1791' LITERARr IKTELLIGENCER. 267 



the impreffion it made upon the mind, was little fliort 

 cf adoration. 



It was during the happleft years of this happj pe- 

 riod, that the palace of Grenada, called in the language 

 of the country, Alhnmhra, was built ; a magnificent pa- 

 lace, accommodated with fpacious halls, adorned in the 

 mod fumptuous ftlle of Moorilh archite£lure, furnillied. 

 with copious fountains of limpid water, tending to mo- 

 derate the heat of the climate, and to give a pleafing 

 coolnefs, highly gratifying to the foul. — To this palace 

 Was annexed fpacious gardens, watered with innume- 

 rable rills of pure water, which gave a luxuriance to 

 the magnificent trees that there abounded, and a perpe- 

 tual verdure to innumerable plants that fprang up a- 

 round, to adorn this feat of voluptuoufnefs, and to fcent 

 the air with fragrant odours. — This palace, fituated on the 

 fummitofa lofty eminence, commanding, on the one hand, 

 a diftant profpecl of thofe towering mountains called the 

 Sierra Nevada or fnowy mountains, as being covered 

 with perpetual fnow ; which, melting in fummer, filled 

 the ftreams that walked its walls with an inexhauft- 

 ible abundance of water, highly refrediing in fuch a ful- 

 try climate : — On the other hand, it looked down upon 

 a fertile plain, thick ftrewed with hamlets, gardens, and 

 fields, abounding in corn, in wine, in oil, and other 

 rich products of the mildeft of temperate climates. 



Among thefe people, whom we have been accuftom- 

 ed to view as rude barbarians, a ftrong fenfe of religi- 

 ous veneration for the fupreme being prevailed ; and a 

 refpeftful attachment to that form of worlliip they had 

 been taught to cultivate, formed a very ftriking chara- 

 fteriftic feature. This we learn from themoft undifput- 

 able authority, that of their public infcriptions, which 

 are ftill preferved ; which, on account of the fublim© 

 fimplicity of expreffion, the purity of the morals they 

 inculcate, and the refpe£t for fovereign power, un- 

 debafed by the meannefs of adulation, that under 

 the garb of praife, for the moft part conveys the found* 



