Severed from all their neighbors in the West, by
impassable barriers of faith and manners, and separated by seas and
deserts from their kindred of the East, the Morisco-spaniards were
an isolated people. Their whole existence was a prolonged, though
gallant and chivalric struggle, for a foothold in a usurped land.
They were the outposts and frontiers of Islamism. The peninsula
was the great battle-ground where the Gothic conquerors of the North
and the Moslem conquerors of the East, met and strove for mastery; and
the fiery courage of the Arab was at length subdued by the obstinate
and persevering valor of the Goth.
Never was the annihilation of a people more complete than that of
the Morisco-Spaniards. Where are they? Ask the shores of Barbary and
its desert places. The exiled remnant of their once powerful empire
disappeared among the barbarians of Africa, and ceased to be a nation.
They have not even left a distinct name behind them, though for nearly
eight centuries they were a distinct people. The home of their
adoption, and of their occupation for ages, refuses to acknowledge
them, except as invaders and usurpers. A few broken monuments are
all that remain to bear witness to their power and dominion, as
solitary rocks, left far in the interior, bear testimony to the extent
of some vast inundation. Such is the Alhambra. A Moslem pile in the
midst of a Christian land; an Oriental palace amidst the Gothic
edifices of the West; an elegant memento of a brave, intelligent,
and graceful people, who conquered, ruled, flourished, and passed
away.
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