EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



mate of Spain, heartily agreed with his reverend 

 brother, save as far as concerned the little chil- 

 dren, whom he thought should be included in 

 the general banishment. To Bleda, the famous 

 Dominican, even these measures seemed insuf- 

 ficient, and he argued that all the Moriscoes in 

 Spain men, women, and children even to the 

 new-born babe should be ruthlessly mur- 

 dered, " because it was impossible to tell which 

 of them were Christians at heart, and it was 

 enough to leave the matter to God, who knew 

 his own, and who would reward in the next 

 world those who were really Catholics." The 

 views of the Archbishop of Toledo finally pre- 

 vailed, and in 1609, as Mr. Buckle puts it, 

 " about one million of the most industrious in- 

 habitants of Spain were hunted out like beasts, 

 because the sincerity of their religious opinions 

 was doubtful." Their deportation to Morocco 

 was attended by characteristic barbarities. The 

 number of those massacred on the way seems to 

 have exceeded the number of the victims of 

 St. Bartholomew ; while of those who reached 

 Africa, thousands were enslaved by Mohamme- 

 dan Moors, or slain by robbers, or starved in 

 the desert. 



Now these Moriscoes, thus driven from the 

 land by ecclesiastical bigotry, were the most 

 skilful labourers Spain possessed. By their ex- 

 pulsion the manufacture of silk and paper was 



222 



