burned so brightly in Cordova and Granada had been extinguished and ground
into the dust, and the descendants of the alumni of those universities were
seeking their bread in the Mediterranean Sea in the guise of bloodthirsty
and desperate pirates.

There were no longer among the Moors of Andalusia learned philosophers,
expert mathematicians, wise astronomers, and practical agriculturists;
there was among them but one art, one science, one means of gaining a
livelihood--the practice of war--and their very existence depended on the
spoils which could be reft from the hereditary enemy. The corsair who grew
to man's estate, brought up in Algiers, Tunis, Tenes, Jerba, or any other
of the lurking places in which the sea-wolves congregated, had as a rule no
chance but to follow the sea, to exist as his father had existed before
him; he must fight or starve, and in a fighting age no youngster was likely
to be backward in taking to the life of wild excitement led by his elders.
Unless following in the train of one of the leaders, such as Barbarossa,
the Moslems were apt to take to the sea in a private capacity; a certain
number of them joining together to man a small craft which was known as a
brigantine. As has been said in a previous chapter, this word must not be
understood in the light of the terminology of the modern seaman: the
brigantines of the Moslem corsairs were really large rowing boats, carrying
fourteen to twenty-six oars, and made as seaworthy as the small size of
such craft would allow. Should the venture of the crew of a brigantine
prove successful, then the reis, or captain, might blossom out into the
command of a galley, in which his oars would be manned by his slaves; but,
in the first instance, he would man his brigantine with a crew of Moslem
desperadoes working on the share system and dividing anything that they
could pick up; in this manner most of those corsairs who became famous
commenced their careers, and rose as we have seen from the thwart of a
brigantine to the unstable eminence of a throne in Algiers, Tunis, or
Tlemcen.

This life which they led made of them what they were, namely desperate
swordsmen, efficient men at arms, incomparably skilful in the management of
the craft in which they put to sea; but it did nothing else for them in the
way of education; in consequence he who would rise to the top, who aspired
to be a leader amongst them and not to remain a mere swash-buckling
swordsman all hi