etude, which prompted them to such frequent change of their
rulers; which multiplied factions among them, and constantly convulsed
the empire with internal discords, expending its strength and power in
dissensions at home, and thus leaving it defenceless against foreign
enemies. The Moors may also be reproached with an extravagant fondness
for architectural magnificence, splendid fetes, and other expensive
entertainments, which aided in exhausting the national treasury at
times when protracted warfare scarcely ever permitted this most fertile
region of the earth to reproduce the {198} crops the Spaniards had
destroyed. But, more than all, they were a people without an
established code of laws, that only permanent basis of the prosperity
of nations. And then, too, a despotic form of government, which
deprives men of patriotism, induced each individual to regard his
virtues and attainments merely as affording the means of personal
consideration, and not, as they should be considered, the property of
his country.

These grave defects in the national character of the Moors were
redeemed by many excellent qualities, which even the Spaniards admitted
them to possess. In battle they were no less brave and prudent than
their Christian antagonists, though inferior in skill and discipline.
They excelled them, however, in the art of attack. Adversity never
long overwhelmed them; they saw in misfortune the will of Heaven, and
without a murmur submitted to it. Their favourite dogma of fatalism
doubtless contributed to this result. Fervently devoted to the laws of
Mohammed, they obeyed with great exactness his humane injunctions
respecting almsgiving:[19] they bestowed on the poor not only food and
{199} money, but a portion of their grain, fruit, and flocks, and of
every kind of merchandise. In the towns and throughout the country,
the indigent sick were collected, attended, and nursed with the most
assiduous care. Hospitality, so sacred from the remotest time among
the Arabs, was not less carefully observed among the people of Grenada,
who seemed to take peculiar pleasure in its exercise. The following
touching anecdote is told in illustration of the powerful influence of
this principle. A stranger, bathed in blood, sought refuge from the
officers of justice under the roof of an aged Moor. The old man
concealed him in his house. But he had scarcely done so before a guard
arrived to demand possession of the murderer, an