conceive, more blood has been shed than on any other spot in the world.
There--where, during two centuries of unceasing warfare, whose baleful
effects extended from generation to generation, from city to city, and
from man to man--there does not exist a single isolated portion of
earth where the trees have not been wantonly destroyed, the villages
reduced to ashes, and the desolated fields strewn with the mingled
corses of slaughtered Moors and Christians.

Independent of this _vega_, which was of such inestimable value to
Grenada, fourteen great cities and more than one hundred of smaller
{124} size, together with a prodigious number of towns, were embraced
within the boundaries of this fine kingdom.

The extent of Grenada, from Gibraltar (which was not taken by the
Christians until long after this period) to the city of Lorca, was more
than eighty leagues. It was thirty leagues in breadth from Cambril to
the Mediterranean.

The mountain, by which the kingdom of Grenada was intersected, produced
gold, silver, granite, amethysts, and various kinds of marble.

Among these mountains, those of the Alpuxaries alone formed a province,
and yielded the monarch of Grenada more precious treasures than their
mines could furnish--active and athletic men, who became either hardy
and industrious husbandmen, or faithful and indefatigable soldiers.

In addition to all this, the ports of Almeria, Malaga, and Algeziras
received into their harbours the vessels of both Europe and Africa, and
became places of deposite for the commerce of the Mediterranean and the
Atlantic.

Such, at its birth, was the kingdom of Grenada, and such it long
continued. Mohammed Alhamar, from the period of its establishment,
{125} made useless efforts to unite all the remaining dominions of the
Mussulmans of Spain under one sceptre, as the only means of
successfully resisting the encroachments of the Christians. But the
little kingdom of Murcia and that of Algarva were each governed by
separate princes, who persisted in maintaining their independence.
This was the cause of their ruin, for they thus became more readily the
prey of the Spaniards.

Alhamar signalized the commencement of his reign by military
achievements. In the year 1242, Heg. 640, he gained some important
advantages over the troops of Ferdinand. But repeated revolts in the
capital and disturbances in other parts of his new empire, eventually
compelled Mohammed to conclude a dishonou