nd stretching its bald, rocky promontory into the bosom of
the plain, that the invading squadrons would come bursting into view,
with flaunting banners and the clangor of drums and trumpets. How
changed is the scene! Instead of the glittering line of mailed warriors,
we behold the patient train of the toilful muleteer, slowly moving along
the skirts of the mountain.

Behind that promontory is the eventful bridge of Pinos, renowned for
many a bloody strife between Moors and Christians; but still more
renowned as being the place where Columbus was overtaken and called back
by the messenger of Queen Isabella just as he was departing in despair
to carry his project of discovery to the court of France.

Behold another place famous in the history of the discoverer; yon line
of walls and towers, gleaming in the morning sun in the very center of
the Vega; the city of Santa Fe, built by the Catholic sovereigns during
the siege of Granada, after a conflagration had destroyed their camp. It
was to these walls that Columbus was called back by the heroic queen,
and within them the treaty was concluded that led to the discovery of
the Western World.

Here, toward the south, the eye revels on the luxuriant beauties of the
Vega, a blooming wilderness of grove and garden, and teeming orchards,
with the Xenil winding through it in silver links and feeding
innumerable rills, conducted through ancient Moorish channels, which
maintain the landscape in perpetual verdure. Here are the beloved bowers
and gardens and rural retreats for which the Moors fought with such
desperate valor.

Beyond the embowered region of the Vega you behold, to the south, a line
of arid hills down which a long train of mules is slowly moving. It was
from the summit of one of those hills that the unfortunate Boabdil cast
back his last look upon Granada and gave vent to the agony of his soul.
It is the spot famous in song and story, "The last sigh of the Moor."

Now raise your eyes to the snowy summit of yon pile of mountains,
shining like a white summer cloud on the blue sky. It is the Sierra
Nevada, the pride and delight of Granada; the source of her cooling
breezes and perpetual verdure, of her gushing fountains and perennial
streams. It is this glorious pile of mountains that gives to Granada
that combination of delights so rare in a southern city: the fresh
vegetation and the temperate airs of a northern climate, with the
vivifying ardor of a tropical sun, a