Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/170

146 146 EXPULSION OF THE JEWS. PART Many of the emigrants took the direction of Ita- '- Ij. Those who landed at Naples brought with In other ■. .^. i>i 111 countries, thom an mrectious disorder, contracted by long confinement in small, crowded, and ill-provided ves- sels. The disorder was so malignant, and spread with such frightful celerity, as to sweep off more than twenty thousand 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 eyewitness of the scenes he describes. " No one," he says, " could behold the sufferings of the Jewish exiles unmov- ed. A great many perished of hunger, especially those of tender years. Mothers, with scarcely strength to support themselves, carried their fam- ished infants in their arms, and died with them Many fell victims to the 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 travel- ler 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