The quality which Napoleon is said to have ascribed to the British Infantry, “of never knowing when they were beaten,” seems to have also characterised the Sea-wolves; as witness the marvellous recuperation of Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa when expelled from Tunis by Charles V.; and the escape of Dragut from the island of Jerba when apparently hopelessly trapped by the Genoese admiral, Andrea Doria. All through their history the leaders of the Sea-wolves show the resourcefulness of the real seamen that they had become by force of circumstances, and it was they who in the age in which they dwelt showed what sea power really meant. Sailing through the Mediterranean on my way to Malta in the spring of this year, as the good ship fared onwards I passed in succession all those lurking-places from which the Moslem Corsairs were wont to burst out upon their prey. Truly it seemed as if “The spirits of their fathers might start from every wave,” and in imagination one pictured the rush of the pirate galley, with its naked slaves straining at the oar of their taskmasters, its fierce, reckless, beturbaned crew clustered on the “rambades” at the bow and stern. It might be that they would capture some hapless “round-ship,” a merchantman lumbering slowly along the coast; or again they might meet with a galley of the terrible Knights of St. John or of the ever-redoubtable Doria. In either case the Sea-wolves were equal to 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 Page 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