SEA-ROVERS 



whether they were the sons of a Mussulman or a Christian. Uruj was 

 the elder and had command of a pirate ship at an early age. His 

 operations in the Levant brought him into contact with the Sultan's Navy 

 and he decided to migrate to the West, whence rumours of the corsairs' 

 doings were already coming and where his profession was regarded as a 

 strictly honourable one. He soon had the good fortune to capture two 

 Papal galleys whom he introduced to a new form of warfare, and pressed 

 their crews into service as galley-slaves. Fortifying the island of Jerba 

 as a base he was soon the greatest power in the Western Mediterranean, 

 loyally backed by his younger brother. He established himself as a King 

 on the African mainland but was always the sea-rover and finally goaded 

 the Spanish into sending a huge expedition across for his extermination. 

 Had he chosen to desert his followers he could have saved himself, but 

 he turned back to the rescue of his rearguard who were trying to defend 

 the passage of a stream and died fighting gallantly against hopeless odds, 

 leaving Khair-ed-Din to continue his work and make an even greater 

 reputation. At first he was hard pressed by the Spaniards, but he 

 gradually collected his forces and in 1534 he was strong enough to 

 capture Tunis and establish himself there. Charles V interferred and as 

 a revenge Barbarossa ravaged the Balearic Islands. After that he was 

 principally employed nearer home by the Sultan, who made him his 

 admiral and chief and who had his hands full defending his own coasts. 

 Finally he died in his almost regal palace in Constantinople but left a 

 name of terror for many years afterwards. 



The Battle of Prevesa. 



Anxious only for wealth, it had long been the desire of the Vene- 

 tians to remain at peace with Turkey, but this desire was not sufficient 

 to check the piratical leanings of some of their seamen and finally the 

 Turks under Khair-ed-Din Barbarossa determined to have revenge. He 

 was pitted against Andrea Doria, and after heavy fighting in 1537 the 

 Battle of Prevesa was fought in 1538. It should have been a victory for 

 the superior Christian force, but as it was, an unsatisfactory action ended 

 in the Turks holding the field. After that the corsair became a great 

 factor in European politics and Christian princes did not hesitate to ally 

 themselves with him. 



Siege of Malta, 1565. 



When the Knights Hospitallers were evicted from Rhodes to the 

 satisfaction of some of their Christian allies as well as their Moslem 

 enemies, they established themselves in Malta and continued to harass 

 the Turks as before. They only owned seven galleys at any time, a 

 sombre black flagship and six blood-red followers, but they were so 

 splendidly manned and equipped that they were regarded as equal to at 

 least a score of the Turks' best ships. Accordingly the Sultan deter- 

 mined to exterminate them in 1565 and fitted out a wonderful fleet for 

 the purpose. In the fortress were seven hundred knights and nine 

 thousand soldiers, most of them hopelessly unreliable, while the besiegers 

 mustered between thirty and forty thousand. Under the gallant, grim, 



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