hat could blaze with ready
and unappeasable fury, they traced the resolute mind which was to show
them the way to triumphs at sea, comparable even to those which their
victorious Sultan had won before strong walls and on the battle plain.
The Grand Vez[=i]r Ibrah[=i]m recognized in Kheyr-ed-d[=i]n the man he
needed, and the Algerine Corsair was preferred before all the admirals
of Turkey, and appointed to reconstruct the Ottoman navy. He spent the
winter in the dockyards, where his quick eye instantly detected the
faults of the builders. The Turks of Constantinople, he found, knew
neither how to build nor how to work their galleys.[27] Theirs were
not so swift as the Christians'; and instead of turning sailors
themselves, and navigating them properly, they used to kidnap
shepherds from Arcadia and Anatolia, who had never handled a sail or a
tiller in their lives, and entrust the navigation of their galleys to
these inexperienced hands.[28] Kheyr-ed-d[=i]n soon changed all this.
Fortunately there were workmen and timber in abundance, and, inspiring
his men with his own marvellous energy, he laid out sixty-one galleys
during the winter, and was able to take the sea with a fleet of
eighty-four vessels in the spring. The period of Turkish supremacy on
the sea dates from Kheyr-ed-d[=i]n's winter in the dockyards.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] See the _Story of Turkey_, 191.

[24] _Doria et Barberousse_, Pt. II. ch. xxv.

[25] The Spanish historians are silent on the subject of this
expedition: or, rather, Haedo positively denies it, and says that
Kheyr-ed-d[=i]n sent an embassy to the Sultan, but did not go in
person. H[=a]jji Khal[=i]fa, however, is clear and detailed in his
account of the visit.

[26] For an account of Stambol and the old Seraglio see the _Story of
Turkey_, 260 ff.

[27] See Chapter XVI., below.

[28] So says Jean Chesneau, French secretary at Constantinople in 1543.
See Jurien de la Graviere, _Les Corsaires Barbaresques_, 13.

VIII.

TUNIS TAKEN AND LOST.

1534-1535.

The dwellers on the coasts of Italy soon discovered the new spirit in
the Turkish fleet; they had now to dread Corsairs on both hands, east
as well as west. In the summer of 1534 Kheyr-ed-d[=i]n led his new
fleet of eighty-four galleys forth from the Golden Horn, to flesh
their appetite on a grand quest of prey. Entering the Straits of
Messina, he surprised Reggio, and carried off ships and slaves;
stormed and burnt the castle of