to him for the advancement of the glory of his master and
the discomfiture of his Christian foes. The commission which he now
received was practically that which had been given by Charles V. to Doria,
the most flattering with which any man can be entrusted, as in his hands
were left issues of peace and war usually only vested in the sovereign.

All through the early summer of 1534 the dockyards and the arsenals of
Constantinople hummed with the note of preparation; Ibrahim had returned
from Aleppo and threw himself, heart and soul, into these activities, which
meant the sailing of the Ottoman fleet under the command of "that veritable
man of the sea," Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa. Stilled were the murmurs of the
year before; the corsair, invested with plenary powers by the Sultan
himself, was now in a position to make his authority felt; added to this,
the more sensible of the malcontents had been won round by the Grand Vizier
to the view that as, so far, the Ottoman navy had been conspicuously
unsuccessful at sea, it was just as well to make use of the most capable
Moslem seaman upon whom they could lay their hands. As to his moral
character, that they could afford to discount, and as to the question of
his faithfulness or the reverse, it was pointed out with irresistible logic
by Ibrahim, that never before had the Sea-wolf had such glorious
opportunities of plunder as now, when he could count ten ships for every
one that had followed in his wake before.

It was in July 1534 that the Ottoman fleet left Constantinople, and
Kheyr-ed-Din began operations by a descent upon Reggio, which he sacked. On
August 1st he arrived at the Pharos of Messina, where he burnt some
Christian ships and captured their crews; then he worked north from Reggio
to Naples, ravaging the coast and depopulating the whole littoral, burning
villages, destroying ships, enslaving people. In this expedition he is said
to have captured eleven thousand Christian slaves. There is perhaps nothing
more amazing in the whole history of this epoch than the number of the
slaves captured by the corsairs, and the damnable cruelties exercised upon
them; these were, of course returned by the Christians with interest
whenever possible. As an instance of the treatment to which the slaves were
subjected it is only necessary to mention the course taken by Barbarossa
when he left Algiers in the previous year. There were at that time seven
thousand Christian captives in his po