Cut adrift from the homes which had been theirs for over seven
centuries--as we shall see in the next chapter--there was nothing left for
the erstwhile dwellers in Andalusia but to gain their living by the strong
hand. The harvest of the sea was the one which they garnered--a harvest of
the goods of their mortal enemies strung out in lines of hapless
merchant-vessels throughout the length and breadth of the tideless sea.
It booted not that the great Powers of Europe sent expedition after
expedition against them; these they fought to the death with varying
fortune, ready, when the storm had passed over their heads, to start once
more on the only career which promised them the chance of acquiring riches.
Their whole history is a study of warfare, waged as a rule on the petty
scale, but rising at times, as in the cases already mentioned, into events
of first-class historical importance.
The deeds of the buccaneers of the next century in the Spanish Main sink
into comparative insignificance when compared with what was accomplished by
such a man as Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, who was known, and rightly known, by
his contemporaries, and for many generations of Moslem seamen yet to come,
as "the King of the Sea." The capture of Panama by Sir Henry Morgan in
January 1671 was possibly as remarkable a feat of arms as was ever
accomplished, but it cannot rank in its importance to civilised mankind on
the same plane as those memorable battles in the Mediterranean of which
mention has been made as having been fought by the Moslem corsairs.
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