'256 LETTERS FROM SPAIN. LETTER XXXVIII. SKETCH OF THE MOORISH DOMINION IN SPAIN. GRANADA, JAN. l8lO. As I think it will increase the interest you will feel in read ing my description of what remains of the Moors in this their last possession in Spain, I shall devote a few hours to the giving you a slight sketch of the origin, progress, and final destruction of their power in the Peninsula. The Visigoths, who overran this province of the Roman Empire, speedily lost, in the quiet possession of the country, that warlike dis position which had rendered them irresistible. The simple manners of their ancestors were quickly corrupted by the enervating luxuries which an uninterrupted possession of a fruitful soil, under a mild climate, never fails to produce. Nations under such circumstances must always fall an easy prey to the attempts of the first hardy in vader : and this is an observation that has scarcely ever been more strongly exemplified than in the period of history which I am about to notice. The Gothic kings of Spain, like their successors, held possession of the fortress of Ceuta, the quarter whence invasion was most to be