ever yet led to the commission of crying injustice; the Jews were
doomed to persecution and destruction on two accounts, - their

great riches, and their high superiority over the Spaniards in
learning and intellect. Avarice has always been the dominant

passion in Spanish minds, their rage for money being only to be
compared to the wild hunger of wolves for horse-flesh in the time

of winter: next to avarice, envy of superior talent and
accomplishment is the prevailingpassion. These two detestable

feelings united, proved the ruin of the Jews in Spain, who were,
for a long time, an eyesore, both to the clergy and laity, for

their great riches and learning. Much the same causes insured the
expulsion of the Moriscos, who were abhorred for their superior

industry, which the Spaniards would not imitate; whilst the
reformation was kept down by the gaunt arm of the Inquisition, lest

the property of the church should pass into other and more
deserving hands. The faggot piles in the squares of Seville and

Madrid, which consumed the bodies of the Hebrew, the Morisco, and
the Protestant, were lighted by avarice and envy, and those same

piles would likewise have consumed the mulatto carcass of the
Gitano, had he been learned and wealthy enough to become obnoxious

to the two master passions of the Spaniards.
Of all the Spanish writers who have written concerning the Gitanos,

the one who appears to have been most scandalised at the want of
religion observable amongst them, and their contempt for things

sacred, was a certain Doctor Sancho De Moncada.
This worthy, whom we have already had occasion to mention, was

Professor of Theology at the University of Toledo, and shortly
after the expulsion of the Moriscos had been brought about by the

intrigues of the monks and robbers who thronged the court of Philip
the Third, he endeavoured to get up a cry against the Gitanos

similar to that with which for the last half-century Spain had
resounded against the unfortunate and oppressed Africans, and to

effect this he published a discourse, entitled 'The Expulsion of
the Gitanos,' addressed to Philip the Third, in which he conjures

that monarch, for the sake of morality and everything sacred, to
complete the good work he had commenced, and to send the Gitanos

packing after the Moriscos.
Whether this discourse produced any benefit to the author, we have

no means of ascertaining. One thing is certain, that it did no
harm to the Gitanos, who still continue in Spain.

If he had other expectations, he must have understood very little
of the genius of his countrymen, or of King Philip and his court.

It would have been easier to get up a crusade against the wild cats
of the sierra, than against the Gitanos, as the former have skins

to reward those who slay them. His discourse, however, is well
worthy of perusal, as it exhibits some learning, and comprises many

curious details respecting the Gitanos, their habits, and their
practices. As it is not very lengthy, we here subjoin it, hoping

that the reader will excuse its many absurdities, for the sake of
its many valuable facts.

CHAPTER X
'SIRE,

'The people of God were always afflicted by the Egyptians, but the
Supreme King delivered them from their hands by means of many

miracles, which are related in the Holy Scriptures; and now,
without having recourse to so many, but only by means of the

miraculous talent which your Majesty possesses for expelling such
reprobates, he will, doubtless, free this kingdom from them, which

is what is supplicated in this discourse, and it behoves us, in the
first place, to consider

'WHO ARE THE GITANOS?
'Writers generally agree that the first time the Gitanos were seen

in Europe was the year 1417, which was in the time of Pope Martinus
the Fifth and King Don John the Second; others say that Tamerlane

had them in his camp in 1401, and that their captain was Cingo,
from whence it is said that they call themselves Cingary. But the

opinions concerning their origin are infinite.
'The first is that they are foreigners, though authors differ much

with respect to the country from whence they came. The majority
say that they are from Africa, and that they came with the Moors

when Spain was lost; others that they are Tartars, Persians,
Cilicians, Nubians, from Lower Egypt, from Syria, or from other

parts of Asia and Africa, and others consider them to be
descendants of Chus, son of Cain; others say that they are of

European origin, Bohemians, Germans, or outcasts from other nations
of this quarter of the world.

'The second and sure opinion is, that those who prowl about Spain
are not Egyptians, but swarms of wasps and atheistical wretches,

without any kind of law or religion, Spaniards, who have introduced
this Gypsy life or sect, and who admit into it every day all the

idle and broken people of Spain. There are some foreigners who
would make Spain the origin and fountain of all the Gypsies of

Europe, as they say that they proceeded from a river in Spain
called Cija, of which Lucan makes mention; an opinion, however, not

much adopted amongst the learned. In the opinion of respectable
authors, they are called Cingary or Cinli, because they in every

respect resemble the bird cinclo, which we call in Spanish
Motacilla, or aguzanieve (wagtail), which is a vagrant bird and

builds no nest, (37) but broods in those of other birds, a bird
restless and poor of plumage, as AElian writes.

'THE GITANOS ARE VERY HURTFUL TO SPAIN
'There is not a nation which does not consider them as a most

pernicious rabble; even the Turks and Moors abominate them, amongst
whom this sect is found under the names of Torlaquis, (38)

Hugiemalars, and Dervislars, of whom some historians make mention,
and all agree that they are most evil people, and highly

detrimental to the country where they are found.
'In the first place, because in all parts they are considered as

enemies of the states where they wander, and as spies and traitors
to the crown; which was proven by the emperors Maximilian and

Albert, who declared them to be such in public edicts; a fact easy
to be believed, when we consider that they enter with ease into the

enemies' country, and know the languages of all nations.
'Secondly, because they are idle vagabond people, who are in no

respect useful to the kingdom; without commerce, occupation, or
trade of any description; and if they have any it is making

picklocks and pothooks for appearance sake, being wasps, who only
live by sucking and impoverishing the country, sustaining

themselves by the sweat of the miserable labourers, as a German
poet has said of them:-

"Quos aliena juvant, propriis habitare molestum,
Fastidit patrium non nisi nosse solum."

They are much more useless than the Moriscos, as these last were of
some service to the state and the royal revenues, but the Gitanos

are neither labourers, gardeners, mechanics, nor merchants, and
only serve, like the wolves, to plunder and to flee.

'Thirdly, because the Gitanas are public harlots, common, as it is
said, to all the Gitanos, and with dances, demeanour, and filthy

songs, are the cause of continual detriment to the souls of the
vassals of your Majesty, it being notorious that they have done

infinite harm in many honourable houses by separating the married
women from their husbands, and perverting the maidens: and

finally, in the best of these Gitanas any one may recognise all the
signs of a harlot given by the wise king; they are gadders about,

whisperers, always unquiet in places and corners.
'Fourthly, because in all parts they are accounted famous thieves,

about which authors write wonderful things; we ourselves have
continual experience of this fact in Spain, where there is scarcely

a corner where they have not committed some heavy offence.
'Father Martin Del Rio says they were notorious when he was in Leon

in the year 1584; as they even attempted to sack the town of
Logrono in the time of the pest, as Don Francisco De Cordoba writes