s and the captors, with a certain proportion (varying
from a fifth to an eighth) reserved for the Beylik, or government, who
also claimed the hulks. Of the remainder, half went to the owners and
reis, the other half to the crew and soldiers. The principal officers
took each three shares, the gunners and helmsmen two, and the soldiers
and swabbers one; the Christian slaves received from 11/2 to three
shares apiece. A scrivener saw to the accuracy of the division. If the
prize was a very large one, the captors usually towed it into Algiers
at once, but small vessels were generally sent home under a lieutenant
and a jury-crew of Moors.

There is no mistaking the aspect of a Corsair who has secured a prize:
for he fires gun after gun as he draws near the port, utterly
regardless of powder. The moment he is in the roads, the _Liman_ Reis,
or Port Admiral, goes on board, and takes his report to the Pasha;
then the galleot enters the port, and all the oars are dropped into
the water and towed ashore, so that no Christian captives may make off
with the ship in the absence of the captain and troops. Ashore all is
bustle and delighted confusion; the dulness of trade, which is the
normal condition of Algiers between the arrivals of prizes, is
forgotten in the joy of renewed wealth; the erstwhile shabby now go
strutting about, pranked out in gay raiment, the commerce of the
bar-rooms is brisk, and every one thinks only of enjoying himself.
Algiers is _en fete_.

FOOTNOTES:

[54] Haedo, quoted by Morgan, 593-4.

[55] Hardly less valuable is Adm. Jurien de la Graviere's _Les Derniers
Jours de la Marine a Rames_ (Paris, 1885). It contains an admirable
account of the French galley system, the mode of recruiting,
discipline, and general management; a description of the different
classes of vessels, and their manner of navigation; while a learned
Appendix of over one hundred pages describes the details of
galley-building, finishing, fitting, and rigging, and everything that
the student need wish to learn. The chapters (ix. and x.) on
_Navigation a la rame_ and _Navigation a la voile_, are particularly
worth reading by those who would understand sixteenth and seventeenth
century seamanship.

[56] A galleasse was originally a large heavy galley, three-masted, and
fitted with a rudder, since its bulk compelled it to trust to sails as
well as oars. It was a sort of transition-ship, between the galley and
the galleon, and as time went