extent to accommodate forty thousand
men within their walls. The fugitives from the city of Alhambra, as
has already been stated, had given the name of their former home to the
new quarter that they peopled; and the Moors who had been driven from
Baeca when Ferdinand III. became master of that place, had established
themselves, in a similar manner, in the quarter of the Albayzin.

This city had also received many exiles from Valencia, Cordova, and
other places which the Mussulmans had deserted.

With a population whose numbers were daily augmented, Grenada, at the
period of which we now speak, was more than three leagues in circuit,
surrounded by impregnable ramparts; defended by many strong towers, and
by a brave and numerous people, whose military prowess seemed to ensure
their safety and independence.

{122}

Various were the advantages that combined in giving to Grenada the
supremacy she had assumed. Her location was one of the most agreeable
and beautiful in the world, and rendered her mistress of a country on
which nature had lavished her choicest gifts. The famous _vega_, or
plain, by which the city was surrounded, was thirty leagues in length
and eight in breadth. It was terminated on the north by the mountains
of Elvira and the Sierra Nevada, and enclosed on the remaining sides by
hills clothed with the verdure of the olive, the mulberry, the lemon,
and the vine.

This enchanting plain was watered by five small rivers[1] and an
infinite number of gushing springs, whose streams wandered in graceful
meanderings through meadows of perpetual verdure, through forests of
oak and plantations of grain, flax, and sugar-cane, or burst forth in
the midst of gardens, and orchards, and orange-groves.

All the rich, and beautiful, and varied productions of the soil
required but little attention in their culture. The earth was
continually {123} covered with vegetation, in myriads of changing
forms, and never knew the repose of winter.

During the heat of summer, the mountain breezes spread a refreshing
coolness through the air of this lovely vega, and preserved the early
brilliancy and beauty of the flowers, that were ever mingled in
delightful confusion with the varied fruits of a tropical region.

On this celebrated plain, whose charms no description can embellish; on
this enchanting vega, where nature seemed to have exhausted her efforts
in lavishing all that the heart of man could desire or his imagination