Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/168

144 144 EXPULSION OF THE JEWS. PART I. Their siiffVr- ings in Africa. sures on all who should presume to violate it. The fugitives were distributed along various routes, be- ing determined in their destination bj accidental circumstances, much more than any knowledge of the respective countries to which they were bound. Much the largest division, amounting according to some estimates to eighty thousand souls, passed into Portugal ; whose monarch, John the Second, 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 in- genious artisans to establish themselves permanent- ly in the kingdom. *° A considerable number found their way to the ports of Santa Maria and Cadiz, where, after lin- gering some time in the vain hope of seeing the waters open for their egress, according to the prom- ises 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. Notwith- standing the interdict, the Jews had contrived to secrete small sums of money, sewed up in their 10 Zurita, Anales, torn. v. fol. 9. Hist, de Portugal, torn. iv. p. 95. — Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, torn. — Mariana, Hist, de Espafia, torn. viii. p. 133. — Bernaldez, Reyes ii. p. 602. Catolicos, ubi supra. — La Clede,