ripoli, which
then belonged to "the Religion." As the Turkish annalist says,
"Torgh[=u]d had become the drawn sword of Islam."

Dragut's lair was at the island of Jerba, which tradition links with
the lotus-eaters, perhaps because of the luxuriant fertility of the
soil. The people of Jerba, despite their simple agricultural pursuits,
were impatient of control, and, as often as not, were independent of
the neighbouring kingdom of Tunis or any other state. Here, with or
without their leave, Dragut took up his position, probably in the very
castle which Roger Doria, when lord of the island, began to build in
1289; and from out the wide lake at the back the Corsair's galleots
issued to ravage the lands which were under the protection of Roger
Doria's descendants. Not content with the rich spoils of Europe,
Dragut took the Spanish outposts in Africa, one by one--Susa, Sfax,
Monastir; and finally set forth to conquer "Africa."

[Illustration: SIEGE OF "AFRICA," 1390.

(_From a MS._)]

It is not uncommon in Arabic to call a country and its capital by the
same name. Thus Misr meant and still means both Egypt and Cairo;
El-Andalus, both Spain and Cordova. Similarly "Africa" meant to the
Arabs the province of Carthage or Tunis and its capital, which was not
at first Tunis but successively Kayraw[=a]n and Mahd[=i]ya. Throughout
the later middle ages the name "Africa" is applied by Christian
writers to the latter city. Here it was that in 1390 a "grand and
noble enterprize" came to an untimely end. "The Genoese," says
Froissart, "bore great enmity to this town; for its Corsairs
frequently watched them at sea, and when strongest fell on and
plundered their ships, carrying their spoils to this town of
Africa, which was and is now their place of deposit and may be called
their warren." It was "beyond measure strong, surrounded by high
walls, gates, and deep ditches." The chivalry of Christendom hearkened
to the prayer of the Genoese and the people of Majorca and Sardinia
and Ischia, and the many islands that groaned beneath the Corsairs'
devastations; the Duke of Bourbon took command of an expedition (at
the cost of the Genoese) which included names as famous as the Count
d'Auvergne, the Lord de Courcy, Sir John de Vienne, the Count of Eu,
and our own Henry of Beaufort; and on St. John Baptist's Day, with
much pomp, with flying banners and the blowing of trumpets, they
sailed on three hundred galleys for Barbary. Arrived before A