Page:Essays Vol 1 (Ives, 1925).pdf/88

Rh realm, King Jan of Portugal sold them, at eight crowns a head, refuge among his people, on condition that they should depart on a certain day; and he promised to supply them with vessels to take them across to Africa. The day came, of which he had said that, when it had passed, those who had not obeyed would remain as slaves. The vessels were scantily supplied to them, and those who embarked were roughly and villainously treated by the sailors, who, in addition to many other indignities, kept them wearily sailing about, sometimes going ahead, sometimes going back, until they had consumed all their own provisions and were compelled to buy food from them at such high prices, and for so long a time, that they were not set ashore till they had nothing left. News of this inhuman treatment being carried back to those still on land, the greater number made up their minds to servitude; some pretended to change their religion. Emmanuel, having come to the throne, first set them at liberty, and then, changing his mind, gave them time to leave his dominions, assigning three ports for their embarkation. He hoped, says Bishop Osorio, the best Latin historian of our time, that, the grace of freedom which he had bestowed on them having failed to convert them to Christianity, their reluctance to expose themselves, like their companions, to the thievery of the seamen, to leave a country where they had lived in great prosperity and to cast their lot in an unknown and foreign land, would bring about this result. But finding his hope disappointed, and that they were all determined to depart, he cut off two of the ports he had promised them, in order that the length and discomfort of the passage might cause some to reconsider, or in order to pile them all up together in one place for greater facility of execution of what he purposed, which was this. He ordered that all the children under fourteen should be taken from the hands of their fathers and mothers and transported out of their sight and intercourse, to a place where they would be instructed