ng a
united line of battle to the enemy, such humiliations had to be
endured; so long as a Corsair raid upon Spain suited the policy of
France; so long as the Dutch, in their jealousy of other states, could
declare that Algiers was necessary to them; there was no chance of the
plague subsiding; and it was not till the close of the great
Napoleonic wars that the Powers agreed, at the Congress of
Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, to act together, and do away with the scourge
of Christendom. And even then little was accomplished till France
combined territorial aggrandizement with the _role_ of a civilizing
influence.

[Illustration: GALLEON OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

(_Jurien de la Graviere._)]

There had been pirates in the Mediterranean long before the Turks took
up the trade; indeed, ever since boats were built their capabilities
for plunder must have been realized. The filibustering expedition of
Jason and the loot of the Golden Fleece is an early instance, and the
Greeks at all times have distinguished themselves by acting up to
Jason's example by sea and land. The Moslems, however, were some time
in accustoming themselves to the perils of the deep. At first they
marvelled greatly at "those that go down to the sea in ships, and have
their business in great waters," but they did not hasten to follow
them. In the early days of the conquest of Egypt the Khalif 'Omar
wrote to his general and asked him what the sea was like, to which
'Amr made answer: "The Sea is a huge beast which silly folk ride like
worms on logs;" whereupon, much distressed, the prudent Khalif gave
orders that no Moslem should voyage on so unruly an element without
his leave. But it soon became clear that if the Moslems were to hold
their own with their neighbours (still more if they meant to hold
their neighbours' own) they must learn how to navigate; and
accordingly, in the first century of the Hijra, we find the Khalif
'Abd-el-Melik instructing his lieutenant in Africa to use Tunis as an
arsenal and dockyard, and there to collect a fleet. From that time
forward the Mohammedan rulers of the Barbary coast were never long
without ships of some sort. The Aghlab[=i] princes sailed forth from
Tunis, and took Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. The F[=a]tim[=i]
Khalifs waged war with the navies of 'Abd-er-Rahm[=a]n, the Great
Khalif of Cordova, at a strength of two hundred vessels a side. The
Almohades possessed a large and capacious fleet, in which they
transport