a quantity of arms for transportation
to the coast of Andalusia, he put an embargo on the vessels and would not
allow them to sail, saying "he would never suffer the exportation of what
was so necessary for the defence of his own dominions." At last, after much
importunity, he consented "that all such as had two of a sort--as muskets,
swords, or other weapons--might, if they thought fit, send over one of
them, provided they did it gratis and purely for the cause' sake; but he
would never allow any of them to strip themselves of their arms for lucre."

Ali, being now firmly established at Algiers, took up arms against the
neighbouring State of Tunis. For long years now the King of Tunis had been
protected by the Spaniards--a nation whom the Sea-wolves always held in
singular abhorrence as the most bigoted of the Christian Powers, and who
held in thrall many of their co-religionists. Hamid, son of Hassan, who now
ruled in Tunis, had reduced that unfortunate State to anarchy bordering on
rebellion, and the whole country, torn by internal feud, was ready to rise
against him. The Goletta was in the hands of the Spaniards; Carouan, an
inland town, had set up a king of its own, while the maritime towns passed
from the domination of the Sea-wolves to that of the Christians, and from
the Christians back to the Sea-wolves, according to which party happened to
be the stronger for the time being.

El Maestro Fray Diego de Haedo, "Abad de Fromesta de la Orden del Patriarca
San Benito" and "natural del Valle de Carranca," whose _Topografia e
Historia de Argel_ (or Algiers) was printed in Valladolid in the year 1612,
gives an account of Hamid at this time in which he describes that monarch
as an "unpopular tyrant who sadly persecuted his vassals and the friends of
his father; who could by no means suffer his tyrannies and those of his
ministers, the scum of the earth ("hombres baxos"), to whom he had given
the principal offices of the kingdom. Accordingly, since the time that Ali
had become Basha of Algiers, letters had been written to him importuning
him to come to Tunis that he might possess himself of that city and
kingdom."

There were three principal conspirators--the Alcaid Bengabara, General of
the Cavalry, the Alcaid Botaybo, and the Alcaid Alcadaar. Ali, however, was
too shrewd a man to move until he had satisfied himself by reports from his
own adherents; he, therefore, awaited the result of investigations made by
spies fro