Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/531

MILITARY POLICY OF THE SOVEREIGNS. 385 they must look to their artillery as the only effectu- chapter al means for the reduction of these strong-holds. '- — In this, they as well as the Moors were extremely deficient, although Spain appears to have furnished earlier examples of its use than any other country in Europe. Isabella, who seems to have had the particular control of this department, caused the most skilful engineers and artisans to be invited into the kingdom from France, Germany, and Italy. Forges were constructed in the camp, and all the requisite materials prepared for the manufacture of cannon, balls, and powder. Large quantities of the last were also imported from Sicily, Flan- ders, and Portugal. Commissaries were estab- lished over the various departments, with instruc- tions to provide whatever might be necessary for the operatives ; and the whole was intrusted to the supervision of Don Francisco Ramirez, an hidalgo of Madrid, a person of much experience, and ex- tensive military science, for that day. By these efforts, unremittingly pursued during the whole of the war, Isabella assembled a train of artillery, such as was probably not possessed at that time by any other European potentate. ^^ Still the clumsy construction of the ordnance Description •' of the pieces. betrayed the infancy of the art. More than twenty pieces of artillery used at the siege of Baza, during this war, are still to be seen in that city, where they long served as columns in the public market- is Pulgar. Reyes Catolicos, cap. lib. 20, cap. 59. — Lebrija, Rerum 32, 41. — Zurita, Anales, torn. iv. Gestarum Decades, ii. lib. 3, cap. 5. VOL. I. 49