r whose recapture he was to have ten
thousand ducats; but the Corsairs imputed his conduct to cowardice,
and, suddenly changing their part from attacked to attackers, they
swooped like eagles upon the galleys, and after a brisk hand-to-hand
combat, in which Portundo was slain, they carried seven of them by
assault, and sent the other flying at topmost speed to Ivica. This
bold stroke brought to Algiers, besides the Moriscos, who had watched
the battle anxiously from the island, many valuable captives of rank,
and released hundreds of Moslem galley-slaves from irons and the
lash.[11] "Drub-Devil" had a splendid reception, we may be sure, when
the people of Algiers saw seven royal galleys, including the
_capitana_, or flagship, of Spain, moored in their roads; and it is no
wonder that with such triumphs the new Barbary State flourished
exceedingly.

Fortified by a series of unbroken successes, Kheyr-ed-d[=i]n at last
ventured to attack the Spanish garrison, which had all this time
affronted him at the Penon de Alger. It was provoking to be obliged to
beach his galleots a mile to the west, and to drag them painfully up
the strand; and the merchantmen, moored east of the city, were exposed
to the weather to such a degree as to imperil their commerce.
Kheyr-ed-d[=i]n resolved to have a port of his own at Algiers, with no
Spanish bridle to curb him. He summoned Don Martin de Vargas to
surrender, and, on his refusal, bombarded the Penon day and night for
fifteen days with heavy cannon, partly founded in Algiers, partly
seized from a French galleon, till an assault was practicable, when
the feeble remnant of the garrison was quickly overpowered and sent to
the bagnios. The stones of the fortress were used to build the great
mole which protects Algiers harbour on the west, and for two whole
years the Christian slaves were laboriously employed upon the work.

To aggravate this disaster, a curious sight was seen a fortnight after
the fall of the Penon. Nine transports, full of men and ammunition for
the reinforcement of the garrison, hove in sight, and long they
searched to and fro for the well-known fortress they had come to
succour. And whilst they marvelled that they could not discover it,
out dashed the Corsairs in their galleots and light sheb[=e]ks, and
seized the whole convoy, together with two thousand seven hundred
captives and a fine store of arms and provisions.[12]

Everything that Kheyr-ed-d[=i]n took in hand seeme