marched towards Fez, where many of their race
resided, were attacked by the desert tribes, robbed, slain, and treated
with the most shameful barbarity. Many of them, half-dead with famine and
in utter despair, returned to the coast, where they consented to be
baptized with the hope that they might be permitted to return to their
native land.

Those who sought Italy contracted an infectious disease in the crowded and
filthy vessels which they were obliged to take; a disorder so malignant
that it carried off twenty thousand of the people of Naples during the
year, and spread far over the remainder of Italy. As for the Jews, hosts
of them perished of hunger and disease, and of the whole number expelled,
estimated at one hundred and sixty thousand, only a miserable fragment
found homes at length in foreign lands, some seeking Turkey, others
gaining refuge and protection in France and England. As for the effect of
the migration on Spain it must suffice here to quote the remark of a
monarch of that day: "Do they call this Ferdinand a politic prince, who
can thus impoverish his own kingdom and enrich ours?"

Spain was in this barbarous manner freed of her Jewish population. There
remained the Moors, who had capitulated, under favorable terms, to
Ferdinand in 1492. These terms were violated a few years later by Cardinal
Ximenes, his severity driving them into insurrection in 1500. This was
suppressed, and then punishment began. So rigid was the inquiry that it
seemed as if all the people of Granada would be condemned as guilty, and
in mortal dread many of them made peace by embracing Christianity, while
others sold their estates and migrated to Barbary. In the end, all who
remained escaped persecution only by consenting to be baptized, the total
number of converts being estimated at fifty thousand. The name of Moors,
which had superseded that of Arabs, was now changed to that of Moriscos,
by which these unfortunate people were afterwards known.

The ill-faith shown to the Moors of the plain gave rise to an insurrection
in the mountains, in which the Spaniards suffered a severe defeat. The
insurgents, however, were soon subdued, and most of them, to prevent being
driven from their homes, professed the Christian faith. By the free use of
torture and the sword the kings of Spain had succeeded in adding largely
to their Christian subjects.

The Moriscos became the most skilful and industrious agriculturists of
Spain, but they w