A. D. 149a. 717 



belonging to the ftaple of Calais *, to any country whatever, repeating 

 the voyage as often they pleafed during the year, and duely paying the 

 cuftoms, &c. [Fa^dera, P^. xii, />. 471.] 



The Chriftian provinces of Spain, almofl: entirely united by the mar- 

 riage of Ferdinand king of Aragon with Ilixbella queen of Caftile, which 

 took place in the year 1469, had for fome time been in a very flourifh- 

 ing condition. About ten thoufand people were employed in the ma- 

 nufadures of filk and wool in Toledo. In Catalonia, before the union 

 of the kingdoms of Caftile and Aragon (an event fatal to the commer- 

 cial profperity of that province) many of the towns were filled with in- 

 duflrious and fkilful manufadlurers in wool, cotton, flax, filk, leather, tin, 

 copper, iron, fl;eel, filver, &c. The fliip-carpenters of Barcelona built 

 vefifels, not only for their own countrymen, but alfo for other nations. 

 All thefe branches of induftry, together with the produce of a fertile 

 foil diligently cultivated, fupplied the materials of an extenfive commerce 

 with every port of the Mediterranean fea,and alfo to Portugal, the weft 

 coaft of France, Flanders, and England. [Schott. Script. Hifp. V. ii, pp. 

 308, 844. — Capmany, Mem. hiJI. de Barcelona, pnffim\.'] But all the Chrift- 

 ians of Spain were furpafl^ed by the Saracens of Granada in the cultiv- 

 ation of their lands, the excellence of their manufadures, particularly 

 thofe of filk, (which, as already obferved, were in a flourifhing condi- 

 tion in Almeria before any of the Chriftian flates to the weftward of 

 Greece pofi!efi"ed a fingle filk-worm) the extent of their commerce, their 

 riches and magnificence :j:. That kingdom was finally fubdued in the 

 beginning of January 1492 by Ferdinand, who by the treaty fecured to 

 the Saracens the free exercife of their religion with the ufe of their 

 mofques, their own laws, and their property of every kind, including 

 even their arms, except cannon. Ferdinand has generally obtained the 

 charadler of a wife king : but, with fubmiffion to the wifdom of thofe 

 who have given him that charafter, it may be obferved, that he had 

 now an opportunity, by a prudent and conciliatory treatment of his new 

 fubjeds, to render his kingdom the firft manufaduring and commercial 

 country in Europe, and that his condud was quite the reverfe. Urged 

 by bigotry and infatuation, he had already efiablifhed the horrible tri- 

 bunal of the inquifition, of itfelf fufficient to deftroy all fpirit of in- 

 duftry and enterprife ; and, not fatisfied with fo great a facrifice of the 

 inherent rights of the human mind on the altar of fuperftition, he com- 



• The king's complaifance to the French merch- Don Antonio de Capmany, I have to acknow. 



ants made him forget that tin was a principal arti- lege the kindnefs of Sir John Talbot Dillon in 



cle of the ftaple, and admit not only French-made favouring me with the ufe of his copy, perhaps the 



woollen cloths, but even thofe of other countries only one in Great Britain : nor fhould I even have 



imported by French merchants: and yet he is faiJ known of the work, but by his mention of it in 



to have underftood, and afted upon, the principles his valuable Hiftory of Peter the CrueL 

 of the aft of navigation. | The magnificence of their buildings appears 



■f- For this and the preceding quotations from in the remains of ibem ftill cxifting. 

 the important colkiStion of records, publiflied by 3 



