tack: it was the principal seaport of the kingdom, and
almost necessary to its existence. It had long been the seat of opulent
commerce, sending many ships to the coasts of Syria and Egypt. It was
also the great channel of communication with Africa, through which
were introduced supplies of money, troops, arms, and steeds from Tunis,
Tripoli, Fez, Tremezan, and other Barbary powers. It was emphatically
called, therefore, "the hand and mouth of Granada." Before laying siege
to this redoubtable city, however, it was deemed necessary to secure the
neighboring city of Velez Malaga and its dependent places, which might
otherwise harass the besieging army.

For this important campaign the nobles of the kingdom were again
summoned to take the field with their forces in the spring of 1487.
The menaced invasion of the infidel powers of the East had awakened new
ardor in the bosoms of all true Christian knights, and so zealously did
they respond to the summons of the sovereigns that an army of twenty
thousand cavalry and fifty thousand foot, the flower of Spanish
warriors, led by the bravest of Spanish cavaliers, thronged the renowned
city of Cordova at the appointed time.

On the night before this mighty host set forth upon its march an
earthquake shook the city. The inhabitants, awakened by the shaking of
the walls and rocking of the towers, fled to the courts and squares,
fearing to be overwhelmed by the ruins of their dwellings. The
earthquake was most violent in the quarter of the royal residence, the
site of the ancient palace of the Moorish kings. Many looked upon this
as an omen of some impending evil; but Fray Antonio Agapida, in that
infallible spirit of divination which succeeds an event, plainly reads
in it a presage that the empire of the Moors was about to be shaken to
its centre.

It was on Saturday, the eve of the Sunday of Palms (says a worthy and
loyal chronicler of the time), that the most Catholic monarch departed
with his army to render service to Heaven and make war upon the Moors.*
Heavy rains had swelled all the streams and rendered the roads deep and
difficult. The king, therefore, divided his host into two bodies. In
one he put all the artillery, guarded by a strong body of horse, and
commanded by the master of Alcantara and Martin Alonso, senior of
Montemayor. This division was to proceed by the road through the
valleys, where pasturage abounded for the oxen which drew the ordnance.

* Pulgar