It requires little imagination to see
how these two weapons of avarice and intolerance could be made to serve the
purpose of those dominant spirits who rose to the summit of the piratical
hierarchy. Not only did they dazzle the imaginations of those who followed
in their train by promises of wealth uncounted, but they added to this the
specious argument that, in slaying and robbing the Christian wheresoever he
was to be found, the faithful Moslem was performing the service of God and
the act most grateful to his holy Prophet.
Could any rule of life be at the same time more simple and more attractive
to the beggared Mohammedan cast on the sterile shores of Northern Africa to
starve?
With the main stream of history, to which we have before referred, we have
no concern in this book. He who would embark thereon must sail a powerful
vessel which must carry many guns. Also for the conduct of this vessel many
qualities are necessary: a commanding intellect, acute perceptions,
indefatigable industry, complete leisure, are among those things necessary
to the pilot. These must be supplemented by a genius for research, a
knowledge of ancient and modern languages, and an unerring faculty for
separating the few precious grains of wheat from those mountains of chaff
which he will have to sift with the utmost care. There are, however,
subsidiary rivulets which feed the onward flow of events, and of such is
the story of the Sea-wolves of the Mediterranean.
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