[6] "In this same burning place of Seville," says Puigblanch, "which the Inquisition used for the first time in 1481, on the persons of six men and women of the Jewish persuasion, the tribunal performed its last tragedy in 1782, by the execution of a woman for being a Molinist. Persons who were there present, relate, that the prisoner was placed on a raised platform, sustained by four beams, resting on the four pillars; that these, and the works which served as a base, were adorned with a lining painted black, on which were seen the usual fooleries, of dragons and devils in white, and on the tops of which were four figures in penitential garments; finally, that the prisoner, after being strangled, (she had been converted while going to the place of execution, and therefore met with this favour!) was burnt, together with the whole platform and frame, for which purpose, barrels of pitch, faggots of vine-cuttings, and a large quantity of wood, had been placed underneath. The above six followers of the Jewish rites, (who were put to death in 1481) were executed, according to Pedro de Torres, canon of Calahorra, and also a contemporary author, on the 10th of January, as well as seventeen others on the 26th of March, and a great many more on the 21st of April; those who died up to the 4th of November, amounting to two hundred and ninety-eight; and besides seventy-nine others were condemned to perpetual imprisonment." [7] More than five thousand houses remained shut in Andalusia, whose inhabitants had been exterminated, in one way or another, by the Inquisition. [8] See Appendix, No I. [9] A hundred and seventy thousand families are said to have left Spain at this period. Nay, some writers make the number of expatriated Jews to amount to eight hundred thousand persons, whose immense riches were distributed among their persecutors. If the Moors, who emigrated to Africa, are added to the number, Ferdinand and Isabella lost two millions of subjects by these cruel measures. [10] An auto-da-fé, or "act of faith," of which a more particular account will be given afterwards, is the burning of those persons whom the Inquisitors are pleased to pronounce defective in their belief of any of the articles of faith commanded to be believed by the Popish Church.