There is no object to be gained in lingering over the earlier years of this notable corsair, as we should thus only be repeating what has been said about Dragut, whose lieutenant and trusted follower he became.  He accompanied his master to the siege of Malta, and when Dragut was slain the Capitan-Basha, Piali, named him as successor to his chief as Viceroy of Tripoli.  Ali sailed from Malta to Tripoli, taking with him the remains of Dragut, to be buried as that chieftain had directed.  When he arrived on the Barbary coast he made himself master of the slaves and treasure which had been left behind by Dragut; shortly after this he was confirmed in his Vice-royalty of Tripoli by the Grand Turk; thenceforward increasing, both his wealth and the terror in which his name was held, by continual raids upon the Christians, more particularly on the coasts of Sicily, Calabria, and Naples.  It is curious to observe the sort of spite which all the renegadoes seem to have harboured against the countries in which they were born.

In March 1568, owing to the fall of Mohammed Basha, the Vice-royalty of Algiers became vacant, and, through the good offices of his old friend Piali, Ali became Governor.  He thus returned to occupy a position of literally sovereign power to the city which he had first entered as a galley-slave.

That he was no negligent Governor and that he took an entirely intelligent view of his functions, is proved by an occurrence which took place in this same year in Spain.  The Moriscoes in the Kingdom of Granada revolted against their Spanish Governor, by whom they were sorely oppressed.  They sent messages to Ali at Algiers, begging for succour against their persecutor.  But the Basha would send no expedition; he permitted all and sundry to go as volunteers, but gave out publicly that “it more concerned him to defend well his own State than to interfere in the affairs of others.”  He even went farther than this, and when a number of Moriscoes, who were settled at Algiers, embarked a quantity of arms for transportation to the coast of Andalusia, he put an embargo on the vessels and would not allow them to sail, saying “he would never suffer the exportation of what was so necessary for the defence of his own dominions.”  At last, after much importunity, he consented “that all such as had two of a sort—­as muskets, swords, or other weapons—­might, if they thought fit, send over one of them, provided they did it gratis and purely for the cause’ sake; but he would never allow any of them to strip themselves of their arms for lucre.”

Ali, being now firmly established at Algiers, took up arms against the neighbouring State of Tunis.  For long years now the King of Tunis had been protected by the Spaniards—­a nation whom the Sea-wolves always held in singular abhorrence as the most bigoted of the Christian Powers, and who held in thrall many of their co-religionists.  Hamid, son of Hassan, who now ruled in Tunis, had reduced that unfortunate