[51] See the strong language, also, of Peter Martyr,[d] another contemporary witness of the beneficial changes in the government.
[52] [It is difficult to reduce these sums to modern values, for the maravedi has been coined in gold, silver, and the copper alloy or vellon, and its value has fluctuated bewilderingly from a farthing or quarter of a cent upwards. Assuming that at this time it was equal to about ½d or 1 cent, Enriquez lost £480 or $2,400; Alva £1,150 or $5,750; Albuquerque £2,800 or $14,000 annually. It is customary to multiply such sums by 7 to get the modern purchasing equivalent.]
[53] As a counterpart to the above scene, twelve Christian renegades, found in the city, were transfixed with canes, acañavereados, a barbarous punishment derived from the Moors, which was inflicted by horsemen at full gallop, who discharged pointed reeds at the criminal until he expired under repeated wounds. A number of relapsed Jews were at the same time condemned to the flames. “These,” says Father Abarca,[i] “were the fêtes and illuminations most grateful to the Catholic piety of our sovereigns!”
[54] About two leagues west of Granada.
[55] [Mariana[m] placed the number at nearly 800,000; Graetz[n] at 300,000; Burke[f] at 200,000; Prescott[g] as above at 160,000. The smallest of the estimates is sufficiently great to overwhelm the powers of imagination.]
[56] The Portuguese government caused all children of fourteen years of age, or under, to be taken from their parents and retained in the country, as fit subjects for a Christian education. The distress occasioned by this cruel provision may be well imagined. Many of the unhappy parents murdered their children to defeat the ordinance; and many laid violent hands on themselves.
[57] He consumed by fire all the Arabic controversial books he could find, which amounted to five thousand volumes, according to the lowest estimate; Condé[o] puts it at eighty thousand, which is commonly accepted.
[58] Prescott adds: “The spirit of toleration exhibited by the Moors, indeed, was made a principal argument against them in the archbishop of Valencia’s memorial to Philip III. The Mohammedans would seem the better Christians of the two.”
[59] [There are, however, not wanting documents to show that at times the great captain was goaded by Ferdinand’s jealous mistreatment into a serious consideration of deserting to the enemy, or declaring himself king in Italy.]
[60] [In 1492 Ferdinand had been almost killed by an insane assassin. Isabella had nursed him with the utmost devotion.]