PART
I
Preparations
for the siege
of Baza.
be brought into collision with each other on a common theatre of action.
All thoughts were now concentrated on the prosecution of the war with Granada, which, it was determined, should be conducted on a more enlarged scale than it had yet been; notwithstanding the fearful pest which had desolated the country during the past year, and the extreme scarcity of grain, owing to the inundations caused by excessive rains in the fruitful provinces of the south. The great object proposed in this campaign was the reduction of Baza, the capital of that division of the empire, which belonged to El Zagal. Besides this important city, that monarch's dominions embraced the wealthy sea-port of Almeria, Guadix, and numerous other towns and villages of less consequence, together with the mountain region of the Alpuxarras, rich in mineral wealth; whose inhabitants, famous for the perfection to which they had carried the silk manufacture, were equally known for their enterprise and courage in war, so that El Zagal's division comprehended the most potent and opulent portion of the empire.[1]
1489.In the spring of 1489, the Castilian court passed to Jaen, at which place the queen was to estab-- ↑ Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 91.—Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 354.—Bleda, Corónica, fol. 607.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 307.
Such was the scarcity of grain that the prices in 1489, quoted by Bernaldez, are double those of the preceding year.—Both Abarca and Zurita mention the report, that four fifths of the whole population were swept away by the pestilence of 1488. Zurita finds more difficulty in swallowing this monstrous statement than father Abarca, whose appetite for the marvellous appears to have been fully equal to that of most of his calling in Spain.
