[50] Gonzalo de Oviedo[b] lavishes many encomiums on Cabrera, for his “generous qualities, his singular prudence in government, and his solicitude for his vassals, whom he inspired with the deepest attachment.” The best panegyric on his character is the unshaken confidence which his royal mistress reposed in him to the day of her death. [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 ½_d_ 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.]