the
peace of the Mediterranean practically until the introduction of steam.

The whole record of the sixteenth century is one of blood and fire, of
torture and massacre, of "punic faith" and shameless treason; the deeds of
the sea-rovers, appalling as they were, frequently found a counterpart in
the battles, the sieges, and the sacking of towns which took place
perpetually on the continent of Europe.

There was so much history made at this period, the stage of world politics
was occupied by so many great, striking, and dazzling personalities, that
the Sea-wolves and all they accomplished were to a great extent
overshadowed by happenings which the chroniclers of the time considered to
be of greater importance. In this no doubt they were right in the main;
but, in spite of this opinion which they held, we find that time and again
the main stream of events is ruffled by the prows of the pirate galleys.
Such men as the Barbarossas, as Dragut, and Ali Basha could only have been
suppressed and exterminated had the whole might of Christendom been turned
against them, for they held in their hands two weapons, the keenest and
most powerful with which to attain the objects which they had in view.

The first and more powerful of these was the appeal in a rough and warlike
age to the cupidity of mankind. "Those who are content to follow us," they
said in effect, "are certain to enrich themselves if they are men stout of
heart and strong of hand. All around us lie rich and prosperous lands; we
have but to organise ourselves, and to take anything that we wish for; we
can, if we like, gather a rich harvest at comparatively small trouble."
Such counsels as these did not fall on deaf ears. Driven from the land of
plenty--from glorious Andalusia with its fruitful soil, its magnificent
cities, its vines and olives, its fruit and grain, its noble rivers and
wide-spreading _vegas_--the Spanish Moslem of the day of the Sea-wolves was
an outcast and a beggar, ripe for adventure and burning for revenge on
those by whom he had been expropriated.

Great historians like William Hickling Prescott tell us that, in the course
of the seven centuries of the Moslem domination in Spain, the Moors had
become soft and effeminate, that "the canker of peace" had sapped, if it
had not destroyed, the virile qualities of the race, that luxury and
learning had dried up at their source those primitive virtues of courage
and hardihood which had been the leadin