Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/479

453 DEATH OF ALONSO DE AGUILAR. 'loS even at the present day, before some flaw or pre- chapter text would be devised to evade it. How much ^ greater was the probabilitj of this in the present case, where the weaker party was viewed with all the accumulated odium of long hereditary hostility and religious rancor ? The work of conversion, on which the Christians, no doubt, much relied, was attended with greater difficulties than had been anticipated by the con- querors. It was now found, that, while the Moors retained their present faith, they would be much better affected towards their countrymen in Africa, than to the nation with which they were incorpo- rated. In short, Spain still had enemies in her bosom ; and reports were rife in every quarter, of their secret intelligence with the Barbary states, and of Christians kidnapped to be sold as slaves to Algerine corsairs. Such tales, greedily circulated and swallowed, soon begat general alarm ; and men are not apt to be over-scrupulous as to measures, which they deem essential to their personal safety. The zealous attempt to bring about conversion by preaching and expostulation was fair and com- mendable. The intervention of bribes and prom- ises, if it violated the spirit, did not, at least, the letter of the treaty. The application of force to a few of the most refractory, who by their blind ob- stinacy were excluding a whole nation from the benefits of redemption, was to be defended on other grounds ; and these were not wanting to cun- ning theologians, who considered, that the sanctity of the end justified extraordinary means, and that,