CONQUEST OF MALAGA. 13 twelve thousand horse and forty thousand foot ; a chapter XIII. number, which sufficiently attests the unslackened '- — ardor of the nation in the prosecution of the war. On the 7th of April, King Ferdinand, putting 14 87. himself at the head of this formidable host, quitted the fair city of Cordova amid the cheering acclama- tions of its inhabitants, although these were some- what damped by the ominous occurrence of an earthquake, which demolished a part of the royal residence, among other edifices, during the preced- ing night. The route, after traversing the Yeguas and the old town of Antequera, struck into a wild, hilly country, that stretches towards Velez. The rivers were so much swollen by excessive rains, and the passes so rough and difficult, that the army in part of its march advanced only a league a day ; and on one occasion, when no suitable place occur- red for encampment for the space of five leagues, the men fainted with exhaustion, and the beasts dropped down dead in the harness. At length, on Army before the 17th of April, the Spanish army sat down be- fore Velez Malaga, where in a few days they were joined by the lighter pieces of their battering ord- nance ; the roads, notwithstanding the immense labor expended on them, being found impracticable for the heavier.^ The Moors were aware of the importance of ^efeat Velez to the security of Malaga. The sensation 1 Vedmar, Antigaedad y Gran- 25, cap. 10. — Pulgar, Reyes Ca- dezas de la Ciudad de Velez, tolicos, part. iii. cap. 70. — Carba- (Granada, 1652,) fol. 148. — Ma- jal, Anales, MS., ano 1487. — Ble- riana, Hist, de Espana, torn. ii. lib. da, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 14. of El Zagal.
