lo Unexplored Spain 



of wealth and industry introduced into Spain — to-day extinct. 

 The Moors covered Andalucia with mulberry -groves : in Granada 

 alone ran 5000 looms for the weaving of the fibre, and the streets 

 of the Zacatin and the Alcarceria became world-markets, where 

 every variety of costly stuft's were bought and sold — tafetans, 

 velvets, and richest textures that surpassed in quality and 

 brilliancy of tint even the far-famed products of Piza, Florence, 

 and the Levantine cities which since Roman days had monopolised 

 the silk -supply of the world. These now found their wares 

 displaced by Spanish silks ; even the sumptuous *' creations " of 

 Persia and China met with a dangerous rivalry. 



Such was the technical skill and success of the Moors in 

 agriculture and acclimatisation that, on the eventual conquest 

 and final expulsion of their race from Spain, overtures were made 

 with a view of inducing a certain proportion to remain, lest Spain 

 might lose every expert she possessed in these essential pursuits. 

 Six families in every hundred were promised amnesty on condition 

 of remaining, but none accepted the off'er. Deep as was their 

 love for Spain — so deep that the departing Moors are related to 

 have knelt and kissed its strand ere embarking, broken-hearted, 

 for Africa — yet not a man of them but refused to remain as 

 vassals where, for centuries, they had lived as lords. 



Such were the Moors — strong in war, yet equally strong in 

 all the arts and enterprises of peace, filled with energy, an 

 industrious and a practical race. It is safe to say that under 

 their regime the resources of this diflicult land were being 

 developed to their utmost capacity.^ 



Of the final expulsion of the Moors (and that of the Jews was 

 analogous) 'tis not for us to write. Yet, for Spain, both events 

 proved momentous, and, along with the antecedent practices of 

 the Moriscos, provide side-lights on history that are worth 

 consideration.- 



^ The term "Moor" lias always seemed to us a trifle unfortunate, as tending to indicate 

 that the conquering race came from Morocco — "Turks" or "Arabs" would have been a more 

 appropriate title. For fifty years after the conquest Spain was governed by Emirs subject to 

 the Kaliphs of Damascus, the first independent power being wielded by the Emir Abderahman 

 III. who, in 777, usurped the title of Kalijjh of Cordoba. That kaliphate, by the way, during 

 its earlier splendours, became the centre of universal culture, Cordoba being the intellectual 

 capital of the world, with a population that has been stated at two millions. 



■•^ For the information of readers who have not studied the subject, it may be well to add 

 that, during the early years of the seventeenth century, something like a million of Spanish 

 Moors — the most industrious of its inhabitants — were either massacred in Spain or expelled 

 from the country. 



