The amazing rise to power of the Algerine pirates may be said to have commenced with the struggle for the possession of the Penon, a small island, connected with the mainland by a mole, which provided a place of refuge for the corsair fleet and to-day forms the inner harbor of the great modern port. After their occupation of Oran and other towns on the coast of Africa, the Spaniards seized and fortified this island and held it for nearly twenty years, its position athwart the entrance to the roadstead enabling them to hamper, if not actually to control, the movements of the Algerine fleets. But in 1516 the emir of Algiers, Selim bin Teumi, growing weary of Spanish interference with the pleasant and profitable game of piracy, sought the aid of the celebrated Turkish sea-rovers, Arouj and Khair-ed-Din, better known as the Barbarossa brothers. They accepted the invitation promptly, and it was a sad day for Selim bin Teumi when they did, for scarcely had Arouj set foot in Algiers before he caused the emir to be assassinated and himself took possession of the city. After the death of Arouj in an obscure fight near Oujda, his brother Khair-ed-Din took up the reins of power at Algiers, and, in order to bolster up his position, offered the city to Selim I, sultan of Turkey, who accepted the offer and named Khair-ed-Din his viceroy, or capitan-pasha. Thus began the Turkish domination of Algeria, which lasted for upward of three hundred years and brought worries and woes innumerable to Europe. Now that he had the might of the Ottoman Empire behind him, Khair-ed-Din turned his attention to the Spanish garrison on the Penon. Bringing up heavy artillery, he subjected the fortress to fifteen days of intensive bombardment, and, when all save a handful of the garrison had been killed, carried it by storm. The Spanish commander Martin Vagas, taken prisoner, was offered his choice between death or conversion to Islam. Being a stout son of the church as well as a gallant soldier, he chose the former, whereupon he was sentenced to die by flogging, and his dead body was dragged through the streets, cut into pieces, and thrown into the sea.