[123] Bertuch, Magazin der Spanischen und Portugiesischen Literatur, Tom. I., 1781, pp. 275-280, with the extract there from “Carter’s Travels.” A suggestion recently reported--not, however, without expressing doubts of its accuracy--by Count Albert de Circourt, in his curious and important “Histoire des Arabes d’Espagne,” (Paris, 1846, 8vo, Tom. III. p. 346,) that Don Pascual de Gayangos, of Madrid, has in his possession the Arabic original of the Guerras de Granada, is equally unfounded. From Don Pascual himself, I learn that the MS. referred to is one obtained by him in London, where it had been carried from Madrid as a part of Conde’s collection, and that it is merely an ill-made translation, or rather abridgment, of the romance of Hita;--probably the work of some Morisco Spaniard, not thoroughly acquainted with his own language. In 1604, he published the second part, on a subject nearly connected with the first. Seventy-seven years after the conquest of Granada, the Moors of that kingdom, unable any longer to bear the oppressions to which they were subjected by the rigorous government of Philip the Second, took refuge in the bold range of the Alpuxarras, on the coast of the Mediterranean, and there, electing a king, broke out into open rebellion. They maintained themselves bravely in their mountain fastnesses nearly four years, and were not finally defeated till three armies had been sent against them; the last of which was commanded by no less a general than Don John of Austria. Hita served through the whole of this war; and the second part of his romance contains its history. Much of what he relates is true; and, indeed, of much he had been an eye-witness, as we can see in his accounts of the atrocities committed in the villages of Felix and Huescar, as well as in all the details of the siege of Galera and the death and funeral honors of Luis de Quijada. But other portions, like the imprisonment of Albexari, with his love for Almanzora, and the jealousies and conspiracy of Benalguacil, must be chiefly or wholly drawn from his own imagination. The most interesting part is the story of Tuzani, which he relates with great minuteness, and which he declares he received from Tuzani himself and other persons concerned in it;--a wild tale of Oriental passion, which, as we have seen, Calderon made the subject of one of his most powerful and characteristic dramas.