegades simply relocated to La Mamora on the Atlantic coast of Morocco -- but it had dealt a significant blow. The Spanish pursued them there too, burning their ships again, and Fajardo himself would conquer La Mamora in 1614. The raid's deeper significance was tactical. By demonstrating that sailing ships could execute offensive operations in the Mediterranean without galley support, Fajardo accelerated a naval transition that had been underway since Lepanto. The age of the oared warship was ending, and the waters off La Goulette were among the places where it drew its last breath.