The practical retirement of Barbarossa from that sphere of activity in
which his life had been passed now left Dragut-Reis the most feared and the
most formidable of all the Moslem corsairs in the Mediterranean. From the
time of his release by Barbarossa until the day of his death at the siege
of Malta in 1565, he followed the example shown him by that prince among
pirates with so much assiduity as to render him only second to Kheyr-ed-Din
in the detestation in which he was held. Says Morgan: "The ill-treatment he
had met with during his four years' captivity was no small addition to the
Innate Rapaciousness of his Disposition."
In the year 1546, Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa died, and to replace him the
Sultan Soliman ordered all the mariners in his dominions to acknowledge
Dragut-Reis as their admiral, and to obey him in the same manner as they
had obeyed his predecessor. From this date he was the foremost corsair in
the Mediterranean, and the feats which were performed by him showed that
the Padishah had not erred in his selection.
The ambition of Dragut increased with his power, and he determined,
following the example of the Barbarossas, to seize and hold some strong
place of arms possessed of a commodious port in which he might be the
supreme ruler. Accordingly, in the depth of winter in the year 1548, at a
time which was, as we have pointed out, a close season for piratical
enterprises, and during which attack from the sea was not expected, he
collected all the corsairs whom he could gather, and fell upon the
Spaniards on the coast of Tunis, at Susa, at Sfax, and at Monastir.
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