As Ximenes landed and entered the gates, attended by his train of monkish brethren, he was hailed with thundering acclamations by the army as the true victor of Oran, in whose behalf Heaven had condescended to repeat the stupendous miracle of Joshua, by stopping the sun in his career. [14] But the cardinal, humbly disclaiming all merits of his own, was heard to repeat aloud the sublime language of the Psalmist, "Non nobis, Domine, non nobis," while he gave his benedictions to the soldiery. He was then conducted to the alcazar, and the keys of the fortress were put into his hand. The spoil of the captured city, amounting, as was said, to half a million of gold ducats, the fruit of long successful trade and piracy, was placed at his disposal for distribution. But that which gave most joy to his heart was the liberation of three hundred Christian captives, languishing in the dungeons of Oran. A few hours after the surrender, the mezuar of Tremecen arrived with a powerful reinforcement to its relief; but instantly retreated on learning the tidings. Fortunate, indeed, was it, that the battle had not been deferred to the succeeding day. This, which must be wholly ascribed to Ximenes, was by most referred to direct inspiration. Quite as probable an explanation may be found in the boldness and impetuous enthusiasm of the cardinal's character. [15]
The conquest of Oran opened unbounded scope to the ambition of Ximenes; who saw in imagination the banner of the Cross floating triumphant from the walls of every Moslem city on the Mediterranean. He experienced, however, serious impediments to his further progress. Navarro, accustomed to an independent command, chafed in his present subordinate situation, especially under a spiritual leader, whose military science he justly held in contempt. He was a rude, unlettered soldier, and bluntly spoke his mind to the primate. He told him, "his commission under him terminated with the capture of Oran; that two generals were too many in one army; that the cardinal should rest contented with the laurels he had already won, and, instead of playing the king, go home to his flock, and leave fighting to those to whom the trade belonged." [16]
But what troubled the prelate more than this insolence of his general, was a letter which fell into his hands, addressed by the king to Count Navarro, in which he requested him to be sure to find some pretence for detaining the cardinal in Africa, as long as his presence could be made any way serviceable. Ximenes had good reason before to feel that the royal favor to him flowed from selfishness, rather than from any personal regard. The king had always wished the archbishopric of Toledo for his favorite, and natural son, Alfonso of Aragon. After his return from Naples, he importuned Ximenes to resign his see, and exchange it for that of Saragossa, held by Alfonso; till, at length, the indignant prelate replied, "that he would never consent to barter away the dignities of the church; that if his Highness pressed him any further, he would indeed throw up the primacy, but it should be to bury himself in the friar's cell from which the queen had originally called him." Ferdinand, who, independently of the odium of such a proceeding, could ill afford to part with so able a minister, knew his inflexible temper too well ever to resume the subject. [17]
With some reason, therefore, for distrusting the good-will of his sovereign, Ximenes put the worst possible construction on the expressions in his letter. He saw himself a mere tool in Ferdinand's hands, to be used so long as occasion might serve, with the utmost indifference to his own interests or convenience. These humiliating suspicions, together with the arrogant bearing of his general, disgusted him with the further prosecution of the expedition; while he was confirmed in his purpose of returning to Spain, and found an obvious apology for it in the state of his own health, too infirm to encounter, with safety, the wasting heats of an African summer.
Before his departure, he summoned Navarro and his officers about him, and, after giving them much good counsel respecting the government and defence of their new acquisitions, he placed at their disposal an ample supply of funds and stores, for the maintenance of the army several months. He then embarked, not with the pompous array and circumstance of a hero returning from his conquests, but with a few domestics only, in an unarmed galley, showing, as it were, by this very act, the good effects of his enterprise, in the security which it brought to the before perilous navigation of these inland seas. [18]
Splendid preparations were made for his reception in Spain, and he was invited to visit the court at Valladolid, to receive the homage and public testimonials due to his eminent services. But his ambition was of too noble a kind to be dazzled by the false lights of an ephemeral popularity. He had too much pride of character, indeed, to allow room for the indulgence of vanity. He declined, these compliments, and hastened without loss of time to his favorite city of Alcalá. There, too, the citizens, anxious to do him honor, turned out under arms to receive him, and made a breach in the walls, that he might make his entry in a style worthy of a conqueror. But this also he declined choosing to pass into the town by the regular avenue, with no peculiar circumstances attending his entrance, save only a small train of camels, led by African slaves, and laden with gold and silver plate from the mosques of Oran, and a precious collection of Arabian manuscripts, for the library of his infant university of Alcalá.
He showed similar modesty and simplicity in his deportment and conversation. He made no allusion to the stirring scenes in which he had been so gloriously engaged; and, if others made any, turned the discourse into some other channel, particularly to the condition of his college, its discipline, and literary progress, which, with the great project for the publication of his famous Polyglot Bible, seemed now almost wholly to absorb his attention. [19]
His first care, however, was to visit the families in his diocese, and minister consolation and relief, which he did in the most benevolent manner, to those who were suffering from the loss of friends, whether by death or absence, in the late campaign. Nor did he in his academical retreat lose sight of the great object which had so deeply interested him, of extending the empire of the Cross over Africa. From time to time he remitted supplies for the maintenance of Oran; and he lost no opportunity of stimulating Ferdinand to prosecute his conquests.
The Catholic king, however, felt too sensibly the importance of his new possessions to require such admonition; and Count Pedro Navarro was furnished with ample resources of every kind, and, above all, with the veterans formed under the eye of Gonsalvo de Cordova. Thus placed on an independent field of conquest, the Spanish general was not slow in pushing his advantages. His first enterprise was against Bugia, whose king, at the head of a powerful army, he routed in two pitched battles, and got possession of his flourishing capital. Algiers, Tennis, Tremecen, and other cities on the Barbary coast, submitted one after another to the Spanish arms. The inhabitants were received as vassals of the Catholic king, engaging to pay the taxes usually imposed by their Moslem princes, and to serve him in war, with the addition of the whimsical provision, so often found in the old Granadine treaties, to attend him in cortes. They guaranteed, moreover, the liberation of all Christian captives in their dominions; for which the Algerines, however, took care to indemnify themselves, by extorting the full ransom from their Jewish residents. It was of little moment to the wretched Israelite which party won the day, Christian or Mussulman; he was sure to be stripped in either case. [20]
On the 26th of July, 1510, the ancient city of Tripoli, after a most bloody and desperate defence, surrendered to the arms of the victorious general, whose name had now become terrible along the whole northern borders of Africa. In the following month, however, he met with a serious discomfiture in the island of Gelves, where four thousand of his men were slain or made prisoners. [21] This check in the brilliant career of Count Navarro put a final stop to the progress of the Castilian arms in Africa under Ferdinand. [22]