We shall speak, later on, of the autocratic rule of these leaders who possessed so absolute a domination over the men by whom they were followed.  The fact of this absolute supremacy on the part of the chiefs is very curious, as theoretically in the confederacy of the Sea-wolves all were equal; we are, in fact, confronted with pure democracy, where every man was at liberty to do what seemed best in his own eyes.  He was a free agent, none coercing him or desiring him to place himself under discipline or command.  This, be it observed, was the theory.  As a matter of fact the corsairs, who were extraordinarily successful in their abominable trade, abode beneath an iron and rigid discipline.  This was enforced by the lash, as we shall see later on when it is related how Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa flogged one Hassan, a captain who, he considered, had failed in his duty:  or by the actual penalty of death, which Uruj Barbarossa inflicted on one who had dared to act independently of his authority.

The theory of equality obtained among the Mediterranean pirates; but the Barbarossas, Dragut, and Ali believed that, in practice, the less interference there was with their designs by those, whom Cardinal Granvelle denominated in a letter to Philip II. as “that mischievous animal the people,” the better it would be for all concerned.  The conception held of rights and duties of “the mischievous animal” by these militant persons was, that it should behave as did those others recorded of the Roman centurion in Holy Writ:  if it did not, and difficulties arose, the leaders were not troubled with an undue tenderness either towards the individual or the theory.  Of this we shall see examples as we go on.

This period has been called “The Grand Period of the Moslem Corsairs” because it was in something less than a century, from the year of the expulsion of the Moors from Granada in 1492 to the death of Ali Basha in 1580, that the Sea-wolves were at the height of their power, that the piratical States of the Mediterranean were in the making.  That subsequently they gave great cause of trouble to Christendom is written in characters of blood and fire throughout the history of the succeeding centuries; but the real interest in the careers of these men resides in the fact that they established, by their extraordinary aptitude for sea-adventure, the permanent place which was held by their descendants.  Time and again in the sixteenth century the effort was made to destroy them root and branch:  they were defeated, driven out of their strongholds on shore, crushed apparently for ever.  But nothing short of actual extermination could have been successful in this; as, no matter how severe had been the set-back, there was always left a nucleus of the pirates which in a short time grew again into a formidable force.  The Ottoman Turk, magnificent fighter as he was on land, seemed to lose his great qualities when the venue was changed from the land to the sea.  The Janissaries, that picked corps