Following these great corsairs came cruel, mean-spirited buccaneers, whom I was glad to dismiss and replace in my imaginings with that noble captive of the Turkish pirates, Miguel Cervantes, who, after his release was to write the immortal book, "Don Quixote."
In 1575 Cervantes set sail from Naples for the coast of Spain in the vessel El Sol. His brother, Rodrigo, went with him. They were returning to Spain, their native land, after serving as soldiers of fortune abroad. Cervantes was the son of an impoverished nobleman of Castile. He had commanded a company of soldiers on board the Marquesa at the Battle of Lepanto. In this battle he lost his left arm. He bore with him a letter of testimonial from Don John, stating that he was as valiant as he was unlucky, and recommending him to Philip II of Spain.
His ship was almost in sight of the desired haven. The coast of Barbary which lay on the shore of the Mediterranean opposite from Spain was feared by the Spaniards because it was infested with pirates, but it seemed that on this occasion they were to escape attack.
Suddenly, however, three corsair galleys, commanded by Arnaut Memi, pushed out from the Algerine shore. The El Sol's captain tried his utmost to escape, but was overtaken. A desperate engagement followed, in which Cervantes fought with valor, but the pirates were in overwhelming numbers and the master of the El Sol was at last forced to strike his colors.
Deli Memi, a renegade Greek, took Cervantes as his captive. Finding upon his person the letters of recommendation from Don John to the King of Spain, the pirate thought that a rich and powerful person had become his prisoner and so set a high ransom price upon him. To make Cervantes the more anxious to be delivered from captivity, Deli Memi loaded him with chains and treated him with continued cruelty.
As a matter of fact, Cervantes was poor both in money and the means of borrowing it. His father, in the second year of his sons' captivity, managed to raise enough funds to secure the release of one of them, but Deli Memi, thinking Miguel of more importance than his brother, kept the future author and set free Rodrigo. Upon this, Cervantes planned to escape. In a cavern six miles from Algiers a number of fugitive slaves were hiding. Rodrigo promised to send a Spanish ship to take away these refugees. The captive Cervantes was to join them. The ship arrived but some Algerine fisherman gave the alarm and the vessel was obliged to put out to sea without the fugitives.
The Dey of Algiers, learning of the hiding place from a treacherous comrade of Cervantes, sent soldiers to seize the escaped slaves. He was a murderous ruler. Cervantes later in "Don Quixote" gave the Dey eternal infamy by thus painting one of the characters in his colors:
"Every day he hanged a slave; impaled one; cut off the ears of another; and this upon so little animus, or so entirely without cause, that the Turks would own he did it merely for the sake of doing it and because it was his nature."
Cervantes took the blame for the entire project on himself. Threatened with torture and death, he held to his story. The ruler, amazed at his boldness, departed from his usual custom and purchased Cervantes from Deli Memi for five hundred crowns.
Again and again the Spaniard tried to escape, always at the risk of being punished with death. At last, when his master was called to Constantinople, and was taking Cervantes with him in chains, a priest obtained his ransom for one hundred pounds, English money, and Cervantes was free to go home and enter upon the literary career that brought forth "Don Quixote."