could not agree it is quite certain that we of the twentieth century cannot decide on the rival claims to distinction between the Bashaw of Tripoli and his follower Occhiali, as he was known to the Christians, or Ali Basha, as he was called by the Turks.  Ali Basha has a title to fame in the fact that he is mentioned by Cervantes in his Don Quijote de la Mancha under the name of “Uchali” in chapter xxxix., “Donde el cautivo cuenta su vida y sucesos.”  The captive is supposed to have been no less a person than the famous Cervantes himself, and he briefly describes how Uchali became “Rey de Argel,” or King of Algiers.

Ali was a Christian, having been born at a miserable little village in Calabria called Licastelli.  Nothing whatever is known of his birth and parentage, and he does not appear even to have possessed a Christian name, although born in a Christian land.  He followed from his earliest youth the calling of a mariner; “he was from infancy inured to salt water,” says Joseph Morgan, in his Compleat History of Algiers, and he was, as a mere boy, captured by Ali Ahamed, Admiral of Algiers, and was chained to the starboard-bow oar in the galley of that officer.  He was thus very early in life “inured” to suffering, and must have possessed a constitution of iron to withstand thus, in boyhood, the hardships of the life of a galley-slave, which as a rule broke down the endurance of strong men in a very few years.  Morgan presents us with a description of him at this period which in these more squeamish days can certainly not be set down in its entirety:  suffice it to say that he suffered all his days from what is known as “scald-head,” and that personal filthiness was one of his principal characteristics.

For some years Ali remained at the heart-breaking toil of the rower’s bench:  cut off from home, which to him meant nothing, devoid of kinsfolk, alone—­miserably alone in a world which, so far, had given him naught but the chain and the whip—­it is not a matter for surprise that he became a Mussulman, thus freeing himself from slavery.  From the time that he took this step his fortunes mended rapidly in that strange medley of savagery and bloodshed in which his lot was cast.

Alert, strong, capable, and vigorous, he became in early manhood chief boatswain in the galley in which his apprenticeship had been passed—­a position which enabled him to accumulate a small store of ducats, with which he bought a share in a brigantine.  Here he soon acquired sufficient wealth to become captain and owner of a galley, in which he soon gained the reputation of being one of the boldest corsairs on the Barbary coast.  Having in some sort made a name for himself, his next step was to seek for a patron who could make use of his valour, address, and capability for command.  His choice was soon made, as who in all the Mediterranean, in his early days, held such a name as Dragut?  He accordingly entered the service of the Basha of Tripoli, and, under his command, became well known to the officers of the Grand Turk, particularly to the Admiral, Piali Basha, to whom he was able to render some important services.