Magnificent; and there was an added zest to robbery and murder in the fact
that the pirates, as good Mohammedans, were obeying the behests of the
Prophet every time that they cut a Christian throat, plundered a Christian
argosy, or carried off shrieking women into a captivity far worse than
death.

That a pirate should be a warrior goes without saying, that a pirate should
be a statesman is a thing almost incredible; but those who will read the
story of the life of Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa will be forced to admit that
here, at least, was a pirate who achieved the apparently impossible.
Admiral Jurien de la Gravière has remarked that the Moslem corsairs of the
sixteenth century were great men, even when measured by the standard of
Henry VIII., of Charles V., of Soliman the Magnificent, of Ibrahim, his
Grand Vizier, or of Andrea Doria, greatest among contemporary Christian
mariners. To the seaman, of course, there is much that is fascinating in
the deeds of his forerunners, and the ships of the corsairs had in them
something distinctive in that they were propelled by oars, and were in
consequence, to a certain extent, independent of the weather. Like the
sailors of all ages, to the Sea-wolves gales and storms of all sorts and
descriptions were abhorrent; and in consequence they had a well-marked
piracy season, which, as we shall see, covered the spring and summer, while
they carefully avoided the inclement months of autumn and winter.

In a later chapter an attempt has been made to place before the reader
pictures of the galley, the galeasse, and the nef, which were the names
attached to the ships then in use; the name brigantine, far from having the
significance attached to it by the sailor of the present day, seems to have
been a generic term to denote any craft not included in the names already
given.