His truce with the Moors in 1192, and his determination to abandon all interference in Leon and Gallicia after 1200, left King Sancho time to attend to the crying wants of his people. He recognized clearly that there was no use in his pushing across the Tagus and conquering the Alemtejo and the Algarves, when the little kingdom he actually ruled was not half populated. During his father’s reign there had been nothing but fighting, and except in Oporto and Lisbon, where a flourishing trade existed, fostered by the frequent visits of the crusading fleets from the north, and in the northern provinces of the Entre Minho e Douro and the Tras-os-Montes, where agriculture survived, the scanty population subsisted chiefly on the spoils taken in the yearly invasions of Mohammedan territory. The population of the Beira and the northern part of Portuguese Estremadura lived entirely in towns, or in villages clustered round the castles of the nobility, and looked upon war as the only means for obtaining a livelihood. This habit of mind had made a nation of warriors, but it had left the land uncultivated. Tracts of wilderness extended between the towns and villages especially in the more recently conquered districts to the south of Coimbra, and now that the truce with the Moors had deprived the population of their chief means of subsistence, King Sancho saw that it was necessary to revive the pursuit of agriculture. But, first of all, King Sancho devoted himself to the task of repairing the old city walls, and to the foundation of new towns in commanding strategic positions, which gave him his sobriquet of “O Povoador” or the City-builder. This policy was dictated by the threatening attitude of the Moors under the Almohades; for Sancho, like most of his contemporaries, could not believe that the Moslem dominion in the Peninsula was nearing its close, and he made every preparation for resisting fresh invasions. His first care was to see that all the walls of old cities were put into thorough repair by the citizens, and adequately manned by the city militia; his next, to found new cities, which should command important roads, wherever they were not already in close proximity to powerful towns. Among these new cities, his favourite, and the one which afterwards attained the greatest historical importance was Guarda, which was founded to the westward of the threatening Spanish fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo. In matters of city government Sancho wisely followed the example of the Mohammedans in continuing the old Roman system of municipal administration, which left all matters of internal government entirely in the hands of the citizens, and when he granted the lordship of a city to a bishop, baron, or military order, he carefully regulated their functions, and allowed them only to take a fixed share of the municipal revenue for fulfilling certain fixed duties, such as leading the contingent of the city in war, or holding courts of justice.