Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean | Page 2

their fortune, to plunder or to fight in the name of Allah and his
prophet.
That which differentiated the Sea-wolves from other pirates was the

combination which they effected among themselves; the manner in
which these lawless men could subordinate themselves to the will of
one whom they recognised as a great leader. To obtain such recognition
was no easy matter, and the manner in which this was done, by those
who rose by sheer force of character to the summit of this remarkable
hierarchy, has here been set forth.
E. HAMILTON CURREY.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTORY 1

CHAPTER I
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS 13

CHAPTER II
THE COMING OF THE CORSAIRS 28

CHAPTER III
URUJ BARBAROSSA 43

CHAPTER IV
THE DEATH OF URUJ BARBAROSSA 59

CHAPTER V
KHEYR-ED-DIN BARBAROSSA 75

CHAPTER VI
THE TAKING OF THE PEÑON D'ALGER; ANDREA DORIA 91

CHAPTER VII

THE APOTHEOSIS OF THE CORSAIR KING 107

CHAPTER VIII
THE RAID ON THE COAST OF ITALY; JULIA GONZAGA 123

CHAPTER IX
BARCELONA, MAY 1535; THE GATHERING OF THE
CHRISTIAN HOSTS 139

CHAPTER X
THE FALL OF TUNIS AND THE FLIGHT OF BARBAROSSA 155

CHAPTER XI
ROXALANA AND THE MURDER OF IBRAHIM 172

CHAPTER XII
THE PREVESA CAMPAIGN; THE GATHERING OF THE FLEETS
189

CHAPTER XIII
THE BATTLE OF PREVESA 205

CHAPTER XIV
THE NAVY OF OARS. THE GALLEY, THE GALEASSE, AND
THE NEF 221

CHAPTER XV
DRAGUT-REIS 238

CHAPTER XVI
DRAGUT-REIS 254

CHAPTER XVII
DRAGUT-REIS 269

CHAPTER XVIII
THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN 286

CHAPTER XIX
DRAGUT-REIS 306

CHAPTER XX
THE SIEGE OF MALTA 324

CHAPTER XXI
ALI BASHA 344

CHAPTER XXII
LEPANTO 362
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED 383
LIST OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, SPAIN, SULTANS
OF TURKEY, POPES OF ROME, AND GRAND MASTERS OF
MALTA FROM 1492 TO 1580 385
DISTANCES IN SEA MILES ON THE COAST OF NORTHERN
AFRICA 387
INDEX 389

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
I wish to record my cordial recognition of the kindness shown to me at
Malta by Mr. Salvino Sant Manduca. The picture of the carrack
opposite to page 300 was a gift from him. The galley of the Knights of
Malta is a reproduction of a picture hanging in his house. I should also
like to thank him for the time and trouble which he took on my behalf
during my stay at Malta, and the keen interest he displayed in my
subject.
R. HAMILTON CURREY.
KHEYR-ED-DIN BARBAROSSA--CORSAIR, ADMIRAL, AND
KING Frontispiece FACING PAGE
URUJ AND KHEYR-ED-DIN BARBAROSSA 44
ANDREA DORIA, PRINCE OF ONEOLIA, ADMIRAL TO
CHARLES V. 92
SOLIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT 110
THE EMPEROR CHARLES V 150
MULEY HASSAN KING OF TUNIS 162
GALEASSE UNDER SAIL 194
GALLEY UNDER OARS 222
BRIGANTINE CHASING FELUCCA 236
GOZON DE DIEU-DONNÉ SLAYING THE GREAT SERPENT OF
RHODES 294
CARRACK IN WHICH THE KNIGHTS ARRIVED AT MALTA,
1530 300
JEAN PARISOT DE LA VALETTE, GRAND MASTER OF THE
KNIGHTS OF MALTA, AT THE SIEGE OF THAT ISLAND BY
THE TURKS IN 1565 324
DEATH OF DRAGUT AT THE SIEGE OF MALTA 340
A GALLEY OF THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA 354
DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA 362
SEBASTIAN VENIERO 364

INTRODUCTORY
In all the ages of which we have any record there have been men who
gained a living by that practice of robbery on the high seas which we
know by the name of Piracy. Perhaps the pirates best known to the
English-speaking world are the buccaneers of the Spanish Main, who

flourished exceedingly in the seventeenth century, and of whom many
chronicles exist: principally owing to the labours of that John
Esquemelin, a pirate of a literary turn of mind, who added the crime of
authorship to the ill deeds of a sea-rover. The Sea-Wolves of the
Mediterranean in the preceding century did not raise up a chronicler
from among themselves: for not much tincture of learning seems to
have distinguished these desperate fighters and accomplished seamen,
descendants of those Spanish Moslems who had, during the Middle
Ages, lived in a land in which learning and culture had been held in the
highest estimation. Driven from their homes, their civilisation crushed,
their religion banned in that portion of Southern Spain in which they
had dwelt for over seven centuries, cast upon the shores of Northern
Africa, these men took to the sea and became the scourge of the
Mediterranean. That which they did, the deeds which they
accomplished, the terror which they inspired, the ruin and havoc which
they wrought, have been set forth in the pages of this book.
It was the age of the galley, the oar-propelled vessel which moved
independently of the wind in the fine-weather months of the great
inland sea. Therefore to the dwellers on the coast the Sea-wolves were