Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/102

Ixxxiv INTRODUCTION. iNTROD. mode of communication across the high road of its waters. They mingled in war too as in peace, and this long period is filled with their international^ contests, while the other free cities of Christendom were wasting themselves in civil feuds and de- grading domestic broils. In this wide and various collision their moral powers were quickened by constant activity ; and more enlarged views were formed, with a deeper consciousness of their own strength, than could be obtained by those inhabit- ants of the interior, who were conversant only with a limited range of objects, and subjected to the in- fluence of the same dull, monotonous circumstances. Foreign Amouff thcse maritime republics, those of Cata- /nnquests. ~ Ionia were eminently conspicuous. By the incor- poration of this country with the kingdom of Ara- gon, therefore, the strength of the latter was greatly augmented. The Aragonese princes, well aware of this, liberally fostered institutions to which the country owed its prosperity, and skilfully availed themselves of its resources for the aggrandizement of their own dominions. They paid particular at- tention to the navy, for the more perfect discipline of which a body of laws was prepared by Peter the Fourth, in 1354, that was designed to render it invincible. No allusion whatever is made in this stern code to the mode of surrendering to, or re- treating from the enemy. The commander, who declined attacking any force not exceeding his own by more than one vessel, was punished with death.^ 2 Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, lans were much celebrated during tom. iii. pp. 45-47.— The Cata- the Middle Ages for their skill with