The Barbary States, after the decline of the Arabian power, were
enveloped in darkness, rendered more palpable by increasing light
among the Christian nations. At the twilight of European civilization
they appear to be little more than scattered bands of robbers and
pirates, "land-rats and water-rats" of Shylock, leading the lives of
Ishmaelites. Algiers is described by an early writer as "a den of
sturdy thieves formed into a body, by which, after a tumultuary sort,
they govern,"[28]--and by still another writer, contemporary with the
monstrosity which he exposes, as the "theatre of all crueltie and
sanctuarie of iniquitie, holding captive, in miserable servitude, one
hundred and twentie thousand Christians, almost all subjects of the
king of Spaine."[29] Their habit of enslaving prisoners captured in war
and piracy arousing at last the sacred animosities of Christendom,
Ferdinand the Catholic, after the conquest of Granada, and while the
boundless discoveries of Columbus, giving to Castile and Leon a new
world, still occupied his mind, found time to direct an expedition into
Africa, under the military command of that great ecclesiastic, Cardinal
Ximenes. It is recorded that this valiant soldier of the Church,
on effecting the conquest of Oran, in 1509, had the inexpressible
satisfaction of liberating three hundred Christian slaves.[30]
[28] A Discourse concerning Tangier: Harleian Miscellany, Vol. V.
p. 522.
[29] Purchas's Pilgrims, Vol. II. p. 1565.
[30] Prescott, History of Ferdinand and Isabella, Vol. III. p. 308.
Purchas's Pilgrims, Vol. II. p. 813.
To stay the progress of the Spanish arms the government of Algiers
invoked assistance from abroad. Two brothers, Horuc and Hayradin, sons
of a potter in the island of Lesbos, had become famous as corsairs.
In an age when the sword of the adventurer often carved a higher
fortune than could be earned by lawful exertion, they were dreaded for
abilities, hardihood, and power. To them Algiers turned for aid. The
corsairs left the sea to sway the land,--or rather, with amphibious
robbery, took possession of Algiers and Tunis, while they continued to
prey upon the sea. The name of Barbarossa, by which they are known to
Christians, is terrible in modern history.[31]
[31] Robertson, History of Charles the Fifth, Book V. Haedo,
Historia de Argel, Epitome de los Reyes de Argel.