THE MEDITERRANEAN, PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL. 271 



sides in the year 132 of the Hedjira, A. d. 750. Seven years later 

 Spain detached itself from the Abbaside empire ; a new caliphate was 

 established at Cordova, and hereditary monarchies began to spring up 

 in other Mohammedan countries. 



The Oarlovingian empire gave an impulse to the maritime power of 

 the south of Europe, and in the Adriatic the fleets of Venice and Ragusa 

 monopolized the traffic of the Levant. The merchants of the latter 

 noble little republic penetrated even to our own shores, and Shake- 

 speare has made the Argosy or Ragusie a household word in our lan- 

 guage. 



During the eleventh century the Christian powers were no longer 

 content to resist the Mohammedans; they began to turn their arms 

 against them. If the latter ravaged some of the fairest parts of Europe, 

 the Christians began to take brilliant revenge. 



The Mohammedans were driven out of Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and 

 the Balearic Islands, but it was not till 1492 that they had finally to 

 abandon Europe, after the conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and 

 Isabella. 



About the middle of the eleventh century an event took place which 

 profoundly modified the condition of the Mohammedan world. The 

 Caliph Mostansir let loose a horde of nomad Arabs, who, starting from 

 Egypt, si>read over the whole of north Africa, carrying destruction and 

 blood wherever they passed, thus laying the foundation for the subse- 

 quent state of anarchy which rendered possible the interference of the 

 Turks. 



English commercial intercourse with the Mediterranean was not 

 unknown even from the time of the Crusades, but it does not appear 

 to have been carried on by means of our own vessels till the beginning 

 of the sixteenth century. In 1522 it was so great that Henry VIII 

 appointed a Cretan merchant, Ceusio de Balthazari, to be " master, gov- 

 ernor, protector, and consul of all and singlar the merchants and others, 

 his lieges and subjects, within the port, island, and country of Crete 

 or Candia." This is the very first English consul known to history, 

 but the first of English birth was my own predecessor in office, Master 

 John Tipton, who, after having acted at Algiers during several years 

 in an unofficial character, i)robably elected by the merchants them- 

 selves to protect their interests, was duly appointed consul by Sir 

 William Harebone, ambassador at Constantinople, in 1585, and received 

 just such an exequatur from the Porte as has been issued to every 

 consul since by the Government of the country in which he resides. 



Piracy has always been the scourge of the Mediterranean, but we are 

 too apt to associate its horrors entirely with the Moors and Turks. 

 The evil had existed from the earliest ages; even before the Roman 

 conquest of Dalmatia the Illyrians were the general enemies of the 

 Adriatic. Africa, under the Vandal reign, was a uest of the fiercest 

 pirates. The Venetian chronicles are full of complaints of the ravages 



