That subsequently
they gave great cause of trouble to Christendom is written in characters of
blood and fire throughout the history of the succeeding centuries; but the
real interest in the careers of these men resides in the fact that they
established, by their extraordinary aptitude for sea-adventure, the
permanent place which was held by their descendants. Time and again in the
sixteenth century the effort was made to destroy them root and branch: they
were defeated, driven out of their strongholds on shore, crushed apparently
for ever. But nothing short of actual extermination could have been
successful in this; as, no matter how severe had been the set-back, there
was always left a nucleus of the pirates which in a short time grew again
into a formidable force. The Ottoman Turk, magnificent fighter as he was on
land, seemed to lose his great qualities when the venue was changed from
the land to the sea. The Janissaries, that picked corps trained as few
soldiers were trained even in that age of iron, who never recoiled before
the foe but who fought only to conquer or die, seem to have failed when
embarked for sea-service. That which the hard teaching of experience alone
could show--that the man who fights best upon the sea is he who has the
habit of the sea--was at this time not generally recognised, and this it
was that rendered the corsairs so supreme on the element which they had
made their own. Some among the great ones of the earth there were who
appreciated this fact, who, like that great statesman Ibrahim, Grand Vizier
to Soliman the Magnificent, recognised what it was to lay their hands upon
"a veritable man of the sea"; but the rule was to embark men from the shore
and to entrust to them the duty of fighting naval actions.
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