A few words more and our task is ended. A few words more and we shall
bid a last farewell to unfortunate Spain, once so sunny, so prosperous,
so intellectual, and so fair. A few words more and our goodly vessel,
staunch and strong, will furl its eager wings and speed us straight
across the foaming deep, and land us once again upon Columbia's heaven
blessed and freedom-kissed virgin soil. As we predicted, so it came
to pass. Our journey back into the centuries of the past, and into
foreign lands, and among foreign peoples, has proven a profitable
one, and as memorable as profitable. Events and scenes, beautiful and
loathsome, joyous and tearful, soul refreshing and execrable, followed
each other in rapid succession. There was much, which, despite the most
authentic historic sources, seemed fabulous, incredible, impossible.
Men and women and the states of society and civilization in which
they lived and played their parts, were described, which startled us
for their peerless magnificence, for their marvelous intellectuality,
scarce equalled even now, and led us to suppose that we were not
dealing with facts, but with the imagination of some rich phantasy.
And events and achievements were recounted which struck terror into
our very soul, and caused the heart to rise in rebellion against the
mind when it was asked to believe them as actual occurrences, and not
as some distressing and revolting and blood-stained work of fiction.
And yet all that was told, and all that was described, and all that
was recounted was history, and true history, strange and incredible,
marvelous and anomalous though it did appear.
Two races of men engaged our attention most, the Jews and the Moors.
When first we met the Jews in the southwestern corner of Europe,
we found them a prosperous community, large in numbers, loved and
appreciated by their heathen neighbors, busily engaged in transforming
Spain into a granery and into the garden spot of Europe, and
contributing largely, by their high morality and intelligence, by their
skill and industry to the nation's prosperity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account