Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/339

313 UNIVERSITY OF ALCALa. 313 arms. The inhabitants were received as vassals chapter XXI of the Catholic king, engaging to pay the taxes 1— — usually imposed by their Moslem princes, and to serve him in war, with the addition of the whim- sical provision, so often found in the old Granadine treaties, to attend him in cortes. They guarantied, 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. ^'^ 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 Ajg. 28. in the island of Gelves, where four thousand of his men were slain or made prisoners. ^^ This check 20 Zurita, Anales, torn. vi. lib. 9, temerity with his life. He was cap. 1,2, 4, 13. — Peter Martyr, eldest son of the old duke of Alva, Opus Epist., epist. 435-437. — and father of that nobleman, who Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. subsequently acquired such gloomy -20. — Mariana, Hist, de Espafia, celebrity by his conquests and cru- lib. 29, cap. 22. — Gomez, De Re- elties in the Netherlands. The bus Gestis, fol. 122- 124. — Ber- tender poet, Garcilasso de la Vega, naldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. oifers sweet incense to the house 222. — Zurita gives at length the of Toledo, in one of his pastorals, capitulation with Algiers, lib. 9, in which he mourns over the dis- cap. 13. astrous day of Gelves ; 21 Chenier, Recherches SUr les " O patria lagrlrnosa, i como buelves Maures, tom. ii. pp. 355, 356. — It los ojos a los Gelves sospirando ! " is but just to state, that this disaster The death of the young nobleman was imputable to Don Garcia de is veiled under a beautiful simile, Toledo, who had charge of the which challenges comparison with expedition, and who expiated his the great masters of Latin and VOL. III. 40