Delmar.] ^1^ [Jaii.15, 



This is a most instructive table. 



First. It shows an extraordinary decrement of the population of Sp lin 

 from about the beginning of the fifteenth century until after the beginning 

 of the eighteenth. This is attributed chiefly to the Moorish and Jewish exo- 

 dus which commenced to take place in the year 1492, the same year in which 

 that New "World was discovered in which eventually so many of the exiles 

 found both homes and religious liberty. From first to last it is supposed 

 that no less than 300,000 Moorish and 300,000 Jewish* families, or nearly 

 three millions of intelligent and industrious people were driven from Spain, 

 and amidst the most shocking cruelties. These, together with the num- 

 bers who fled after the conquest of Grenada and the colonists to America, 

 contributed to reduce the population from nearly 22, 000, 000 in the four- 

 teenth century to little more than 7,000,000 in the seventeenth. Notwith- 

 standing the persecution of the Moors and Jews, it is stated that consid- 

 erable numbers remained in Spain, professing, if not believing, in the 

 doctrines of the Church, and forming the bulk of the agricultural and 

 industrial classes in many localities. This is afiirmed by Macgregor and 

 denied by Buckle, but I think the weight of evidence is with the former. 

 M'CuUoch, p. 845, says there were 60,000 Moriscoes in Grenada in his 

 time, about the year 1840. 



Evidence of the large population that dwelt in Spain under the Moorish 

 regime is found in a class of facts, of which the following are examples: 



<' Before the Conquest in 1487 (the city of) Grenada had 70,000 houses 

 and 400,000 inhabitants, 60,000 of whom were armed. It was defended 

 by ramparts flanked by 1030 towers and two vast fortresses, each of which 

 could receive in garrison 40,000 men. 



" The kingdom (of Grenada) of which it is the capital, was only thirty 

 leagues in breadth by seventy in length, but it contained thirty-two large 

 cities and ninety-seven towns and 3,000,000 of inhabitants. The whole 

 population at present does not exceed 83,000. 



" The city of Cordova under the Moors occupied nearly eight leagues 

 of the banks of the Guadalquiver, and contained 600 grand mosques, 3,837 

 small mosques or chapels, 4,320 minauts or towers, 900 public baths, 28 

 superbs, 80,455 shops, 213,070 dwelling-houses, 60,300 hotels or palaces." 

 Moreau de Jonnes, 1834. 



•'The last official census states that 1,511 towns and villages were then 

 totally uninhabited and abandoned. " Macgregor, 1850. 



For further evidence on this point, consult Buckle's Hist. Civ., Draper's 

 nist. Civ. and Civil Policy of America. 



Sacond. The table of population shows a very slow increment from the 



qiient to the year 1830. This opinion is probably based on the cadastral returns of 

 1826, or thereabouts, and the smaller numbers of the census returns of 1833. It may be 

 well-founded; but I have ventured to disregard it in arranging the figures of the text. 



* This is the highest estimate. Buckle, who quotes a number of authors, states that 

 the number of Tews actually expelled is differently estimated at from 160,000 to 800,000. 

 — Hist. Civ., ii, 15. 



