ing business in my opinion than guarding a flock of sheep; and as
there was no need to discuss the question of wages, the Morisco soon had
a servant and I a master. I remained with him more than a month, not
that the life I led with him was much to my liking, but because it gave
me opportunities of observing that of my master, which was like that of
all the other Moriscoes in Spain. O what curious things I could tell
you, friend Scipio, about that half Paynim rabble, if I were not afraid
that I should not get to the end of my story in a fortnight! Nay, if I
were to go into particulars, two months would not be enough. Some few
specimens, however, you shall hear.

[64] A Christian of Moorish descent.

Hardly will you find among the whole race one man who is a sincere
believer in the holy law of Christianity. Their only thought is how to
scrape up money and keep it; and to this end they toil incessantly and
spend nothing. The moment a real falls into their clutches, they condemn
it to perpetual imprisonment; so that by dint of perpetually
accumulating and never spending, they have got the greater part of the
money of Spain into their hands. They are the grubs, the magpies, the
weasels of the nation. Consider how numerous they are, and that every
day they add much or little to their hoards, and that as they increase
in number so the amount of their hoarded wealth must increase without
end. None of them of either sex make monastic vows, but all marry and
multiply, for thrifty living is a great promoter of fecundity. They are
not wasted by war or excessive toil; they plunder us in a quiet way, and
enrich themselves with the fruits of our patrimonies which they sell
back to us. They have no servants, for they all wait upon themselves.
They are at no expense for the education of their sons, for all their
lore is but how to rob us. From the twelve sons of Jacob, who entered
Egypt, as I have heard, there had sprung, when Moses freed them from
captivity, six hundred thousand fighting men, besides women and
children. From this we may infer how much the Moriscoes have multiplied,
and how incomparably greater must be their numbers.

_Scip._ Means have been sought for remedying the mischiefs you have
mentioned and hinted at; and, indeed, I am sure that those which you
have passed over in silence, are even more serious than those which you
have touched upon. But our commonwealth has most wise and zealous
champions, who, considering t