e actors
with immortal glory. By this perpetual warfare a race of hardy and
experienced seamen was formed, in the countries bordering on the
Mediterranean; and more than one name rose to eminence for nautical
science as well as valor, with which it would not be easy to find a
parallel in other quarters of Christendom. Such were the Dorias of
Genoa,--a family to whom the ocean seemed their native element; and
whose brilliant achievements on its waters, through successive
generations, shed an undying lustre on the arms of the republic.

The corsair's life was full of maritime adventure. Many a tale of tragic
interest was told of his exploits, and many a sad recital of the
sufferings of the Christian captive, tugging at the oar, or pining in
the dungeons of Tripoli and Algiers. Such tales formed the burden of the
popular minstrelsy of the period, as well as of more elegant
literature,--the drama, and romantic fiction. But fact was stranger than
fiction. It would have been difficult to exaggerate the number of the
Christian captives, or the amount of their sufferings. On the conquest
of Tunis by Charles the Fifth, in 1535, ten thousand of these unhappy
persons, as we are assured, walked forth from its dungeons, and knelt,
with tears of gratitude and joy, at the feet of their liberator.
Charitable associations were formed in Spain, for the sole purpose of
raising funds to ransom the Barbary prisoners. But the ransom demanded
was frequently exorbitant, and the efforts of these benevolent
fraternities made but a feeble impression on the whole number of
captives.

Thus the war between the Cross and the Crescent was still carried on
along the shores of the Mediterranean, when the day of the Crusades was
past in most of the other quarters of Christendom. The existence of the
Spaniard--as I have often had occasion to remark--was one long crusade;
and in the sixteenth century he was still doing battle with the infidel,
as stoutly as in the heroic days of the Cid. The furious contests with
the petty pirates of Barbary engendered in his bosom feelings of even
keener hostility than that which grew up in his contests with the Arabs,
where there was no skulking, predatory foe, but army was openly arrayed
against army, and they fought for the sovereignty of the Peninsula. The
feeling of religious hatred rekindled by the Moors of Africa extended
in some degree to the Morisco population, who still occupied those
territories on the southe