When the period of departure arrived, all the principal routes through the country might be seen swarming with emigrants, old and young, the sick and the helpless, men, women, and children, mingled promiscuously together, some mounted on horses or mules, but by far the greater part undertaking their painful pilgrimage on foot. The sight of so much misery touched even the Spaniards with pity, though none might succour them, for the grand inquisitor, Torquemada, enforced the ordinance to that effect, by denouncing heavy ecclesiastical censures on all who should presume to violate it. The fugitives were distributed along various routes, being determined in their destination by accidental circumstances, much more than any knowledge of the respective countries to which they were bound. By much the largest division, amounting according to some estimates to 80,000 souls, passed into Portugal; whose monarch, John II, dispensed with his scruples of conscience so far as to give them a free passage through his dominions on their way to Africa, in consideration of a tax of a cruzado a head. He is even said to have silenced his scruples so far as to allow certain ingenious artisans to establish themselves permanently in the kingdom.*

A considerable number found their way to the ports of Santa Maria and Cadiz, where after linger

* Zurita, Anales de Aragon, tom. v. fol. 9.-Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 133.— Bernaldez, ubi supra.- Clède,

Hist. de Portugal, tom. iv. p. 95. Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. p. 602.

ing some time in the vain hope of seeing the waters open for their egress, according to the promises of the Rabbins, they embarked on board a Spanish fleet for the Barbary coast. Having crossed over to Ercilla, a Christian settlement in Africa, whence they proceeded by land towards Fez, where a considerable body of their countrymen resided, they were assaulted on their route by the roving tribes of the desert, in quest of plunder. Notwithstanding the interdict, the Jews had contrived to secrete small sums of money, sewed up in their garments, or the linings of their saddles. These did not escape the avaricious eyes of their spoilers, who are even said to have ripped open the bodies of their victims, in search of gold, which they were supposed to have swallowed. The lawless barbarians, mingling lust with avarice, abandoned themselves to still more frightful excesses, violating the wives and daughters of the unresisting Jews, or massacring in cold blood such as offered resistance. But without pursuing these loathsome details further, it need only be added, that the miserable exiles endured such extremity of famine, that they were glad to force a nourishment from the grass which grew scantily among the sands of the desert; until at length great numbers of them, wasted by disease, and broken in spirit, retraced their steps to Ercilla, and consented to be baptized, in the hope of being permitted to revisit their native land. The number, indeed, was so considerable that the priest who officiated was

obliged to make use of the mop, or hyssop, with which the Roman Catholic missionaries were wont to scatter the holy drops, whose mystic virtue could cleanse the soul in a moment from the foulest stains of infidelity. "Thus," says a Castilian historian, "the calamities of these poor blind creatures proved in the end an excellent remedy that God made use of to unseal their eyes, which they now opened to the vain promises of the Rabbins; so that, renouncing their ancient heresies, they became faithful followers of the Cross."

Many of the emigrants took the direction of Italy. Those who landed at Naples brought with them an infectious disorder, contracted by long confinement in small, overcrowded, and ill provided vessels. The disorder was so malignant, and spread with such frightful celerity, as to sweep off more than 20,000 inhabitants of the city in the course of the year, whence it extended its devastation over the whole Italian peninsula.

A graphic picture of these horrors is thus given by a Genoese historian, an eye-witness of the scenes he describes. "No one," he says, "could behold the sufferings of the Jewish exiles unmoved. A great many perished of hunger, especially those of tender years. Mothers, with scarcely strength to support themselves, carried their famished infants in their arms, and died with them. Many fell victims to the

* Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 133. Bernaldez, Hist. MS. c. cxiii.

cold, others to intense thirst, while the unaccustomed distresses incident to a sea voyage aggravated their maladies. I will not enlarge on the cruelty and the avarice which they frequently experienced from the masters of the ships which transported them from Spain. Some were murdered to gratify their cupidity, others forced to sell their children for the expenses of the passage. They arrived in Genoa in crowds, but were not suffered to tarry there long, by reason of the ancient law which interdicted the Jewish traveller from a longer residence than three days. They were allowed, however, to refit their vessels, and to recruit themselves for some days from the fatigues of their voyage. One might have taken them for spectres, so emaciated were they, so cadaverous in their aspect, and with eyes so sunken ; they differed in nothing from the dead, except in the power of motion, which indeed they scarcely retained. Many fainted and expired on the mole, which, being completely surrounded by the sea, was the only quarter vouchsafed to the wretched emigrants. The infection bred by such a swarm of dead and dying persons was not at once perceived; but when the winter broke up, ulcers began to make their appearance, and the malady, which lurked for a long time in the city, broke out into the plague n the following year."*

Many of the exiles passed into Turkey, and to

* Barthol. Senarega, De Rebus Genuens. ap. Muratori, Rer.

Ital. Scriptores, tom. xxiv. p. 531, 532.

different parts of the Levant, where their descendants continued to speak the Castilian language far into the following century. Others found their way to France, and even England. Part of their religious services is recited to this day in Spanish, in one or more of the London synagogues; and the modern Jew still reverts with fond partiality to Spain, as the cherished land of his fathers, illustrated by the most glorious recollections in his eventful history.*

The whole number of Jews expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, is variously computed at from 160,000 to 800,000 souls; a discrepancy sufficiently indicative of the paucity of authentic data. Most modern writers, with the usual predilection for startling results, have assumed the latter estimate; and Llorente has made it the basis of some important calculations in his history of the inquisition. A view of all the circumstances will lead us without much hesitation to adopt the more moderate computation.† This, moreover, is placed beyond reasonable doubt by the direct testimony of

*See a sensible notice of Hebrew literature in Spain, in the Retrospective Review, vol. iii. p. 209.-Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. xxvi. c. i.—Zurita, Anal. de Aragon, tom. v. fol. 9.

Not a few of the learned exiles attained to eminence in those countries of Europe where they transferred their residence. One is mentioned by Castro as a leading practitioner of medicine in

Genoa; another, as filling the posts of astronomer and chronicler under King Emanuel of Portugal. Many of them published works in various departments of science, which were translated into the Spanish and other European languages. Bibliotheca Española, tom. i. pp. 359–372.

From a curious document in the Archives of Simancas, consisting of a report made to