Of Mahomedi we possess no record save the remark concerning him to the effect that “el qual fue gran marinero”:  in what way he displayed his gifts as a seaman we are not told.  We have remarked before on the curious fact of how the “renegado,” or Christian turned Mohammedan, became the most implacable foe of his former co-religionists.  We see in the case of the two Barbarossas that they had no drop of Moslem blood in them, as both parents came from Christian stock:  and yet no greater scourges ever afflicted the people from whom both their father and mother originally sprang than did Uruj and Khizr Barbarossa.

[Illustration:  Uruj and Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa.]

The characters of the two brothers were widely different.  The elder was no doubt a “first-class fighting man,” a fine seaman, a born partisan leader; but here his qualities came to an end.  Rough, cruel, imperious, brutal, he imposed himself upon those who became his followers; but in him were to be found none of the statesmanlike qualities which distinguished his far greater younger brother.  His was the absolutely finite intellect of the tactician as opposed to the strategist, who, seeing his objective, was capable of dealing with circumstances as they immediately arose; but, partly no doubt from defective education, but principally from the lack of intellectual appreciation of the problems of the time in which he lived, could never rise to the heights which were scaled by Khizr, better known by the title conferred upon him later on by the Grand Turk as “Kheyr-ed-Din,” or “The Protector of Religion.”

The sons of Mahomed, that “gran marinero,” naturally took to the sea, and as a young man Uruj became possessed of a ship—­how we do not know, and it were better perhaps not to inquire.  In this small craft he repaired to the coast of Caramania to make war upon the Christians; or, in other words, to begin an independent piratical career.  Uruj in these days was young and inexperienced, or he would not have chosen this locality for his first venture, as this coast was in close proximity to the island of Rhodes, from whence the great galleys of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem set forth to exterminate the enemies of their faith.

So it came about that Uruj, sailing out in his little ship from under the shadow of a wooded point, came in full sight of Our Lady of the Conception.  There was nothing for it but immediate flight, and Uruj put his helm up and scudded before the breeze; but the great galley “goose-winged” her two mighty lateen sails, and turned in pursuit.  The ship which carried Uruj and his fortunes was both fast and handy, and for a time she held her own; but it was only for a time, as those on board Our Lady of the Conception, finding that they were not gaining on the chase, put forth their oars and soon changed the aspect of affairs.  The galley of the knights carried twenty-seven oars a-side, and each of these