Note 1441 — Chapter VIII · (continued 2)

‘Ha sido notable el número de cautivos, que los piratas de Berbería han hecho sobre nuestras costas por tres centurias. En el siglo pasado se solian calcular exístentes á la vez en Argel, treinta mil personas españolas. Su rescate á razon de mil pesos por cada persona á lo menos, ascendia á 30 millones de pesos.’ Campomanes, Apendice á la Educacion Popular, vol. i. p. 373, Madrid, 1775. On the precautions which had to be used to guard the coasts of Spain against the Mohammedan corsairs, see Uztariz, Theorica y Practica de Comercio, Madrid, 1757, folio, pp. 172, 173, 222–226; and Lafuente, Historia de España, vol. xv. p. 476, Madrid, 1855. In the middle of the eighteenth century, a regular watch had to be kept along the Mediterranean coast of Spain, ‘in order to give the alarm upon the appearance of the enemy.’ See A Tour through Spain by Udal ap Rhys, 2d edit., London, 1760, p. 170. As to the state of things in the seventeenth century, see Janer, Condicion de los Moriscos, Madrid, 1857, p. 63.