Historia General y Natural de las Indias Vol. 1

servitude, and those two princes, who were not unaware of the dangers that surrounded them, understanding that the only path to salvation was the sound organization of the State, undertook such an arduous task full of courage and hope. The creation of the Supreme Councils of Castile, Aragon, Finance, and State, enacted in 1480, by defining all the attributes of the administration, served on one hand to manifest the firm will of the Sovereigns and to reveal on the other the extent of that farsighted, constant, and inflexible policy that was to subject to the monarchical element all social elements that had until then existed in complete divorce.

With the country now under such a healthy and severe regime, the Catholic Monarchs turned to the conquest of Granada, a highly meritorious enterprise, and one forgotten in previous reigns amidst the sterile tumult of civil discord. The surprise of Zahara, carried out by Muley Hacen the following year of 1481, breaking the truces established with the Kings of Castile, offered them a just occasion to undertake that holy war, from which the Spanish nobility was to emerge purified of its ancient deviations, the throne strong and powerful, and the Iberian nation respected and feared among all peoples. Ten years were necessary, however, to completely prostrate the power of the crescent, taking out one by one (according to the happy expression of the Catholic King) the grains of that coveted Granada. In the end, Isabella succeeded in seeing her hope fulfilled, receiving on January 2, 1492, the keys to that powerful metropolis: the struggle begun in Covadonga eight centuries earlier had ended; and that throne, wavering and lacking authority in 1474, appeared now vigorous and robust, displaying on its steps a loyal, battle-hardened, and submissive nobility, and a magnanimous, happy, and independent people.

Providence, which thus rewarded the noble efforts of the Catholic Queen, also wished to crown the purest faith of her beliefs by placing at her feet the vast empire of a New World. The illustrious and misunderstood pilot, who had begged in vain for the favor of foreign courts, the wise Christopher Columbus, finally managed to be heard by Isabella, and shortly thereafter Spanish ships were cutting through the most remote and unknown regions of the Ocean. Columbus returned a year later to the court of the Catholic Monarchs to offer them the first fruits of that immortal discovery, which, by awakening the adventurous spirit of the Spaniards, opened before their eyes a new theater of exploits and victories, while offering them unheard-of riches. The 15th century had not yet expired when the same nation that, enclosed by the Pyrenees and surrounded by both seas, consumed all its strength in restoring its liberty and saving the religion of its elders, also waved its banners in the center of Europe, preparing itself in this way for the great conquests that in the first years of the following century made it mistress of Navarre and Naples and cleared the coasts of Africa for it, engendering in the mind of Charles I the thought of a universal monarchy, so constantly cherished by Philip II 1.

1 To prove that the thought of a universal monarchy was not only harbored by

the kings, but had also spread among the Spanish armies, we copy here the following lines...