et of the
Grand Signior, and to beg his Majesty's favour and protection for the
new province of Algiers, which was now by his humble servant added to
the Ottoman Empire. The reply was gracious. Sel[=i]m had just
conquered Egypt, and Algiers formed an important western extension of
his African dominion. The sage Corsair was immediately appointed
Beglerbeg, or Governor-General, of Algiers (1519), and invested with
the insignia of office, the horse and scimitar and horsetail-banner.
Not only this, but the Sultan sent a guard of two thousand Janissaries
to his viceroy's aid, and offered special inducements to such of his
subjects as would pass westward to Algiers and help to strengthen the
Corsair's authority.

[Illustration: OBSERVATION WITH THE CROSSBOW.

(_Jurien de la Graviere._)]

The Beglerbeg lost no time in repairing the damage of the Spaniards.
He reinforced his garrisons along the coast, at Meliana, Shersh[=e]l,
Tinnis, and Mustagh[=a]nim, and struck up alliances with the great
Arab tribes of the interior. An armada of some fifty men-of-war and
transports, including eight galleys-royal, under the command of
Admiral Don Hugo de Moncada, in vain landed an army of veterans on the
Algerine strand--they were driven back in confusion, and one of those
storms, for which the coast bears so evil a name, finished the work of
Turkish steel (1519). One after the other, the ports and strongholds
of Middle Barbary fell into the Corsair's hands: Col, Bona,
Constantine, owned the sway of Kheyr-ed-d[=i]n Barbarossa, who was now
free to resume his favourite occupation of scouring the seas in search
of Christian quarry. Once or twice in every year he would lead out
his own eighteen stout galleots, and call to his side other daring
spirits whom the renown of his name had drawn from the Levant, each
with his own swift cruiser manned by stout arms and the pick of
Turkish desperadoes. There you might see him surrounded by captains
who were soon to be famous wherever ships were to be seized or coasts
harried;--by Dragut, S[=a]lih Reis, Sin[=a]n the "Jew of Smyrna," who
was suspected of black arts because he could take a declination with
the crossbow, and that redoubtable rover Ayd[=i]n Reis, whom the
Spaniards dubbed _Cachadiablo_, or "Drub-devil," though he had better
been named Drub-Spaniard. The season for cruising began in May, and
lasted till the autumn storms warned vessels to keep the harbours, or
at least to attempt no distan