they had become by force of circumstances, and it was they who in the age
in which they dwelt showed what sea power really meant. Sailing through the
Mediterranean on my way to Malta in the spring of this year, as the good
ship fared onwards I passed in succession all those lurking-places from
which the Moslem Corsairs were wont to burst out upon their prey. Truly it
seemed as if

"The spirits of their fathers might start from every wave,"

and in imagination one pictured the rush of the pirate galley, with its
naked slaves straining at the oar of their taskmasters, its fierce,
reckless, beturbaned crew clustered on the "rambades" at the bow and stern.
It might be that they would capture some hapless "round-ship," a
merchantman lumbering slowly along the coast; or again they might meet with
a galley of the terrible Knights of St. John or of the ever-redoubtable
Doria. In either case the Sea-wolves were equal to their fortune, to
plunder or to fight in the name of Allah and his prophet.

That which differentiated the Sea-wolves from other pirates was the
combination which they effected among themselves; the manner in which these
lawless men could subordinate themselves to the will of one whom they
recognised as a great leader. To obtain such recognition was no easy
matter, and the manner in which this was done, by those who rose by sheer
force of character to the summit of this remarkable hierarchy, has here
been set forth.

E. HAMILTON CURREY.