Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/530

384 WAR OF GRANADA. PART sovereigns, as tending to defeat their own meas- 12 ures. ^ fortresses. Still there was many a green and sheltered valley in Granada, which yielded its returns unmolested to the Moorish husbandman ; while his granaries were occasionally enriched with the produce of a border foray. The Moors too, although naturally a luxurious people, were patient of suffering, and capable of enduring great privation. Other meas- ures, therefore, of a still more formidable char- acter, became necessary in conjunction with this rigorous system of blockade. strength of Thc Moorish towns were for the most part the Moorish ^ Strongly defended, presenting within the limits of Granada, as has been said, more than ten times the number of fortified places that are now scat- tered over the whole extent of the Peninsula. They stood along the crest of some precipice, or bold sierra, whose natural strength was augmented by the solid masonry with which they were sur- rounded, and which, however insufficient to hold out against modern artillery, bade defiance to all the enginery of battering warfare known previous- ly to the fifteenth century. It was this strength of fortification, combined with that of their local position, which frequently enabled a slender garri- son in these places to laugh to scorn all the efforts of the proudest Castilian armies. The Spanish sovereigns were convinced, that i^Pulear, Reyes Cat61icos, cap. 22. — Mem. de la Acad, de Hist., torn. vi. Ilust. 6.