These negotiations show the increasing intimacy growing up between the European states, who, as they settled their domestic feuds, had leisure to turn their eyes abroad, and enter into the more extended field of international politics. The tenor of this treaty indicates also the direction which affairs were to take, when the great powers should be brought into collision with each other on a common theatre of action.
All thoughts were now concentrated on the prosecution of the war with Granada, which, it was determined, should be conducted on a more enlarged scale than it had yet been; notwithstanding the fearful pest which had desolated the country during the past year, and the extreme scarcity of grain, owing to the inundations caused by excessive rains in the fruitful provinces of the south. The great object proposed in this campaign was the reduction of Baza, the capital of that division of the empire which belonged to El Zagal. Besides this important city, that monarch's dominions embraced the wealthy sea-port of Almeria, Guadix, and numerous other towns and villages of less consequence, together with the mountain region of the Alpuxarras, rich in mineral wealth; whose inhabitants, famous for the perfection to which they had carried the silk manufacture, were equally known for their enterprise and courage in war, so that El Zagal's division comprehended the most potent and opulent portion of the empire. [6] In the spring of 1489, the Castilian court passed to Jaen, at which place the queen was to establish her residence, as presenting the most favorable point of communication with the invading army. Ferdinand advanced as far as Sotogordo, where, on the 27th of May, he put himself at the head of a numerous force, amounting to about fifteen thousand horse and eighty thousand foot, including persons of every description; among whom was gathered, as usual, that chivalrous array of nobility and knighthood, who, with stately and well-appointed retinues, were accustomed to follow the royal standard in these crusades. [8]
The first point, against which operations were directed, was the strong post of Cuxar, two leagues only from Baza, which surrendered after a brief but desperate resistance. The occupation of this place, and some adjacent fortresses, left the approaches open to El Zagal's capital. As the Spanish army toiled up the heights of the mountain barrier, which towers above Baza on the west, their advance was menaced by clouds of Moorish light troops, who poured down a tempest of musket-balls and arrows on their heads. These however were quickly dispersed by the advancing vanguard; and the Spaniards, as they gained the summits of the hills, beheld the lordly city of Baza, reposing in the shadows of the bold sierra that stretches towards the coast, and lying in the bosom of a fruitful valley, extending eight leagues in length, and three in breadth. Through this valley flowed the waters of the Guadalentin and the Guadalquiton, whose streams were conducted by a thousand canals over the surface of the vega. In the midst of the plain, adjoining the suburbs, might be descried the orchard or garden, as it was termed, of Baza, a league in length, covered with a thick growth of wood, and with numerous villas and pleasure-houses of the wealthy citizens, now converted into garrisoned fortresses. The suburbs were encompassed by a low mud wall; but the fortifications of the city were of uncommon strength. The place, in addition to ten thousand troops of its own, was garrisoned by an equal number from Almeria; picked men, under the command of the Moorish prince Cidi Yahye, a relative of El Zagal, who lay at this time in Guadix, prepared to cover his own dominions against any hostile movement of his rival in Granada. These veterans were commissioned to defend the place to the last extremity; and, as due time had been given for preparation, the town was victualled with fifteen months' provisions, and even the crops growing in the vega had been garnered before their prime, to save them from the hands of the enemy. [8]