Catalina, by whom he had two sons, Uruj and Khizr. The father had been a
sailor and both sons adopted the same profession. It is from the pages of
El Maestro Don Fray Prudencio de Sandoval that we glean these bare facts
concerning the birth and parentage of these men who, in after-years, became
known to all the dwellers on the shores of the Mediterranean as the
"Barbarossas," from their red beards. Sandoval, Bishop of Pampluna,
published in the year 1614 his monumental history of the Emperor Charles
V., and through his splendid volumes the deeds of the Moslem corsairs run
like the scarlet thread which is twisted through a Government rope. It is
evident that the fact of having to deal with such rascals annoys the good
Bishop not a little, as his severe and caustic comments frequently display.
There was incident and accident enough in the life of the famous "Carlos
Quinto" without the historian having to turn aside to chronicle the deeds
of the pirates; but their exploits were so daring, the consequences thereof
were so far-reaching, that the ominous crimson thread had to be woven into
any narrative of the times in despite of the annoyance of the man by whom
the rope was twisted.

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.]