As Italy was invaded by Gonsalvo de Cordova, the Great Captain, so Africa
was invaded by Cardinal Ximenes, the Great Churchman, one of the ablest
men who ever appeared in Spain, despite the fact that he made a dreadful
bonfire of thousands of Arabian manuscripts in the great square of
Granada. The greater part of these were copies of the Koran, but many of
them were of high scientific and literary value, and impossible to
replace. Yet, while thus engaged in a work fitted for an unlettered
barbarian, Ximenes was using his large revenues to found the University of
Alcala, the greatest educational institution in Spain, and was preparing
his famous polyglot Bible, for which the rarest manuscripts were
purchased, without regard to cost, that the Scriptures might be shown at
one view in their various ancient languages. To indicate the cost of this
work, it is said that he paid four thousand golden crowns for seven
manuscripts, which came too late to be of use in the work. It is strange,
under these circumstances, that he failed to preserve the valuable part of
the Arabian manuscripts.
The vast labors undertaken by Ximenes at home did not keep him from
enterprises abroad. He was filled with a burning zeal for the propagation
of the Catholic faith, formed plans for a crusade to the Holy Land, and
organized a remarkably successful expedition against the Moslems of
Africa. It is of the latter that we desire to speak.
Soon after the death of Isabella, Mazalquivir, a nest of pirates on the
Barbary coast, had been captured by an expedition organized by the
energetic Ximenes. He quickly set in train a more difficult enterprise,
one directed against Oran, a Moorish city of twenty thousand inhabitants,
strongly fortified, with a large commerce, and the haunt of a swarm of
piratical cruisers. The Spanish king had no money and little heart for
this enterprise, but that did not check the enthusiastic cardinal, who
offered to loan all the sums needed, and to take full charge of the
expedition, leading it himself, if the king pleased. Ferdinand made no
objection to this, being quite willing to make conquests at some one
else's expense, and the cardinal set to work.
It is not often that an individual can equip an army, but Ximenes had a
great income of his own and had the resources of the Church at his back.
By the close of the spring of 1509 he had made ready a fleet of ten
galleys and eighty smaller vessels, and assembled an army of four thousand
horse and ten thousand foot, fully supplied with provisions and military
stores for a four months' campaign. Such was the energy and activity of a
man whose life, until a few years before, had been spent in the solitude
of the cloister and in the quiet practices of religion, and who was now an
infirm invalid of more than seventy years of age.
The nobles thwarted his plans, and mocked at the idea of "a monk fighting
the battles of Spain." The soldiers had little taste for fighting under a
father of the Church, "while the Great Captain was left to stay at home
and count his beads like a hermit." The king threw cold water on the
enterprise. But the spirit and enthusiasm of the old monk triumphed over
them all, and on the 16th of May the fleet weighed anchor, reaching the
port of Mazalquivir on the following day. Oran, the goal of the
expedition, lay about a league away.
As soon as the army was landed and drawn up in line, Ximenes mounted his
mule and rode along its front, dressed in his priestly robes, but with a
sword by his side. A group of friars followed, also with monastic garbs
and weapons of war. The cardinal, ascending a rising ground, made an
animated address to the soldiers, rousing their indignation by speaking of
the devastation of the coast of Spain by the Moslems, and awakening their
cupidity by dwelling on the golden spoil to be found in the rich city of
Oran. He concluded by saying that he had come to peril his own life in the
service of the cross and lead them in person to battle.
The officers now crowded around the warlike old monk and earnestly begged
him not to expose his sacred person to the hazards of the fight, saying
that his presence would do more harm than good, as the men might be
distracted from the work before them by attending to his personal safety.
This last argument moved the warlike cardinal, who, with much reluctance,
consented to keep in the rear and leave the command of the army to its
military leader, Count Pedro Navarro.
The day was now far advanced. Beacon-fires on the hill-tops showed that
the country was in alarm. Dark groups of Moorish soldiers could be seen on
the summit of the ridge that lay between Oran and Mazalquivir, and which
it would be necessary to take before the city could be reached. The men
were weary with the labors of landing, and needed rest and refreshment,
and Navarro deemed it unsafe to attempt anything more that day; but the
energetic prelate bade him "to go forward in God's name," and orders to
advance were at once given.
Silently the Spanish troops began to ascend the steep sides of the
acclivity. Fortunately for them, a dense mist had arisen, which rolled
down the skirts of the hills and filled the valley through which they
moved. As soon as they left its cover and were revealed to the Moors a
shower of balls and arrows greeted them, followed by a desperate charge
down the hill. But the Spanish infantry, with their deep ranks and long
pikes, moved on unbroken by the assault, while Navarro opened with a
battery of heavy guns on the flank of the enemy.
Thrown into disorder by the deadly volleys, the Moors began to give
ground, and, pressed upon heavily by the Spanish spearsmen, soon broke
into flight. The Spaniards hotly pursued, breaking rank in their eagerness
in a way that might have proved fatal but for the panic of the Moors, who
had lost all sense of discipline. The hill-top was reached, and down its
opposite slope poured the Spaniards, driving the fleeing Moors. Not far
before them rose the walls of Oran. The fleet had anchored before the city
and was vigorously cannonading it, being answered with equal spirit by
sixty pieces of artillery on the fortifications. Such were the excitement
and enthusiasm of the soldiers that they forgot weariness and disregarded
obstacles. In swift pursuit they followed the scattering Moors, and in a
brief time were close to the walls, defended by a deeply discouraged
garrison.
The Spaniards had brought few ladders, but in the intense excitement and
energy of the moment no obstacle deterred them. Planting their long pikes
against the walls, or thrusting them into the crevices between the stones,
they clambered up with remarkable dexterity,--a feat which they were
utterly unable to repeat the next day, when they tried it in cold blood.
A weak defence was made, and the ramparts soon swarmed with Spanish
soldiers. Sousa, the captain of the cardinal's guard, was the first to
gain the summit, where he unfurled the banner of Ximenes,--the cross on one
side and the cardinal's arms on the other. Six other banners soon floated
from the walls, and the soldiers, leaping down into the streets, gained
and threw open the gates. In streamed the army, sweeping all opposition
before it. Resistance and flight were alike unavailing. Houses and mosques
were tumultuously entered, no mercy being shown, no regard for age or sex,
the soldiers abandoning themselves to the brutal license and ferocity
common to the wars of that epoch.
In vain Navarro sought to check his brutal troops; they were beyond
control; the butchery never ceased until, gorged with the food and wine
found in the houses, the worn-out soldiers flung themselves down in the
streets and squares to sleep. Four thousand Moors had been slain in the
brief assault, and perhaps twice that number were taken prisoners. The
city of Oran, that morning an opulent and prosperous community, was at
night a ruined and captive city, with its ferocious conquerors sleeping
amidst their slaughtered victims.
[Illustration: LIBERATION OF THE CAPTIVES FROM THE DUNGEON OF ORAN.]