estined to become as notorious as Barbarossa's as the
century advanced. Dragut--or Torgh[=u]d--was born on the Caramanian
coast opposite the island of Rhodes. Unlike many of his colleagues he
seems to have been the son of Mohammedan parents, tillers of the
earth. Being adventurous by nature, he took service as a boy in the
Turkish fleet and became "a good pilot and a most excellent gunner."
At last he contrived to purchase and man a galleot, with which he
cruised the waters of the Levant, where his intimate acquaintance with
all the coasts and islands enabled him to seize and dispose of many
prizes. Kheyr-ed-d[=i]n Barbarossa soon came to hear of his exploits,
and welcomed him heartily when he came to pay his respects at Algiers,
in so far that he gave him the conduct of various expeditions and
eventually appointed him his lieutenant with the command of twelve
galleys. "From thenceforward this redoubtable Corsair passed not one
summer without ravaging the coasts of Naples and Sicily: nor durst
any Christian vessels attempt to pass between Spain and Italy; for if
they offered it, he infallibly snapped them up: and when he missed any
of his prey at sea, he made himself amends by making descents along
the coasts, plundering villages and towns, and dragging away
multitudes of inhabitants into captivity."[38]

[Illustration: CASTLE OF JERBA.

(_Elisee Reclus._)]

In 1540, as we have seen, Dragut was caught by Giannettino Doria, who
made him a present to his great kinsman Andrea, on whose galleys he
was forced to toil in chains. La Valette, afterwards Grand Master of
Malta, who had once pulled the captive's oar on Barbarossa's ships and
knew Dragut well, one day saw the ex-Corsair straining on the galley
bank: "Senor Dragut," said he, "_usanza de guerra!_--'tis the custom
of war!" And the prisoner, remembering his visitor's former
apprenticeship, replied cheerfully, "_Y mudanza de fortuna_--a change
of luck!" He did not lose heart, and in 1543 Barbarossa ransomed him
for 3000 crowns,[39] and made him chief of the galleys of the western
Corsairs. Imprisonment had sharpened his appetite for Christians, and
he harried the Italian coasts with more than his ancient zeal.
Surrounded by bold spirits and commanding a fleet of his own, Dragut
had the Mediterranean in his grasp, and even ventured to seize the
most dreaded of all foes, a Maltese galley, wherein he found 70,000
ducats intended for the repair of the fortifications of T