State of the City of Mexico.

31

always endeavored to honor and favor them. They have worked in such a manner that there are already thirty thousand inhabitants in the city, and the same order that there used to be in their market-places and barterings. And I have given them such liberties and exemptions that every day the population is increasing; for they live much at their ease, and the workmen in the mechanical arts, of whom there are many, live by the daily wages which they gain among the Spaniards, as carpenters, masons, stone-cutters, silversmiths, and other workmen." He then proceeds to speak of the persons who live by fishing, which was a great branch of commerce there, and of the many agriculturists. He begs the king to send seeds* and fruits from Spain, "as the natives of these parts are very fond of cultivating the earth and rearing plantations." Finally, he concludes by telling the Emperor that in the Spanish part of the town there are many houses already built, and many begun, and that in five years' time it will be "the most noble and populous city in the world, and with very fine buildings.' He adds that there are two large market-places, one in the Mexican, and the other in the Spanish quarter.

It may seem ungracious, when recounting so many acts of great sagacity on the part of Cortez in the civil

* DAVILA mentions that the first grain of corn which sprung up was sown by a servant of Cortez: it produced four hundred fold. "Házense grandes cosechas: dos vezes se coge trigo en el año. Y para que se vea la pujança, y poderío de la tierra, Juan Garrido, criado de Hernando Cortés sembró en un huerto tres granos de trigo; perdióse el uno, y los dos dieron mas de quatrocientos granos, y poco a poco se cogió infinito trigo; y de lo que es de regadío se coge en mayor abundancia; porque un grano produce docientos y mas."-GIL GONZALEZ DAVILA, Teatro Eclesiástico, tom. i., p. 8.

"Segun los Naturales de estas partes son Amigos de cultivar las Tierras, y de traher Arboledas.”—LORENZANA, p. 376.

32

Value of Interpreters.

and military government of Mexico and its dependencies, to comment upon any error or omission. But there is one matter which pre-eminently demanded the attention of Cortez, and to which, as far as we know, he does not appear to have given his usual forecasting thought. For the good government of the nations he had conquered, for the advantageous settlement of the Spaniards themselves, and especially for the completion of the conquest with the least possible effusion of blood and waste of treasure, it was above all things necessary that the Indians and the Spaniards should understand one another. An interpreter was worth an army; and it is almost impossible to appreciate the nature of the conquest thoroughly, in all its horrors and in all its difficulties, without a constant recollection of the fact that opposing armies, that both conquerors and the conquered, that allies, that governors and their subjects, and that even masters and their servants had, for the most part, only the rudest means of communication. The Church, containing the learned men of the day, was sure to undertake, and did undertake, the remedy for this great evil. It may be said that Cortez waited for the advent of the Franciscans and Dominicans, whom he more than once petitioned the court of Spain to send to the new country. But it must be owned that it would have completed the manifestation of his sagacity if he had taken any steps at once for training some few Spaniards and some few Indians as interpreters. Geronimo de Aguilar died some time in the first three or four years after the taking of Mexico; and the Indian woman, Marina, the once-beloved of Cortez, was probably the only very good interpreter then left. After Cortez, she must be considered to have been the most important personage -the one who could least be spared-in New Spain.

Conversion of the Natives.

33

An object which Cortez never lost sight of was the conversion of the natives. In his report to the Emperor, dated the 15th of October, 1524, he says that,

66

as many times as I have written to your sacred majesty, I have told your highness of the readiness which there is in some of the natives of these parts to receive our holy Catholic faith and become Christians. And I have sent to supplicate your imperial majesty that you would have the goodness to provide religious persons, of good life and example, for that end." Cortez then proceeds to suggest that these should be monastic persons, and he speaks very plainly against bishops and other prelates.* This is the passage which, I imagine, has led some ingenious persons to believe that Cortez was inclined to the Protestant doctrines. To my mind, it is to be explained by his great desire for conversion, in which he wisely foresaw the religious orders would be most useful. Perhaps, also, his dislike to Bishop Fonseca may be traced in this general outbreak against bishops.

It must have been with very great satisfaction that Cortez in this year (1524) had to welcome the arri

* "Porque habiendo Obispos, y otros Prelados, no dejarian de seguir la costumbre, que por nuestros pecados hoy tienen, en disponer de los bienes de la Iglesia, que es gastarlos en pompas, y en otros vicios en dejar Mayorazgos á sus Hijos, ó Parientes; y aun seria otro mayor mal, que como los Naturales de estas partes tenian en sus tiempos Personas Religiosas, que entendian en sus Ritos y Ceremonias, y estos eran tan recogidos, assí en honestidad, como en castidad, que si alguna cosa, fuera de esto, á alguno se le sentia, era punido con pena de muerte. 'E si agora viessen las cosas de la Iglesia, y servicio de Dios, en poder de Canónigos, ó otras Dignidades; y supiessen, que aquellos eran Ministros de Dios, y los viessen usar de los vicios, y profanidades, que agora en nuestros tiempos en essos Reynos usan, seria menospreciar nuestra Fé, y tenerla por cosa de burla."-LORENZANA, p. 392.

34

Holding of a Synod.

val of Martin de Valencia* and his Franciscan breth

ren.

As there were many things connected with the Church in the New World which required settlement, a synod was immediately held. It consisted of five clérigos, nineteen religiosos, six letrados, and Cortez himself.† At this synod the difficult question of polygamy was discussed, and it was arranged that the Indian husband might choose as his legal wife the one he liked best.‡

Few conquerors or statesmen can have transacted more important affairs than we see that Cortez had to deal with in the three years and two months that had now elapsed since the Conquest of Mexico.

* Martin de Valencia was endowed with inquisitorial powers in New Spain, and this was the first entrance of the Inquisition into Mexico. "Quando el año de 1524, passo á Mexico el Padre fr. Martin de Valencia, con sus Religiosos de San Francisco, aun no era muerto el Padre fr. Pedro de Córdova, y assí por la autoridad de Inquisidor que tenia, le hizo comissario en toda la Nueva-España, con licencia de castigar delinquentes en ciertos casos, reservando para si el Inquisidor el conocimiento de algunos mas graves."-ANTONIO DE REMESAL, Historia de la Provincia de San Vincente de Chiapa y Guatemala, lib. ii., cap. 3. Madrid, 1619.

An account in detail of the immigration of the religious orders into New Spain will be given in the history of Guatemala.

"Y para que en todo se procediesse conforme á lo dispuesto por la Santa Madre Iglesia. Fray Martin de Valencia, como Legado del Santíssimo Papa, juntó un Synodo, que fué el primero que se celebró en el Nuevo Mundo, y en él se hallaron, 5 Clérigos, 19 Religiosos, 6 Letrados, y con ellos D. Fernando Cortés."-GIL GONZALES DAVILA, Teatro Eclesiástico, tom. i., p. 20.

"Declararon, que por entonces casasen con la que quisiesen, pues no se sabian los ritos de sus Matrimonios."-GOMARA, Crónica de la Nueva-España, cap. 167. BARCIA, Historiadores, tom. ii.

"Ultimamente habiendose ocurrido á la Cathedra de San Pedro, decidió el Señor Paulo III. por un Breve, en que expresamente manda, que quando uno viniesse á la Fé, se le dé la primera de las Mugeres que tenia en su Gentilidad; y si no supiesse declarar qual era la primera, se le dé la que el quisiesse."-F. A. LORENZANA, Concilios Provinciales de Mexico, Nota, p. 6. Mexico, 1769.

CHAPTER II.

CRISTOVAL DE OLID SENT BY CORTEZ TO HONDURAS.-HIS REBELLION.-CORTEZ GOES TO HONDURAS TO CHASTISE CRISTOVAL DE OLID.DISSENSIONS IN MEXICO DURING HIS ABSENCE. EXECUTION OF THE KINGS OF MEXICO AND TLACUBA.-RETURN OF CORTEZ TO MEXICO.-PONCE DE LEON COMES TO TAKE A RESIDENCIA OF CORTEZ.

T

HE next great transaction of Cortez is one which led to the most disastrous consequences, and is not, as it appears to me, marked by his accustomed sagacity. Even the shrewdest men, however, are liable to singular errors of judgment, from the temptation to continue to do something similar to that which they have once done well. In the management of an expedition through a hostile or dubious country, Cortez was transcendent. But a sagacity of another kind was more in demand now; and for some years he would have served his country better as a statesman than as a soldier.

Soon after the settlement of the affairs of Panuco, Cortez had dispatched Cristoval de Olid, one of those captains who had distinguished themselves in the siege, to make a settlement in Honduras. This expedition started on the 11th of January, 1524. Cristoval de Olid proved unfaithful to his trust, and gave undeniable signs of setting up an independent government for himself. Cortez was particularly indignant at the conduct of Olid; and his rage, shown by the swelling of the veins in his throat and the dilating of his nostrils,