CHAP. X. 



MIDDLE AGES. 269 



another passage, Cardonne speaks of Christian 

 slaves being employed by the Moors in the work 

 of the mines. 



We have not been fortunate enough to meet 

 with any passages in the Spanish Chronicles 

 which throw any light on the subject ; and the 

 Spanish Arabian writers, whose works are said 

 to be still preserved, and which, when Clarke 

 visited and described the Escurial in 1763, con- 

 sisted of eighteen hundred and twenty-four 

 volumes, have been scarcely examined by any 

 Christian literati. 



In the absence of those means of judging of 

 the state of mining under the Arabs which 

 history might have furnished, we have no other 

 resource but that obtained by examining the 

 few relations which are to be found in the 

 writings of such modern travellers as have paid 

 attention to the subject. 



In the mountain called Lares, near to which 

 are the remains of a Moorish fortress and of a 

 mosque, is a mine which produced, when exa- 

 mined by Bowles, only emery, but which he 

 thought had been worked by the Moors chiefly 

 on account of the gold then found mixed with 

 it, and the process of separating which he 

 describes according to conjecture, rather than 

 from any records he could procure \ 



1 Bowles, p. 55. 



