Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/108

84 84 - WAR OF GRANADA. PART cities of Almeria and Baza, whose inhabitants, evac L — uating their ancient homes, transported themselves, with such personal effects as thej could carry, to the city of Granada, or the coast of Africa. The space thus opened by the fugitive population was quickly filled by the rushing tide of Spaniards. ^ It is impossible at this day, to contemplate these events with the triumphant swell of exultation, with which they are recorded by contemporary chroniclers. That the Moors were guilty (though not so generally as pretended) of the alleged con- spiracy, is not in itself improbable, and is corrobo- rated indeed by the Arabic statements. But the punishment was altogether disproportionate to the offence. Justice might surely have been satisfied by a selection of the authors and principal agents of the meditated insurrection ; — for no overt act appears to have occurred. But avarice was too strong for justice ; and this act, which is in perfect conformity to the policy systematically pursued by the Spanish crown for more than a century after- wards, may be considered as one of the first links in the long chain of persecution, which terminated in the expulsion of the Moriscoes. uniRiia During; the following year, 1491, a circumstance deposes the ~ i t r i chifnwr) occurred illustrative of the policy of the present government in reference to ecclesiastical matters. The chancery of Valladolid having appealed to the 5 Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, cap. Epist., lib. 3,epist. 84. — Garibay, 131, 132. — Bernaldez, Reyes Ca- Compendio, torn. iv. p. 424. — Car- tolicos, MS., cap. 97. — Conde, donne, Hist. d'Afnque et d'Es- Dominacion de los Arabes, torn, pagne, torn. iii. pp. 309, 310. iii. cap. 41. — Peter Martyr, Opus