Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/116

92 92 WAR OF GRANADA. PART I. Erection of Santa Fe. iNegotiations for surren- der. In less than three months, this stupendous task was accomplished. The spot so recently occupied by light, fluttering pavilions, was thickly covered with solid structures of stone and mortar, com- prehending, besides dwellinghouses, stables for a thousand horses. The town was thrown into a quadrangular form, traversed by two spacious aven- ues, intersecting each other at right angles in the centre, in the form of a cross, with stately portals at each of the four extremities. Inscriptions on blocks of marble in the various quarters, recorded the respective shares of the several cities in the execution of the work. When it was completed, the whole army was desirous that the new city should bear the name of their illustrious queen ; but Isabella modestly declined this tribute, and bestowed on the place the title of Santa Fe, in token of the unshaken trust, manifested by her people throughout this war, in Divine Providence. With this name it still stands as it was erected in 1491, a monument of the constancy and enduring patience of the Spaniards, " the only city in Spain," in the words of a Castilian writer, " that has never been contaminated by the Moslem her- esy. " '^ The erection of Santa Fe by the Spaniards struck 13 Estrada, Poblacion de Espaiia, gives one commemorating the ereo- tom. ii. pp. 344, 348. — Peter Mar- tion of Santa Fe. tyr, Opus Epist., lib. 4, epii — Marmol, Rebelion de Mo epist. 91. loriscos, lib. 1, cap. 18. Hyta, who embelHshes his florid prose with occasional extracts from the beautiful ballad poetry of Spain, " Cercada esta Santa Fe con mucho lienzo encerado al rededor miichas tiendas de sedn, oro, y brocado. "Donde estan Uuqvies, y Condes, Senorea de gran cstado," &c. Guerras de Granada, p. 515.