The Story of the Barbary Corsairs | Page 7

bold man who could hold Tunis at the eastern corner, or
Algiers in the middle, or Ceuta or Tangiers at the western point, might
reckon upon numerous opportunities of stopping argosies of untold
wealth as they passed by his lair. The situation seemed purposely
contrived for Corsairs.
[Illustration: A MAP OF THE KINGDOMS OF BARBARY.
(Voyages to Barbary for the Redemption of Captives, 1736.)]
More than this, the coast was just what a pirate wants. The map shows
a series of natural harbours, often backed by lagunes which offer every
facility for the escape of the rover from his pursuers; and while in the
sixteenth century there were no deep ports for vessels of heavy draught,
there were endless creeks, shallow harbours, and lagunes where the
Corsairs' galleys (which never drew more than six feet of water) could
take refuge. Behind Jerba, the fabled island of the Lotus-Eaters, was an
immense inland sea, commanded in the Middle Ages by castles, and
affording a refuge for which the rovers had often had cause to be
grateful. Merchant vessels were shy of sailing in the dangerous Gulf of
the Greater Syrtes with its heavy tides and spreading sandbanks, and
even the war-galleys of Venice and Spain were at a disadvantage when
manoeuvring in its treacherous eddies against the Corsair who knew
every inch of the coast. Passing westward, a famous medieval fortress,
with the remains of a harbour, is seen at Mahd[=i]ya, the "Africa" of
the chroniclers. Next, Tunis presents the finest harbour on all the
Barbary coast; within its Goletta (or "Throat") a vessel is safe from all
the winds that blow, and if a canal were cut to join it with the inland
lake of Bizerta, a deep harbour would be formed big enough to hold all
the shipping of the Mediterranean. The ancient ports of Carthage and
Porto Farina offered more protection in the Corsairs' time than now
when the sand has choked the coast; and in the autumn months a vessel
needed all the shelter she could get when the Cyprian wind was

blowing off Cape Bona. Close to the present Algerine frontier is
Tabarka, which the Lomellini family of Genoa found a thriving
situation for their trading establishments. Lacalle, once a famous nest
of pirates, had then a fine harbour, as the merchants of Marseilles
discovered when they superintended the coral fisheries from the
neighbouring Bastion de France. Bona, just beyond, has its roads, and
formerly possessed a deep harbour. J[=i]jil, an impregnable post, held
successively by Phoenicians, Normans, Romans, Pisans, and Genoese,
till Barbarossa got possession of it and made it a fortress of refuge for
his Corsairs, stands on a rocky peninsula joined by a sandy isthmus to
the mainland, with a port well sheltered by a natural breakwater.
Further on were Buj[=e]ya (Bougie), its harbour well protected from
the worst winds; Algiers, not then a port, but soon to become one;
Shersh[=e]l, with a harbour to be shunned in a heavy swell from the
north, but otherwise a valuable nook for sea rovers; Tinnis, not always
accessible, but safe when you were inside; and Oran, with the important
harbour of Mars El-Keb[=i]r the "Portus Divinus" of the Romans;
while beyond, the Jamia-el-Ghazaw[=a]t or Pirates' Mosque, shows
where a favourite creek offered an asylum between the Brothers Rocks
for distressed Corsairs. Passing Tangiers and Ceuta (Septa), and turning
beyond the Straits, various shelters are found, and amongst others the
celebrated ports of Sal[=e], which, in spite of its bar of sand, managed
to send out many mischievous craft to harass the argosies on their
return from the New World.
Not only were there ports in abundance for the shelter of galleys, but
the land behind was all that could be desired. River indeed there was
none capable of navigation, but the very shortness of the watershed
which precluded the possibility of great streams brought with it a
counterbalancing advantage; for the mountains rise so steep and high
near the coast that the Corsairs' look-out could sight the vessels to be
attacked a long way out to sea, and thus give notice of a prize or
warning of an enemy. Moreover the land produced all that was needed
to content the heart of man. Below the mountains where the Berbers
dwelt and the steppes where Arab shepherds roamed, fertile valleys
spread to the seashore. Jerba was a perfect garden of corn and fruit,
vines, olives, almonds, apricots, and figs; Tunis stood in the midst of

green fields, and deserved the title of "the White, the Odoriferous, the
Flowery Bride of the West,"--though, indeed, the second epithet,
according to its inhabitants, was derived from the odour of the lake
which received the drainage of the city, to which they ascribed its
peculiar salubrity.
What more could be required in