'From out the prison me they led,
Before the scribe they brought;
It is no Gypsy thief, he said,
The Spaniards here have caught.'
In a word, nothing was to be gained by interfering with the
Gitanos, by those in whose hands the power was vested; but, on the
contrary, something was to be lost. The chief sufferers were the
labourers, and they had no power to right themselves, though their
wrongs were universally admitted, and laws for their protection
continually being made, which their enemies contrived to set at
nought; as will presently be seen.
The first law issued against the Gypsies appears to have been that
of Ferdinand and Isabella, at Medina del Campo, in 1499. In this
edict they were commanded, under certain penalties, to become
stationary in towns and villages, and to provide themselves with
masters whom they might serve for their maintenance, or in default
thereof, to quit the kingdom at the end of sixty days. No mention
is made of the country to which they were expected to betake
themselves in the event of their quitting Spain. Perhaps, as they
are called Egyptians, it was concluded that they would forthwith
return to Egypt; but the framers of the law never seem to have
considered what means these Egyptians possessed of transporting
their families and themselves across the sea to such a distance, or
if they betook themselves to other countries, what reception a host
of people, confessedly thieves and vagabonds, were likely to meet
with, or whether it was fair in the TWO CHRISTIAN PRINCES to get
rid of such a nuisance at the expense of their neighbours.
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