ey. What was lacking, their genius and husbandry soon supplied. The
land which they found uncultivated soon became a garden filled with
exotic flowers and rich fruits, while they adorned its cities with the
noblest monuments of their taste and intelligence. They divided their
territory (el Andalus) into the four kingdoms of Seville, Cordova, Jaen,
and Granada, which still exist as territorial divisions. To-day the
three latter contain only the ruins of a great past. Seville alone
remains in many respects a perfectly Moorish city. Her courts, her
squares, the streets and houses, the great palace and the tower are
essentially Arabian and bear witness to the magnificence of her ancient
masters.

[Illustration: KEY OF PLAN OF SEVILLE CATHEDRAL

A. The Giralda.
B. Royal Chapel.
C. Chapter House.
D. Sacristy.
E. Old Sacristy.
F. Colombina Library.
G. Portal of the Perdon.
H. Courtyard of the Orange Trees.
I. The Sagrario.
J. Portal of the Orange Trees.
K. Choir.
L. Capilla Mayor.
M. Portal of the Lonja (San Cristobal).
N. Portal of the Palos.
O. Portal of the Campanillas.
P. Portal of the Bautismo.
Q. Puerta Mayor.
R. Portal of the Nacimiento.
S. Trascoro.
T. Dependencias de la Hermandad.
U. Portal of the Sagrario.
V. Portal of the Lagarto.
X. Tomb of Fernando Colon.]

They had lost all the rest of Spain except Granada before Cordova and
Jaen surrendered, and finally Seville fell into the hands of Ferdinand
III of Castile in 1248, and its Christian period began. Three hundred
thousand followers of the detested faith were banished from Seville, and
slowly the power of the Catholic Church began to rise and the
agricultural beauty and industry of the surrounding province to wane.

The city was divided into separate districts for the different races,
the canals were dammed up, the water-works fell to pieces, the valley
was left untilled, and fruit trees were unpruned and unwatered. Hides
bleached in the sun and webs rotted on the looms, sixty thousand of
which had woven beautiful silk fabrics in the palmy days of the Moors.

Ferdinand the Holy was a great king, of a saintliness and greatness
still acknowledged by the soldiers of Seville. After eight centuries
they still lower their colors as they march past the great shrine of the
Third Ferdinand, in the church which he purged from Mohammedanism and
dedicated to the worsh