se, united
with their other national {130} advantages, will furnish some idea of
the great power and resources of this singular people.

Their standing military force--it can scarcely be said in times of
peace, for they rarely knew the blessings of that state--amounted to
nearly a hundred thousand men; and this army, in case of necessity,
could easily be increased to double that number. The single city of
Grenada could furnish fifty thousand soldiers. Indeed, every Moor
would readily become a soldier to oppose the Christians. The
difference of faith rendered these wars sacred in their eyes; and the
mutual hatred entertained by these two almost equally superstitious
nations never failed to arm, when necessary, every individual of both
sides, even from children to old men.

Independent of the numerous and brave, but ill-disciplined troops, who
would assemble for a campaign, and afterward return to their homes
without occasioning any expense to the state, the Moorish monarch
maintained a considerable corps of cavaliers, who were dispersed along
the frontiers, particularly in the directions of Murcia and Jaen, those
parts of the country being most exposed to the repeated incursions of
the Spaniards. Upon each of these cavaliers the king {131} bestowed
for life a small habitation, with sufficient adjoining ground for his
own maintenance, and that of his family and horse. This method of
keeping soldiers in service, while it occasioned no expense to the
public treasury, served to attach them more firmly to their country, by
identifying their interests with hers; and it held out to them the
strongest motives faithfully to defend their charge, inasmuch as their
patrimony was always first exposed to the ravages of the enemy.

At a time when the art of war had not reached the perfection it has now
attained, and when large bodies of troops were not kept continually
assembled and exercised, the system of stationing this peculiar guard
along the frontiers was of admirable effect.

The knights who composed this unrivalled cavalry were mounted on
African or Andalusian chargers, whose merits in the field are so
well-known, and were accustomed from infancy to their management;
treating them with the tenderest care, and regarding them as their
inseparable companions: by these means they acquired that remarkable
superiority for which the Moorish cavalry is still so celebrated.

{132}

These redoubtable squadrons, whose velocity