HIERONYMOUS MUNZER JOURNEY THROUGH SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

              HIERONYMOUS MUNZER 

          JOURNEY THROUGH SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

Translated from the Spanish by Judith B. Sobré

(Hieronymus Münzer, Viaje por España y Portugal, 1494-95.  Prologue by Manuel Gómez Moreno, Translated from the Latin (Munich, Bayerisches Staatbibliothek  Latin ms. 431: "Itinerarium sive peregrinatio excellentissimi viri atrium ac utriusque medicinae doctoris Hieronymi Monetarii de Feldkirchen, Ccivis Nurembergensis" by José López Toro, Madrid, colección Almenara, 1951)

and

Jerónimo Münzer, Viaje por España y Portugal, prologue by Ramón Alba, Madrid, Ediciones Polifemo, 1991/2002

1494

            The 17^th of September, after traveling nine leagues [a league equals 2-3 miles], from Narbonne we arrived at Perpignan, a famous town.  At the foot of the Pyrenees Mountains, there exists a very pretty plain, seven leagues long and seven wide.  The Pyrenees Mountains surround it at the north, south, and west; to the east is the sea.  This plain is called the county of Roussillon.  It has around a hundred cities, castles, and fortresses, and its principal city is Perpignan.  The land is famous for all sorts of fruits, principally the delicious Muscat wine.  This city resembles, in my opinion, Ulm, with its merchants and its fine woolen cloth.  The most outstanding church is the one dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, recently built, but not totally finished.  I never saw such high arches.  I think that in width it's about the same as the church of Saint Sebald in Nüremberg, which is vaulted by a single arch.

            We were lodged in the outskirts of the city, near the wall, in the house of a certain gentleman named Sir Sigibert, whose house was so magnificent that you could take it for a palace or a castle.  Behind the house, to the north, there are two extensive and inviting gardens, constructed like cloisters and enclosures of monasteries in Germany.  The entire exterior is covered with different sorts of heavy clusters, and at the sides, trees of the most varied species.  The dimension of one side of the first garden is two hundred thirty two paces, and that of the other, two hundred twenty three.  Regard how much space those two gardens occupied!            

These gardens were planted with all the types of fruits that were customarily grown in this region.  In September, which was when we were there, one could find in plenty pomegranates, oranges, grapes, figs, almonds, loquats, peaches and other innumerable fruits.  Truly, a meticulous observer would believe it to be a paradise.  A strategically constructed aqueduct with sweet water irrigated all of those gardens with the greatest of ease, the water originating in a river that passed in front of the estate.  An hour would not be sufficient to enumerate all these delights.  We have never seen similar gardens.  The knight's servants assured us that all visitors here said that there was nothing so splendid in their own lands.  This county, thirty years ago, belonged to the jurisdiction of the King of France, who received it as a pledge from the King of Aragon.  But in the year of the conquest of Granada, the King of Spain reclaimed it, it was returned with good will by the King of France, and presently it is under the Spanish scepter.

            The 19^th of September, leaving Perpignan, after traveling three leagues along the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains, we arrived at a castle that has the name of Le Boulou, and through the mountain defines that is called El Port, or the mountain pass, penetrating by a very rough, nearly impassable and abrupt path, and passing on the right La Guardia, a handsome fortress on a very high peak, having passed all these mountains, we penetrated into Catalonia, by the castles of La Junquera and of Figueres.

            The 20^th, after traveling five leagues from Figueres, we arrived at an ancient and noble city called Girona, with an Episcopal see and a very famous cathedral, where Saint Narcissus, its first archbishop, shone with his miracles.  It is like two cities that are separated by a quite clean river.

BARCELONA

On the 21^st of this month [September], traveling from Girona for fourteen leagues. we arrived at the most noble city of Barcelona, situated on the banks of the Balearic [Mediterranean] Sea and the capital of all Catalonia.  Its magnificently constructed walls of dressed stone, with merlons, crenellations and towers, surrounds its square periphery, right to the edge of the sea.

It is on a most beautiful plain bathed to the south by the sea, and to the east, west and north, it is surrounded by fertile mountains in a sort of semicircle.  On the shore of the sea is built the most noble city of Barcelona.  It has, as I have said, a very strong wall built all around it.  And in the center, on a knoll, is the magnificent and superb Cathedral and Episcopal seat, dedicated in honor of the Holy Cross.  This building is extraordinarily delicate, and in its periphery are more than twenty altars with magnificent and gilded panels, and an excellent library and a garden with orange trees, lemon trees and cypresses.

We were shown the great treasures of that church.  Among other things, there was a beautiful monstrance, of about ninety four marks of purest gold, and decorated with so many pearls and precious stones, that it caused stupefaction. The church is also constructed in a surprising manner.  Below the choir is the crypt, where the body of the virgin Saint Eulalia reposes, whom Diocletian crowned with martyrdom.  In that crypt twenty lamps burn continuously.  I ascended its [the Cathedral's] highest tower, as from a rampart; I contemplated at my leisure the city and its situation.  Oh, what a splendid spectacle! 

The city has within its wall and beyond it, in an area of two leagues, more than thirty monasteries of monks and nuns, and I think that the city is twice as big as Nüremberg.  For the most part, all the houses are constructed of dressed stone.  But from the gate of Saint Anthony by the sea, towards the west, it is full of gardens, fields and the most beautiful and amenable orchards of pomegranates, lemon trees, loquats, orange trees, palm trees, artichokes, pines, grapevines, peach trees and other trees.  The land is rich and fertile.

Passing the gate of Sant Angel, towards the north, is the monastery of the Observant Minor Brothers [Franciscans], which carries the name of Santa María Jesús.  Oh what beautiful construction has been achieved, with its select library, its cells for the monks, and the gardens, the fountains for irrigation and the diversity of fruits! 

There are in the Episcopal church [the Cathedral] more than forty-four canons, and such a number of vicars that the clergy of that church numbers more than two hundred, excepting the other parishes of Sant Just, el Pi and Santa María del Mar, etc.  I think there are more than two thousand clergy of both sexes.

[The City Government]: Forty years ago, Barcelona was at its highest flowering, and it had grown extraordinarily because of its commerce.  But the Kings of Aragon, because of their continuous wars, were pledging successively all of its royal head-taxes of the entire county of Catalonia to the city.  With time, all of the royal head-taxes of the county of Roussillon, of Girona, of Tortosa, as well as all the royal rights in the city of Barcelona were ransomed for it. The city, therefore, lives now in a regime of maximum liberty.  They observe this arrangement: they elect from the entire county three gentlemen  every three years: one from the clergy, another from the nobility, and the third from the community.  Every day these three hold sessions in a magnificent building called the Diputació—which is like a house delegated for this matter.  There the three receive the tribute that formerly was for the kings, and they apportion it where they see fit.  They have their clerks, who arrange and carry out their decisions. There are other non-royal tributes from the cities and towns, each one of which is disposed by them as is necessary.  It has been forty five years since the citizens, moved by arrogance and other passions, rose against the nobles of the city.  Because of these revolts, the richest of them fled.  From that time on, commerce declined here and moved to Valencia, Spain's emporium.  Now Barcelona is almost dead compared to its earlier state.

[The Merchants' Exchange]: A magnificent and superb house with a cupola is constructed by the sea, that one would think was a church or a great palace.  Next to this building is a beautiful garden with ten rows of orange and lemon trees and in the center a dancing fountain, and on all four sides rectangular stone seats.  In this building, twice a day, the merchants meet to carry on their business.  The named it the llotja, that is, the exchange house.  In it, there is a money exchange and a wisely regulated bank, to keep money.

[The House of the Prince don Enrique]: The prince, don Enrique, who died in the bombardment of Naples in 1453, left a son of the same name.  King Fernando, who is presently King of Spain, and the former, were the sons of two brothers.  The prince decided for a life of idleness and pleasures rather than war.  It was he who had constructed near the church of Saint Francis, such a superb and grandiose mansion, that no other can compare to it.  The rooms in the entire house are paved with diverse azulejos [decorated tiles] of diverse colors, and the artesonado ceilings decorated with pure gold and with varied flowers of the same material.  Oh, what a sumptuous house!  We saw there a species of gazelle, which is an animal that has musk. It is bigger than a fox; the head, mouth and ears similar to an ermine, its color, blackish, scattered with many gray and white spots; the tail and paws of a dog; it is an angry and furious animal.  It was in a wooden cage tied up with an iron chain.  Its guardian secured it in the cage with the chain around its head.  He threw its paws back and raised its tail; he showed us its member, since it was male; he gathered its enormous testicles, and hurled them backwards as one hurls a ball; and thus raised, allowed us to see two cavities, one on each side.  The guardian put into these cavities a little flat glass spoon, and three times extracted, I believe, the quantity of two drams of that odiferous substance, and greased my hand with it, and musky smell persisted for a few days.  Then they showed us a parrot as big as a grackle or a magpie, which was all white and gray, painted with various colors, primarily on the neck, like the falcons and sparrow hawks of Germany.  Its tail was long, like a grackle's, and very red, the color of minium [lead oxide red], and the beak and claws like a parrot.  It spoke like a parrot, and really it is, but of a different type than the green ones.  They also showed us sky-blue doves, which he said also spoke a few words, but I didn't hear it while I was there.

[The Convent of the Minor Brothers]: Near this house is the major monastery of the Order of Saint Francis, near the seashore.  In the center of it there is another monastery, small, with a little cloister, refectory, cells and a small church, like a crypt, which Saint Francis had constructed, where he lived rigorously for some years, when the city was small.  The church has just one square window, with iron bars, through which the sailors used to hear the Saint saying mass and preaching.  Today, it still contains an ancient and simple image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that was the adornment of this church, but it is beginning to crumble. The Brothers are not of the Observance, though they have very educated gentlemen among them, like the intelligent Juan de Berga, an ancient man of seventy-seven years, who, according to what I was told, had attended the Council of Basle.  He is very learned, with an excellent memory for his age.  Also found in the choir of the church of San Francis are the magnificent tombs of the Kings of Aragon.  We contemplated the embalmed body of a Queen who had died eighty years ago, but is still intact.  There is also a beautiful painting in the choir.  There is a wonderful garden, watered by a mule, which drives a chain pump that continually takes water from a well that waters the entire garden by means of some canals. 

The Monastery of Saint Dominic is also admirable, and in some aspects, not inferior to the preceding one mentioned.  In both churches hang innumerable banners of the nobles buried there, that results in a handsome and magnificent spectacle.

[Administration of Justice]: Years ago, justice was appalling, because the attorneys and lawyers, with their cunning, had perverted all sense of justice and equality, as has happened in our lands in Germany, In the year that the most serene King spent in Barcelona, he called together the entire county of Barcelona, and with the agreement of the King eight Doctors of Law were created, paid by the provincial government, at 500 pounds a year for each, that equals 600 Rhenish florins, and a viceroy for the entire county.  These doctors, as soon as they hear the testimony of the disputing parties, fix a day to pronounce sentences, which may not be appealed.  They are prohibited by threat of corporal punishment and a fine from receiving gifts, although they have been tested many times to see if they would take them.  In this year they resolved more cases than in the last twenty years combined.  With this system, the first person who lost a case was the King himself; since a certain pharmacist rightly asked for, and was compensated by 1,000 ducats, for the drugs and medicines that were owed him on the account of the King’s deceased father.  They pronounced sentence on the King, as heir to his father, and he had to pay the pharmacist immediately.  If these eight doctors and the viceroy make a bad sentence because of anger, confusion, favor, or wrath, one can then appeal to the King, and, if it can be proved that the sentence was badly given, that person is absolved of what he was condemned for, and those who are in turn condemned for the crime, are consequently obliged to compensate the former with their own funds.  May glorious God continue to maintain this justice among them!  Recently a man and his wife were condemned for having given false testimony against an honest man they accused of being a marrano who was burned at the stake.  When other true marranos discovered that their testimony was false, they were tied to donkeys, and beaten with lashes, until they died.

[The Council Hall]:  The city of Barcelona has a magnificent Council Hall, with a lovely garden and great palaces where the councilors—noble gentlemen—meet and settle the matters referring to the city.  They showed us a big room full of books, that you would think was a library, where they preserve writings in a book for each year, and not only those that pertain to the tributes and to the government, but many other matters.  And thus, when someone has a doubt about some matter that occurred many years before, he can know the year and the day; thanks to these journals, he can inquire about them with certainty.

[Honors Given Us]: There were, among other German merchants: Gregory Rasp, of Augsburg; Edward Wigant, called Franck, of Mergentheim, a city in Franconia, and Wolfgang Ferber of Ulm.  There were also Friar Juan, of the Order of Saint Francis, who knew Doctor Stahel very well, his friend Nicholas, and Leonardo, who has a brother in the house of the Teutonic Knights in Nüremberg; they gave us indescribable honor.  Invited to their houses, we ate and drank in the Catalan manner, on gold and silver plates.  Musicians with different types of instruments continuously attended to us.  There were choruses and dances in the Moorish style.  I don't think any Baron or Count in Germany could have done this. There is no necessity to enumerate the many dishes, fruits and wines with which we entertained ourselves.  Hopefully, we can reciprocate for them, or their friends, or their children!

           

[Sewers]: Barcelona has, in the majority of places and in its most frequented plazas, pipes and subterranean cisterns with water, so that all the dirty water of houses and sewers drains into the sea.  (If they committed the imprudence of putting too much weight on the pavement, the ground of plazas and streets would  collapse. They are similar to those of Naples, the Lombard city of Pavía, and those of Valencia, the principal city of Spain.)

THE MONASTERY OF MONTSERRAT

            According to schedule, we left Barcelona on the 26^th, and traveling 6 leagues, we arrived at Montserrat at a very late hour.  Among multiple and varied hills, there is a great and very high mountain that seems to rise to the clouds, and it appears cut and cracked as if it were a saw.  They are, for the most part, stones that are bare and sterile, among whose crevices and openings grew various shrubs.  We arrived at its foothill, following a long, narrow and sinuous trail, after a long mile, we arrived in the breast of the mountain, were we found the incomparable monastery called Our Lady of Montserrat.  The monks are Benedictine, of rigid observance, who were brought from Castile this year by King Fernando, to replace those expelled for their irregular and licentious lives.  He also gave the Abbot a tiny diocese in land near the County of Roussillon, so that he would not oppose the plans of the King.  It is a very devout place.  During day and night, twenty-three mostly gold and silver lamps burn continuously before its high altar.  I also counted sixteen enormous wax candles there.  Some of them weigh between ten and twelve centenarios, that are augmented every year by people from the surrounding towns, and on festival days, they burn from consecration to communion.

            On Saturday morning, after hearing a devotional mass sung accompanied by an organ, we went up a very narrow, projecting trail, with stairs cut into the rock, and various precipices, like a stairway.  Ascending this trail with tremendous labor, we arrived at the first hermitage, which has the name of Our Lady of Montserrat.  Then, going further up, towards the left side, we came to the second, called the hermitage of the Holy Cross.  On the third ascent, also very dangerous, we arrived at the hermitage of the Holy Trinity that brother Bernardo Boil, whom I was to meet in Madrid, enlarged and decorated.  After the fourth and most dangerous ascent, with a lot of sweat, we were received at the fourth hermitage, which has the name of Holy Savior.  But, tired from such a rough and steep climb, we didn't go up to the others. 

            Twelve hermitages are situated on the mountain, some higher, some lower.  They are very nice and constructed beautifully.  Each one has its pretty chapel, very well decorated with ornaments, very beautiful gardens: some hermitages have two, some three, according to the terrain around each one; dormitories, dining rooms, kitchens and other dependencies as well as cisterns with very cold water; which is almost never lacking, and it runs through copper tubes, like wine from a cask.  It is a very convenient place for hermits. The brothers, every week, as well as on great festivals, descend to the monastery and are given hosts for communion, and they distribute to them bread, wine and other food.   A contemplative hermit could not choose a better location. Since all the hermitages face south, they are seen continuously as green and verdant.  I enjoyed it so much, that I completely forgot about my recent efforts and fatigue.  Some of the hermitages are dedicated to Saint Jerome, Saint Humphrey, Saint Catherine, Saint Anthony, etc.  There are twelve of them, as I said, spread around on the mountain.

            After touring the cells, we arrived back at the monastery, by the same path, with great effort and in danger, in two hours, after midday.  After lunch, we entered the sacristy with the prior, a learned man, and looked at the cups and jeweled ornaments, exquisitely worked in gold and silver, which, according to the prior, were worth 800 marks [a unit of northern European currency].  After that, we saw the ornaments that were very numerous and preciously woven with silk and gold and silver threads.  Among other things, we saw a golden chain of four marks that King Fernando was wearing when a crazy man attacked him in Barcelona, and which he donated to the monastery the same year.  It was a beautiful chain.  I put it around my neck.  Afterwards--Oh, how exquisite and abundant everything was!; we saw gifts donated by the daughter of the King, named Juana,  after the death of her husband, the King of Portugal from a fall from his horse, while hunting near the Tajo river, only seven months after their wedding at Évora.  This lady Juana, I repeat, took a vow of chastity in her widowhood, and to not wear linen nightgowns, only woolen ones.  She lives, in effect, a life of great purity and has donated many things to the Virgin of Montserrat that she has made with her own hands.

            After this, leaving the monastery, we looked at the situation of the place, and ascending to a cave where, in the year 853, a certain citizen of Barcelona, Juan Garín, made a very exacting penitence.  And having taken note of his saintliness, the Count of Barcelona sent his daughter, possessed by a demon, so that he, with his holiness, could liberate her from the demon.  But he, conquered by desire, knew her carnally, and then, so that news of this would not reach the Count, murdered her and buried her in a cave.  Then he went to Rome and made such a hard penance for seven years, that he always went around naked and on all fours.  Finally, having returned to a primitive state, he was captured by some hunters and, not wanting to talk, he was transported to Barcelona bound with an iron chain.  On arriving there, he saw a certain woman with a baby of six months in her arms, who began shouting in a loud voice: "Juan Garín, rise up; your sins have been pardoned!"  He returned to his former place, and, while digging a proper grave for the murdered virgin, he found her alive.  Immediately a monastery was founded in the place for both monks and nuns.  And both, finally, within the most rigid observance, were received up to the Lord.  In the course of time, the nuns were transferred to Barcelona, and there they built the monastery of Sant Pere [de les Puelles], where they serve God to the present day.  The Virgin Mother of God works the greatest miracles every day.  It would take too long to recount them all.

            It would be meticulous as well to write about the miraculous fountain.  Below the monastery is a castle that has a flowing fountain.  Many years ago, a great multitude having gathered here for the feast of the Holy Virgin found themselves without water, because the noble owner refused to give them any, they went up to the monastery and there the water flowed, while that of the noble dried up.  Today they call it the Fountain of the Miracle.  We drank from it. 

The following Sunday, the 28^th of September, taking another path towards the north, with a lot of struggle, we descended for three leagues to the castle of Igualada.  After two more leagues we came to the fortress of Santa Coloma, where we were shown her head.  Catalan leagues are excessively long, and the route very rugged.  On horseback, we could scarcely travel more than four or five a day.  Two leagues from Santa Coloma, towards the north, in the direction of Zaragoza, is found the castle of Cervera of admirable fame.

[The Monastery of Poblet]: The 29^th of September, that was the feast of Saint Michael, having traveled three long leagues, we arrived at midday at the very noble monastery of Poblet.  It is on a beautiful plain, in the foothills of some very high mountains.  The monastery of Poblet is so magnificently built with so many and such grand palaces, patios, storerooms, cloisters, and with the wide wall that surrounds it, that you would believe it to be a castle.  All the buildings are covered with cut squared stone, so strong that you would think that they were built against the passage of time.  All is disposed for comfort and amenity.

I have never seen such a stronger or more beautiful monastery of that order.  They are Cistercians of the order of Saint Bernard.  There were then eighty monastic priests and forty converse or lay brothers.  They keep a rigid observance.  It was founded by the kings of Aragon, who have magnificent tombs there.  There repose seven kings and their wives.  The first of these was King Jaume, who obtained the royal scepter in the year of the Lord 1223, and maintained it during fifty-three years.  He was a zealous persecutor of the Saracens in all of Spain.  He defeated them on the island of Mallorca, in the realm of Valencia, the province of Murcia and many more.  Finally, he adopted monastic habit, and making a celibate life, died with the Lord.  He is buried there, in a splendid tomb of whitest marble.  There also rests King Martin and the grandfather and the father of King Fernando, the actual monarch.  I have never seen so many or such big casks as those of its storeroom.  I counted sixteen of them.  I think that thirty cartloads fit into each of them.

They have a very notable pharmacy, well provided with all kinds of medicines, a very hardworking doctor, with whom I spoke, finding him very knowledgeable.  All the crafts and professions also have their rooms and offices dedicated to their work.  Oh, how majestic is their church, constructed in the old style [Cistercian Romanesque].  As well as the chapels and the choir stalls, and their very beautiful organ, admirably decorated with gold and silver.

They treated us with great honor and courteously showed us each one of their precious objects.

[The Road to Valencia]: September 30^th, crossing very high mountains with valleys and gorges, traveling an entire day, we arrived finally at a Carthusian monastery, on a flat spot surrounded by mountains, that has the name of Scala Dei.  It is a very venerable place and has religious monks.  There were twenty-eight of them and three lay brothers.  They received us affably, sharing with us what they had.  There was a certain very learned young priest there, who was the son of a wise physician of Barcelona.  He was sick with malarial fevers.  With admirable gratitude he listened to my advice.  May God grant him health!  This monastery is very noble and beautiful.

            The same day we finally traveled eleven very long leagues on a very rough road called "Malarrocha," that is, "bad rock."  And there the name is truly appropriate.

The 1^st day of October, traveling on a difficult path, after two leagues we arrived at the castle of Ginestar, near the banks of the Ebro river.  The river Ebro, which runs from the mountains towards Zaragoza, navigable like the Danube near Ratisbon, dividing the realm of Valencia from Catalonia.  On its two banks are many hamlets of Saracens of the religion of Mohammed, whom the princes tolerate because they are diligent and work hard in agriculture and don't drink wine.  They exact a large tribute from them.  There are on both banks a very fertile place with olives and tamarinds, which produce a sweet fruit, which is fed to mules and to horses, that we call "Saint John's bread."  On this same day we arrived at the pleasant town called Cherta, riding four long leagues until the dinner hour.

On the 2^nd of October, descending two leagues by the coast, we arrived in the morning at the ancient city of Tortosa, but not having entered it because of the plague, traveling through very extensive and deserted plains, riding with great determination, we arrived after six miles at the castle of Alcanar.  The 3^rd of October, crossing through the pretty settlement of San Mateo and through seven miles of some cropland, we arrived finally at Kureal [Borriol?]

On the 4^th, passing some desert, by Villarreal, and traveling some 7 miles, we arrived at the town of Fredes, in a very beautiful and fruitful plain that receives water from all around.  It is a very beautiful place, situated on the coast, with a very large and arrogant fortress situated on a high mountain.

[Monastery of Jesús del Valle]: The 5^th of October, leaving in the morning, traveling one league towards the west, we arrived at the monastery of Jesús del Valle.  This monastery is located in the western foothills of a fairly high mountain.  Everywhere around it is sterile land.  The brothers here are of the Observant Order of Franciscans.  They maintain a pretty garden, which they irrigate with water taken from a well by means of a mule.  The cloister is small, but everything is lovely and excellently placed.  When we were there, there were only ten or twelve people.  There were four priests, two deacons, two sub-deacons and two lay brothers.  One of the lay brothers was German, from Ravensburg, son of a sister of Theobald Bukli; he was a young and pious man.  The monastery was founded by some Germans, on the initiative of Jodocus Koler, who was then the president of a brotherhood of Ravensburg, a city in Swabia.  [The church] has a high choir with sixteen pretty seats and benches, which the abovementioned Jodocus had brought from Flanders.  It is a very fine place for contemplation, small but excellently constructed of stone, with vaults and other constructions.  It made an admirable impression on us .  The Father Guardian—as I was assured by the German merchants Heinrich Sporer and Konrad Humpiss, worthy of belief---during the last Lent he only ate on Fridays during the whole week, because he is a very abstemious man.  I didn't see him, because I didn't know this fact; but they also told me in Valencia that he was a very religious man.

 

VALENCIA

            On the 5^th of October, traveling three leagues from Jesús del Valle, we arrived at the very noble city of Valencia, head of the whole realm of Valencia.  It is on a very big and very beautiful plain, like those around Milan and Cologne, ringed on all sides by mountains, except towards the east, where the sea is.  This plain is well watered by rivers everywhere, brought from the mountains by various canals.  It is extremely fertile in olive trees, pomegranates, lemon trees, orange trees, citron trees and other innumerable fruit trees.  And I think that in all of Europe one can scarcely find such coastal crops of such perfection.  On this plain, close to the sea, we find this very populous city, much bigger than Barcelona, very well populated, with many counts, barons, with a duke and more than 500 gilded knights, and nobles without number.

[The Cathedral]: The Cathedral is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  It has an archbishop, twenty-four canons, vicars, cantors and sacristans.  There are thus two hundred priests for that Church.  They lead a very canonical and religious life.  The building is exquisitely constructed, the choir stalls excellently carved, with a hundred and forty four seats.  The tower is quite high.  We ascended it by two hundred and six high vaulted stairs.  At the top, the contemplation of the situation of the region and the city was a marvelous sight for us.  The tower is octagonal and high.  Its width on top was twenty paces.  The construction of the church, as I said, is magnificently executed. Its length measures a hundred and fifty six paces, its width, fifty-three.  It is in the form of a cross.  It has more than twenty chapels separated by columns.  The sum of its altars is fifty-six.  It is quite tall and very well vaulted.  One could write many things about it.

            There are also many and illustrious monasteries of both sexes.  In that of Saint Augustine there is a chapel of the Virgin Mary that is famous for its great miracles.  There we counted more than a hundred and twenty silver lamps, but not all of them were lit.  It is the custom among the Spaniards to fulfill their vows to God generally [by] making silver lamps, each according to his wealth.  Never have we seen another city where the churches were so exquisitely adorned with altar ornaments and with gilded retablos as here.  In the Cathedral they are making a high altar of a very high price, exclusively of silver, into which they are working the seven joys of the blessed Virgin.  Only the beards, the heads of hair and the other things conventionally gilded are gilded.  It will weigh more than three thousand marks.  The master silversmith gave me these figures; he comes from Lawingen, a city of Swabia near the Danube.  The old retablo had a lot of silver.  The canons and the rents of the church are adding the balance.  It will be a marvelous retablo.  I also saw many other images that the master silversmith showed me.

[The Exchange]: The business and principal commerce of all Spain was in Barcelona fifty years ago, the same way the entire commerce of Upper Germany is centered in Nüremberg. But after the seditions and civil wars, the merchants took refuge in Valencia, today the center of commerce.  Presently they are building there a magnificent building, which they call Llotja, where all the merchants meet to conduct their business.  It is a high structure, constructed of cut stone and slender columns.  Its width is thirty-two paces, and its length seventy-two.  It is completed up to the roof, which will also son be finished. It has a garden with various fruits and a running fountain.  It also has a very high tower, with a chapel, where masses are said daily.  The architects assure us that they will have it completed to perfection within two years.. Its location is near the Great Market and to the [official] Scales. It will be much airier and more beautiful than the llotja of Barcelona

The merchants Heinrich Sporer and Konrad Humpiss, both from Ravensburg, and their households, gave us so many honors, taking us to all the important places, inviting us and giving us other clothing, that there is nothing else I can say.  Hopefully we shall be able to do the same for them or their friends!

[The Sale of Slaves]: I saw in a certain house persons of both sexes placed on sale.  They were [Guanches] of Tenerife, that is one of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, which rebelled against the king of Spain, and were conquered by him, who put up the entire male population for sale.  There was a merchant of Valencia who brought eighty-seven of them in a ship, of which fourteen died of seasickness and the change in climate.  The others were put up for sale.  They are dark men, similar to the barbarians.  Their women were well formed, of strong and rather long limbs; but they are bestial in their customs, because up to now they have not lived under any laws, but are idolaters. The Canary Islands are fertile in producing sugar.  The owner of the slaves told me that the sugar cane there is as tall as six or seven feet, and as thick as a person's forearm.  They also have many animals, and varieties of fruit and barley.  They don't eat bread, but rather barley, that they grind in a hand-mill, dilute it with water or milk, and consume it as food and drink.  They also eat a great deal of cooked or roasted meat.  The conquering King gave them a bishop and had a church built.  And they are disposed to receive our religion, so they say.  Formerly, they all went around naked; but now they wear garments like we do.  Oh, what doctrine and zeal, that from beasts shut up within the human body they make peaceful men!  If I had not seen many of these men, I would not dare to write such things.  There are seven Canary Island, of which [Gran] Canaria is bigger than all of Mallorca.  The second is Tenerife, the third, Fuerteventura; the fourth, Gomera; the fifth, the Isla de Hierro, etc.  The people of one island can scarcely understand those of another, as occurs with high and low German.  Before the King's victory, they were like beasts.  The sixth island is Lanzarote.  I saw many captives with iron chains and shackles; forced to do very heavy work, like sawing wood beams and other things.

[Amenities of Valencian Gardens]: They took us to see the city garden, that is excellently planted with orange, lemon, citron and palm trees.  All of their surroundings are covered with the branches and leaves of orange trees.  There are also tables, altars, pulpits, ships, chairs, all deliciously constructed of myrtle, which in size is between a bush and a fruit tree, with evergreen leaves, like boxwood. It has white, very fragrant flowers like lilies of the valley. It is always green, like boxwood.  It can easily be bent, carried, stretched out and folded all along its length.  In this way, they form various designs.

            We were also in the King’s Garden, in the fortress and the castle, which is very large and was planted with diverse fruit trees, with irrigation ditches and pools, and similar things in other nobles' gardens, all so ornamented, that you would think you were in Paradise.

[Concerning the Variety of Spanish Produce]: The countryside of Valencia is very fertile, as I have said; it produces abundant fruits, which are exported to other regions and for which they obtain great wealth.  The German merchants told me about many more crops, but I can't note them all down here.  Among others, they grow abundant sugar cane, that I saw being cooked in huge quantities in a certain house.  Oh how many molds  I saw into which the sugar is poured, making pyramids!  It was an enormous job, with many workers.  We saw them clarify it, cook it, choose the best, making sugar candy.  It was an astounding spectacle for us.  We also saw raw sugar cane, and we tried its juice, extracting it from the canes.  The head of the factory told me—an honest and creditable man—that in the region of Valencia they produce six thousand cartloads, which is ten thousand Nüremburg hundreds.

They also grow and work silk in great abundance and good quality.  There are two types of bushes that the silkworms eat.  The first us the mulberry, that also produces berries.  These leaves are also used to feed the worms in Italy, in places such as Florence, Venice and Bologna.  The other tree is similar to the mulberry, but it bears no fruit and it has green and sweet leaves, like the poplar.  They feed these to the silkworms.  We saw many silk workshops in Valencia.

They cultivate kermes berries in abundance here with which they dye the most valuable cloth.  It is a little bush, of little, spiny and wrinkled leaves.  Its seeds appear green in November, and in May, when they are mature, dark red.  In shape they are like juniper berries.  They sell it for a ducat a pound and more, because they are accustomed to storing it for a long time, until it can make up a pound, as happens in Poland with their kermes, that is the red kermes oak gall.

They also have very sweet oil in great abundance.  I have never seen bigger or sweeter olives.

There is a marvelous abundance of wool, which is exported to Genoa and Venice.  They also make in the city of Valencia and in the entire realm excellent cloth.

They also have a generous amount of wine of Mourvedre, that used to be called Sagunto, and which was at its apex in the time of the splendor of the Romans and extended nearly to the sea, but now, like other places, it has shrunk and declined. 

From the town of Alicante they export a great quantity of very exquisite wine to England and Germany, where there isn't any.  Also, entire ships with raisins, very well prepared by Saracens, are exported to all Europe, to England, France, Germany, Italy, etc.

There are also figs, rice, sweet honey produced by bees from rosemary flowers; wax, goatskins, etc. that they dye so skillfully in various colors and prepare with orange and other juices, that there is none better.

They have esparto, which is like a kind of willow and bulrush, with which they make fat cords, such as we saw in the seaport of Alicante, and send ships entirely filled with these to other regions.

Above all, they have a type of mud or potter’s clay that is not found anywhere else, with it they make pots so big that you would think they were wine vats; three or four of the buckets we call "eimers" can fit in them.

They also make plates, jars, pitchers, and many bowls of this type, and they color them so delicately, that you would think them decorated with gold or silver, all of which they sell and ship entire boatloads of them to Venice, Florence, Seville, Portugal, Avignon, Lyons, etc.  There are numerous potters.  What else?  God is admirable in these lands!

I have omitted saffron, which they cultivate in great quantities, and equally anise, fennel, citron, cumin, etc.—I cant enumerate all of them-- which are exported from Alicante to Flanders; cardamom, what they popularly call "safflar," which is wild saffron to dye cloths, and red dye.

[Some Monasteries and Chapels]: There is a convent of nuns of the Order of Preachers of the Observance [Dominicans], called Saint Catherine of Siena.  There are seventy nuns.  I say that it was built two years ago.  It is magnificent and surrounded by very ample walls.  Four years before, [on this site] there was the church of Saint Christopher.  The marranos, that is false Christians, Jews within, had their tombs there.  When a marrano died, they simulated everything in conformity with the Christian religion, with a great procession, covering the coffin with gold cloths and carrying an image of Saint Christopher, also of gold, before the casket.  But in hiding they washed the bodies of the dead and buried them in conformity with their ceremonies.  The case was discovered and many marranos burned at the stake, and this church was converted into a monastery and well endowed by the Queen and by other pious men.

            Not far from this chapel is the monastery of nuns of the order of Preachers [Dominicans].  It is a very grandiose building with great cloisters and gardens.  Outside of it is a magnificent chapel the Queen Isabel, now regent, had constructed with all splendor.  It is very ample and all its walls, from the ground to the roof, are covered with the garments of the marranos who did penance, and of those who died at the stake, whose numbers are very great.  On each sanbenito is written the name of the marrano. I think there were more than a thousand. I am silent about those who continue to live in hiding. In those days when we were in Valencia, there were in the prison more than fifty people, all of whom were condemned to die in two weeks.

Marranos): The marranos are baptized Jews, even of baptized parents, who publicly profess Christian law and in hiding practice the rites of the Jews.  They had in Barcelona, Valencia and other places, hidden synagogues on which they put the names of saints and of parishes.  Thus, when they said: "today we will meet in the parish of Santa Cruz," they already knew that it was what they thus called the synagogue.  As the Jews and the conversos dominated all the realm of Spain, they used to possess almost all of the best offices and oppressed the Christians.  In pity, God infused in the Christian heart of the King and of the Queen the spirit of truth, who soon expelled from all their realms more than a hundred thousand families of Jews and commanded that many marranos be burnt.  It would be very tiresome to speak about this matter.

[Monastery of the Holy Trinity (Santísima Trinidad)]: Outside of walls and near the Alcázar [fortress] of the king is the very noble and new monastery called the Santísima Trinidad.  It is of the Friars Minor order and of the Rigid Observance.  It was founded in the year of Our Lord 1462 by Queen Juana, of Frankish ancestry, who, when her husband Alfonso died, founded this monastery and took the veil.  There she rests, regarded as a saint.  I never saw such a church, given the quantity of rich and magnificent retablos and ornaments that adorn it.  This spectacle causes the greatest admiration. In my time it was a convent with around eighty nuns, whose abbess was a sister to King Fernando, now regent.  They are rich and live rigidly within their observance.

[Monastery of Santa María Jesus]: You can find about ten stone-throws away from the gate of the wall the monastery of Santa María Jesús.  They are Minor Brothers of the Observance.  It is a recent foundation.  Within its cloister, there is a pretty garden with lemon and citron trees and various myrtle topiary hedges; there are none better.  The second cloister is completely sand-filled, and has a well in the center, which collects rainwater in its cistern.  The refectory is so beautiful!  So are the cells, at whose entrance there is a square, rather large space.  Entering the second door, there is a handsome study.  There is also an excellent infirmary.  Everything there is made with an eye for the best utility.  It has beautiful gardens.  In them, I saw a sycamore tree that produces fruits in clusters that look like little grapes, with which they make rosaries.  There are more than sixty pious and distinguished brothers, who have in charge the nuns of the Santísima Trinidad convent.

[The House of the Innocents and the Insane]: There is a certain noble house and foundation where only crazy people, idiots, melancholics and the furious of both sexes are admitted.  I saw many of them, among others a very furious youth, tied up by an iron chain in a cage.  Our comrades invited him to pray, for some coins.  He began to pray in Hebrew and to speak against the Christians, Jewish curses.  They put him here because he is the son of a very rich marrano who had been educated from his infancy in Judaism.  Because of this, his father was discovered and burned at the stake.  This foundation is only for city artisans.  It receives annually an income two thousand ducats.  In it are confined only the children of artisans, and not nobles.  It is a beautiful foundation and well ordered in everything.

            There are, in addition, other magnificent houses, like the House of the Judges, that of the son of the present Pontiff Alexander VI—still unfinished—the house of the Count of Oliva, and other innumerable houses of nobles, so superbly constructed, with their chambers, dependencies and gardens, that you would believe them to be royal mansions—or paradise.

[The Courtesy of Valencians]: The Valencian population is very affable and courteous.  Two Dukes live there, one of which is a son of Pope Alexander VI; many counts, like the Counts of Oliva and Aversa, and various others; more than five hundred knights of the military arm, and many others.  There are over two thousand merchants, mechanics and clerics. The men wear long robes, and the ladies dress with more exaggeration than is seemly.  In front, their necklines are low cut to their breasts, in a manner that you can see their nipples like buds on trees.  All paint their faces, and daub themselves with oils and perfumed waters, with detestable results.

It is also their custom for the inhabitants of the city, both men and women to stroll around from evening until late at night, in such crowds that you would think you were at a fair.  However nobody bothers anyone else.  If I had not seen it myself, accompanied as I was by my compatriots, the noble merchants of Ravensburg, it would be difficult to believe.  The stores stay open until midnight, and there one may buy whatever he wants at any hour.  There are many other things happening to write about, but I shall omit them, insisting on brevity.

The Saracens have their own quarter surrounded by a wall, like the Jews of Ratisbon.  In the farms and suburbs of the city almost all are Saracens, working hard to continually cultivate the land.

[Road to Alicante]: On the 9^th of October, we left Valencia, and traveling six leagues through a very peaceful and well-populated plain, we arrived at the town and castle of Alcira, that is fertile and very abundant in various fruits.  In the morning, traveling in haste over sixteen leagues, and two whole days through jagged and rough mountains, and also noble estates, we arrived at a place where it was flat and there were rivers, and there was the city of Játiva, which has a very noble fortress.  Oh, what a long canal Játiva has, with excellent water, whose source we passed near a mountain pass. 

We arrived at the noble coastal city called Alicante.  While we rode among mountains, we saw many fields of kermes, cumin, esparto, anis and other crops. Alicante is situated on the sea, facing east.  Towards the north there is a very high mountain, on whose peak is situated an admirable fortress, and at whose feet is the city with about five hundred houses.  It has among others, a beautiful church dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, with a painting on the top part of the altar, that was just bought by the new owners of the temple, for fifteen hundred ducats.

           

[Produce of Alicante]: On a mountain near the seashore, towards the west, there is a noble mineral salt that is extracted like alum and transported to various ports, like Genoa, and others.  They also produce raisins in the coastal valley, where the Saracens live, in such abundance that en every year they gather ten or twelve thousand hundredweight, which are exported all over Europe.  They prepare then in the following way:  In August, when the grapes bunches are mature, the Saracens prepare a bleach of vine ashes and other small bushes, and for a week, they let it rest in a vessel.  Finally they boil it in a great cauldron, and they introduce the grapes into the boiling bleach by means of a perforated iron spoon.  All the rotten parts are extracted by the bleach, and do not remain on the grapes.  They remove the grapes, and for eight or ten days leave them to dry in the sun, on rush mats, and finally, they put them in containers or esparto baskets and sell them.  Raisins are also produced in other places between Valencia and Alicante.  But those two are the principal places.  The Count of Concentaina is the principal lord over these Moors.  There are many towns there.  One is called Aspe.  Producers from Toledo add oil to the bleach and bathe the grape bunches in it.  Then, they hang them and dry them.  After that, they soak them with honey syrup mixed with a little flour, and keep them in storage baskets.

            In the maritime regions towards the east, they also make a great quantity of white wine, but even more red wine called "from Alicante," which they send to England, Scotland, Flanders and other places in Europe.  They are very thick and dark wines.  In Flanders, they mix it with Rhine wine and fortify it, this they do so abundantly, that it is very much admired.  That day, we saw twenty-six boats from Vizcaya, from Flanders, etc., that were loading wine and other things. 

In this place they produce equally a great quantity of almonds and rice.  A certain German merchant from Kempten, very honest, Jodocus Schedler, assured me that for many years, he has purchased in the name of a company from Ravensburg up to 700 somas of sweet almonds from this relatively small place, that are exported to Flanders, England and other places.  And also a limitless amount of rice.

On October 12^th, having left Alicante and traveled over a barren and formerly very dangerous plain because of Saracen assaults, riding two more leagues, we arrived afterwards at another flat and fertile area, watered by rivers, to the town of Elche, which is equivalent in Latin to "mixed" or "hermaphrodite," because it is situated between the frontiers of Granada and Valencia, partly favored by the Christians, partly by the Saracens.  That place is so fertile and so abundant in oil, that there’s nothing more to say.  Never before today on that road have I seen so many palm trees, whose dates, although they are just ripening now, are not as sweet as African ones, because this region is cooler.  Oh, how fertile is this town!  Both Christians and many Saracens live here.

            The 13^th of October, after riding four leagues through a barren plain, and certain Saracen towns, after five leagues we arrived at Orihuela, in a fertile land abundant with water.  It is a large city of five thousand houses, situated at the foot of a mountain towards the south.  On the highest part of the mountain there is a superb castle.  It is a royal city and is eleven short leagues from Cartagena, a maritime city founded in olden times by Hannibal the African, which he named "New Carthage."  It is presently in ruins and it has become just a small town, like many others.  Orihuela, as I have said, is large and watered by the Segura River, which flows through Murcia into Castile.  It is on the limits of the realm of Valencia.  Those who leave the city immediately enter the realm of Castile.  The region of Orihuela is fruitful and flat, abundant in dates, figs and other noble fruits of that region.  Everyone there is Christian.

            The 14^th of October, after riding four leagues through a productive, level plain, we arrived at the ancient city of Murcia, which is as big as Nüremburg, as I could appreciate from its very high tower.  It has a superb and wide vaulted church, whose width is eighty-two paces and its length 130, with beautiful chapels and a grand choir, adorned with magnificent seats, and a very beautiful cloister.  It is consecrated to the Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary, and it has a bishop. The city is located on a big and beautiful plain, completely surrounded by mountains, like Milan.  It has a river called the Segura, which waters the entire area via various irrigation ditches.  It was once a kingdom, called Murcia.  Now it belongs to the realm of Castile; it is the first city after the realm of Valencia to its southwest.  In former times it was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Cartagena.  Since Cartagena is presently reduced to a town, Murcia has its own bishop.  It is a territory abundant in oil, rice, grain and all the produce has an unbeatable market.

            Leaving Murcia on the same day, traversing six leagues of flat land, full of esparto grass and the plant they call kali, popularly called sosa  [saltwort or soda], we arrived at a little town of perhaps thirty houses.  On the mountain there is an admirable castle, called Alhama.  We found some clear thermal hot springs there--we bathed in them—they are of great use for dropsy, colic and other ailments.  We also encountered an excellent glass factory there.  They take two parts of kali ash that they call sosa, and one part of white sand, finely ground in a huge stone mortar.  Finally, they make a huge cake of it, like large breads; and they bake it in an oven.  It comes out a briny flour like potash, that we call waidasch.  They dissolve this mass in the oven and make various types of glass of different colors, transparent and of distinct tonalities, and they send it to various countries.  The owner showed me everything, an admirable spectacle. This plant grows here with so much abundance, like grama grass in Germany.  It grows tall, like broom plants, and has berries like the fruit and flower of hazelnuts, green and tender.  They export this processed "flour" to various places.  If one wishes to obtain clear glass like crystal, it is necessary to add more white fine sand, which is finer than that which is employed in Nüremberg for clocks.  Better sosa, however, is encountered in Catalonia and Valencia, of which they make gorgeous glassware. 

The water at the mountaintop and the castle is cool and very sweet, and in sufficient quantity for the entire town and the livestock.  Lower down, however, it is warmer and forms beautiful hot springs, as I wrote above.  I bathed in one for an hour, and having provoked copious sweating, I experienced a great feeling of wellbeing and renewed strength for eight days.

October 15^th, leaving the small town of Alhama, through a very extensive and flat countryside, after six leagues we arrived at the city of Lorca, that is situated in the foothills of a mountain, at which top is a very strong castle with a high square tower; they say that there is no stronger castle in Castile.  It is on the southern border of Castile, facing Granada.  During many years it was continually at war with the Saracens of Granada, and they always showed themselves to be very valiant and strong Christians, who inflicted the greatest casualties on the Saracens.  Because of this, the King of Granada, in 1478, having brought into this region an army of thirty thousand foot soldiers and five thousand mounted men, razed Cartagena and took many prisoners; but, lacking food and water for three days, they exhausted themselves.  And unexpectedly, with the help of God, the Christians of Lorca, of Murcia, and other places, with seven hundred horses and fifteen hundred infantrymen and a large number of crossbowmen, improvised an attack on the Saracens, who, exhausted by hunger and thirst, fled and more than five thousand of them were wiped out, on a great field, less than a mile from Lorca.  We passed by this place on horseback, and they showed us everything.

            Lorca has such fertile land!  It can be irrigated throughout by a little river.  It has, as I said, a very strong castle.  I believe it contains around eight hundred very fortified houses, because the army is continually stationed there.  Oh, how it abounds in excellent and aromatic fruits!  There were still huge pears on the trees.

[Entry into the Kingdom of Granada from Castile]: The 16^th of October, leaving the Castilian frontier and entering into the Kingdom of Granada, after traveling nine leagues on horseback through pretty fertile countryside, but without rivers or inhabitants, we arrived at the first city in the Kingdom of Granada, called Vera.  There is a mountain over a beautiful and productive plain, with a notable castle on its peak.  In the foothills of the mountain all around it, the town extends, with about six hundred houses, and the Saracens having been expelled, they are all Christians.  At the foot of the mountain and the city there are running springs, whose water gushes out.  It is a beautifully situated place.  It is half a league from the sea, and it has a little river that irrigates the land; but, for the most part, it is desolate, because, when the Saracens were expelled, the soldiers of the King of Spain made much destruction.

            On October 17^th, leaving Vera through very high, horrible and bare mountains and valleys, we arrived in the interior of the Kingdom of Granada, to a little city called Sorbas, situated on a high mountain about six leagues from Vera.  And since its inhabitants are all Mohammedans, we had our meal at the foot of the mountain, near a running stream, listening to them shouting at midday in their towers, conforming to their custom.  And having traveled, finally, on that day a very long road of five leagues, we arrived very late in the night at the town of Tabernas, also full of Saracens, excepting a lone Christian, in whose house we stayed.

           

ALMERIA

            The 18^th of October, two hours before sunrise, we rode two leagues from Tabernas, and at sunrise, in the distance, we saw a beautiful valley, and on the two banks of a little river, very peaceful gardens and fields full of olives, palms, fig trees and almonds, as if we had traveled to Paradise.  We also saw an aqueduct, which conducted an abundance of water to the city from a gushing spring a mile away.  Then, when approaching the city, Oh what beautiful gardens with their surroundings did we see, with their baths, their towers, their irrigation ditches constructed in the Moorish manner; that there were none better!  The location of the city is at the foot of a mountain, it has the open sea to the south, and on the mountain a superb castle, very big and ample, with many iron grilles.  Presently the King is building a new fortress over the old at the top of the mountain, very strong, of very hard dressed stone, which is admirable.  He has also made a notable courtyard, from whose center a strong fountain spurts from a pipe. We saw many captives there in chains.  Oh what an honor the governor, a noble and educated gentleman from Naples, did us!  He showed us all the arms captured from the Saracens.  There were bows, crossbows, swords and countless arrows.  We also saw an enormous ostrich, covered in black feathers.  We were introduced to his beautiful wife, who spoke amicably with me and gave me letters of introduction for the governor of Granada.  The Castilians, in their language call them Alcaides.

            The city is triangular and has a wall full of towers, but in its interior, since an earthquake and after the conquest, is so ruined, that in many places it is uninhabited and destroyed. In former times, there were five thousand inhabited houses; now there aren't even eight hundred.  And to any foreigner who arrives with the desire to settle, they will give him a house with lands and olive trees for free, so that he may live comfortably.  In this manner, the place will be quickly repopulated.

           

[The Mosque of Almería]: The mosque, that is, the cathedral of Almería, is one of the most beautiful of all of the Kingdom of Granada.  Before the war and the earthquake it had an abundance of merchants, that all year, in the city and its district, was made more than 200 centenarios of silk.  Because of this and other riches, that temple became fantastic and superb.  It is very beautiful.  It has more than eighty columns.  In the time of the Saracens there were more than a thousand lamps lit in it every day.  We visited the room where oil donations were stored in the temple, and the sacred chamber in which its kadi, that is, its supreme priest, spoke to them.  In the center of the sacred walled area there is an ample square garden, planted with lemon trees and other trees and paved with marble; in the center of which is a sprightly fountain, where, according to their rites they washed themselves and then entered into the temple.  The mosque is very beautiful and is a hundred and thirteen paces in length and seventy-two in latitude.  They told me that in the time of the Saracens it had fifty priests, who were called faquíes, who attended to the divine offices, and every evening, twelve or fourteen of them would ascend the tower, and, with their ears covered up, dressed in white, would holler, according to their custom,  "halo halo," etc.  And then they would blow the trumpets.  Afterwards no one would venture to walk without light through the streets.  Now this mosque is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and has a bishop and perhaps twenty canons.  In the time of the Saracens it had the annual revenues of its possessions, fields and gardens, 66,000 ducats.  Now the church, the bishop and the canons have them.  There are many other little mosques, whose revenues belong now to the bishop and the clergy, as they are incorporated into the Cathedral.  In addition, they receive every year 24,000 arrobas of oil for the lamps, tribute that is equivalent to about five hundred centinarios of ours.

 Two trustworthy Germans and very well in with the governor, one Andrew of Fulda, a city in Hesse, and the other, Johann of Argentina, assured me that in the highest part of the interior of the mosque, in many places, were hung bells, stolen from the Christians in war; that they had perforated these bells all over, and making in their concavity many circles with little candelabra, put in them little lamps, some of them having as much as three hundred lamps in one bell.  Thus, in the evening, two thousand or more lamps burned.  We also saw two big lamps burning before the altar, with glass of various colors, that they brought from Mecca, in Arabia, where Mahomet is buried.  It is not surprising, since maritime cities, which live in commerce, rapidly grow or decrease.

           

[The Distance of Almería from Africa and Barbary]: Almería is twenty-five miles from the city of Oran, in the Kingdom of Barbary.  Towards the east, eight leagues away, is a big promontory, called the Cape of Gata.  From there, on a clear day, you can see the mountains of Africa.  This promontory is twenty miles from Barbary, and, sailing under favorable wind, in twelve or sixteen or twenty hours you can arrive at Oran.  Tremecén is on the African continent, thirty leagues from Oran, and is bigger than Valencia.  In the port of Almeria, we saw a ship laden with figs, fava beans, rice and other victuals, that was en route to Oran, because there had not been rain there for 3 years, and there was so much hunger in Africa, that it incredible to describe. In those three days, a certain Genoese had captained a ship laden with wheat from Andalusia to Tunis.  With it, he bought silk, with great profit, and brought from Tunis to Granada three hundred Saracens, who were obliged to return to Africa within a year; he charged each one double for the return passage.

[Recently Founded Monasteries]: Three monasteries have begun to take root there.  The King gave them decorous lodging in the city, in houses formerly pagan, and very large and beautiful gardens, with aqueducts, ditches and canals, in the Saracen style.  The greater part of all the houses have wells or channels of sweet water, high up or beneath them, and pools of stone, plaster and other materials, to store the water, because the Saracens are very ingenious in constructing aqueducts.

            With great tenacity the Dominicans and the Minor Brothers of the order of Saint Francis are building.  They lead a celibate life.  Their religion pleased us very much.

“Prickly Pears”--[Bananas]: The 19^th of October, that was the feast of Saint Luke, we entered the monastery of the Order of Preachers.  There were six brothers.  The King, as I mentioned, gave them an excellent place, where they have beautiful and very extensive gardens, with many palm trees and date palms—that formerly belonged to the richest of the Saracens—in which to live.  They have a lot of spring water.

 When we entered the Monastery of Saint Francis, we realized that they were given a better place, but not as large, also with excellent spring water that runs through a pipe.  In one of the little gardens we saw that very famous Egyptian tree that has prickly pears.  There were five or six trees, one of which had the length of five or six codos, as fat as my leg below the knee.  It has very big leaves, of two or more feet in width, and in length ten or twelve.  It produces fruit in bunches, like the caster-oil plant, the cinquefoil and grapes.  The fruit is large and oblong, like a cucumber.  In each bunch are thirty, forty or fifty, and when you cut them with a knife a cross appears all over. When they are ripe, they are as sweet as figs, but here they do there not ripen as they do in Egypt and Africa.  We also saw, in two other houses, many trees of this type with their bunched fruits.  But I think they plant them more for ornament than for utility because, as I said they don't ripen well, as happens with dates.  And, if I had not seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe that that this tree could grow in Europe.  But because the region is very warm and close to Africa, they would not flourish if they could not be watered in various places with water from fountains and brought by pipes from rivers.  There has been a scarcity of rain for two years, but now, since the 7-10 of October, Valencia, the coast of Granada, Catalonia and Castile have had copious rain, for which everyone is giving infinite praise to God.  Oh, how beautiful would the fields have been when the Saracens were here in splendor, since they are very skillful in the exquisite positioning of the gardens, of the produce and the irrigation lines, that, if one hadn’t see them, are difficult to believe!

[Leaving Almería]: The same day, after eating, on leaving Almeria, in the outskirts, we saw a very high column surrounded by a wall, on which six Christians of Italy were hung by the feet, convicted of sodomy.  They hung them first by their necks, as we do, and then by the feet.  Before the judgement they cut off their testicles and hung them around their necks, because the Spanish hate this vice and punish it mightily, and with reason, because it is against nature and bestial. Riding forward through a fertile valley, after five leagues we rested for the night.

            20^th of October.  Three hours before sunrise, ascending continually up some difficult mountains, after seven miles, with a clear moon, we arrived at a beautiful castle called Fiñana; in which the governor, who comes from Vizcaya, a courteous man, conducted us to the fortress and showed us a beautiful ostrich, with abundant grayish plumage, and a whitish bear cub, upon whom he set some very big Spanish dogs to amuse us.  He begged us to stay for two days, and they organized a boar hunt, which are found abundantly in the very high mountains to the west of the castle.  He showed us the big horns of a mountain goat, popularly called "Steinbock," that he had hunted on this mountain; and he also showed us the windows in the wall, all adorned with big skins of wild boar.  Full with the meal and with cold drinks, more than we were used to, traveling fast through an extensive bare plain for four leagues, we arrived at the celebrated city of Guadix very late at night, and the next morning we visited it at our leisure.

[The City of Guadix in the Realm of Granada]: The city of Guadix reposes over a lovely plain, and beyond, the royal fortress, which is beautifully situated on a mountain united to the plain.  I think that it is in its perimeter like the city of Nördlingen, in Swabia.

            Only Christians live here, the Saracens having been expelled. Two attractive monasteries have taken root there, of the Order of Saint Francis and of the Preachers, and others.

            Its mosque is pretty and hexagonal, it has seventy free standing columns, and in the center a beautiful covered garden, in the middle of which is a flowing fountain for their accustomed ablutions.  Now it is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  It has a bishop and twelve canons that live on the revenues that were given to the mosque in the time of the Saracens.  We ascended a tower, and contemplating the situation of the place, we saw that it was on a big and beautiful plain, rich because of the channels that irrigate the fertile land.  Because Guadix is situated on very high ground, there are no coastal fruits, like lemons, oranges or olives, but there are gigantic trees, like the walnut, fig, almond, apple, pear, etc., as in Italy near Padua.  We appreciate that it is encircled everywhere by mountains, and towards the southwest some very high mountains, over which some snow fell during these days, but the valley is temperate in temperature.  We liked the location very much, and it is well populated.  The settlements, that the Germans call towns, are generally inhabited by Saracens, who are frugal in their meals and don't drink anything but water.  They are consecrated principally in the cultivation of the earth and fields.  A pagan gives more each year to his lord in tribute than three Christians.  They are sincere, just and very loyal, as you will afterwards know in a discussion of their customs.

            The 21^st of October, leaving Guadix by abrupt and mountainous roads, at the distance of a mile we passed by some abundant thermal springs of healthy and very clear water.  Entering into the subterranean gallery, we saw many Saracens bathing.  I tested the water and found it good, warm and sweet.  I liked the place, meticulously constructed because the Saracens extraordinarily love baths. 

Continuing further on, as I said, after three leagues we arrived at the castle of Lapesa, on a very high mountain, and there we spent the night.  Everyone there was Saracen, except for the governor, our innkeeper, who put us up at the foot of the mountain.  The next morning, always through mountains and valleys for six leagues, we arrived at last at the noblest and grandest city of the Kingdom, called Granada.

GRANADA

            The 22^nd of October, after midday, we entered the glorious and very well populated city of Granada and, passing along a very long street, among infinite Saracens, we were received at last at a good inn.  We took off our shoes immediately, because we were only permitted to enter in our stocking feet, and we entered the biggest and most distinguished mosque.  There was mud, because of the rain.  Everything was covered with fine carpets of white rushes, including the column bases.  It was seventy six paces long and 113 in length; in the center, a pavilion with a fountain, for ablutions, and nine aisles or orders of columns; in each aisle there were thirteen free-standing columns and fourteen arches.  In addition to the lateral columns there are gardens and palaces.  We also saw many lamps burning, and priests singing their Hours, and more than songs, you would think they were war cries.  It is true that this mosque was constructed at great expense.  In the city there are more than 200 others, which are much smaller. In one of them, we saw people praying, bowing down and turning like a sphere, and kissing the ground and beating their chests as the priest sang, asking God, according to their rites, pardon for their sins.  We also saw an enormous candlestick, on which on festival days, more than a hundred lamps burn, because they adore God principally through light and the elements of fire, believing—as it is true—that [God] is the light of lights and that everything is created by Him.  That night, before dawn, there was so much shouting  from the towers of the mosques, that it was difficult to believe.  You will hear later what these cries mean.  There are no paintings or sculptures in the mosques, which is also prohibited by Mosaic law.  We admit images and pictures because they are as scripture for the profane.  Outside of that mosque there is a building, and in its center a very long marble basin, twenty paces in length, in which they wash before entering the mosque. Around this, there are small constructions, with water conductors for their latrines and sewers, which are an opening over the ground, longer than a codo and the width of a palmo  [21 centimeters].  Below this there is running water.  There is also a little basin to urinate in.  All of this is constructed with such care and so beautifully, that it causes admiration.  There is also an excellent well from which to drink.

             

[The Fortress of Granada Called The Alhambra]:  The day of the 23^rd of October, leaving in the morning by the Elvira gate, which is the way to Córdoba, we left passing the cemetery of the Saracens, which in truth I believe is two times bigger than all of Nüremberg, which caused me much admiration.  Don Juan de Spira, a gentleman worthy of belief, told me that each Saracen is buried in a new and individual tomb.  They make their tombs with four slabs of stone, so that the body barely fits inside.  They cover them with bricks, so that the earth does not touch the corpse.  Then they fill the grave with earth. 

On the way, we arrived at the new monastery of the order of Saint Jerome, outside the walls, constructed two years ago, with much craft, in an old and noble mosque.  After lunch, we went up again to the Alhambra, on a very high mountain, passing on its foothill a great cemetery, six times bigger than the plaza in Nüremberg.  Ascending a good stretch, we entered into a place that was the prison for Christian captives.  It is a spacious place, surrounded by a wall, like the church of San Lorenzo, where there are fourteen deep caves, very narrow at the top, with only one entrance, of great depth, and carved into the same rock.  In one of them they came to hold one or two hundred captives.  Everyone who died in the prison was exhibited to the public, and then they buried them in the same place.  At times, there were seven thousand captives between that place and the houses of the Saracens in the city.  But in the time of the siege so many died of hunger, that very few remained when Granada was taken; only 1500 remained alive, who were presented to the king when he entered victorious into Granada.  What a horrible spectacle that tomb of Christians was for us to contemplate!  They were obliged to eat the flesh of dead horses, donkeys and mules. Among the captives was a certain priest, who told me many sad things.  Having escaped with his life, the king made him a canon.  He was a good and devout man.

Having entered into the fortress through many iron gates, with many soldiers and officials' rooms, we arrived finally at the superb and sumptuous palace of the governor, whose name is Iñigo López, of the house of Mendoza of Castile, Count of Tendilla and Governor of Granada who, reading the letter of recommendation from the governor of Almería, gave us a fine welcome.  I, having recited firstly a short discourse in Latin, that he understood perfectly since he was very learned, and having answered me without vacillation, he had us seated on silk carpets, and commanded that comfits and other things be brought to us.  Having taken the refreshment, he personally conducted us to the royal fortress, with an admirable retinue of soldiers.  We saw there uncounted palaces, paved with the whitest marble, gorgeous gardens, adorned with lemon and myrtle trees with benches and lounges of marble at the sides; also four rooms filled with arms, lances, crossbows, swords, armor and arrows, sumptuous bedrooms and chambers; in every room, many basins of very white marble, much bigger than the one that is next to Saint Augustine, with free-flowing water; a vaulted bath (oh, what a marvel!) and outside of it, the alcoves; so many very high marble columns that none better exist anywhere;  in the center of one of the palaces a great basin of marble that rests over thirteen [sic]sculpted lions, also of the whitest marble, with water gushing from each mouth as in a canal.  There were many marble slabs of fifteen feet in length by seven or eight in width, and equally many square pieces, of ten or eleven feet.  I don't think there's anything like them in all Europe.  All of this is so superb, magnificent and exquisitely constructed, of so many diverse materials, that you would believe yourself in a paradise.  I can't detail everything here.   The Count always accompanied us in person, and he himself explained everything to us.

There was in the bath a beautiful marble basin, where the wives and concubines bathed nude.  The king, from a screened place above—and which we saw— contemplated them, and to the one who most pleased him, he threw an apple as a sign that he would sleep with her that night.

            I asked the governor about the emblem of the king, if it were also a pomegranate, and if it were drawn in some place there.  He told me that he didn't have any emblem, except a helmet in the form of a pomegranate, en the middle of which was written, in Arabic: "Hile Galiba," which means "Only God is the victor" or "Only God is omnipotent."  This emblem is painted in sky blue, in various locales.

In the palaces there is such beauty, with the water conduits that are, with such art, directed everywhere; I know nothing else so admirable.  Crossing a very high mountain, the flowing water is conducted by a canal and is distributed through the whole fortress.

 In addition, the count, that noble knight, on leaving the fortress, brought us to a new and rectangular cistern, as big as the church of Saint Sebald, that he had constructed this very rear, for the price of ten thousand ducats.  It is such fantastic work, that I can't say more.

            All the palaces and rooms, in the upper part, have such superb inlaid ceilings and ceiling tiles made with gold, lapis lazuli, marble and cypress, of such varying styles, that one can't write about them or describe them.  In the castle there are already five hundred horsemen, called jinetes, with gorgeous horses.  They fight at the orders of the count and swear allegiance to him.

            We went up to the top of two very high towers and contemplated the situation of the city, but, as the count said, one can scarcely see half of it.  I don't think there is a bigger city in all Europe nor in Africa.  We saw, from the lower part of the castle, towards the south, another castle, very fortified, but not completed.  As well, there is another one towards the south gate, constructed, as it is said, between two walls.  In this way the king, although the Saracens don’t like it, can leave the city, entering and leaving to the Alhambra.

There are many Saracens building in the city.  There are also many of them who are reconstructing the fortress and royal sites that were left in ruins, since the King of Granada, after realizing that he could resist the most Christian King of Spain, allowed many buildings to be destroyed.  There are many food stores and lodgings for the artillerymen and for the other soldiers.  Saracens are not permitted to sleep in the fortress; instead they must go down into the city or to some other inn there.

 We left the castle after sunset, and arrived at our inn late at night; there we found a noble soldier seated on a freight mule, with oats, wine, bread, chickens, partridges—all this a gift sent to our inn by the generous count.  We could not return that magnificence, but we will glorify his name before the king and our princes.  On saying farewell to the count, we asked him for a new recommendation to the governors of Málaga and Seville, to which he agreed very courteously.  Within the Alhambra there is a superb and noble mosque—that is now dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and is the seat of an archbishop.  It has forty canons and a hundred and forty pensioners, that is, vicar pensioners.  A monastery has also been founded of the Minor Brothers of the Order of Saint Francis.  The king has, beyond the walls of the Alhambra, at the top of a mountain, a truly royal and very famous garden, with fountains, a pool, and little brooks, so exquisitely constructed by the Saracens, that there is none better.

The 26^th of October, when we were there, we saw many Saracens adorning and restoring the paintings and other things with their characteristic delicacy.  We saw there a magnificent spectacle.  Going up another, higher mountain and contemplating the situation of the place, we found a very beautiful level plain with three huge towers, beautiful inside, half ruined on the exterior where in another era the King of Granada had his pleasures.

[Moorish Cemetery Outside the Elvira Gate]: The 24^th of October, leaving in the morning by the Elvira gate, near our inn, we came back to that cemetery, so big and distributed over so many levels, that it causes admiration.  One was old, and full of olive trees; the other had no trees.  The tombs of the rich were surrounded, on four sides, like gardens, with walls of rich stone.  We also went to the new cemetery where we saw a man being buried, and seven women, dressed in white, seated around the tomb, and the priest, his head facing south, also seated, and chanting continuously and loudly, while the women unceasingly waved fragrant myrtle boughs over the tomb.  This cemetery is twice as large as the one in Nüremberg.  We walked through other cemeteries higher up, as well as the one at the foot of the Alhambra—which is also very spacious—bigger, I believe than the city of Nördlingen.  In the same manner that they adore God facing south, so they bury their bodies with their heads towards the east.

At the top of the mountain, towards the north, facing the Alhambra, there is another city united to the great Granada—but separated by a wall—and they call it Albaicín, which was the residence of the Junior King].  I repeat that that they had a cemetery bigger than the one that is at the foot of the Alhambra. That day, while we went up to the city of Albaicín, I had the opportunity to visit that cemetery.  It occupied a large area on the side of the mountain and was as big as the city of Ulm.  At the top there was a very high tower, in which are the tombs of the kings of Granada.

[The Mosque of Albaicín, which Is Part of the City]:  Beyond the walls of the great Granada and near the outside part of its walls, there is another great city, called Albaicín, that has more than fourteen thousand houses, which cannot be seen from the Alhambra.  In this city, or perhaps actually part of the city of Granada, there is a very beautiful mosque, of eighty-six free-standing columns, that is smaller, but much more beautiful than the great mosque of the city, with a delicious garden planted with lemon trees.  Walking downhill, towards the great city, at the top of the mountain facing Granada, we find another mosque, pretty but not as big, which, by command of the King, the archbishop threw out the Saracens and consecrated it in honor of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and bestowed it with clergy.  In its garden, we saw an enormous olive tree, bigger than an oak tree, full of olives.  Going up its tower, I counted so many mosques, that it's hard to believe it. 

That same day, on approaching the great mosque at midday, because it was Friday, their feast day, we saw many priests shouting in their towers.  And there were so many Saracens attending, that when the church [sic] was full, many were obliged to remain outside.  I believe that there more than two or three thousand men.  We, standing near the door, attended their ceremonies; we saw their great priest, seated on a high chair, who preached at them for over half an hour.  Then, at his or the other priests' command, standing, inclining their heads in unison, they prayed; then, after a new instruction, all of them prostrated themselves on the ground and kissed it, and like our monks in their chapters, they stretched out on the ground.  Then, at another signal, they got up and prayed with the greatest devotion, standing barefoot on the ground.  In this way, after three times, getting up and prostrating themselves on the ground, they finally stood up and, with the prayer concluded, everyone returned to work.

There were many Saracens begging at the mosque doorway who were prisoners of the Christians and are now liberated.  A funeral arrived as well.  The priest made a long prayer over the corpse, and finally, they took the body out of the city to bury it.  On this festival day, the other mosques in the city were as full of Saracens as this one.  The mosques, in Granada and other places, are like parish churches in our country.

[The Geographical Situation of the City of Granada]:  In describing Granada, the biggest city of this realm, I could call it a kingdom more than a city.  Towards the east there are many and very high mountains, some of which almost reach the clouds.  I believe they are higher than the Italian Alps.  Although the region is warm and southern, one can see copious snow on the highest mountains all year.  Towards the south, north and west there is a beautiful and extensive plain largely surrounded by hills.  This great plain is irrigated all over, and having such rich fertile soil, it produces two crops a year.  I’ll pass over the other crops like carrots, turnips, millet, lentils, Italian millet, fava beans, vegetables, etc., of the earth, of good quality.  And because there’s no snow on that plain, it is very rich with many species of trees and principally in olives, quinces, fig trees, almond trees, pomegranates, orange trees, lemon trees, etc.  There is fruit almost all year.  In April there are cherries, cardoons—which they call artichokes—and other fruits; in May, various types of apples and pears; in June, grapes of diverse varieties, right through November.  At the end of October, while we were there, we still saw many grape clusters on the vines. In the places on the plain that receive a lot of sunshine, the fruits ripen rapidly.  The plots on hillsides, mountainsides and the shady, cooler spots, as long as they are irrigated, produce fruits, though somewhat later.

At the foot of the mountains, on a good plain, almost every mile has many gardens and leafy plants that are irrigated by water canals; gardens, I repeat, full of houses and cottages, inhabited during the summer that, regarding them as a group from a distance, you would think it a populous and fantastic city.  Principally towards the northeast, a long league or more away, we contemplated these gardens, and there was nothing more admirable. The Saracens love gardens, and are so ingenious in planting and watering them, that there are no better.  They are, as well, a population who are content with little, and live, for the most part, on their crops, for the entire year.  They don't drink wine, but, on the other hand, they prepare a great quantity of raisins, that they call bautzas. Their livestock, cattle and donkeys, find plenty of pastureland. In addition, Granada also has high mountains, plains, valleys, that, for the scarceness of water, are not habitable.  There they keep infinite flocks of goats, sheep, big and fat cattle.  In the mountains there are so many deer, bears, bucks, rabbits, and especially wild boar, that it seems incredible.  Venison has a very good market.  The number of partridges, which are big, with red beaks and feet, causes admiration. When we rode through the mountains from Vera to Almería, almost every hour we raised four or six braces of partridge. In Vera, we bought wine for five dinerios, of which there are fifty to a Rhenish florin, but in Granada you can buy forty for a ducat, because of the abundance of provisions.  There are also large quantities of wild palms, which, already in October, when they are tender, are cut and a very sweet edible juice is exacted.

Two great rivers flow from the highest mountains, through the valleys, in the middle of which is the mountain of the Alhambra, as well as several somewhat smaller ones, through other little gullies, from which Granada receives its water through ingeniously laid out pipes. The greater part of its fertile lowlands is abundantly watered. Finally, eight leagues away, the rivers join at the fortified city of Loja, that marks the western frontier between Granada with the province of Castile, which is called Andalusia, and flows to empty itself into the Betis river.  Oh, how fertile is this land in all sorts of produce, from which a man can easily earn his livelihood!  This plain is also full of small dwellings--that we call villas--and of Saracens dedicated to the cultivation of the earth.

[The Greatness of the City]: The city of Granada has seven hills and its mountains with the corresponding valleys, all of which are inhabited.  The side before the Alhambra is, however, the best.  The Alhambra, towards the south, has on the flank of the mountain another city that they call the Antequeruela, which, about eighty years ago, was built by the fugitives from Antequera who took refuge in Granada, after that former Saracen city was conquered by the Christians. 

The plain has many mountains around it.  Towards the north is Albaicín, another city outside the old walls of the true city of Granada.  It has streets so narrow and twisted, that the houses in their majority touch on their top parts, and in general a donkey cannot give passage to another one, not to mention the most famous streets, that in width are only four or five codos [a codo is around 18 inches], so that a horse cannot give passage to another.  The houses of the Saracens are in the majority so small—with little rooms—dirty on the exterior, very clean inside—that they are scarcely believable.  Almost all have water pipes and cisterns.  There are generally two pipes and aqueducts: one for clear, potable water, the other to take away dirt, dung, etc.  The Saracens understand this to perfection.  There are in all the streets open channels for dirty water, so that each house that does not have pipes because of the difficulties of its location, can toss out its filth during the night in those canals.  Sewers are not abundant, however, the people are very clean.

            In the land of Christians, a house occupies more space than four or five of the Saracens.  Within they are so intricate and complicated that they resemble swallows' nests.  From this comes the saying that in Granada there are more than 100,000 houses, and I believe it.  Their stores and houses are closed with simple wooden doors with wooden nails, as is the custom in Egypt and in Africa, since all the Saracens resemble each other so much in their rites, utensils, houses and other things.

            King Fernando has already commanded that many of the streets be widened, and to construct markets, demolishing some of the houses.  He ordered also the demolition of the place where some 20,000 Jews lived, and to construct at their expenses a large hospital and a cathedral in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that we saw completed almost to the roof and exterior covering, and which will be the Episcopal see.  Oh, how magnificent and varied are the edifices that the King commands to be constructed at his expense!  In addition, the nobles and the rich Saracens possess magnificent and famous houses in Granada, with atriums, gardens, running water and other things.  The king sent more than 1000 bells, cast at his expense, some of which we saw in the garden of the monastery of Saint Jerome, and which have been distributed through all Granada.  Oh, how admirable and solicitous is the king with the Christian republic!

            The population of Granada is also uncountable, because in the period of the siege, there were more than 200,000 men in the city, including many refugees from other cities conquered by the Christians.  All of them were armed and prepared to fight.  However, they were overcome with such fright, that they did not attempt to take action against the King . You would be amazed at the victuals with which they were supplied.  There is such an abundance of during the whole year, and the fact that those who live in this town are sober and do not drink wine, that it would suffice for another, larger city.  They make bread of very diverse materials, of wheat, of millet, of Italian millet, etc.

            When Granada was conquered and subjugated under the Christian yoke, many thousands of men—more than 40,000—with their two kings, fled to Africa.  Many perished as well of hunger during the time of the siege; others became fugitives.  There remains, however, a great number of Saracens in the city.  Scarcely four months ago, in June, 40,000 conspired secretly to kill all of the occupying Christians, who scarcely numbered 10,000.  The conspiracy was discovered thanks to a Saracen who was imprisoned for certain premature threats that he made to a Christian.  Arms enough for 400 men were found in a Saracen house.  The conspiracy was suffocated.  And although they have authorization to live freely and practice their religion for three years—a time period that expires next January--their courage and resistance are being broken little by little, because they have vacated all of the seaports, and the biggest cities in the vicinity are now inhabited by Christians, which makes it very difficult for them to rebel.

[Situation of the Kingdom of Granada] The Kingdom of Granada, which among the ancients was called Hispanica Bética, extends like a semicircle, whose diameter towards the south is the sea.  It is surrounded on all sides by very high mountains, and its interior is likewise mountainous.  Its width, from north to south, is three days' travel, and its longitude is perhaps seven or eight.  The most important coastal cities, beginning from the north are: Almería, of which I have already written, Almuñécar, famous for its sugar, the canes of which grow six or seven codos high, and around as wide as the arm at the join of your hand; Vélez-Málaga, an opulent city, with a magnificent castle; Málaga, illustrious seaport.  The most famous Mediterranean cities are Baza, Guadix, Granada, Loja, Alhama, Ronda and Marbella.  There are numberless castles and hamlets.  Only the places that can be irrigated are cultivated.  I think that the city of Granada is situated in the highest part of the kingdom, because we saw no snow on the mountains at that time except on La Sierra, above the city of Granada.

            There are also rivers there of sweet and healthful water, that have trout and other fish that require fresh and flowing water. The cities of the kingdom are generally on mountains or hillsides, extremely strong, with more towers, defenses, barbicans, merlons and moats than anywhere else.  It is a very rich realm.  It is abundant in silk better than anywhere else in the world; there is also a great deal of saffron, principally in the lower areas.  Figs give off the taste of sugar, and are not very big. Olive oil is also produced, as well as almonds, esparto, cochineal for dyers, which is sold at two pounds per ducat and a half, and many other things.  All the rivers have sources in excellent and very sweet water.  In the summer, because of the melting of snow, water sources never or rarely fail.  In no region of Spain is rain so frequent, due to the elevation of the mountains, which cause it, and of the elevation of its vapors—as one sees in the Metz and in Salzburg.

[Of the Christian Victory of the Kingdom of Granada]):  In the epoch in which the very serene and invincible King Fernando, with his very pure and most devoted wife, the Queen Isabel, by hereditary right, took possession of the kingdoms of their fathers and grandfathers, there was so many disputes among the nobles, the cities and the archbishops; such great internal struggles, there was so much zeal for private gain, so much bother to the public by Jews and Marranos, that for many years the king was entirely occupied with resolving these disputes peacefully and setting everything to rights.  There was so much plundering, assassinations and robbery, that it couldn't be greater.  When their kingdoms were pacified, they turned their attention to expelling the Saracens from Granada, Flower of Spain.  The Granada jail was terrible for the Christians, in which, generally fifteen or twenty thousand of them every year were forced into very hard slavery, and, wearing chains, to work the land like animals, and to carry out the dirtiest tasks.  In addition, the nobles of the King of the Spains, who feared him because of their crimes, fled to Granada as a safe refuge, and there devoted themselves entirely to infinite and pernicious machinations.  The king fooled them, because only himself, the Queen and the Marqués of Cádiz knew his secret plans, so that no traitor could betray them.  The king quickly had thirty thousand donkeys and mules at his disposition, which brought all manner of provisions. That is not to mention the oxen and carts that carried the war supplies.

            But merciful God on high infused our victorious Fernando with the spirit of council and of prudence along with a strong hand, so that Granada submitted to him within ten years.  This was achieved partly by force, partly by submission, partly with prudence and partly with the silver and gold with which he bribed many [Saracen] governors of castles, so that, when these were handed over, they fled to Africa; he mainly did it by cutting off all supplies, resulting in an extreme famine that nearly exterminated them.

            The king of Granada, convinced, so they say, that our invincible King, with council and prudence, was ready to invade all the borders of the kingdom, gathered his nobles and constituents, put a carpet on the floor, and in the center of it put a silver cup full of gold, saying "the gold will be given to the one who can pick up the cup without stepping on the carpet."  Since nobody was capable of doing so, the selfsame king little by little rolled up the carpet, and in this manner, folding it, easily picked up the gold and said: "The cities of the vicinity are the extended rug, and the city of Granada is the gold deposited in the middle of it.  The King of Castile goes about removing cities around us one by one, and in the end he will take control of that golden Granada."  The complete conquest of the kingdom has been narrated in a special commentary, for this reason, for the sake of brevity, I will not write more about it.

            The King of the Spains, before entering in triumph in Granada, had a special gate constructed and also a road behind the fortress of the Alhambra, with which to transport war supplies.  The first sight offered him were all the Christians with their chains, who had been locked in them for many years in those terrible dungeons, crying: "Blessed be the Lord God in Israel, who visited us from on high and was the redeemer of our people."

All the clergy dressed in their sacred vestments and the soldiers with their arms entered in a long procession, with the crucifix raised, so that all could see it.  Oh!  If you could have seen all the applause and tears of joy!  It is impossible to describe this scene.  Ascending to the Alhambra, he looked at the city from its highest tower, unfurling first the standard of Christ crucified, then, the banner of Santiago, and lastly, that of Castile, intoning the Vexilla Regis in a loud voice.  A bell that had been hurriedly rigged there began to toll. Upon hearing it, the Saracens, some weeping in disgrace, others showing admiration for they had never seen a bell or heard one ring. With this deed the glorious King took possession of this kingdom, with whose footsteps the God of Jacob had carried out his designs.

            While he went around taking control of all the castles and cities, he was stoutly applying his soul to plan the conquest of Granada.  Firstly, he had a little city built a little over a mile away from the city of Granada towards the west, on a fertile plain, fortifying it with walls, moats and other defenses.  He named it Santa Fe.  It exists still today, and it is well populated.  He took an oath on his crown not to leave the territory of Granada until he had victoriously conquered the city. Around the walls of Santa Fe he placed his Army encampment.  And he obstructed here any provisioning of the besieged city.  He cut down with shovels and swords the crops of two consecutive years, going there himself on horseback to cut the wheat crop with his own hands, because the soldiers were reluctant to do it.  After three years, he started his siege, from the month of May until January, and he strangled them with such hunger that they ate their mules, their dogs, their horses, rats and other animals.  Finally on the sixth of January of the year of grace 1492, he entered triumphantly victorious, and was proclaimed King in Granada.  At dawn more than two hundred thousand Saracens left en masse with the intention to battle the royal army, which then only numbered forty thousand. but on seeing the moon quickly being obscured, in the belief that it was a bad omen, they stopped in their tracks, and immediately, in weakness, as I said, ended by surrendering.

[Origin of the War Against Granada]: In the vicinity of Granada on the west, was the Marqués of Cádiz near the pass, a man accustomed to winning, hard on his enemies and tough in war.  Fifteen years ago, having captured a certain castle from the Saracens during the night, on Christmas Eve, and continually causing them many injuries, he thought about the way to keep them in their place.  He was in a long war with the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, who is also Count of Niebla and Captain of Seville, who had a bigger army, although the Marqués had the advantage in ingenuity.  Having, therefore, gathered a great army of about three thousand men, the Marqués, with the counsel and guidance of a Christian who had been captive in Alhama during four years; at night, after silently killing all the sentries, he attacked Aljama, dislodging the enemy, and conquered it.  On being informed about this, the Duke of Seville, although his enemy, ran to his aid with an abundant army, and encountering them near the walls of Alhama they made peace and buried their old hatreds.  At the time to depart, the Marqués said to his wife: "Only the Duke of Seville, my blood enemy, could help me on this expedition."  She, on hearing that they had taken Alhama and that the Moors were in turn besieging them, sent for the Duke of Seville and told him all of this.  Then the duke, summoning his army, went to his aid, as I have said.  Although the Marqués also wrote to the King of Portugal, asking for reinforcements, as well as to the King of Spain, showing himself to be, however, remiss in this last matter, the Queen said: "Far be he for asking the Portuguese to carry this honor; this is our matter, because it concerns our people." The King, receiving this advice, entered into the territory of Granada with a surprising army, and, asking aid from the Marqués, made Alhama a fortress for refugees, so that everything turned out according to his desires, and he finally captured the whole Kingdom.  The Marqués, however, carried out all with the same diligence as if it was his own matter; and without his cooperation, as all affirm, the conquest of the Kingdom would not have been achieved.   I can't describe all of it in detail.  After the conquest of Granada this excellent Count died, whose soul reposes in peace.

[Gold Minerals in the Granada countryside]:On the main part of the mountain of the castle of the Alhambra and in almost all of the rivers around, there is earth and coarse sand of a red color.  When Granada was conquered, certain Christians arrived there from France, fixed their attention on the said sand, washed it, and found pure gold.  Also, washing the red earth, they also extracted gold.  King Fernando, we don't know why, prohibited under pain of death the search and washing of gold.  I didn't want to believe this, but I did some inquiries about it, asking the Archbishop and the Count-Governor, both of whom assured me that it was the truth, and they added that one man alone, washing earth and sand each day, could retrieve gold of the weight of a ducat.  That earth is somewhat clayey and very red, some of it dark like a brick.

[Rites and Costumes of the Saracens]:  Only the men enter the mosques and observe the law of the false prophet Mohammad with all scrupulousness and the greatest devotion.  Mohammad denies in the Koran—which in Arabic means compilation of precepts—he negates, like Arius, the Trinity personified, and with Nestor, the humanity of it.  It doesn't admit that God is the father, affirming that there are no fathers without carnal union.  Equally, it affirms that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, as a pure man, but not as God; and that he didn't die, because in his goodness, he wasn't deserving of death.  That he was not the victim of the Jews, but that another was put in his place. He frames Paradise in terms of the pleasures of food and drink, in rich garments, in love, in music and other carnal joys, according to what is written in all the pages of the foolish Koran.  He denies as well all the sacraments, saying that they are nets and tricks of the clergy.  He asserts also that all can be saved in its [the Koran's] laws; that Christ is in its paradise, that in his time he will slay the Antichrist.  They confirm strictly to the laws of charity and fasting, from one hour before sunrise until the fall of the evening.  They also endorse prayer, of which they are very observant.  They venerate the Virgin Mary, Saint Catherine, Saint John, and they give these names to their children.

            An old man showed me a rosary made of date pits, saying that it came from the palm from which the Virgin Mary ate dates, when she fled into Egypt.  He kissed it saying that it was very useful for pregnant women, confirming this information by his own experience.

            They also assert that those who, in this world deny themselves rigorously of its pleasures, will have all of them and many more in the next, and those who indulge in this life, will have less in the next. Their Saturday is our Friday.  When prayers are done, they return to work, saying that idleness is the source of all evil, and that God commands that we live with sweat and work.  They are extraordinarily great lovers of justice; they are exact in meting it out, avoid lying, but put an end only to pleasures.

            Every morning, two hours before sunrise, that is at the hour of the morning star, as well as at midday and in the evening, their priests ascend their towers, and turning around, call out: "God is great and omnipotent, and Mohammad his messenger and prophet."  They equally recite many other prayers, in which they proclaim glory to God, in their way; and they naturally have such marvelous intonation and pauses, that nobody can fake them.  As I've said before, it seems more like a wail than a song.  Sometimes their prayers last up to two hours, as happed in a mosque near our inn.  On congregating in their mosques, the stand, barefoot and orderly, having washed their feet, their hands, their eyes, their anuses and their testicles beforehand.  At a signal from the priest, the bend first their heads, beating their chests, then they prostrate themselves on the ground and pray, and finally, they get up again.  They do this three times, in the belief of having been absolved of their sins in this way, and then return to work.  In truth they are very devout in their veneration of God according to their customs.  They place so many lamps in their temples, which I have never seen more in any place.  Their priests—who are very numerous—go around dressed in a white tunic and with the head also encircled by a white cloth.  They are very pious and have their rooms near the great mosque, and in them, they administer judgment, act as notaries and practice other spiritual ministrations.

[More on the costumes of the Saracens]: I have not seen any [Saracen] men dressed in breeches, except for some pilgrims who wear them knee-length, tied with knots behind, so that at the hour of prayer and washing they could easily take them off.  The women, on the other hand, all wear loose and pleated linen breeches, which they tie up with a cord, around the navel, like monks.  Over the breeches they wear a long shirt of linen and on top, a woolen or silk tunic, according to their means.  When they go out, they go covered by a very white cloth of linen, cotton or silk.  They cover their head and face so that only their eyes are seen.  A man may marry up to four women, which they can repudiate for the easiest cause, conforming to predetermined conditions fixed at their marriages.  Each wife is given her rooms, which, though small, are kept very clean.  He must also provide for them in addition oil, flour, straw and other things.  Each wife spends her own dowry on herself, for necklaces, clothing, etc.   Unless one is an expert, it is not possible to enumerate everything about these conditions.  Women who have rich husbands profess a lot of admiration for them, because women are easily companions of happiness, but none of them feels very sorry for their husbands in times of adversity, except the good ones.  The woman cannot repudiate her husband unless it is for a very grave cause, as indicated in their marriage agreement.  But when they desire a separation they bother their husbands in so many ways, that he will finally be angered enough to repudiate them.  In this manner they continue like beasts, The honorable Saracens content themselves with only one wife and are ashamed to have many.

[War games]: The 26^th of October, the Sunday of the vigil of Saints Simon and Jude, the generous Count of Tendilla invited in our honor a hundred of his most experienced knights, who, on an esplanade of the castle of the Alhambra, which measures 130 paces in length, performed a military style game: divided into two bands, one group attacked the other with long sticks, like lances, others, simulating flight and protecting their backs with shields and bucklers, attacked the others in the same fashion, mounted horsemen, that are so light and quick and so agile in all their movements that they have no equal.  It is a pretty dangerous game, but in doing all this as a game, in the real war they will have less fear of the lances.  Then, with shorter sticks, their horses at a full gallop, pretended that they were firing arrows with a bow or a crossbow.  I have never seen such a handsome spectacle.

            The next day, October 27, in the morning, a group of mercenaries also gathered in our honor, with their banners, arms and battle equipment.  There were 600.  They passed in review, and then each one was given two month's salary.  Those who were not properly equipped with horse or arms were dismissed. 

Later a group of flute, vihuela and trumpet-players came to our inn, and greeted us with their music.   Oh, magnificent Count of the most distinguished family of the Tendillas, how much honor you dispense to us!  May God bless you with recompenses, because we can't reciprocate!

            A certain page of the Count kept us company continually, a gentleman, who when a youth was taken to Germany by the Bohemian Sir Leon de Bodebrat.  He knows both the Bohemian language and Latin perfectly, and told us many good things about Sir Gabriel Tegel and Sir Gabriel Muffel, companions on Sir Leon's journey.  We were also accompanied by the German businessmen Jacobus Magnus of Argentina, Johan of Spira, Jodocus of Gerlishoven, and others.

[The Lord Archbishop]: When King Fernando was victorious, he wished to make the necessary provisions for the Christian religion in the realm of Granada; he gave to the city as Archbishop a distinguished gentleman, excellent in his state of health, devotion and piety, gentleness and mercy, who bore the name Hernando de Talavera—of the province of Toledo, of the order of Saint Jerome.  In all of Spain, I have not seen a man so learned in Theology and Philosophy.  He is, in truth, another Saint Jerome, because in such manner he has mortified himself with continuous study and the other preoccupations of his ministry, in the healthiness and abstemiousness of his life, that one can count his bones through his skin.  He addressed me benignly and paternally, and he answered whatever I asked him.  I cannot describe the satisfaction that the presence of this man produced in me.  He is highly valued by the King, and accepts this honor unwillingly.  He converted many Moors to our law.  He protects and enlightens them.  What else?  Like Christ, he teaches and practices what he preaches.  Oh!  It isn't possible for me to give an idea of the celebrated and elegant written communication that he composed with the theme of the conquest of Granada and for the mercy of God and the victory of the King.  He is also counselor and confessor to the King and his very pure wife, the Queen.  He gave me letters of recommendation written in his own hand for the King and for a learned governor of the Royal Curia, to be able to personally see that very Christian king, through whom glorious God has deigned to submit Granada to his yoke.

            They have their Cathedral in the castle of the Alhambra, in the very beautiful mosque.  There are forty canons, each one of whom has a hundred and twenty ducats, and forty vicars, called pensioners, who are allotted less, and ten dignitaries and ministers, all of whom total up to a hundred people.  They live on tithes that the king will give them later.  There is also in Granada firstly a Hieronymite monastery, outside the walls; within the walls, the monastery of the Dominican preachers, called Santa Cruz, the friars of the monastery of the Holy Spirit, who wear entirely white habits and a red cross on their chests; in the city of the Alhambra, the monastery of the minor brothers of Saint Francis; the church of Saint Joseph, formerly a beautiful mosque, the church of Santiago, and the church of Santa Maria, which is being built at the King's expense, and will serve as the Episcopal seat, which will surpass any of the others in space, with beautiful gardens and other dependencies.  In that one, the king placed the royal administration that has already accomplished a lot in a short time.  The King has given them the tenth part of the totality of tithes from the entire kingdom of Granada to build churches to God, to sustain the poor in the hospitals and for other pious uses.  To the leper's hospital, the foundling hospital and that of the madmen, all of which were built by the Saracens, he gave additional funds rather than cutting them.  In all of the bishoprics of the entire kingdom the king exercises his rights of patronage, that of the concession of all the benefices as founder, and the exclusive right of presentation of Bishops to the Apostolic See.

            I also saw in Granada the jail of the miscreants, that before was the warehouse and house of the Genoese, where I saw on the wall many coats of arms of Germans, but faint with the passage of time.  They told me that the emblem of the city of Nüremburg was there and of certain merchants, called then "The Mendel," and great merchants of Genoa.

[The Castle of Moclín, which Can Be Seen From The Alhambra]:    Those who leave the city of Granada at three leagues towards the west, one is confronted on a very high and large mountain with a very strong castle called Moclín, upon which the King of Granada placed much confidence.  It was adequately protected with all sorts of fortifications.  Three leagues beyond this, towards the interior of Spain, there was another castle of the Christians, from which one could survey Granada.  Each of these castles straddled the frontiers of each kingdom, and from there extend mountains towards the center of Spain.  In the Christian castle there was light all night, in order to guide many Christian captives to freedom.  The King, before besieging Granada, approached this Saracen castle with his army and military equipment.  And having unsuccessfully bombarded its walls and rammed his battering rams at it many times, finally lobbed from a mortar, an enormous boulder filled with gunpowder, over its highest and strongest tower.  In that moment, sixteen Saracens who were in that place with a torch, gathering gunpowder, flattened by the boulder, dropped their torch in the gunpowder.  The resulting explosion destroyed the tower; burning everyone within it, and so they finally surrendered the castle.  And in this way, the King took possession of it.  The Saracens, frightened, realized that this was the final day of their rule in Spain.  And losing confidence in their forces, they were little by little demoralized.

[Leaving Granada.  The City of Alhama]: The 27 of October, leaving that glorious city, crossing a pretty plain for three leagues, we arrived at last at the castle of Alhama, which is very strong and is located at the top of a mountain.  We saw near there some very beautiful thermal baths, of very clear and hot water, that, when I tasted it, had no other flavor than very sweet water.  The king of Granada constructed such a noble edifice of marble with three great arcades on the upper floor, and with windows in the ceiling, that it is admirable.  The castle of Alhama was among the best.  At the advice and guidance of some Christians who had been held captive there for many years in strong dungeons, the very noble Marqués de Cádiz, climbing up during the night by ladder and killing the sentinels, conquered it.  Now that the count has died, there are many things to write about his deeds against the Saracens.  Alhama is six leagues from Granada.

           

[The Maritime City of Vélez Málaga]: The 28^th of the same month, ascending through very high mountains and valleys in the morning, we finally descended towards the sea, over six long leagues, we arrived at the notable place of Vélez Málaga, that is very ample and situated by the sea.  The mountain has a highly visible fortress, whose surrender, broke the spirit of the King through hunger and force.  It is surrounded by very fertile land, and produces in abundance life-sustaining oil, figs, almonds, pomegranates and other produce.

 

MALAGA

           

The 29^th of the same month, leaving the seacoast in the morning, we arrived in Málaga, five leagues away.  A maritime and populous city, it is notable for its famous port.  This journey was extremely dangerous, because of the Saracens, who at night, when the winds are favorable, came from Barbary, and knowing the situation of the place, robbed anyone they encountered before sunrise, and carried away prisoners with them.   Recently, they abducted some shepherds and five farmers.

            Riding on horseback from Vélez Málaga, along the coast, we saw a great abundance of aloe vera plants, of which they make an aloe syrup for the liver. It has thick, long, very bitter leaves, with a thick root like a purple lily, but very knotty and compact. They re-enforce this juice with bitter apple.  The herbalist of Guadalupe gave me a large quantity of this plant.

            The city is circular, or actually more in the form of a triangle and as big as Nördlingen.  When it was at its apogee under the Saracens it had seven thousand houses.  There are two very beautiful gates, like semicircles, with three very strong towers at the angles.  Towards the west end there is a great building with seven arches for the docking of boats and galleys, and a very lovely mosque with a hundred and thirteen free standing columns, that is now the Episcopal seat.

            It has also three monasteries of minor brothers, of preachers, and a new foundation of minor brothers at the head of which is the Aragonese brother Bernardo de Boil, who was sent to the Indies as a true discoverer.  His intimate preferential treatment in Madrid served me well before the King, and he spoke to me a lot about those islands.  The monastery is situated towards the south, on a very fertile plain, with very leafy abundant gardens in former times, but now destroyed because of the siege. 

In the great mosque the King set up a handsome tablet in honor of Saint John the Baptist, who is his patron saint.  The king is painted on it, holding in his hand a cartouche that reads: "Non nobis domine, ,etc., and the Queen, holding another with: "Benedicte sit sancta Trinitas et indivisa Unitas, que fecit misericordiam nobis."

[The Castles of Málaga]: In the foothills of the mountain, facing towards the east from the city, is a notable and very beautiful castle, very strong, decorated with many iron gates and very diverse locks. Oh, how beautiful is also the spectacle next to the seaport!  It also has three caves or great cavities in the very hard rock, like those in Granada, where Christian captives and many other things were held.  The castle governor received us affably, thanks to our letters of introduction, and one of his servants took us up to the high castle fortress, situated on the mountain top, within two sets of walls.  Oh, what a marvelous and well-fortified castle!  From there, on clear days, one can easily make out Africa and Barbary.  It measures a distance of fifteen short miles.  We also saw a charming little royal mosque, and some notable displays of mosaics in the Moorish style.

           

[The Conquest of Málaga by the King]: The situation, the port and the two impregnable castles made Málaga a very strong city.  The King, put it under siege by land and sea for three months, prohibited all supplies and reduced the citizens to such hunger, that the sentinels on the walls were only given two ounces of bread a day, and the poor people, and even others, were obliged to make bread of ground wood and the soft tops of palm trees.  Finally, five thousand Saracens, and their women, departed by way of the beach, in the direction of the western maritime mountains, that were infested with Moors.  But the army of King Fernando caught them, killed many and obliged the others to take shelter in the city.  In the end, they surrendered to the king, who sold five thousand men, at thirty ducats each one, with the provision that each one could be redeemed for another thirty ducats.  When the city was conquered, the castle held out for two weeks more.  In the end, it too surrendered. 

There would be much to write about this: how a certain Saracen, who was held as a saint among his people, left Málaga, and introducing himself among the King's troops, mortally wounded, thinking it was the King, a certain Count Alvarado of Portugal, whom I saw him and talked with in Madrid, and whose brother Fernando was ordered beheaded by the King of Portugal.  The criminal was carved into tiny pieces by the Christians.

            Seven hundred years ago, when the Mohammadans conquered Málaga, they killed all the Christians. The King swore to do this but because of his humanity and clemency, he sold them as captives.  In the month of January—ten months ago—Málaga suffered a terrible earthquake, which destroyed many buildings and towers.  And it caused such a rise in the earth at the port, that many boats were beached until the earth sank again on waves of wind.

            When the King conquered Málaga, seven hundred and fifty two Christian prisoners were presented to him, so emaciated by hunger, that the King comforted them with chicken soup and other foods.  Among them was a certain German of Zurich, Henry Murer, who suffered terrible slavery for four years.  There appeared also among the other captives a very old man with a long beard, who affirmed being a captive for forty eight years.  The Queen said to him: "What would you have thought if during the first year of your captivity they would have told you: your redeemer still hasn't been born?"  To which he replied, "I would have died of suffering." When the captives came out with a little wooden cross, they cried out loudly: "You have arrived, Oh Redeemer of the world!  You have liberated us from the darkness of Hell! The King and Queen prostrated themselves, saying, amidst many tears: "Oh Cross, salvation, only hope.  Not to us, but to your name is given glory!"  Oh, what sadness mixed with jubilation!  Nine Christian captives, who had renounced their faith, after Málaga was taken were stripped and shot full of arrows until they died, by orders of the King.  Two were Lombards and seven Spaniards of Castile.   They died from arrow wounds, and their bodies were burned.  Oh, very Christian King, I will eternally sing your praises!

            There is, in a well-watered valley, five leagues from Málaga, a castle that the King took by force.  After taking it over, he reclaimed its captives, whom the Saracens had previously stoned in the fortifications.  When the Saracens presented to him nothing but corpses, the King commanded to kill all the Moors.  Thus, afterwards, when he laid siege to any city, the first thing that the King ordered, was that captives not be put to death, because if they did, when he entered the place in victory, he would behead all of the Saracens.  He scared the Saracens with that, and from then on they killed very few captives.  The army always carried bells, for when the Saracens in fear heard them, they would say: "We hear the sound of bells and the little bells, but the King needs a cow."  Finally, the King, with the aid of God, conquered all the cows—that is to say, the Saracens. 

In removing the Christian captives from Málaga, there was so much mourning, so vivid the image of death, so many were bound with chains, that scarcely two great wagons could carry the chains that they had taken off their feet.

            The day of October 30^th, after midday, leaving Málaga and crossing some very high mountains like the Portalón, and also some valleys, where the King in time of war had had constructed a marvelous road to transport war matériel, passing on the left Ronda and Marbella, and many other villages and inns, we arrived the third day at Osuna, the city of the Marqués of Cádiz.  We saw more than three hundred Saracens bound in chains there.  Also, Marchena and Mairena, fortified plazas belonging to the same Marqués, were brimming with prisoners.  Finally, on the fourth day, we arrived at Seville.

 The King had made a concession to the [Saracen] captives that all who could take refuge in Granada –since it is three years now since he took it--would be granted their freedom.  For this reason the Christians carefully guard the frontiers, to avoid the possibility that the captives, freed from their prisons, escape to Granada as an asylum of liberty.

           

THE CITY OF HISPALIS, NOW CALLED SEVILLE

            On the 4^th of November, leaving Mairena in the morning, traveling 4 leagues, we arrived at the most prestigious city of the realm of Andalusia, now called Seville and in Latin Híspalis.  This city rests on a very excellent and beautiful plain, better than any other I've seen in Spain, very fertile in oil, incomparable wine, and all varieties of produce.  Ascending to the top of the highest tower of the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that was formerly the principal mosque, I gazed at the city, and estimated that it was twice as big as Nüremberg.  It is completely circular, and located on the flattest ground.  The river Bétis, very famous, powerful and navigable, bathes it on its western side, at the foot of its walls, that in times of high water, rises during the whole day to the height of three or four codos, and then it carries somewhat salty water, but when the tide goes out and it recedes, and then the water becomes very good and sweet.  Seville has a lot of potable water, brought in by pipes.  Among these, there is an aqueduct of three hundred and ninety arches, some of them doubled because of the inequality and depth of the ground.  This water, I repeat, is very useful for the watering of crops, cleaning the plazas, for the houses and other daily tasks.  It also has many outstanding monasteries of Franciscans, Augustinians, Dominicans, nun's convents and others.

           

[The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary]: The city of Hispalis was seized from the hands of the Saracens and made Christian a hundred and seventy years ago. There are still many Saracen monuments and antiquities. The people of Seville and Córdoba assisted the King with excessive expenditure in his conquest of Granada, because they are virtually neighbors and being near to the danger.   The people of Seville alone risked than a million ducados in this war, which is ten times a hundred thousand.  It was similar for those from Córdoba.

 It had, among other things, a grandiose mosque, whose gardens and three dependencies still exist.  The length of the whole mosque was of two hundred and fifty paces and its width a hundred and ninety. The length of the garden today measures one hundred and forty paces more.  There is a beautiful fountain in the center, in which the Mohammadans washed.  When the old fountain was destroyed, another larger one was built in its place.  Over the water pipes these verses are written:

"His royal majesty, after defeating the Moors, graced me with this water, even when it was already destroyed"

With this water, the entire garden is presently watered, for it has many citron trees, cypresses, palms, lemon and orange trees.  

The half—which formerly was the mosque—has been torn down now, and in its place they are building a magnificent church in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  It is such a stupendous work in that there are not many temples in Spain to surpass it.  The church is finished, but not yet its choir.  The whole structure is two hundred paces in length and a hundred and seventeen in width, seven aisles in width, of which two comprise magnificent chapels, forty-five free-standing columns and very rich seats in the choir stalls.  It also has forty canons and other beneficiaries, and twenty more dignitaries and ministers.  There are substantial benefices, of two and three hundred ducats and a very pious clergy.  There are very high octagonal columns, which are twenty-five paces in circumference, and very high and wide vaults.  I think that in six years it will be completely finished.  It is all of very hard dressed stone, brought from the hills of the coast of the kingdom of Granada by the Bétis River. 

Seville is fourteen short leagues from the sea, and boats of a hundred and twenty vasis come upriver.  This river is of great utility to the population.  They grow grapes, which are so full-bodied, that they exceed Malvasía, and olives as big as Damascus plums, called spilling.  It would be hard to believe if you didn't see them.  The mayor, the attending official of Seville, named Juan de Silva, count of Cifuentes, at our request, gave us safe-conduct passes for the crossing of the border to Castile, and offered us all kinds of facilities.

The King reformed many of Seville's monasteries, among them, the Minor brothers, who, in revolt, publicly excommunicated the King in the use of his privileges.  Although the King permitted publication of the excommunication every Sunday, he persisted his ideas [of reform] tenaciously, and free of the constraints of excommunication, thanks to his patience, obliged them to remain in observance. 

Wishing also to keep vigil by justice, he obliged all the attorneys to submit to certain statutes in the public Audiences, to bring registers of their clients and note their fees beside their names, because in the past, in their own homes they were shamefully fleecing the poor.

In Seville, before its conquest by the king, there existed so much banditry that nobody could go outside in the night with security.  The gravediggers entrusted with burying the bodies of the poor came masked into houses at night and carried off, like thieves, gold, dishes and glassware, and whatever else they found at hand.  There was no secure place within the city walls, or outside of them, in the entire province.  Oh, glorious King, whose powerful hand ended all of this!

[Carthusian Monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas]: Outside Seville, on the other side of the Bétis river, and near its western bank, there exists a very noble Carthusian monastery, called Santa María de las Cuevas.  It is a very superb construction, with a beautiful refectory and white marble tables on which the monks eat; there are none better.  How beautiful is the chapter chapel!  It has excellent cells, and above them the dormitories, beautiful gardens and preciously constructed cloisters in front of the cells.  In the central part, such a lovely garden, with various designs of myrtle, wax myrtle and jasmine, that it is almost unimaginable.  I also saw in their cemetery a bush with huge leaves, whose width was of two feet, and in length four. They said that it was a banana tree, but it isn't because its leaves do not point upwards, and I don't think it had fruit or seeds.  Its leaves, however, are very green and of a type very similar to those of a marsh mallow.

            Outside the monastery and its cells there are two gardens that are watered from the Bétis river, transported there by two mules.  The most agreeable gardens, I repeat, with ceder, orange trees, pomegranate trees, fig trees, almond trees, vines and pear trees, whose fruits were still hanging on the trees.  I have never seen in truth such beautiful gardens!  The canals that water them are perfectly placed. The secular or converse brothers also have their own cloister, with marble columns and little gardens dispersed gracefully among them, and their rooms constructed with fine workmanship.  When I was there, there were thirty monks and forty secular brothers.  The father prior was a venerable man, ancient and of sane learning, who lived in a special apartment with a lovely cloister.  We also saw its spacious cellar, in which there are ninety three large vessels brimming with wine.  I believe with certainly that three of those vessels were enough to fill two wagons of Nüremberg.  They contained a wine as delicious as Malvasía. We also contemplated the tabernacle behind the high altar, so adorned with gold, silver and ivory, that it is impossible to describe. They honored us in admirable fashion.  They gave permission for us to enter the garden with them, and assured us that they were very interested in our customs, religious practices, clothing, hairstyles and other things. 

I believe in truth, that after the Carthusian monastery of Pavia, there is none better than this one.  It is also very rich.  They have four thousand ducats in annual revenues.  Provisions there are also very cheap because of the fertility of all of Andalusia.

[The Alcazar of Seville]: )The fortress  [alcazar] of Seville was built from its foundations by King Alfonso, the author of the "Astronomical Tables," and whose father, Fernando, liberated Seville from the hands of the Moors.  This fortress is enormous, and no smaller than the Alhambra of Granada.  It is constructed in the same style, with its palaces, rooms, chambers and water pipes, decorated with gold, ivory and marble, although the stones are not as big.  Its outside configuration is different from Granada, since it is built on flat land; but it has six or ten gardens, both large and small, with lemon trees, citron trees, orange trees, myrtles and running water.  In this fortress, the King's son was born, the future sovereign, and we saw the chamber where his birth took place. 

The people of Seville were waiting the arrival of their King, and for this purpose, they tidied up their causeways with stone, and were making many additions.  The King is presently having many new rooms built, and is restoring the old ruined ones and having prepared three bedrooms for himself, for his son and for the queen, so exquisitely and properly allocated, that no one will object to them.

            We saw many other things. On leaving the fortress, we went up to an elevated chapel in the Cathedral.  There, after mass, we visited the sumptuous tombs of the Kings of Castile.

King Fernando I of Castile was very devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and was firmly convinced that with her aid would conquer Seville.  For this reason, he had a wooden image made, with moveable limbs, and as well, Christ in a cradle, also moveable. From ancient times, there had been in the Moorish mosque an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which had been captured from the Christians.  There was no one who dared to destroy it, because they would become deaf, crippled or blind.  Finally, the King had a dream that he should make a special cult of this image, and shortly afterwards, he would conquer Seville.  He did this, and a few days later, Seville surrendered.  From that moment, he professed an extreme devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and there is nothing else to say.  Every time he entered into battle he brought this image, made of gold and silver with him, every time he did great deeds with her aid. 

            We also saw a sculpture of Fernando "the old," with his German wife, and another statue of his son Alfonso, and a crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary, worked in the purest gold and very precious stones, sapphires, emeralds and marble, that is difficult to describe.  He always took it with him into battle, and he held it in great veneration, and adorned its head with a crown of the purest gold, emeralds, pearls and other precious stones.  We held it in our hands, and felt its weight.  The majority of times he [the King] defeated the Moors by virtue of the Blessed Virgin.  We saw there many other things that should be described, but I am omitting them for the sake of brevity.

            On the outside of the city, on the other side of the bridge of boats over the Betis, there is a very extensive neighborhood called Triana, where they make the great clay vessels for oil, wine, etc.  Many of them could contain twelve or thirteen amphorae of wine.  If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it.

The Road to Lisbon]:  The 11^th of November, which was Saint Martin's Day, we left after sunrise by a wide plain studded with abundant olive and farms, fifteen miles long by five miles wide, arriving finally very late at the town of Sanlúcar, after riding hard on horseback over four leagues from morning and during most of the day, passing the castle of Niebla, that belongs to the Duke of Medina-Sidonia.  The following day, passing the border of the Kingdom of Castile and entering into that of Portugal, we arrived at the stronghold of Serpa.

From there, twelve long leagues away, was the city of Évora.  From Seville to Évora the distance is forty-two very long leagues, which we traversed with much effort, riding from three or four hours before dawn until very late at night, so that we arrived at Évora—where the King of Portugal was residing—on November 16^th. 

There, outside the walls, in the church of Saint Blaise, we saw part of a snakeskin, brought from Guinea of Ethiopia, which was thirty palmos long and the thickness of a man, which was killed by fire-arrows. They unrolled it from its neck to its tail, and this part of the skin was painted of such varied and handsome colors sprinkled like stars and gilded spots, and it caused much admiration.  That skin measured twenty-two palmos and they assured us that it devoured men grasping them with spirals of its tail, and that it fought with elephants.  This I fully believe, since Pliny had already spoken of the animals of India and Ethiopia, and the adjacent islands. 

In Évora there is also a beautiful royal palace and a very lovely vaulted church, that is the Episcopal seat, and which has a magnificent cloister, in which we walked as on a highway, checking out the situation of this city, that is bigger than Ulm.  We also saw a young and handsome camel in the King's patio, which he had had brought from Africa, where they are abundant.

            The King, João II, is a very amiable man, very learned in everything, who governs his realm in peace and tranquility.  Extremely affable and a profound scholar of many matters, I listened with attention to how many people had come to him, boasting of their bellicose science, maritime and otherwise; and he commanded them to make demonstrations and tests, if they were truthful and competent, he would finance their enterprises.  He also had a great talent for acquiring riches through business and other means.  He sent wool cloth in varying colors to Genoa, like the rugs that are made in Tunis; equally fabrics, horses, various products of Nüremberg, many copper cauldrons, brass basins, fabric of scarlet and yellow, capes from England and Ireland, and other infinite things.  These brought him gold, slaves, pepper, cardamom, numberless elephant tusks, etc.

            We had access to the King through his Confessor, Doctor Cataldo.  The King gave us letters of passage for the border and letters of recommendation for Lisbon, so that we would be shown everything.  I dined at his table four times, and he spoke to me of different matters, showing himself to be very deferential.  My companion, don Anton Herward of Augsburg, was made by him a Knight of the Golden Spur, publicly on the eve of Saint Catherine, in his chapel, giving him gifts of a sword, gilded scabbard, spurs and helmet.  And when we took leave of him, on the feast of Saint Catherine, after dining in his palace, he embraced me.  His color was bad then, because since the death of his son Afonso, from a fall from a horse, his health had not been good. It is feared that he has dropsy, which God does not desire.  May there be a lot of time left to a King so great and so benign!

            He has a bastard son, Sir George, an adolescent of thirteen years, so very ingenious and very expert for his age in reciting poetry.  Sir George’s tutor is the very knowledgeable Cataldo from Sicily, of the University of Paris, an excellent orator who gave me many demonstrations of his knowledge of humanities.  This young man will be worthy of wielding the scepter, for the excellence of his intelligence and his manners.  When he was younger, he rebelled against his teacher.  Cataldo put him on the right path with more rigor than that to which he was accustomed, through beatings and threats, thus destroying his bad habits.  Now he proclaims publicly: "The toughness of Cataldo has served me great advantage."  What else?  The adolescent is very learned in Humanities for his years, and knows Virgil, Horace and other poets, and he himself is skilled in composing verse.

LISBON

            On the 26^th of September, leaving Évora by Montemor, a beautiful castle surrounded by olive trees, through the countryside for sixteen leagues and along the sea for three leagues, we arrived finally at the famous city of Lisbon.  It is on a very high mountain, on whose peak are two royal fortresses.  And below them, the whole mountainside is inhabited, full of houses, monasteries and other churches.  It has another mountain to the west, whose eastern part is totally inhabited, and in the middle a very populated large level area that extends to the sea.  It is bigger than Nüremberg and much more heavily populated, because in each individual house there are, in general three, four, or five inhabitants.  It is more three cities than two. The Jews have three neighborhoods to themselves, below the castle, at the foot of the mountain; the gates to these are closed every night.  Saturday (vigil of St. Andrew), I entered their synagogue, and I never have seen its equal.  In front of the synagogue there is a large structure,that is covered by a great vine, whose trunk was four palmos in circumference.  Oh, what a beautiful place and seat from which to preach, like those in mosques!  In the synagogue, ten great chandeliers blazed, and in each one, fifty or seventy lamps, without counting other  smaller lamps.  The women had their own synagogue, in which there were also many lamps burning.  The Jews of Lisbon are very rich, and they receive so much royal tribute that they have bought the king.  They are very insolent to Christians and they have a profound fear of exile, because the King of Spain ordered Portugal to exterminate their marranos, as well as their Jews, or he will go to war against him.  The King of Portugal, following in the conduct of the King of Spain, proclaimed that before the festival of the Nativity of Our Lord, all the marranos must leave; the latter have hired a beautiful ship, the Regina, and they will depart for Naples in the middle of December.  As for the Jews, the King has conceded them a treaty of two entire years for them to leave Portugal at their leisure.  Taking this into consideration, the Jews are continually departing and looking for new places to live.  The Saracens also have their own houses and a mosque next to the city walls, below the castle; where we went.

            On the mountain facing the castle there is a monastery of Carmelites, superbly constructed by the Prince Enrique, that you would think it was a fortress.  I climbed the tower and looked at the surroundings of that part of the city, and it was very pleasing.  On the same mountain are the Monasteries of Santa Trinidad and that of the minor brothers, where we saw an enormous crocodile hanging in the choir, and a big tree called a Dragon Tree, which produces a red sap like dragon's blood.  In the monastery of Saint Augustine, which is located above the castle, there are also three other dragon trees.  One of them was so enormous that two men could hardly surround the trunk.  It is as high as a pine tree, and its crown is divided into many big branches with internodes, like the root of the calamus plant, from the last of which springs a big bunch of leaves that resemble those of like a calamus or wall rocket, fat and thick.  It puts out big bunches, like a date cluster, with many seeds like a hazelnut, of a citron-color. In January, when these mature, they ripen into sweet, golden fruits, but it is not eaten much around here.  The wood of this tree is a thick bark on the outside, and a white inside that is spongy like a lemon tree.  The ends of its branches are very soft, but the root and the trunk are very hard.  In Guinea and on other islands, they feed the leaves to horses.  In Guinea they are so big, that they can make a boat from an internode that will carry three or four people; and with the trunk hollowed out, one for fifty or sixty men.  Truthful men, who have seen them in their tropical lands, told me this.  The pith of this tree is spongy, white and light, like the marrow of an elderberry, that can be easily scooped out, and is full of little veins.  In March, they extract the red juice like dragon's blood.  It is a very beautiful tree, which in warm regions grows very big, especially near places with an abundance of water, because it is always thirsty for it.

[The Surroundings of Lisbon]:  Sunday, the last day in November, we went a mile outside of Lisbon, to Santa María de la Luz, well known there for its miracles, where we saw a pelican's beak, which is like a gannet, but not as wide; there is a big bag within the orifice of its stomach; it is smaller than a swan and bigger than a goose, and all its feathers are ash-colored.  They are abundant in Guinea.  We saw some reeds that maritime storms have deposited from the east on the islands of Madeira and Fayal; and 2 others; one of which measured sixteen palmos, as fat as my wrist, and with internodes of the length of a codo. For this, I give credit to Pliny when in book VI he speaks of the measurement of canes.  We also saw little lances made of canes, with very sharp points, that the Ethiopians call "azagayas," bows, crossbows and darts, all made of cane.  We also saw a little crocodile and some saws, made with the spines of enormous fish, with which they cut wood for boats like a saw.  These saws are very hard and measure a palmo in width by two codos in length.

            The same day we went up to the castle and saw two savage lions, more beautiful than any I've seen, and a well-painted map of the world, and a very large gilded table, whose diameter measured fourteen palmos.  It is a truly regal castle, with its pavilions, rooms and other things. Coming down from the castle towards the sea, we went on a beautiful big ship of a certain noble of Danzig, who is named Bernard Fechter, who dispensed great honors to us.  They prepared for us a huge ham, of those called in Westphalia hamen, and some roasted muttonchops. I drank until I was overly full, excellent beer from England and Danzig, which went down very easily. The same Bernardo Fechter, on an occasion when he was overwhelmed by a storm in the English sea, put two of his men in a boat, who, stretching themselves with their oars towards the ship with the aim of casting off the boat, were let go and thrown by the storm far from the ship.  For ten days and eleven nights they were flung about by the sea, without oars, food or drink, until, on the eleventh day, they were found by a fisherman; at this time, the weakest died while they were feeding him with food and beer.  The other was fed, little by little, and recuperated his health.  In London, England, he was reunited with Bernard.  We met him in Lisbon.  Observe how a man was able to survive eleven days without food or drink!  This boat was provisioned with excellent mortars, bows, lances arrows and everything necessary for maritime war.  It had a crew of a hundred men and was admirably provisioned with everything that was necessary.  There was also on board a monk of the Order of Preachers, from Eslingen in Swabia, who sang great praises, saying that they were well prepared for war matters.  Oh monk, I find you everywhere!

[Dockyards]:  Leaving this ship, we boarded the Regina.  Oh, what a beautiful and well-equipped ship!  It had thirty-six big mortars, and another one hundred and eighty small ones, many barrels of gunpowder, cannon balls, lances, crossbows; and it was prepared to carry the marranos to Naples in December.  They had hired thirty artillerymen, all Germans, whose captain was Gregory Piet, from Atzmaus, a town of Feldkirch, near Salgans! a good and sincere man, much esteemed by the king.

            In the port, they were selling all sorts of victuals in great abundance and produce, like hazelnuts, walnuts, lemons, almonds, figs, etc., and apples that you can't imagine.  I have never seen wholesaled so many apples, not even in Nüremberg in the autumn and the beginning of the winter, which is when they are customarily sold.  Oh, and such a variety of fish, of herrings, that they call sardines, which they catch four miles from the maritime city of Setúbal, in so much abundance, that there is enough for all of Portugal, for Spain, Rome, Naples and Constantinople.  And this is not even mentioning tuna, dolphin, and other fish.

            On the eve of Saint Andrew, at the King's orders, we were taken to his Mina, which is a large building at the port, where they store in great quantities the goods that the King sends to Ethiopia.  We saw many fabrics with drawings of various colors, which the King has brought from Tunis, carpets, woven goods, copper cauldrons, small cauldrons, rosaries of lemonwood and crystal, and an additional infinity of articles.  In another building we saw what was brought from Ethiopia: cardamom, many branches and bunches of peppercorns, of which they gave us a great quantity as a gift, and elephant tusks.  All of their gold was already minted, because they bring it already melted and prepared. The mines of this metal are strange; it is a reddish land, almost completely gilded. At the end of this book, in the chapter about the southern islands and Ethiopia, you will find this matter treated in more detail. [but it is not part of separate treatise].

            December 20^th four ships departed like the royal one with eight hundred marranos, and another ship, called the Aguila, with a great quantity of sugar and two hundred men, merchants and pilgrims, with a good skipper.  That day, The Aguila, five leagues out of the port of Lisbon, sunk rapidly, because of the great storms.  We went out that day of Santiago and were buffeted by a strong wind, and I said to my companions, "Those poor people who are now at sea!"  On arriving at Zaragoza they related these accounts to me.  A certain Valencian also told me, in Toulouse, that in the many years of his existence he had never seen weather such as this.  In those days, from Marseilles to Valencia, more than fifty ships perished, tossed by sea or in the ports

            We also saw a great factory with many ovens, where they made anchors, cannonballs, etc., and everything relevant to the sea.  All of those working there were so black from the ovens, that you would think them Cyclops from the forge of Vulcan.  We saw, finally, in four big buildings, their enormous and handsome cannonballs in countless numbers, also arrows, shields, armor, mortars, cannon, bows, lances; and everything well-made and in great abundance.  I am not mentioning the other things that are exported all over the sea by these ships. The equipment of Nüremberg are nothing in comparison to these.   Oh, how much iron, copper, saltpeter and sulfur!  All in such abundance!  It isn't a marvel, because Ethiopia sends gold in abundance, and the King is a man very much of his country; he is not prodigal, and everything is organized to maximize his money.  I believe that he has an enormous guaranteed annual income from this maritime commerce.  We had our lodging in a grand and significant house of the King, in the bedroom of the son-in-law of don Martín Behaim, called don Jodocus of Hurder, of  Bruges,  noblemen and Captain of the islands of Fayal and Pico.  He has a noble wife, wise and expert in everything, who gave me a bag of musk, and gave us maximum honors.  The house is on the main plaza, and on a very wide plot of land near the monastery of Saint Dominic.  We were treated exquisitely.

[The Port of Lisbon]: Half a mile below Lisbon are two mountains, each a quarter mile distant from the other, through whose gap the sea enters towards the north east for fifteen leagues, its width being in some places three leagues and in others, less. Oh, how fertile and well inhabited is the land on the shores of this inlet!  Fertile, I repeat, in saltworks, olive trees, and all the produce of this land.  In the suburbs of Lisbon, even in the wildest storms, the ships find complete security.  In the part opposite Lisbon, towards the south, there is a handsome mountain, on whose peak can be seen a castle, formerly called Alemanía, and now, with the vowel corrupted, Almada, which was captured from the Saracens, when they occupied Lisbon, by Germans, Englishmen and Frenchmen, for the love of our religion; they closed the port and caused much destruction.  Behind the royal castle there is a collegiate church called Saõ Vicente, where are buried a multitude of Germans, whose skulls we were shown.   These Germans died in the time of the siege of Lisbon, when they besieged it and took the Saracens by force.

[Customs in Lisbon and its Surroundings]: Both sexes are very educated. The richest, in general, are the Germans and the Dutch.  They live in the plaza and the Rúa Nova, that is built in the German style.  The greater part of it is dedicated to commerce.  Immensely rich Jews are found here, almost all of them merchants, who live only from the work of their slaves.

[Land of Portugal]: The length of Portugal, from the north to Silvas, which is in the south, in the Algarbe is about a good one hundred and twenty leagues, and its width from west to east scarcely twenty four leagues.  In many regions the land is good.  But in the Algarbe, which is an angle from the cape of São Vicente until almost Setúbal, it is mountainous and scarcely populated.  The Algarbe, however, in the part along the coast has an abundance of figs, grapes, almonds, etc.

[The West Coast of Africa]: In Africa, next to the Straits and the Pillars of Hercules, is the city of Ceuta, which was very large in former times.  Their ancestors defeated the King of Fez.  Presently it is little, and heavily fortified against Saracen attack.  In the Year of Our Lord 1458, the Kings of Fez, Tunis and Oran rose up, and with more than four hundred thousand men fell on Ceuta, wishing to recapture her.  Deprived of arms and with many shields made of the bark of oak trees, that they call zockelholtz, they encircled the walls like a flock, not advancing at all.  There were eight hundred Christians in the city, among which two were German; one, Georg of Echingen, Count of Wittemberg, armed knight of Jerusalem, and the other, Gregory of Ramseidner, of Salzburg; both were valiant knights. Gregory of Ramseidner cut in half, with a single sword-blow, a certain Saracen on horseback, and took his sword.  Ramseidner left the Portuguese a demonstration of ingenuity in the half-baked amphoras, full of pulverized lime and some iron triangles, that are called fuseysen —caltrops—which they launched over the walls into the middle of the Saracens, who, blinded and wounded, suffered bad injuries. Some ships from Sanlúcar de Sevilla came to their aid; for the King of Portugal, battered by winds, was not able to.  The supreme captain of the Saracens named Lazaratisch, thought they were saints, blamed the King of Fez, because he drank wine—something not permitted for a Muslim—and because this caused dissention among them, the Saracens retreated in shame, leaving behind, as was their custom, many weapons. The Christians lamented that they had withdrawn at night, because otherwise they would have killed more than two thousand of them.

            In the following years, the King of Portugal conquered three more places: Arcila, Tangiers and Alcazarquivir, which he fortified heavily and made tributaries of the surrounding towns; they had to give, every year for every person, a ducat, that they called a tablo.  In Alcazarquivir the King has some expert German bombardiers, among whom one can encounter Jacob Suewus, of Waiblingen, a town of the County of Wurttemberg, who carried out many great deeds.  In the following month of November, he forced a rebellious village to pay a tribute of three thousand goats, two hundred cows and other things, as well as fourteen slaves who were carried away.  This city is sixteen leagues from Seville.  The King takes from it more honor than spoils.

[The Road to Compostela]: The 2^nd of December, leaving the illustrious and glorious Lisbon after eating, then to proceed five leagues along the sea, we arrived at the town of Alberca, very late at night.  Rising in the morning and traveling without rest for nine leagues, we arrived at the city of Santarem. During our ride, two leagues from Lisbon, we saw a beautiful and big ship of the King, beautifully fitted out, that surpassed any we had seen before.  This area between Lisbon and Santarém is very fertile in everything, and principally in oil, wine, and sea salt, so that one wants for nothing.  Santarém is situated at the mouth of the famous and gold-bearing Tajo River, which is bigger than the Main, by Frankfurt, and waters it before flowing to the sea. Oh, how truly fertile and green is this entire place, in wine of the best class, oil, and other produce!

            On December 4, leaving Santarém and passing through some delightful places, we arrived after eight leagues at the city of Tomar, famous for its gigantic olives and its extensive olive groves, and by a river—an insignificant one—that consists mostly of a spring with cold water that nourishes trout.  It has an attractive castle, richly adorned by the Prince don Enrique, discoverer of the Islands, who passed most of his life here.  The fruitful olive groves extend over four leagues.

            On the 5^th, after our meal, leaving Tomar, traveling on the road for twelve leagues, riding hard by moonlight, we arrived at Coimbra, situated on a beautiful mountain and on a plain, crossed by the Mondego river, with its famous bridge and abundant olive trees.

            On the 6^th, when we finished dining, leaving Coimbra through fertile places and countryside, in two days we arrived at the famous and very old city of Oporto, which is situated in the foothills of a very high mountain.  Its territory is watered by the very famous Duero River; as abundant there as the Rhine by Basle.  It is a bishopric that is fertile and very ancient.  It is a league from the sea, and in times of rising tides, the great ships arrive at the city walls, which are of very old, square-cut stone.  Oporto is older than Lisbon.  There I met the very educated gentleman Eduardo da Calvo, the King of Portugal's personal preacher, who knew intimately my dear master Johannes Landsperg, and about whom he made the most ample praise.  He was called before the King Maximilian twice, and I learned from him many things about Spain, because he was a great cosmographer. As I have said, Oporto is a great city constructed on a mountain and its surroundings, adorned with very old houses in the lowest part.  It belongs to the bishopric of Coimbra.  There would be a great deal to write about this place, but I omit it thanks to brevity.  After Lisbon, it is the most eminent city in Portugal.  It is eighteen leagues from Coimbra.

            On the 9^th, we left Oporto and arrived at the little town called Barcelos, which is situated on a mountain.  Its walls are skirted by a very famous river, which comes from Braga, in olden times called Augusta, a very ancient city.  It is eight leagues from Oporto.

            On the 10^th, after eating, we left Barcelos and after five long leagues we arrived at the town of Ponto do Lima, by which flows the Lima River, with a handsome bridge of eighteen arches.  After eating in an inn, after three miles, we arrived at Coserado.

            On the 11^th [of November] after traveling three leagues, we arrived at Valença do Minho, the last town in Portugal on the northern route.  Crossing the river Miño, which is as powerful as the Rhine near Basel, we arrived at the city of Tuy, which is situated on a mountain above the river, across from Valença, and is the first city of Galicia.  It is a bishopric, with a nice church. 

The same day, after our meal, we left Tuy, and very late at night arrived at Redondela, a little town situated on an inlet, where they fish for the very abundant sardines.  And if a certain German, born in Frankfurt, who lived there, hadn't given us lodging, we would have passed a very bad night, because the weather was rough; but in exchange for our money, he gave us much largesse.

            On the 12^th, arising in the morning, after three leagues, we arrived at Pontevedra, a very old city, not very big, but in former times a famous seaport, where a great quantity of sardines are caught, which they are distributing to many places, being the principal food.  They also have a certain river, with a beautiful bridge of fourteen openings.

 The same day, after lunch, after riding three leagues, we arrived at the little town called Caldas, because it has sulfurous and thermal springs and waters, that I tried.  But the people there are so incurious that they have not built any buildings or baths there, except a pit, in which one washes.  The water, however, is excellent, and as hot as the baths at Baden, near Turegum, in Switzerland.

            On the 13^th, leaving Caldas before sunrise, we arrived at the very old city of Padrón, formerly called Iria.  The first place we entered was the extremely old church of Santiago, and we saw under the high altar a stone column with a certain concavity, where they said the body of Santiago rested.  Going out afterwards, along the banks of the river, where the boat passed by without oarsmen from Judea, brought the body of Santiago and some disciples and on leaving it on a hilltop, this [column] softened like wax to receive the blessed corpse, as we will recount more extensively later.  Climbing the mountain on the other side of the bridge, we also saw the place where he preached to the Gentiles.  It is a mountain of enormous stones, like a pyramid, and at the top a flat rock, like a chair.  We also visited the chapel where the fountain flowed that they say Santiago made by striking a rock with his staff.  The water we drank there was smooth and sweet, and we felt very well.

            All of this seen rapidly, after four leagues, we arrived at the very holy city of Compostela, in which, they assured us, the whole body of Saint James the great lies, son of Zebedee and brother of John the Evangelist.

 

COMPOSTELA OF SANTIAGO

            The day of December 13^th we arrived at Compostela, which is situated in the middle of a complete circle of mountains.  In the middle is another hill, elevated as if it were raised up in the center of the circle. It has no river, but many and good fountains, that flow with sweet water.  It is not big, but very old, and it is fortified with a very old wall and numerous and solid towers.  The country is good and the little gardens of the city are full of orange trees, apple trees, lemon trees, plum trees and other fruit trees.  But the people are so dirty—they have many pigs that they sell at a very cheaply—and so lazy that they only concern themselves minimally with the cultivation of the land, and live in general from their earnings from the pilgrims. They have a good climate, and both within and without the city many monasteries, like that of Saint Dominic, in which there is a gentleman, a learned preacher, who showed me many things; the monastery of Saint Benedict, whose abbot the king had sent to Castile as a prisoner as a squanderer of its goods, the monastery of Saint Clare of the Carmelites, and that of the Minor Brothers.  The king, may God prolong his life many years, is presently occupied with the reform of the Augustinians.

[The Cathedral of Santiago]: The church of Santiago is one of the three principal ones, following in order that of Rome and that of Ephesis in Asia, which has just disappeared [conquered by the Turks].  It was built by Charlemagne, King of the Franks, and Emperor of Germany who, as afterwards you will know about his wars, paid for it with the spoils, donations and tribute of the Saracens.  It is a marvelous work, in the manner of a cross.  The central nave measures a hundred paces, the length of its arms is of a hundred and twenty, the width, fifteen, the width of the central nave, thirty-two, and the length of all the central nave and the retro-choir, of a hundred and twenty.  All is constructed and vaulted with very hard dressed stone.  It has two side aisles, like the church of Saint Sebald; and in the choir, forming a circle, chapels.  It is truly a very robust work.  It has in the four angles four very strong towers, and now they are building another, also very strong.

[Description of Santiago's Chapels:] The chapels around the choir are twelve, and the vault that forms the head of the cross is very high. In the middle of it they swing, from side to side of the arms of the church, an enormous incense burner with aromatic smoke.

[A resume of the Liber Sancti Jacobi is included in the manuscript]

[Archbishops, Cardinals, Canons and Relics]: Pope Calixtus conceded many privileges to this church.  Its present Archbishop is don Alfonso, Count of Cifuentes, a learned man and a great orator. For the last sixty years until now, the Archbishop always intervened in the internal disputes, as a result of which the region of Galicia was much weakened.  The King who now holds all the rents of Spain with a stronger hand, exiled him to Salamanca, and deprived him of temporal governance, permitting him, however, to live there on his rents; and reformed all of Galicia with new laws and institutions.  Eternal blessings on that most serene King!

            The church has forty five canons, among which are seven created by Calixtus; they are the only ones permitted to celebrate mass at the high altar, and they are called the Cardinals of Santiago.  This is also permitted of the Archbishop and the bishops under him here, but no one else.  The benefices of the canons are seventy ducats, besides other privileges.

            The King of Castile has given the Cathedral very beautiful ornaments.  Equally, King Louis of France, father of Charles, has given it many donations; among others, that of three enormous bells and 10,000 escudos, half of which was divided among the canons, and with the other half, very rich ornaments were bought.  The coat of arms of the [French] King with the lilies is seen engraved everywhere.

            On December 16, that was Tuesday, before the festival of Saint Thomas, a great function was held in honor of Saint Fructuoso, whose body is kept there.  They employed, both in the procession as well as in the mass, very rich ornaments with the lilies of the French King.  As well, the 18^th of December, that was the fifth feast day before Saint Thomas, they celebrated a feast of the Blessed Virgin, which, among the Spaniards, has the name of the Feast of the Expectation of Incarnation of the Lord, with admirable solemnity, with a procession and incense in the middle of the choir, and with rich ornaments of very pure gold, gifts of the King of Castile.  On the front, these carried the royal arms with arrows, and on the back, the coat of arms of Castile and Aragon, all made of gold and precious stones.  Oh, how great is this King in his donations to the churches and his reform of them!

            On the same day of the festival of the Blessed Virgin the high altar was adorned with two images of saints, of thirty, twenty-five and fifty marks, and others of gilded silver..  Among all of them, however, the largest was that of the Blessed Virgin, of pure gold, so they assure me, who held a magnificent scepter in her right hand, and held the Infant Jesus, her son, in her left, with a superb crown, which was carried by a cardinal in the procession under a canopy, that was carried by two priests, trying to keep their equilibrium.  Also there was a cross, adorned with gold and precious stones, usually kept in the sacristy that was shown to the pilgrims.  I will treat the abundance of reliquaries of Compostela in another section. [though he didn’t]

[Chapels in the Retrochoir of Santiago]: Among the twelve chapels that circle the choir, the first is of the King of France, who had it built and bestowed upon it two hundred ducats annually, so that all the canonical hours may be sung.  But the canons collected the rents, and only sing in the principal choir.  Seven of the twelve chapels are parochial for all Compostela, where the most distinguished citizens of the parish are buried, and where the sacraments are administered.  We attended at two burials.  Before one of the corpses they carried a full wineskin, two bags of bread, two forequarters of beef and two lambs, which are the parochial rights, as well as two funeral cloths.  Although the canons sang the hours and the Office of the Dead with much diligence, they applied themselves, however with even more zeal to the profits.

            So loud is the continual chatter in the Cathedral, that you would think you were at a fair. There is very little devotion there.  The very holy Apostle should be shown more veneration.  They believe that he is buried with two of his disciples under the high altar, one to the left and one to the right, although no one has seen his body, not even the King of Castile when he was here in the year of the Lord 1487.  We believe it only in faith, which is that which saves us as men.

[Leaving Compostela]: The 21^st of December, saying goodbye to Santiago, we left after eating, and after 5 leagues we arrived in the little hamlet of Ferreiros, where we lodged at a very bad inn.  In the morning we rode nine leagues, passing the little hamlet of Mellid, to the small town of Segonde, and similarly, on the 24^th, to the town of Puente Marín, crossing a great river; after eight leagues, we arrived at the little place called Sarriá. All of this region has fertile land and is mountainous, but is sparsely inhabited.  These people eat primarily pork, and in all their habits are truly dirty and pig-like.

            On the 25^th, the festival of the Nativity of Our Lord, we rested here for a day.  That same day I received some letters from Jodocus Mayer, father-in-law of my brother, carried to me by a certain pilgrim, in which there was news of a great epidemic in Nuremburg.

            The 26^th, in the morning, crossing mountains and valleys we finally came to the town of Cebreros, at the top of a high mountain called Malfaber.  They were nine long leagues.

            The 27^th, descending from the high mountain and through a long valley of seven leagues, we arrived at the castle of Villafranca.  This castle is situated on a pretty little plain, where they produce a great quantity of excellent wine.  Vines decorate the monasteries, one of San Francis and the other of Saint Benedict.  From the high mountains of Galicia three rivers join there, which have very sweet water, potable and abundant in trout.

            The 28^th, leaving Villafranca in the morning, passing that fertile plain and the castle called Ponferrada, traveling eight leagues, we arrived at a town called Río at the foot of a very high mountain.  This very tall mountain divides Galicia and Castile, is extremely high, and is called Mount Rabanal.

            On the 29^th, going up and coming down the mountain, after eight leagues, we entered Castile, arriving at the small town of Val, where we stayed in another bad inn.  On the 30^th, rising before dawn, traveling fast over ten leagues, we were received in the city of Benavente.  The road from Santiago to Benavente is fifty six leagues, rather curvy, mountainous and very bad.  We bypassed the very famous city of Astorga, which is famous for being a bishopric and having a very strong wall with parapets.  When in former times, all of Spain passed from being Catholic in the face of the Muslim invasion, the reconquest began from this city, Asturias and Cantabria, that they call Vizcaya; because only the Asturians and the Basques kept their faith as good soldiers of Christ; you will find this in more detail in the History of Spain.

[Benavente and its Fortress]: Benavente is a small city, badly built and planned with four reformed monasteries: Saint Francis, Saint Dominic, the Holy Spirit and Saint Claire.  It is situated on a fertile and excellent plain, crossed by the Aquefontis River, that has a lot of very good trout.  This river flows into the Duero River along with more insignificant ones, which drains into the sea, near Portugal.

 The city belongs to don Rodrigo, count of Benavente who, with the Duke of Seville, are the grandest and richest nobles of the King of Spain.  He has many and grand towns, as well as, thanks to the long and protracted wars in former times against the Saracens, half of all the tenth tributes of his estates, and the conferring of all the benefices. And all of this by Papal pardon.  There was also a time in the old days when the Count fought the Kings of Castile; he always faced him, since he is descended from Castilian royal blood.

[The Castle of Benavente]:     The Castle of Benavente is of the most noble and beautiful in all Castile, and after the fortresses of Granada and Seville, it has no equal in Spain.  It is situated outside the city, on a small mountain.  It is square, and has in each of its four corners a very fortified tower, with parapets and many strong bulwarks.  It is adorned in its interior with a square patio, with chapels, pavilions and rooms of diverse kinds of brick.  All of the artesonado ceilings of the pavilions and rooms are decorated with gold, and the columns are of marble.  What else?  Everything there tends towards the sumptuous.  At the foot of the castle's mountain flows a small river called the Orbigo.  The castle's foundations are all vaulted, with arches, rectangles, etc., so scrambled that you would think you were in a labyrinth.  There is a very long subterranean passage that descends to the river, so that horses may go down it; and there are so many underground rooms for mills, and to take up water, such as I have never seen, much less would I believe it. I have never seen upon the earth any castle similar to this one, in the subterranean spaces, caves and beauty. 

            The Count was not in residence, that magnificent and splendid man, but the chamberlain, who in the Spanish language is called the "Alcalde," personally showed us everything.  The Count is very fond of animals.  He has nine lions, and two more, and a wolf, which get along well and eat together in tranquility.  We saw a black man who approached them and caressed them, and they were complaisant about it. Behold the one who achieves such intimacy, who makes the most ferocious beasts show affection with their guardians.  The captain assured me that fifteen hundred ducats a year were needed to maintain those animals.  A few years ago, he also had an elephant, which died one winter, because it could not stand the cold.  There is a lot to write about this noble castle, but I will omit it for brevity's sake.  However, it is beautiful, especially the view over the river and in all directions.

[Numancia, presently Zamora, Castilian City]:  On January 2^nd, we arrived in the morning in Zamora, called Numancia in ancient times, that is 10 leagues from Benavente.  It is situated on fertile and flat ground, lavish in vinyards and grains.  It is as big as Ulm, but triangular in the style of a pyramid.  Towards the east, outside of the walls, the most famous of Spain's rivers, the Duero that flows into the sea of Portugal, waters almost half of it; superb, very clear, with mills, a bridge, with sweet water and excellent fish.  Underneath the new bridge you can see the foundations of the old one that was here before.

In the most acute angle of the city, towards the river, there is a handsome royal fortress, and united to it the Cathedral church of the bishop, dedicated to the Savior, with twenty five canons and six dignitaries, not counting its pensioners.  It is a very beautiful church in the old style, with a very high retablo facing the choir, with excellent paintings and other adornments.  It also has a superb and very beautiful cloister, with a gilded artesonado ceiling in the Spanish style.  Having ascended to the very high tower and contemplated the situation of the place and its countryside, I was very pleased.

            This Numancia, I repeat, in the year 600 of the foundation of Rome, resisted the Romans valiantly, with only four thousand inhabitants, they were successful, and they killed more than sixty thousand Roman soldiers.  Finally, having been designated by the Emperor, Scipio Africanus, destroyed them, not by force but by astuteness. They stymied any provisioning of the city by digging a deep trench around it that impeded entering or exiting it.  Obligated by hunger, they decided to surrender, if they were given fair terms, or as warriors, if they died valiantly.  The Romans refused both, so that, weakened by hunger, they set fire to the city and to themselves as well, so that the victors would have no glory or plunder.  Thus, then, when Numancia was conquered, nothing remained for the Romans other than possession of the place.  Scipio asked a certain Spaniard named Cirenus how they had resisted the Romans for so many years, and with so few people.  He responded: "Agreement made them invincible, discord, damnation."  A sentence that was read on many designated days in the Senate for many years. I think that you will find a fuller account in Titus Livius where he speaks of the deeds of Scipio.

            The landscape of Numancia is fruitful and peaceful, with excellent wheat, wine and other products.

SALAMANCA

            Salamanca is ten leagues from Numancia; it is situated near the river Tormes that comes from the Tormes Mountains.  In spite of the fact that the river is narrow, it has a bridge of twenty-three small arches.  It is situated on an excellent plain.  Ascending to the very high tower of its cathedral, it seemed be a little bigger than Nüremberg.

 It has many reformed monasteries, and among others, the Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a solid edifice of dressed stone, with a very high cupola before the choir, a very beautiful cloister and many attached chapels, richly decorated.  Among the attachments to the cloister is the library, of which I have not yet seen the like elsewhere in Spain.  It is a sumptuous building, vaulted like a church, with ancient and magnificent books in parchment about all the disciplines, especially of Philosophy and Theology.

 It has thirty five canons and other prebendaries; eighteen priests and eight dignitaries.  The benefices are abundant and the beneficiaries learned men who gave me all manner of attention.  The Episcopal curia is also a beautiful edifice.  The people are very polite, and live more from the fruits of the land than from business.  The foodstuff market is very good; six gelded goats are worth a ducat, etc.

[Salamanca's School]: In all of Spain there doesn't exist a general school more illustrious than Salamanca.  When I visited it, they assured me that 5,000 students attended classes among all its faculties.  The fecundity of its countryside reduces the prices in the market, with the result that students flock here from all directions, as well as the goodness of the many professors who educate them.  It has a beautiful school, recently constructed at the expense of the king, of dressed stone, in the manner of monastery cloisters, with big, well-lit and well-adorned classrooms.  It possesses, also a great vaulted library, and painted on its top part with the signs of the Zodiac and the Liberal Arts.  It is as big as the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Nüremberg.  We saw the students reading and reciting their lessons.  They are frugal and very well dressed, and we caused them admiration with our dress and our language.  I liked this school very much.  There are some others in Spain, as those of Valladolid, Lisbon and Toledo, but none is equal to this one.

[Cave of Black Magic]: There exists a subterranean cave, in which there are many vaults and crypts.  Over this is the chapel of the blessed Cipriano.  Before the coming of Christ, even in the time of the Mohammadans, magical superstitions were frequently practiced in Persia, Spain and Britain, as you can see in the Natural History of Pliny.  But there is no one who has discovered or believes they have heard of the practice of magic in this place.  I think there was a sibyl’s grotto, and that, in reality, there they pronounced oracles like they did in the Grotto of the Sibyl, in the countryside of Naples.  Vulgar people tell many lies about this place.  There also exists, in the library of the Cathedral, a book of astronomy with the signs of the Zodiac, with points, numbers and characters, falsely considered as a book of magic.

There also exists another magnificent house, built at the expense of the Archbishop of Seville, with revenues, household goods and everything else, where eighteen scholars live splendidly, of which two study philosophy, four medicine, four theology, four canon law and four [civil] law.  A truly lovely school!  There is nothing more in the city worth talking about.  It has, however many knights and nobles who live from its tithes.

1495

            The 4^th of January, after our meal, we left Salamanca, and after four leagues we arrived at the town of Alba, which is property of don Fadrique de Toledo, Duke of Alba and Count of Salvatierra, who has a magnificent castle there.  After rising in the morning, passing by Boadilla, after eight leagues, we arrived in Villafranca.

            January 6, after hearing mass and breakfasting, riding over very high and snowy mountains for six leagues, and on the next day we descended to a beautiful valley, full of vineyards, olives and giant chestnut trees.  We then arrived at the city of Colmenares, and crossing a beautiful plain, we arrived in the town of Puente del Arzobispo.  The bridge, truly, superb and very high, with six arches and two very fortified towers, was constructed by a certain archbishop.  On the seventh day of hard traveling over very high and nearly impassable mountains, we came to the very famous and very celebrated Monastery of Guadalupe.

MONASTERY OF GUADALUPE

             Going from Salamanca to Seville, towards the south, some very high mountains present themselves, of seven or eight leagues in length.  Mountains, I repeat, the lairs of wild beasts, with abrupt valleys full of precipices, in the middle of which, as in the middle of a circle, near the little river Guadalupejo, is situated this monastery.  Gwada, in the language of the Moors means "river," thus Gwadaluppa means "River of Wolves., because the place was full of them. 

About seven hundred years ago, when Moors dominated all Bética and Seville, who professed the law of Mahoma, a certain archbishop of Seville, foreseeing the ruin of Spain, buried his relics in diverse places, and some of the clerics, fugitives, hid an image of the blessed Virgin in this sylvan place, far from the roads.  Leandro, archbishop of Seville, sent his brother Isidoro to Rome, where the Pope Gregory gave him this image, which in the time of a great epidemic the Pontiff raised before the house of the sick.  After Leandro's death, Isidoro succeeded him as Archbishop.  When Seville was reconquered after many years by the king Fernando, a shepherd, who had lost a cow, heard a deafening voice, that told him: Go to that place and you will find your cow there, dead.  Dig at this site and you will find an image of me, which, placed over the cow, will restore it to life.  Go afterwards to see the Archbishop of Seville and tell him what you have seen, commanding that in that hidden and sylvan place is to be constructed in my honor a chapel, and give me a cult in it.  The shepherd did it thus, and at first a hermitage was constructed, but later this Virgin, having become famous for her many miracles, they built this monastery.  It is such a splendid and adorned edifice appropriate to its grandeur, that there is none better.

[The Location of the Monastery]:  It is situated towards the south on the foothill of a very high mountain, from which flow four springs, which form pools in diverse places.  It is surrounded by mountains on all sides, except towards the south where, passing some hills, the plain of Bética presents itself.  It is, therefore, a very closed-in place, full of grapevines, olives, orange trees and very abundant other produce. 

            The 8^th of January blackbirds and other birds sang in the orchards, as they do in our land in the month of May.  The Guadalupejo flows by it, a little river, but of sweet waters, with trout, etc.

[The Monastery Church]: We first entered into the church, and giving thanks to the Immaculate Virgin, we strolled through the temple which is high, magnificent and luminous, with a very high cupola before the choir.  Facing the choir is the high altar, rising up thirteen steps above the others; in this way the monks can comfortably see the mysteries of the Mass from the high choir behind it.  The retablo of the high altar is very big and very high, all made of ivory and gold, in the middle of which devotedly gleams this very sacred statue found by the shepherd.  Sixteen silver lamps and others of gilded silver hang before it, which burn day and night.  In the middle of these lamps is the biggest of all, of a hundred and twenty eight marks of silver, which was donated by the shepherds of this region, by whose ancestors discovered the image.  There are other lamps of royal and noble donation.   We also saw, to one side, a candle of the whitest wax, of fifteen or sixteen centenaries, that the King of Portugal gave to the Blessed Virgin because of a plague that infested his kingdom, and because of certain terrible dangers of the sea from which his subjects were liberated and sheltered in a secure port.  We also saw countless iron shackles, brought there by Christian captives who were liberated from the Saracens by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, some of great weight—of twenty or forty five pounds.  How horrible it was to see and hear that Christian men laden with this weight found themselves enslaved in the hardest work!

            So great and so many are the miracles that happen here every day that they have already fill three great volumes, and there is another, continually being filled by them.  And it isn't surprising, since before God, nothing is impossible.

            We also contemplated the skin of an enormous crocodile, brought by certain Portuguese who, invoking the Blessed Virgin, found themselves free from this danger in Guinea, and a gigantic tortoise shell—that is, Schildkröte—in which a person can bathe as if in a tub, two great whalebones of four brazos arms in length by two of width that were taken in Portugal from an enormous whale, that had twelve hundred barbs, and finally, a very long elephant's tusk.

            The choir of the monks is constructed high up, in the back part of the church.  It is very spacious with beautiful seats and with big choir books such that I have never seen in my life.  Each leaf had four palmos in width and six in length, and each folio corresponded to a complete skin. 

            The church has more than thirty altars, and is richly decorated in all its chapels.  There are a hundred and forty brothers along with lay brothers, and among them are seventy priests.  They have so many master craftsmen, artisans, shepherds and workers, that daily, within the monastery and outside it, they feed ninety people. This is not counting alms, which are given in abundance, to help all who ask.  Besides so many master craftsmen, artisans, shepherds and agricultural workers that I've already mentioned, there are many who serve for vows who are very fervent in their devotion to the Blessed Virgin.  They belong to the rule of Saint Augustine, and their habit is that of Saint Jerome: white tunics and brown or natural wool color scapulars.  Pope Gregory II instituted the order and gave it its constitution.

[The Chapter Room, Cellars and Pipelines]:  After eating, called by our request to the monastery, the Reverend Father Prior received us—a venerable man of seventy five years—with great friendliness, in the vestibule of the chapter room, with a beautiful fountain.  We were introduced there, and it is certainly a superb room.  After a long conversation, he gave us over to the monks, who accompanied us to an immense wine cellar, cut into the depths of the mountain, where we saw some enormous vats and equally enormous vessels, full of wine.  Then they took to two more cellars, equally large.  On leaving the cellars, they showed us a wide tank full of water from the source on the mountain, which, distributed by many pipes, supplied the many fountains of the monastery: those of the kitchen, chapter, hospital, cloister, sacristy, etc.; thus bringing sweet and potable water to all dependencies.  With admirable ingenuity and great expense, they have constructed these conduits, of marble, copper, lead and ceramics, of various types.

[The Refectories of the Monks and the Domestic Servants]: The refectory of the monks, wide, very high, and illustriously constructed, is fifty-five paces long.  The refectory of the other members and the officials is beautiful, and even bigger.  At least two hundred people eat there daily; among them, five priests who administer the sacraments to the members, with a reading during the meal, and otherwise, complete silence.  In the doorway there is a large pillory where a layman who breaks the silence is tied by the feet for a determined number of hours.

            There is also a kitchen for the members, with some very large copper cooking vessels, big enough to cook an entire beef, and other containers for hot and cold water, with their corresponding pipes.  The kitchen of the monks is equally superb.  United to the refectory are the wine cellar and the exquisite pantry, so well located and constructed that there are none better.

            January 11^th, which was a Sunday, a monk, one from the infirmary, conducted us to the refectory, where we ate with a hundred monks and lay brothers, with so much silence and devotion to the reading during the meal, as to move the most stonyhearted sinner to venerate God.  We were treated splendidly.

[Shoemakers, Tailors, Bakers, Repairmen, Blacksmiths and Other Craftspeople]:  We saw at the shoemaker's many men continually working, and such was the quantity of shoes, that I have never seen so many in my life; there were also shoe menders and leather tanners, among them a certain German from Danzig, in Prussia. 

            In the bakery there are so many sacks of flour, it is hard to believe; each week they use 20 cartloads of flour for bread for the monastery and for alms for the poor.

 In the tailors’ shop we also saw countless habits and wool shirts for the monks, each one marked with a name, and everything superabundant.  In the front of this workshop there was a German priest, from Stettin, in the Marches.  There are many German craftsmen and monks here. 

In the enormous forge, there is such a great noise of hammers, files, etc., that you would think them to be Cyclops.  There are so many workshops that belong to the monastery, that you might think you were in a small city.  There are superb granaries.  I can't sum up everything.

[Cultivated Fields and Gardens]: We visited two extensive and beautiful gardens, situated at the foot of the mountain, where there are water canals to water the citron, orange, plum, lemon, olive and other trees.  The citrons were ripe and they were a pretty sight among their green leaves.

[Library, Dormitories and Infirmary]: They have a very copious library, with thirty six beautiful desks and with excellent and well-bound books. 

The dormitory of the novices has twenty-six very well prepared beds, and in the center, a lamp that burns all night.  The dormitory of the lay brothers is similar, with twenty-two beds.  Everything is well arranged. 

The infirmary is so pretty in its rooms and beds, with an excellent fountain and a beautiful pharmacy, which it is difficult to believe.

[The Two Cloisters]:  It has two very beautiful and spacious cloisters, placed one over the other; the one above is the prettier.  In the center is a fountain, with a basin of forged copper, with beautiful figures, and in the angle, near the refectory, there is another beautiful fountain.  It is scattered with orange trees, cypresses, etc.  Over this is the other cloister, which opens on the high choir, and has at its corners images of the cross, the Blessed Virgin and other saints, where the monks make their stations, and equally, lovely chapels and very big choir books.  Oh, how agreeable and devout is this place!  Anyone can pick oranges from the trees.  I can't describe all this beauty.

[Royal chambers]: The Kings of Castile possess magnificent palaces here, with fountains in front of them, and exquisitely prepared rooms, where we saw some servants of the Queen guarding many of the Kings' coffers; and many parrots, among which was one of five colors, with the head gray, the neck green, the breast black, the tail red, and the wings of blue ending in green.  These creatures were awaiting the King and Queen.  The Queen prefers this monastery above all others, and when she is in it she says that she has encountered paradise.  She personally attends all the Hours each day, in her splendid private oratory above the choir.

[Sacristy and church Treasures]:On Sunday, the 11^th of January, after dining splendidly in the refectory with the Father Prior and a hundred monks and lay brothers, and with the greatest reverence and devotion, we entered the sacristy to see the ornaments and other things.

The first thing they showed us there was a closet with ten very beautiful gilded crosses, besides the thirty adorning the altars.  On feast days they place a cross of this group on each one of the altars.  They are artistically made and they weigh five, six, to ten marks in assaying weights.  There were also basins and  many small containers for the water and wine, all of silver and gold. 

The second closet had ten big chests, in each one of them three mantles, all brocaded with gold—and some with gold plaques—woven like nets and full of pearls and other precious stones.  There, there were only frontals, very rich donations of the Kings of Castile.

The third closet was full of crosses of black tortoise shell encrusted with gold—for Lent—and other images of silver and gilded silver. 

The fourth closet contained twenty four big silver images richly gilded and with pearls and precious stones.  Among them, there was a big cross, at the foot of which were the images of the Virgin, Saint John, the Magdalen, Saint Joseph, etc.  All were of gold, gift of a King of Castile to the Blessed Virgin, for a certain victory.  This alone was worth six thousand ducats; a crown of pure gold, with precious stones and pearls, among which there was one big, pear-shaped one.  The Sacristan said that the value of this closet was more than twenty ducats.

The Fifth closet, of large size, holds the tabernacle for Holy Thursday, monumental in size, of cypress, with plaques of gold and silver, with gilded images, with pearls and precious stones, and of such weight that ten men could scarcely carry it to the choir.  I was assured that this tabernacle was priceless.  I don't think its equal exists in the world.  I calculated that its weight exceeded a thousand marks.

The sixth closet was full of chalices, some of them of pure gold, a very valuable choir book with a binding of pearls and precious stones, which is carried in processions on holy days to recite its prayers.  It also contains splendid decanters for the wine and water for the altar.  The contents of this closet truly have a high value.

In the seventh closet, there are seventeen images, among which were two very tall crosses and a crown of pure gold—extremely valuable. They assured us that the value of the contents was more than fifteen thousand ducats. 

The eighth closet contains the monstrance, of two hundred fifty five marks. The smaller monstrance within it is of pure gold and precious stones.  They said that they had paid four thousand marks for it.  There were also two very beautiful crosses made of shell, encrusted with gold flowers.

The ninth closet had twelve chests in which were thirty six dalmatics, all brocaded in gold, with pearls and precious stones; was also a box of frontals, veils and other rich cloths.

The tenth closet was full of square, tall candlesticks; as well as very rich incense burners and paxes of silver, gold and precious stones.

 The eleventh closet was glittering with gold ornaments for the Mass and other grand and solemn occasions, full of carmine-red ornaments, for the feast of the Apostles, and another, with plain silk ornaments for simple feasts.  Oh, how precious these ornaments are! 

The twelfth closet was filled with altar cloths, of gold, silver and other materials.

There were also many other chests with daily ornaments that are impossible to enumerate.  It is the truth that with this treasury the Saracens could recuperate their lost kingdoms; so rich are they.  And I believe, certainly that this monastery is not the smallest treasure that the Kings of Castile possess.

[Hospital]: Outside the monastery they have the hospital, beautiful, big and of excellent construction, square in shape, with many beds, with various rooms: one for wounded people, one for those with fever, and another to feed the poor; and a multitude of rooms replete with blankets, sheets and everything needed for a magnificent hospital.

[The Monastery's Income]: Their revenues come primarily from livestock, which they have in abundance.  They had then, from what they told me, four thousand cows, many thousand sheep and horses, and of oil, wine and wheat.  It is believed that every year they take in profits of more than twenty thousand ducats.  They live in strict observance.  Everything there is distributed carefully, and this order and agreement among each one of them conserves its wealth and private property.  There are among them highly experienced painters, copyists, illuminators, jewelers and ornament-makers, of so many that it's hard to imagine.  Oh, how many marvelously illuminated missals we observed!  The workshops of the monastery are admirable, where everything is set up for comfort and beauty.  What else? The words of Sallust came to my mind: "With concord, insignificant things grow; with discord the greatest are destroyed." And also another about without Virtue no path is open, and another about ingenuity is worth everything.  Where passions predominate, the spirit can do nothing. 

I believe that Their Royal Majesties know all the secrets of what is enclosed in the treasury, and have an agreement with them that nothing can be sold.  I could say a lot more about this illustrious monastery, but I am omitting it for brevity's sake.

[The Road to Toledo]:  On the 11^th of January, returning through those high mountains and passing by El Puente del Arzobispo, we headed towards Toledo, which is twenty seven leagues from Guadalupe.  From Puente de Arzobispo, we came to Talavera, that celebrated city, situated on the banks of the Tajo river, with a bridge of twenty-two arches.  There, the Archbishop of Granada founded two monasteries, one of Saint Jerome, and the other of the Observant Franciscans.  There is a collegiate church.  It is as big as Nördlingen, and on a pretty plain, fertile in wine, olives and other products.  Leaving this city on the 14^th of January, we arrived in the afternoon at the renowned and ancient city of Toledo.

TOLEDO

            Toledo is one of the most distinguished cities of Spain.  It is situated on a mountain and very fortified.  The river Tajo surrounds three quarters of it, by a deep valley.  Its situation is thus like Bern in Switzerland, although the rise of the mountain on all parts is more elevated.  Oh, what strong walls it has, built by the Saracens, and how fortified it is naturally and by artifice!  It has a Cathedral where the Cardinal Archbishop died who had the name of don Pedro de Mendoza, whose body we saw brought from Guadalajara, over twenty two leagues, in such splendor, pomp and solemnity that there could not have been more. 

On the outskirts and in the windows of the city we saw so many people of both sexes that is incredible, since it is bigger and more populous than Nüremburg.  This Cardinal left an immense wealth in gold and goods, in value more than two hundred thousand ducats.  The church of Toledo is richer than all the others in Spain, and is the primacy of all those in Spain.

[The Cathedral]: We have not seen in Spain, already completed, a Cathedral that is similar in beauty and attractiveness.  Its length is two hundred twenty paces, and its width, forty seven.  It has two aisles at each side, and behind the choir, three, of which the last, at the head, is lower, for chapels, which are superb, spacious and very well decorated.  In them are the tombs of the Kings.  This building was paid for with the booty and spoils of the Saracens, after the reconquest of the city of Toledo, which was won and lost many times by the Moors.  The choir stalls are numerous, and were newly carved by a certain sculptor from lower Germany.  In each one of the stalls is a beautifully sculpted scene of the conquest of the city and the castle of Granada, so that you can contemplate the Granadan war as if it were before your eyes.  It also has a very high and beautiful tower, which we ascended to contemplate the city; we saw the biggest bell in Spain, which weighs four hundred great hundredweights, like ours.

[Treasury and Riches of the Church]: This church has eight thousand ducats annually for its maintenance, with which they attend to it, restoring broken things and constructing new things.  Its sacristy is, I think, the largest after Guadalupe's, and perhaps surpasses it.  The very perceptive gentleman, canon, legal expert and consummate poet Alfonso de Ortiz who had the greatest courtesy towards me, took us to see it.  We saw firstly the spacious sacristy chapel, decorated with such beautiful paintings, that you would think you were in the Sistine chapel in Rome.  Oh, I cannot describe how admirable the paintings are, with all their virtues.

            The showed me first more than a hundred images, chalices, crosses, other vessels, busts, all of gold and of silver, full of relics. 

Afterwards, they opened a great chest, in which, oh, what a magnificent cross we contemplated, set with precious stones and excellent pearls, and a big piece of the True Cross!  Truly, this cross was beautiful!  A Bible in three volumes, of virgin parchment, with both sides highly burnished, so that it had, firstly, at the sides of the text, below it, mystical commentary, and in the center the figures, representing the story, illuminated with gold and blue.  I don't believe there is a similar bible in the world.  Oh, how magnificent was its binding, in silk, adorned with precious stones, pearls and other things! 

There was also a silver square with little spaces filled with relics, and this piece was extremely large. 

In the third chest were five very rich mitres, among which was one that the Cardinal Archbishop had made, for twenty five thousand ducats, extremely sumptuous, with pearls and precious stones.  How rich also were the borders of the mitres!  There were also two large paxes and other rich pictures. They estimated that that the contents of this chest were worth more than a hundred thousand ducats. 

The fourth closet contained the monstrance, which weighed more than eight hundred marks.  I have never seen a larger one.  There were also silver crosiers, and other rich crosses of shell with gold incrustations. 

In the fifth closet there was a great gold cross, of a hundred and fifty marks, incense burners and silver candelabra.

[Ornaments]: After this they showed me five chests, each with seven boxes, and in each one a complete set of ornaments, that is cape, chasuble, dalmatics, stoles, albs, etc.  Each of the major feasts, such as Easter, Pentecost, the Epiphany, the Nativity, the Trinity and all the festivals of the Blessed Virgin had their own ornaments, all of gold and silver, with pearls and precious stones, of inestimable price.  They could not show us more things because the Cardinal died that day, and the canons were very saddened. 

None of this surprised me, because the church of Toledo is very rich.  Around here, they sing the refrain: "In Spain, Toledo is rich, Seville, big, Santiago, strong, and León, beautiful." 

Beyond this very rich treasury, guarded by many strong locks, there is another sacristy, where they keep the ornaments for simple feasts, like that of the Apostles, Confessors and fairs, etc.

[Canons and Pensioners]: There are forty canons, whose benefices are three hundred ducats, and fifty pensioners, of a hundred ducats, and priests who take care of the royal chapel and the others with forty.  There are fifty priests and, I believe, thirteen dignitaries.  The archdeacon has four thousand ducats.

[Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes of the Order of Saint Francis]: The Kings Fernando and Isabel are constructing that building of cut, rectangular stone in such a superb and splendid way, that it causes admiration.  The church is finished, except for the choir, and is profusely decorated with the coats of arms of the King and Queen, and the images of John the Baptist—its patron saint—and other images.  The cloister will also be very beautiful.  On the church exterior, surrounding the choir, on the high part of the walls, are hung the iron chains of the liberated Christians of Granada.  I believe that two carts could scarcely carry them. All of this is in memory of the Christian liberator and of the captive citizens. 

The architect assured me that the work will cost, when finished,  about two hundred thousand ducats.  The brothers are of the Order of Saint Francis, of rigid observance and exemplary life.  There I met the general of the whole order, from Brittany, who was in Nüremberg in the year of salvation 1490, a very learned man and very esteemed by the Kings, who related many things to me.

 The King, together with the Queen, once Granada was captured and Spain converted to the best state, eagerly re-consecrated it to the [true] religion, restored the old churches, built other new ones and founded and endowed numerous monasteries.

Presently, in the city of Avila they are building a monastery superior to the others, called Santa Cruz.  It is of the Order of Saint Dominic, and in it are the inquisitors of the marranos and the heretics.  It will cost, they say, more than a hundred thousand ducats.  In Valladolid as well, they are building another of the Order of the Preachers, with an attached school for the students of the Order of Saint Dominic, excellently provided with the things they need.  The King does everything to further religion, so much so that you would think he was another Charlemagne.  The Queen does as well.  I think that buildings of this type were paid for by the confiscated goods of the marranos, who were the richest people of all Spain, and of those convicted of heresy, condemned to the fire, whose goods were appropriated by the royal treasury.  They are also reforming so many monasteries, that it isn't easy either to count them or believe it.

[Monastery of the Holy Trinity]:  in this Monastery are the brothers of Saint Mary of Mercy, who wear completely white habits, with a little shield on their chests, and on it a celestial cross and below the arms of the King of Aragon.  They were founded with the object of the redemption of the Christian captives of pagans.  With the alms they collected they went to Africa, and at times they brought back thirty-four, forty or up to fifty captives.  Within this monastery is a church that was a very old mosque of the Moors.  In this place the book of Ethics of Aristotle with commentary by Averroes was translated, according to what is written at the end of the Book of Ethics of Averroes.

[Monastery of Saint Augustine]: That monastery is in an angle of the city towards the west.  In former times, it was the fortress of the king of the Saracens, makes us understand that its foundations, rooms, cellars and everything else, are extremely strong.  The monks were dissolved because of licentiousness and this caused the ruin of the monastery.  The King, having expelled the former, installed Observant brothers there.  Among them, the Father Prior, a gentleman of great knowledge and devotion, who restored the monastery, told me many things.  The monastery has a beautiful exterior appearance. 

At the foot of it is an extensive field, called the campo santo, on which, in olden times twenty thousand Christians of both sexes were murdered by pagans while they were celebrating the solemnity of Palm Sunday.  The Jews, who were hidden in great numbers, allowed the Saracens to enter through a tower, and the latter occupied the city and abruptly interrupting the Christians, they caused a terrible slaughter and they took the city.  The fortress through which they entered the city is today destroyed and demolished.

            There are many monasteries in Toledo.  In one, there were fifty nuns of the Observant order of Saint Claire.  The King expelled certain monks of the Benedictine order, and substituted the nuns of Saint Claire, who are from the best families in the kingdom of Castile.  The general of the order of Saint Francis, whom I mentioned above, told me that under the auspices of the King, there were already six monasteries under his order, two of Saint Francis and four of nuns.

[Public Courtesy]: These people are very courteous.  There are so many clerics among them that it causes admiration.

MAYORIT, COMMONLY CALLED MADRID

            The 17^th of January, leaving Toledo very early in the morning, traveling twelve leagues through fertile places and a plain rich in wine and wheat, we arrived very late at night, at Madrid,  where, at that moment, their Royal  Majesties were resting. 

In the outskirts, half a mile from the city--which is situated at some height—is the monastery of Santa Maria del Prado, of the Order of Saint Jerome, their Majesties had retired for a few days for mourning and to attend the funeral of the deceased Cardinal.  There, I saw the King and Queen, accompanied by their son, attending Mass very devotedly.  We also saw the two sons of the last King of Granada, handsome and gallant youths, who are very well educated in our religion and are devout Christians.  The elder is named Fernando, and the younger, Juan. 

Madrid is as large as Biberach, but it has very extensive suburbs.  It has many robust fountains and a very good market, and two Moorish quarters full of Saracens.

[The King and Queen]: When King Alfonso of Naples died, his elder brother, Juan, succeeded to the throne of Aragon, so hated by the citizens of Barcelona that they called in the King of Castile to rule them.  Juan, after many battles, with the aid of Louis, King of France, who had taken over the county of Roussillon, subdued the people of Barcelona and was proclaimed king.  He had a son, Fernando, presently ruling, who had been consecrated to the military from the age of fourteen; a very dignified King, as his deeds show.

[Queen Isabel]: Juan, King of Castile [not to be confused with Juan, King of Aragon], had three children, Alfonso (the eldest), Enrique, and Isabel, his daughter.  When the father died, Alfonso succeeded him, but died four years into his reign, so his brother Enrique succeeded him.  He married Blanca, queen of Navarre from whom there were no heirs.  Since he was impotent, he believed that doña Blanca had put a curse on him, and with consent of the Pope, although Blanca was still alive, he married Juana, the daughter of the King of Portugal, with whom he still remained impotent.  He had a penis that was weak and small at its base, but big at the end, so that he couldn't straighten it.  The doctors constructed a golden tube, which the queen inserted into her vagina, to see if in this way she could receive his semen; the result was failure.  They masturbated him, and sperm squirted out; but it was watery and sterile.  Taking this into consideration, the nobles of the kingdom aligned themselves around his sister, Isabel, to see if she could succeed her brother.  The Queen, meanwhile, gave birth to doña Juana; but the nobles did not believe that she the daughter of the king, suspecting that the Queen had committed adultery.  The Archbishop Alfonso (Juan) de Carrillo, favoring the candidacy of Isabel, married her off clandestinely to Fernando [of Aragon).  He came secretly to the town of Alcalá—where he was Archbishop—and, having heard the nuptial mass and celebrated the wedding, the bride and groom were made to remain in bed and carnally copulate, so that there could be no possibility of divorce.  And since the father of Fernando, broken by continuous wars, could not give sufficient property to his son, and Isabel herself had little from her brother, the Archbishop, like a father, gave them Alcalá and supported them as if he was their father.

 Meanwhile, Enrique died, and this produced profound discord in the land.  Half backed Juana, the other half Isabel.  King Alfonso of Portugal in order to come to the rescue of his niece [Juana], entered the country with a great army, and conquered Zamora, Salamanca, Burgos and nearly half of Castile.  Fernando, with the Archbishop and their followers, entered into battle and beat them at Toro, seizing Zamora.  After three battles, fortunately won, he obliged the Portuguese to retreat to the border with Castile.  There is a lot more to say about this, but I omit it in the name of brevity.

            We stayed eight days in Madrid.  On the 24th of January, we were admitted into the Royal chamber, where we saw the King hold a public audience; on his right was the Queen, and at his left his son; all in black mourning clothes, very grave and respectful.  Reaching their thrones, the King and Queen were seated and we were called.  Firstly I kissed their hands, and then, kneeling on a gilded cushion, I spoke a short improvised discourse; whose substance is the following:

[Münzer's Speech]:

"Holy and very potent Kings:  the greatness of the deeds carried out by your majesties is known all over the globe, and the princes and other nobles of Germany are filled with admiration, since in former times, because of internal wars, hidden hatreds and private agendas almost destroyed you.  With a lucky star, and in such a short time, you have been able to pass from so much discord to so much peace, tranquility, and such a prosperous state.  Many did not believe it. For this reason, and with the favor of our most serene King Maximilian and the other nobles of Germany, placing this mission on my shoulders, leaving with my group the last borders of Germany, I entered into Spain, to be able to see with my own eyes the things we had only heard about.

  After crossing Germany, Lyons and Narbonne, we arrived at the County of Roussillon, whose capital is Perpignan, a county, pledged by the King of France, his son Charles has liberally restored to you and placed under your scepter.  Passing through the high mountains of the Pyrenees, we arrived in the county of Catalonia, and then to the celebrated and illustrious city of Barcelona, where, in former times, swollen with its wealth, rebelled against its rulers almost to the point of ruin. Now we have been able to see it under your auspices repaired and moving towards a better state.  Leaving Barcelona, passing through Montserrat, a monastery celebrated for its riches and its hermitages, through Poblet, famous for its royal tombs, through mountains and precipitous places, we arrived at the illustrious city of Valencia, where, informed about everything, we continued on to Granada, through very high and impassable mountains, like a formidable barrier, and we entered into the interior of the province.  The first place we were received was Almería, famous for its renowned port, until, finally, after passing through the town of Guadix, we arrived at the illustrious city of Granada.  Informed in detail by the count of Tendilla and by the most reverend Archbishop of most important things, passing through Alhama and Málaga, and returning by the very high mountain of Portalón, we entered Seville, where new and marvelous spectacles awaited us.  There we saw new men, unknown in our century, brought there from the Indies, discovered under your auspices.  What a marvel, incredible and unknown to so many!  Leaving Seville by way of Betis, we arrived at the court of the King of Portugal, where His Royal Majesty informed us about matters in Ethiopia and the southern lands; by way of Santiago and Salamanca, we arrived in Toledo. 

And only because of the desire to see the authors of such great deeds, we have come to Madrid to visit with Your Majesties.  We have come, I repeat, conquering mountains, and now we may contemplate the authors of such high deeds.  We come now, I say, to the kings through whom the hand of God has regenerated nations, conquered kingdoms and found new people.  The Christians' jail has been demolished.  Now you may sow your seeds in tranquility, Oh laborer!  Oh traveler relieved of the fear you had before, because everything is at the most complete peace! 

I do not believe that Your Majesties lack anything, except to add to your triumphs the recapture of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.  Louis and Richard, the first king of France and the second of England, undertook this mission many years ago, sailing to Alexandria with the navy they had prepared; but the Calabrian Joaquin, God's servant, died even before their arrival; and those kings had to return to their fatherlands without glory and with much hardship and devastation.  This victory is reserved for you.  This, your triumph will be seen crowned with other trophies.  You could do this very well; for no one else but you is reserved this occasion and opportunity.  The coasts of Africa tremble before your armies and are disposed to submit themselves to your scepter.  There will not be, thus, an enemy at your back.  Spain flourishes in the greatest tranquility, and you need no longer fear internal revolts.  Sicily, Sardinia and Mallorca, such rich islands, will give you all kinds of supplies. You will conquer Rhodes with your very valiant soldiers.  The Germans and Hungarians will battle the Turks on your frontiers so that Saladin will not be aided.  It will be easy for you, therefore to rescue the Sepulchre of the Lord from the jaws of the enemies of God and heap up their trophies.  What else?

We have seen your most sacred Majesties.  We have seen your very serene and only son Juan, adolescent in age, but great in counsel, with great authority and knowledge for his age, who with the characteristics of your faces I esteem as your worthy successor.

 Oh, Lord, let your German servants go in peace, because we have seen the saviors of all Spain!  We have seen the luminaries who discovered the unknown Indian races, whom you add to the unity of our faith.  Glory to God in Heaven and peace on earth to the men of good will!  I have spoken.

There remains, finally, to procure from Your Majesties a safe-conduct to leave quickly, the frontiers of your Kingdoms, and, by France and other lands, return to Germany, where we will proclaim that everything we have heard before is much greater in reality!"

[Response]: Having pronounced this discourse, the Kings, who understand Latin perfectly, but speak it rarely, to maintain thus the prestige of their authority, after consulting in private with a Prior of the Order of the Holy Spirit, a very learned gentlemen, had him respond in this manner: [this speech is missing from the manuscript].

[The King's and Queen’s Statures]:):  The King is a man of medium stature, of pleasant face and aspect, mixed with certain gravity.  He only shows his heart about great matters.  I think that he is forty four to forty five years old.  He has an excellent complexion. Having pacified his kingdoms and having put everything in order, he consecrated himself to religion, restoring ruined churches and founding new ones.  He also loves to hunt for physical exercise, to continue to keep his health.

            The Queen is forty-eight years old.  She is taller than the King, of elevated stature, somewhat plump, and has an agreeable countenance.  You would think that she was scarcely thirty-six years old.  So great is her knowledge of the arts of peace and war, such is her astuteness, that it seems as if she has all the virtues to a greater extent than is usual in the feminine sex.  She is extremely religious, and she spends so much on church ornaments, that it is incredible.  She has an admirable reverence for the Monks of the Observance, and she makes endowments to their monasteries.  During the conquest of Granada, she was always with the army at her husband's side, and many things that took place were a result of her counsels.  In judgments, she sits on the tribunal with the King; listens to the causes, to the pleas; she resolves litigations, mediating agreements or definitive sentences.  I believe that the Omnipotent sent from the heavens this very serene woman to languishing Spain, so that with her King, she would restore it to a good state.  What else?  She is very religious, very pious and very sweet.  In reality, I cannot describe her virtues. 

She has four daughters.  The first, Isabel, married to Afonso, son of the King of Portugal—who within seven months of the marriage died from the fall of a horse—and now widowed, she religiously consecrates herself to making ornaments for the churches.  The second, Juana, is very well educated—for her age and sex—and writes both prose and poetry.  She is fourteen years old, and she dedicates herself entirely to her studies.  Her teacher, a certain brother of the Order of Preachers, a venerable old man, praises her very much, and wished me to remain while she recited, but I could not for lack of time.  The third daughter, who goes by the name of Leonor, is nine years old, and the last, Catalina, is seven.  With the aid of good teachers, their mother educates them so well, that they are expected to shine to the highest extent in all types of Virtues.

The very serene Juan is the only son, a young man of 16 years, who, for his age, knows so much Latin and is such a good orator, that he causes admiration. I made him a short discourse in Latin, which he listened to with the greatest admiration and pleasure. I also realized that he wanted to respond.  But he was wounded and had a taut lower lip that impeded clear speaking, so he responded through his teacher, showing himself very deferential and benevolent in everything. 

The Queen also gives much alms.  Annually she sends to the monks of Saint Francis in Jerusalem a thousand ducats and very rich ornaments.  When we left Madrid, there were with us two Spanish brothers of the Order of Saint Francis of Jerusalem, and another of the Order of Saint Basil on Mount Sinai, with a long beard, with whom the Sultan sent a ship with balsam and other presents for the Kings.  I saw the bearded friar celebrating Mass in Greek, or so says my companion Anton Herwart.

The Queen is also concerned about promulgating good laws.  With the expulsion of the Jews and the marranos a lot of gold left Spain.  The Spanish people are very ostentatious in brocaded, silk and other precious garments.  Because of this there has been a proclamation among them the ordinances that there should not be such laxity, so that riches do not leave Spain because of such dissipations. 

Until now, while the King was away, she slept in the same room as the prince and princesses.  But now, her daughters sleep with her and with some chaperones so their virtue is not in question, because the people of Castile are very suspicious and interpret everything in a bad way.

The Brother General of the Franciscan Order told me in Toledo, that the Queen has personally told him that of all the wonderful things conceded to her by God, the best was that he had given her such an excellent husband.  This friar grandly commended the virtues of the Queen, who is indeed worthy of great praise.

Two times a week, Fridays and Tuesdays, the Kings give audience to everyone, rich and poor, and are very diligent in fulfilling needs and administering justice to all.  The King is making great preparations of ships, horses and other supplies for an expedition in Africa, where he is very feared, particularly by the Kings of Fez, Tunis and Tremecén. There is also in Africa a powerful captain with three thousand horsemen and twenty thousand infantry, who the King invited to go to Africa and wait with his army in the Atlantic mountains.  I have no doubt that he will soon conquer all of Africa, that they will be disarmed and that all their arms will rust because of a prolonged peace.  Once he has subdued all of Africa, he will easily recapture Jerusalem, as I said in my discourse mentioned above.  And not being impeded by wars in France and Naples, and with his officers prepared, he will soon leave for Africa.

[Noble Students]: The Spanish language is closer to Latin than Italian, and for this reason people who know Spanish can easily understand Latin, for this reason, up to now, they haven't bothered to perfect their learning in it.  Now that eloquence is taking root, principally among the eminent citizens and nobles of Spain, with their example, the clergy and other citizens are consecrating everything to the Arts and Humanities.

 In Madrid, there was a certain educated and praised poet, Peter Martyr, of Milan, author of an important work in heroic verse in praise of the King, who educated the noble youth and he invited me to hear his explanations.  There I saw the Duke of Villahermosa, the Duke of Cardona, the son of the Count of Cifuentes, don Juan de Carrillo, the son of the sister of the Count of Tendilla, don Pedro, Count of Mendoza and many other graceful youths, who recited for me long passages of Juvenal, Horace, etc.  Those who are aspiring to enter the royal court number nearly four hundred, and they have many teachers.  The Humanities are waking up all over Spain.  These adolescents are very enlightened.  They pass their time in study and in other services to the King, and at the hunt, so as not to lose an hour to idleness.

[Departure from Madrid Towards Zaragoza, that is a Journey of fifty one Long Leagues]: the 25^th of January, on leaving Madrid, we saw in its outskirts two hanged men, with their testicles tied to their necks, for having been convicted of sodomy.  Riding over a beautiful plain for six leagues, we arrived at the city of Alcalá, which belongs to the Toledan diocese, and which was ceded as a dwelling place for the King and Queen by the Archbishop Juan Carrillo, when they were still poor.  This city has very flat and fertile surroundings, and full of woad, a plant for dyers.

GUADALAJARA

            The city of Guadalajara, as big as Ulm, is situated on a knoll, at the foot of which runs the Tajo.  This city belongs to don Domingo, of the house of Mendoza, who is the Duque del Infantado and Marqués de Santillana, who has as a wife María, daughter of don Alvaro de Luna.  The Lords of Luna are grand and powerful, as are equally the Mendozas.

[The Castle of Guadalajara]:  I think that in all of Spain there is no palace similar to this one, for its magnificence and its profuse gold decorations. It is square and has two superimposed cloisters, adorned with diverse stone sculptures, of lions and griffins.  It has a monumental fountain in its center, and all the ceilings are resplendent with gold and floral decorations.  In each of the four corners are other grand rooms, of which two are already complete.  So much gold glitters in its ceilings that you won't believe it if you can't see it.  The mayor assured us that one could buy a complete county with what they are spending on the building of this palace; and it is still not finished.  All the rooms have very high domed ceilings, among which one, adorned with satyrs all around its edges, is of inestimable value.  Each large room has three or four small chambers adjoining it, all gilded in different styles.  In an immense salon are painted the coats of arms of all the Duke's ancestors, as well as those of the cardinal, the Duke's brother, who died a short time ago.  They also showed us the vaulted stable, also not yet complete.  This palace is constructed more for ostentation than utility.

[House of Cardinal Pedro de Mendoza]:  The cardinal's house, on the outskirts of Guadalajara, is one of the most beautiful in all Spain.  I have seen many grand palaces of cardinals in Rome; but never in my life have I seen another as comfortable, with the rooms so well distributed.  It has two superimposed cloisters, with little rooms and chambers, all with artesonado ceilings that are gilded and also have diverse colors mixed with blue, each one being different from the other; two summer salons opening on the garden, with marble columns and sparkling with so much gold, that it's difficult to believe.  Oh, what a majestic chapel!  It is large, though not very wide, on the altar of which are exquisite paintings of Saint Peter and Saint Paul and the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to the sides, Saint Gregory and Saint Helen with the cross, which carried a title like a cardinal.  There is a beautiful garden, in the center of which is a fountain that can water everything; with an enormous birdcage, partly covered and partly surrounded by a copper net, in which there are so many kinds of birds that it's impossible to describe them all.  There are turtledoves and doves of various types, from Spain and Africa, many African hens, black with white dots, like dice, gray crests, firm, short tail and long legs; many geese of dark purple—almost black—with black tails and beaks, many cranes with white crests behind their heads, and many other types of birds; with a servant to care for everything them all.  I don't think there is a more splendid house in the world.  [The Cardinal] left untold riches, because he was rich by inheritance, and from the revenues of being Archbishop of Toledo, Bishop of Sigüenza and his cardinalship. He had many other revenues.  He was the King's intimate, and of an austere lifestyle, but in other expenses he was very splendid.  He died January 11^th, 1495.

[The City of Sigüenza]:  The 27^th of January, from Guadalajara, passing the castle of Hita, situated on a high mountain, we arrived in the city of Sigüenza, which is big as Nördlingen.  There is a beautiful, fairly rich cathedral, and its bishop was a cardinal.  It has forty canons of a hundred ducats, twenty pensioners of forty, twenty half-pensioners, and thirteen dignitaries, among which are educated gentlemen.  There is a handsome fortress there, where the son of the Lord Cardinal lives, whose wife is the daughter of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia and Count of Niebla, to whom his father the Cardinal left him many riches.

[The Castle of Medinaceli]: On the 28^th, we arrived at the Castle of Medinaceli, that belongs to the duchy and the jurisdiction of the Duke of Medina.  It is situated on a high mountain.  It was the hometown of the poet Marcial, because in olden times it was named Bílibis, near the source of the Jalón river.  The Jalón river flows down through an agreeable valley, and finally joins the Ebro river.

            The same day, traveling three leagues along the Jalón's banks, we arrived at the small town of Arcos, where everyone was Saracen, except the mayor.  We were put up at a Saracen's house, and for our money, we were treated very well.  We saw many Saracens who were attending a wedding, singing as is their custom, and some very beautiful girls.  They live a very moderate life; they only drink water, and are very healthy.  Epidemics do not afflict the Saracens as they do Christians in Spain, which is attributable to their lifestyle.

            The 29^th, leaving the town of Arcos through a pleasant, extensive valley, watered on both sides by the Jalón river, and full of towns and castles like Monreal, Ateca, Ariza, etc., we arrived at the charming city of Calatayud, which totals about ten long leagues It is rich in wheat, wine, the best quality of saffron, that they call ort, cane and other products, because the earth is abundant and well-watered along both banks.

The illustrious city of Calatayud is large and among the most important cities in the realm of Aragon; it is full of markets, illustrious houses and enriched with seven monasteries.  In the environs of Calatayud, on both sides of the Jalón River, they produce so much oil that one can only marvel, equally wheat, saffron, wax, yellow weld, etc.  The river runs from Calatayud for total about fifteen good leagues, until it flows into the Ebro.  Oh, how prosperous are all the towns of this entire valley!

            Leaving Calatayud on the 30^th, after eating, by some mountainous and sterile places, and then again through another very fertile valley full of olive trees, we arrived, after 5 leagues, in Almunia, and on the 31^st, passing through some very arid country, we entered the distinguished city of Zaragoza

ZARAGOZA

            Zaragoza, the illustrious capital of the Realm of Aragon, is populous and extends along the banks of the very famous Ebro river, which is as long as the Isar river in Landshut.  It is situated on a beautiful plain, and is much bigger than Nüremberg, but most densely settled along the Ebro River.  It has a superb bridge of seven very high arches, under which there are some marvelous mills constructed by Germans.

[Concerning its Fertility]: The land surrounding it is arid and sterile, except where it can be irrigated.  It rains there rarely.  It was already nine months since they had seen any rain.  It has four canyons, with their rivers, like the Ebro, the Jalón and others less wide, sufficient to water the valleys.  That of the Ebro produces abundant flocks and cattle, that of the Jalón, grains, and the other two, wine, and oil although all have wine, oil and wheat in abundance. 

They take from Zaragoza annually almost a hundred cartloads or more of saffron, which is worth more than a hundred thousand ducats, as well as sheep's wool worth two hundred or three hundred thousand, and equally a lot of cattle, excellent oil in great quantities, and a great deal of beeswax and honey, because they have innumerable fields with beehives, and from the countryside and dry washes they grow a lot of rosemary and other flowers.  When we arrived, there were many what are popularly called early apricot trees and almond trees in flower.  Much wheat is harvested from their fields.  It has many merchants, because, as I said, there is abundant saffron, wheat, wool of the highest quality, yellow weld, cattle, honey, wax and other products, as well as leather, excellently cut, and all sorts of shoes.

[Concerning its Cathedral and the Monasteries]: The Archbishop of Zaragoza is the son of the King of Castile, don Fernando, presently regent, whom he had before marrying doña Isabel.  The church is spacious, beautiful and built unsurpassably by Benedict XIII.  In olden times, it was the mosque of the Saracens, and even today, in the cloister, there exists a very old and solid mosque, very venerated by the Saracens, although now it a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.  This Benedict XIII was of the family of the Lords of Luna, and he was deposed during the Council of Constance.  This church has a very tall and wide retablo, decorated top to bottom with very good images, carved from the whitest of alabaster, gilded where it is appropriate.  There is no alabaster retablo in all Spain as precious as this one. It was begun by a certain German of Flanders who was succeeded, on his death, by another German of Gmunda, in Swabia, who was the one who finished it.  There are also marvelous choir stalls, and the organ, so it is said, is the best in all Spain. 

            Zaragoza also has a famous church called Santa María, in which there is a crypt in which the blessed Virgin Mary made great miracles in olden times, and where innumerable silver lamps burn day and night.

            The monastery of the Minor Friars, outside the old city walls and in the new part of the city, is so magnificent, that it causes admiration.  The church is immense, constructed like a ship, whose width is thirty-six paces and its tower is admirable.  We went to its top to contemplate the situation of the place.  It has a very ample refectory and a dormitory equal in size to the refectory, with little cells for scholars at its sides.  On the western side, the very beautiful cells of the monks, with rooms, little gardens and other amenities; and an excellent library, with very old codices, all of parchment.  Among other things, I saw a bookshelf with eight magnificent volumes written in Italic letters.  They were the works of Saint Jerome about the prophets, the Evangelists, the Bible and others of his works.  There are eight doctors and many venerable gentlemen.  But they are not of the Observants. 

There are many illustrious monasteries of Dominicans and other monks.  Outside the walls, on the other side of the bridge, is the new monastery of Jesus of the Valley, where the Observant Friars of Saint Francis live, with beautiful small gardens, refectory, church, etc.  It is a new foundation, only thirty years old.  Next to it is the celebrated monastery of Santa María de la Merced, of whom I have spoken before.  They were founded to rescue the Christians captive in Africa, etc.,

The walls of the old city are so strong and impregnable, of such thickness, so well worked in stone and mortar, that they cause admiration.   Such were the fortifications of the Saracens in their time who thought that Zaragoza could resist the whole world.  But nothing is impossible for God.

[Monastery of Saint Jerome]:  Next to the walls of the new city, towards the west, there is a beautiful church, with a big and excellent crypt, in which rests the body of Saint Engracia and others, many thousands of bodies of saints of Germany, France and other places, who, struggling here for their faith, were martyred by the Saracens in the time of Charlemagne.  This church, which used to be a parish church, was given by the King to the monks of Saint Jerome, who constructed a monastery there, where they sing praises to the Lord.

[Castle and Fortress of Zaragoza (The Aljafería]:    Outside the city walls, towards the south, there is a very old and very strong castle built by the Saracens, that King Fernando is presently restoring and rebuilding.  The 2^nd of February, we entered into visit it, after vespers.  Many marranos of both sexes were imprisoned there, waiting every day for the supplication of fire.  We saw firstly a patio of new construction, whose length was thirty-five paces, and in width, thirteen, superb with its gilded artesonados, that are hard to believe.  On the highest part, near the roof, was a gilded tribune where some hundred and four people, who, like lookouts, could contemplate the games and other things that went on below.  Besides this patio, there were five big chambers, whose artesonados were so decorated with gold and precious colors, that they evoked great pleasure for those who saw them.  In both the chamber as well as all the rooms, below the artesonados there is in inscription in gold letters that reads [translated from the Latin]:

FERNANDO, KING OF SPAIN, OF SICILY, OF CORSICA AND THE BALEARIC ISLES, EXCELLENT, PRUDENT CONSTANT, JUST, HAPPY; AND THE QUEEN ISABEL, MORE THAN A WOMAN FOR HER RELIGION AND AMPLE GREATNESS, CELEBRATED COUPLE, EVER VICTORIOUS IN THE NAME OF CHRIST, AFTER LIBERATING GRANADA FROM THE MOORS, AND EXPELLING THIS ANCIENT AND FIERCE ENEMY,  TOOK CARE TO CONSTRUCT THIS BUILDING, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, 1492.

[The Moorish Quarter]:):  The Saracens, who live below the monastery of the Minor Friars, in the new part of the city, have a space reserved for them in the city, where they live, in beautiful and clean houses, and a beautiful mosque, where I had the opportunity to talk to their priest at length, who amiably answered each of my questions.  He said that the causes of divorce among them were: drunkenness, need, adultery, and the bad breath of the woman, who for any of these could be repudiated and her dowry returned; with the exception of those repudiated for adultery, who were then repudiated “naked,” her husband keeping her dowry, without her being able to reclaim it.  If it happens for this cause, the woman regarded as greatly infamous, and falls into disgrace with the others. The woman is always subject to the power of her husband, and she can never repudiate him for any vice he might have; it being the reverse, that the husband who must repudiate her.  If, in the divorce, there is a single son, the husband keeps him, if there are two, they divide them, if three, two are for the husband and one for the wife, etc.  A man can marry up to seven women, as King David did; it is him they are said to emulate.  But because they are among Christians, they are only permitted to have one, whom they cannot divorce, according to our laws.  The Koran prohibits men from beating their wives, or killing them, even if they do not divorce them. 

They sing psalms and prophetic prayers in their towers and mosques, and pray like we do.  The Saracens are very strong men, well proportioned, and do the most difficult work.  They are particularly practitioners of the manual arts.  They are blacksmiths, potters, masons, carpenters, millers, and pressers of wine and oil, etc.

[The Oil Press]: In the Moorish quarter there is a big and magnificent oil press.  It is a an enormous job that they do thusly:  they have a big grinder, to which they hitch a horse or a mule, walking in a circle and grinding the olives, as they do with weld at Erfurt.  After this they gather ten or twelve esparto grass baskets full of ground olives, they put one over the other in the press, they press them, adding continually hot water, with which they wash the oil, that flows into a recipient placed below the press.  It is the work of beasts and very dirty, but agreeable to watch.

            Among all the realms of Spain, there are more Saracens in Aragon, because they are very diligent at cultivating the soil.  The nobles exact from them a very high tribute, which consists of a quarter part of all their produce, without counting other taxes.  From this comes the Spanish proverb: "who has no Moors has no gold."  There are many and large towns inhabited exclusively by Saracens.  In some countryside or place, where sixty Saracens live in comfort, scarcely fifteen Christians could live there.  They are very careful in the irrigation of land, and in cultivation of the earth, frugal in their meals and very rich in secret.

[Departure from Zaragoza]: The 4^th of February, after our meal, we left that glorious city, and passing by villages, towns and plains, partly sterile and partly very fecund, over the mouth of the Ebro river, after sixteen leagues, we arrived at the very beautiful city of Tudela, that belongs to the Kingdom of Navarre--very famous, and sixteen leagues from Zaragoza. 

It is situated on a bluff above the Ebro River, with a superb bridge.  Their land can be irrigated with great ease.  There are many monasteries and a collegiate church.  They produce an excellent wine and oil.  Some messengers came, saying that the Count of Lerín had seized the magnificent castle of Olite from the King of Navarre.  We contracted with three soldiers, and, the road turning towards the right, through plains and impenetrable mountains, and finally, through well-cultivated places, we arrived from Zaragoza to Pamplona, thirty three leagues away.

PAMPLONA

             Pamplona, the best city in the realm of Navarre, is situated on a fine plain, through which runs a pretty river This plain is very extensive, populated by cities and towns, abundant in grains and wines, but they do not have oil, because they are spurs of the Pyrenees mountains, and Roncesvalles.  They have a very beautiful cathedral church, whose choir is still incomplete, although it will be finished soon.  The high altar retablo is magnificent, with silver images.  Oh, how beautiful is the cloister, similar in every way to the cloister of Toledo!  The present bishop is the son of Alexander VI, since, on the death of the true bishop, it was given to Alexander's son.  The city also has many beautiful churches and numerous monasteries.  It is a city as big as Ulm.

[The Kingdom of Navarre]: The Kingdom of Navarre is very large, since leaving Zaragoza on the banks of the Ebro, four leagues away Navarre begins; the same as leaving Pamplona towards France, one must travel thirty leagues through that realm.

 The king having died without an heir, the realm passed to his daughter, who married the Frenchman Jean de Albret, who has now been named King Consort.  But he does not possess the kingdom peacefully, because it is continually under attack by the Count of Lerín, who, it is suspected, receives aid from the King of Castile.  In recent days they have snatched away a good place, by name Olite, where he had all his forces. 

We had access to the King by means of the Lord Bishop of Couserans, in Gascony, near Tudela.  We visited him and kissed his hands.  He is tall, fat and very devout.  The Queen was in mourning these days for the Countess of Foix, her mother, who has recently died; for this reason we couldn't see her.  The countess was the sister of King Louis.  For a time, she was betrothed to the King Ladislas, poisoned, so they say, by Lerick.  Afterwards, she married the Count of Foix, who was King of Navarre.  The King offered to do for us whatever we wanted, and he did this by means of the bishop.

            The 9^th of February, after dining, we left Pamplona, by a valley fairly fertile in wine and grains, and, finally, after three leagues we arrived at the very high mountain of Roncesvalles.  There we found a monastery of canons, which had an inn, where they gave pilgrims wine, bread, lodging and other things.  We saw a church there, with among other relics, the horn of Roland, who died there, and outside the monastery a spacious chapel, in which are buried the bodies of thousands of Christians killed by the Saracens at the time of Charlemagne, conforming to what I have written about more extensively and in more detail in my History of Saint James, narrating how the Christians entered heedlessly into the mountain passes, and attacked, front and back by the Saracens, succumbed to their hands.  It was a horrible spectacle. 

This mountain is the source of the Ebro River.  Descending towards the north by a dark and leafy valley, we arrived finally at the frontier in the valley, called the Castle of Saint John.  There, Gascony begins.