Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean | Page 4

and one
alone, had to be preserved: none must blaspheme against Mahomet, the
Prophet of God, as he was considered to be by the Moslems. The
penalty for infraction of this rule was death; otherwise, complete liberty
of conscience was accorded.
We have spoken of the two weapons held by the leaders of the
Sea-wolves. The first, as we have, said, was cupidity; the second was
fanaticism, the deadly religious hatred engendered, not only by the
wholesale expropriation of the Moslem population, but also by the
persecution to which the Moriscoes--as those Moslems were known
who remained in Spain--were subjected by their Christian masters. It
requires little imagination to see how these two weapons of avarice and
intolerance could be made to serve the purpose of those dominant
spirits who rose to the summit of the piratical hierarchy. Not only did
they dazzle the imaginations of those who followed in their train by
promises of wealth uncounted, but they added to this the specious
argument that, in slaying and robbing the Christian wheresoever he was
to be found, the faithful Moslem was performing the service of God
and the act most grateful to his holy Prophet.
Could any rule of life be at the same time more simple and more
attractive to the beggared Mohammedan cast on the sterile shores of
Northern Africa to starve?
With the main stream of history, to which we have before referred, we
have no concern in this book. He who would embark thereon must sail

a powerful vessel which must carry many guns. Also for the conduct of
this vessel many qualities are necessary: a commanding intellect, acute
perceptions, indefatigable industry, complete leisure, are among those
things necessary to the pilot. These must be supplemented by a genius
for research, a knowledge of ancient and modern languages, and an
unerring faculty for separating the few precious grains of wheat from
those mountains of chaff which he will have to sift with the utmost care.
There are, however, subsidiary rivulets which feed the onward flow of
events, and of such is the story of the Sea-wolves of the Mediterranean.
On these the adventurous mariner can sail his little cockboat, discreetly
retiring before he becomes involved and engulfed in the main stream.
That he cannot altogether avoid it is shown by the fact that the men
who are here chronicled took part in events of first-class importance in
the age in which they lived. Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa fought the battle
of Prevesa against his lifelong antagonist, Andrea Doria. Dragut was
killed at the siege of Malta, at the moment almost of the fall of the
castle of St. Elmo; had he lived it is more than probable that Jean
Parisot de la Valette and his heroic garrison would have been defeated
instead of being victorious. Ali Basha was the one Moslem commander
who increased his reputation at the battle of Lepanto, because, as was
usual in all maritime conflicts of the time, the corsairs, who had the
habit of the sea, were more than a match for soldiers embarked to fight
on an unfamiliar element.
We shall speak, later on, of the autocratic rule of these leaders who
possessed so absolute a domination over the men by whom they were
followed. The fact of this absolute supremacy on the part of the chiefs
is very curious, as theoretically in the confederacy of the Sea-wolves all
were equal; we are, in fact, confronted with pure democracy, where
every man was at liberty to do what seemed best in his own eyes. He
was a free agent, none coercing him or desiring him to place himself
under discipline or command. This, be it observed, was the theory. As a
matter of fact the corsairs, who were extraordinarily successful in their
abominable trade, abode beneath an iron and rigid discipline. This was
enforced by the lash, as we shall see later on when it is related how
Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa flogged one Hassan, a captain who, he
considered, had failed in his duty: or by the actual penalty of death,
which Uruj Barbarossa inflicted on one who had dared to act

independently of his authority.
The theory of equality obtained among the Mediterranean pirates; but
the Barbarossas, Dragut, and Ali believed that, in practice, the less
interference there was with their designs by those, whom Cardinal
Granvelle denominated in a letter to Philip II. as "that mischievous
animal the people," the better it would be for all concerned. The
conception held of rights and duties of "the mischievous animal" by
these militant persons was, that it should behave as did those others
recorded of the Roman centurion in Holy Writ: if it did not, and
difficulties arose, the leaders were not troubled with an undue
tenderness either towards the individual or the theory.