292 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY valuable citizens, stands out in such striking contrast to the general wisdom and benevolence of Isabella's mild and enlightened reign, that it can only be understood by reference to a state of feeling which was stirring the orthodox Catholics of every court of Europe to preach the duty of a new crusade against the infidel. The natural sagacity of Isabella would lead her to deal directly with the infidel upon her own borders, rather than to waste her energy and resources in the endeavour to unite Europe in a common movement. The Spanish sovereigns were besieging Granada when Columbus obtained from them, in camp, in April of 1492, the longdesired permission to start on his voyage of discovery to the West, and it is indicative of the general tone of feeling in Europe, that he vowed to provide out of the proceeds of his enterprise, if it should prove as successful as he hoped, funds for the prosecution of a crusade to deliver Palestine from the Turks. From Gibraltar to Constantinople a dread of victorious Islam inspired the policy of every court.

The result was the expulsion of Mohammedanism from Western Europe. When Granada submitted to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, the Moors were not at first driven out of Spain. They remained as subjects of the Catholic kings. But Cardinal Ximenes, Isabella's great adviser, did not long remain content with this measure of moderation. In 1502 they were expelled. The contents of their famous libraries were collected and destroyed, with the exception, as has been already mentioned, of some 300 books of medical science. Their property, offered in nominal sales, for which gold and silver were not allowed to be used in payment, was, in fact, subjected to wholesale pillage. All that they took with them to enrich the cities of Africa to which they went, was the skill, the taste, the learning, the industry, the habits of good citizenship, which each man carried in his breast, and by the loss of which Spain was for