retained his title of governor, with the same powers always conferred
upon him; but his long absences from the capital made it necessary, as
he fully recognized, that some other strong authority should be
established there. Nevertheless, he never got on very well with such
other authorities, and on his return soon became at odds with Mendoza,
who, in his opinion, interfered with his prerogatives. It was then that
Cortés bade farewell to his family, and taking with him his eldest son
and heir, Don Martin, then eight years old, he embarked for Spain,
leaving Mendoza undisturbed in the execution of his office.
It is evident that the rule of the viceroy was judicious and well
adapted to grafting a new civilization upon the old. The native tribes
were made peaceable without a great deal of contention, and by the
adroit and gentle management of the viceroy, ably helped by the
religious orders who came to his assistance, readily transferred their
old beliefs to the mysteries and miracles of the Roman Catholic faith.
[Illustration: CATHEDRAL AT MORELIA.]
There was genuine enthusiasm for the viceroy on the part of the Indians.
On the Central Railway, about five hours out from the city of Mexico, is
a station called Cazadero, which means "place for pursuing game." The
name clings to it since 1540, when an immense hunt took place there upon
the broad plain which stretches out in all directions. This hunt was a
pleasant attention from the Indians to the viceroy to express their
approval of his ways with them.
In 1536 was issued the first book printed in Mexico, on a press imported
by Mendoza, and put into the hands of one Juan Pablos. In the same year
both silver and copper coins were stamped, the latter in the form of an
irregular polygon. In 1550 this good ruler sailed away from Mexico,
where he had done so much to advance the interests of his royal master.
He passed on to take charge of the government of Peru, by a practice
which came to be quite common--a sort of diplomatic succession by which
the viceroys of New Spain were promoted to the post at Peru.
XXI.
FRAY MARTIN DE VALENCIA.
Don Luis de Velasco, second viceroy of New Spain, made his entrance into
the capital with great pomp, at the end of the year 1550. He, like his
predecessor, had been selected with care by the orders of Charles V., if
not from his personal knowledge, and he brought to his new position
qualities as admirable. His first decree was one liberating one hundred
and fifty Indians from slavery, who were working chiefly in the mines,
and when the objection was raised that this industry would be paralyzed
by the step, he stated that the liberty of the Indians was of more
importance than all the mines in the world, and that the rents due to
the crown were not of such a nature that for them must be interrupted
laws human and divine.
He established in Mexico, for the security of travellers upon the
highway, the tribunal of the Holy Brotherhood, instituted in Spain for
the same purpose in the time of Isabella. He founded the Royal
University of Mexico, and the Royal Hospital for the exclusive use of
the natives. He recognized the capacity of these Indians for developing
lands hitherto uncultivated, and, in fact, favored them by every means
in his power, while he encouraged the development of all the resources
of the country, especially the mines, of which some important
discoveries were made in his time.
The building of the cathedral at Puebla was pushed with great activity
under this viceroy, although the building was not finished until the
middle of the next century.
Puebla de los Angeles, second in importance in all Mexico to Guadalajara
only, receives its name from the tradition that before the light of
Christianity was shed on New Spain, the heathen used to see visions of
angels marshalled in mighty hosts in the heavens above the spot where
the city stands. It is in the Province of Tlaxcalla, where Cortés found
his first friends and stanch allies, on the highway between the coast
and the capital.
Of the founding of the city a local chronicler writes that the
illustrious Fray Julian Garces, the first bishop who came to Tlaxcalla,
fully shared the project for establishing a town somewhere in these
parts that might be a resting-place in the long and weary walk from the
coast to the city of Mexico; yet he was uncertain in his mind as to
where the town had best be, until one night in a vision he beheld a most
lovely _vega_, a plain, bounded by the slope of the great volcanoes on
the west, broken by two little hills, and dotted by many springs, and
cut by two rivers which gave abundant water, and made all things fresh
and green. And as he gazed in pleased amazement, the dream revealed two
angels, who with line and rod were measuring boundaries on the ground,
as if they were marking out the place for streets and squares, and for
the founding of great buildings.
[Illustration: PUEBLA DE LOS ANGELES.]
Upon this the bishop awoke, and luckily coming in his search upon the
very site that his vision had shown him, chose it for the place of
Puebla de los Angeles.
The city is beautifully situated with fine views of the volcanoes; the
pyramid of Cholula is eight miles from it. It is a purely Spanish town,
founded at the earnest request of the Franciscan friars, who entreated
to be allowed to make a town of Spaniards, who should cultivate the
earth in the manner and fashion of Spain, without the assistance of
Indian labor or the unworthy practice of Indian slavery, thus giving
employment to many Spanish good-for-nothings who were going about the
country without finding any thing for their hands to do.
The second Audiencia, in whose time the request was made, readily
granted it, and the city was founded in 1532. Forty families of Spanish
birth assembled, and the plan of the city was marked out, accompanied by
the celebration of mass, as at Valladolid. The Indians of the
surrounding towns willingly helped the Spaniards in great multitudes,
bringing them materials for the first houses, and singing joyfully as
they gave their assistance.
Puebla is so placed with regard to the capital that in the frequent
battles of the country it has been time and again fought for or
invested. During these periods it is to be feared that its angels have
been sometimes compelled to avert their faces. Its present name is
Puebla de Zaragoza, in honor of the brave general who defended it
against the French, on the 5th of May, 1862.
Thus the efforts of the viceroys were ably seconded by the zeal of the
first ecclesiastics of the church of Mexico. Fray Juan de Zumárraga was
the first bishop presented by the emperor to Pope Clement VII., in 1527.
The next year he arrived at Vera Cruz, bearing the titles of
bishop-elect and protector of the Indians, honors which he fairly earned
by his interest in them and his devotion to their cause.
These holy men worked zealously with the natives and by adroitly
substituting for their heathen superstitions, the legends and miracles
of the Catholic Church succeeded in engrafting the new faith upon the
old without violence. The Indians accepted readily the narration of the
life of the Saviour, his miraculous power, his spotless life, his death
upon the cross, but their favorite object of worship and reverence was
from the first the Holy Virgin, the mother of Jesus. To her they
transferred all the fervor of their idolatry. Her image has always been
to them most sacred, her shrine the constant place for votive offerings
of flowers, ribbons, and all small objects of familiar use. To the
superstitious minds of these people, it was possible to introduce every
form of miracle without danger of incredulity; they were soon closely
bound to the Church by their faith in the supernatural interference of
the heavenly powers, and above all of the Virgin. These superstitions
still remain in Mexico, and are so closely held by the Indians, that no
government, however "advanced" in religious thought, has dared to
interfere with certain rites and ceremonials, pieced upon their ancient
garment of faith, in the earliest time of the first viceroys and
bishops. The "twelve apostles," godly men who devoted their lives to
Christianizing the Indians, have themselves become objects of tradition,
and their deeds, as handed down from generation to generation, are as
miraculous as any of those they revealed in their day to the simple and
credulous Aztecs.
Of all the Apostles the memory of good Fray Martin de Valencia is most
highly valued, and many are the traditions concerning his life and
works.
An early history of the Indians of New Spain, written in 1541, tells of
his life in Amecameca, an Indian village several hours by rail south of
the capital, which still preserves all the simplicity of its earliest
days. It was in existence long before the Conquest. The Spanish army
stopped there a couple of days on their first approach to the city,
kindly received by the Cacique in "large commodious stone buildings." Of
these latter we must doubt. Near here, Fray Martin loved to dwell
"because," as the narrative relates, "it is a very quiet place, most
appropriate to prayer, for it is in the side of a little mountain, and
is a devout hermitage. Close to this house is a cave devoted to and very
suitable for the service of God. In this he used at times to give
himself to prayer; and at times he used to go out of the cave into a
grove, and amongst those trees there was one which was very large, under
which he went to pray early in the morning; and it is asserted that as
soon as he placed himself there to pray, the tree swarmed with birds
which by their songs made sweet harmony, through which he felt much
consolation, and praised and blessed the Lord; and when he went away
from there the birds went also; and so, after the death of this servant
of God nevermore gathered there in this manner. Both these things were
noted by many who used to hold converse there with the servant of God,
as well seeing them come and go before him, as their not appearing after
his death. I have been informed by a monk of good life that in this
hermitage of Amecameca, there appeared to the man of God Saint Francisco
and Saint Antonio, who leaving him much comforted departed from his
presence."
"Just outside Amecameca, is a hill, rising abruptly from the plain and
closely covered with a growth of ancient trees, some of them
_ahuehuetes_ which rival those at Chapultepec in size and venerable
aspect. This hill is called the Sacro Monte; there is room for thinking
that it was sacred to the Aztec deities even before the coming of the
Spanish priests, and that they adopted it to carry on the traditions
belonging to it. However, this may be, it was one of Fray Martin's
favorite retreats for retiring sometimes to an oratory which he had made
in a cave on the mountain, to give himself to special exercises of the
highest contemplation and rigorous penance. He continued to labor in
teaching the Indios, especially boys, for whom he manifested singular
love; he remained there but little time, because in the following year,
1533, he was attacked with the pneumonia which caused his death. This
was accompanied by very particular circumstances. A few days before he
fell ill, with a few brief words, being in Amecameca, he manifested to
his companion that now had arrived the term of his life; and he not
having understood this, very soon believed it by seeing the calentura of
the servant of God. As the illness increased he was forced to conduct
him to the convent of Tlalmanalco, where the evil having declared
itself, the holy sacraments were administered. The holy man seeing this
case, resolved to bear him to the infirmary of Mexico; and, in fact,
upon shoulders of Indians, with much toil, they bore him to the shore at
Ayotzinco, two leagues from the pueblo, and laid him in a canoa to carry
him by the lake. Scarcely had he entered it when, feeling his hour
arriving, he begged them to bring him to land. Yielding to his
entreaties, they disembarked, although he was in a dying state, and
putting himself upon his knees and causing them to recommend his soul to
God, his spirit joined the Lord, falling into the arms of his companion,
St. Antonio Ortiz, verifying the prophecy he had made many years before,
in Spain, that he was to die in his arms in the middle of a field. As
soon as the monks had notice of his death they took his corpse, and with
millions of tears of their own and the Indians, gave it sepulture in the
church in bare ground, without any precaution to preserve relics so
precious. After some time the custodian learned this, and hastening to
Tlalmanalco, had him exhumed, and finding him in as good condition as
when alive, putting the corpse in a box and separate sepulchre, had a
great stone put over it with a corresponding epitaph.
"The body was afterwards secretly moved to the Cave of Amecameca, where
it awaits the glorious day of triumph for saints and confusion to
reprobates. Many miracles are related of the saint, but more than for
these his name will be forever glorious in our country for his great
virtues, and above all for the grand services which the order he founded
for the glory of God had given to the Mexicans during more than three
hundred years."
A further account confirms the devotion with which the Indians,
encouraged by the _padres_, preserved the relics of the holy father.
"In this cave are guarded, night and day, by the Dominican monks,
certain relics of this friar: a leather _celicio_, a coarse and rough
tunic, and two chasubles of native linen cloth, in which the servant of
God said mass; and on the other side is a great box, locked, which
serves as the sepulchre of a wooden Christ.... This sainted man died in
the year 1534 and was buried in the convent of Tlalmanalco, where his
body remained untouched for the space of more than thirty years, since
when it has not appeared, nor does any one know where it is nor who
disturbed it." In fact, for fifty years the Indians of Amecameca guarded
the relics with great devotion, but in secret, passing them from hand to
hand, but without giving them up either to Franciscans or Dominicans,
until in 1884 they were discovered by the vicar, who collected them and
put them in this chapel of the Sacro Monte.
The Indians of Amecameca and of all the surrounding pueblos greatly
reverenced, with strange ceremonies, an image of Christ made by the
Indians of Amecameca, and carefully preserved by them year after year. A
legend states that long ago certain muleteers who were carrying this
image to a southern town, missed the mule upon whose pack it had been
placed. When the mule was discovered he was standing quietly in the cave
upon the sacred mountain, surrounded by all the people of the town, who,
conceiving the Christ had chosen their cave for his abode, purchased the
image from the muleteers, and constructed for it in that spot a shrine,
where it still remains after three centuries. A great pilgrimage is made
to the shrine on the top of the sacred Mount. Every year, in Holy Week
and on Ash Wednesday, the image is brought down to the parish church.
The annual fair is held at this time in the Market Place, doubtless a
continuation of some ancient Aztec festival in honor of the return of
the Sun. All the country around assembles, and the culmination of the
feast is on Good Friday, when the Christ is returned to his shrine on
the mountain.
The good Viceroy Velasco died in 1564, having governed the country for
fourteen years. Both Mexicans and Spaniards sincerely mourned his loss,
giving him the affectionate title of the Father of the country.
During the government of this ruler and his predecessor all the
administration of New Spain, political, civil, and religious was
established upon so firm a foundation that it could go on in daily
action like a well regulated machine. An interregnum occurred, owing to
the death of Velasco, which was filled by the government of the
Audiencia, always on hand to come to the surface on such occasions.
There were two years in which they had the management, but they did not
succeed in very much deranging the harmony so well inaugurated by the
two viceroys.
XXII.
OTHER VICEROYS.
Events in Spain underwent great changes during these years. On the 25th
of October, 1555, Charles V., executed an instrument by which he ceded
to his son, Philip II., the sovereignty of Flanders. It was in Brussels
that the ceremony took place, with all the pomp and solemnity suited to
it. On the following 16th of January, in the presence of such of the
Spanish nobility as were at the court, the emperor gave up also the
sovereignty of Castile and Aragon, and then retired to the Convent of
Yuste, weary of the cares of government.
By this act, Philip became master of the most widely extended and
powerful monarchy in Europe. He was king of Spain, comprehending under
that name Castile, Aragon, and Granada, which, for centuries independent
states, had been brought under one sceptre in the reign of his father,
Charles V. He was king of Naples and Sicily, duke of Milan, lord of
Franche Comté and the Low Countries; he had important possessions in
Africa; in the true Indias he owned the Philippine and Spice Islands;
and in America, besides his possessions in the West Indies, he was
master of Mexico and Peru.
In all this multiplicity of affairs entailed upon the sovereign, Philip
II. has maintained the reputation for admirable management, constant
attention to public affairs, and the strictest sense of justice. It may
well be believed, however, that he had not the same interest in the
remote acquisition to his territories which his father had. Charles knew
Cortés personally; received the first exciting reports of the discovery
of the new country and the rich gifts which were sent him as trophies
and specimens of the advantages to be derived from the conquests. Philip
had had no part in these things. Much of his early life was passed
elsewhere, absorbed in other more closely personal events.
By the time he became king the exciting days of the Conquest were over.
Cortés was dead. The government of New Spain was established. The vital
interest to the monarch of Spain in his American colonies was to secure
the large sums of gold and silver that were expected from them, and the
mines of Peru by that time so far exceeded those of Mexico, that the
latter had to take a second place.
Rumors of discontent that rose to him from the distant colony sounded to
him "like a tale of little meaning, though the words were strong."
Under these circumstances, the character of the viceroys was lowered
from the high standard adhered to when Charles the Emperor selected them
himself. To follow the long list of them would be most tedious and
useless, as they passed in rotation, governing according to the best of
their lights for several years in Mexico, and then passing on, either by
death or by promotion to Peru.
In 1571 the Inquisition was fully established, the period marked, by the
way, with a formidable eruption of Popocatepetl, and the next year the
Jesuits arrived.
The matter of the Inquisition had been under discussion for many years,
a council, as early as the year 1529, having solemnly declared it to be
"most necessary that the Holy Office of the Inquisition shall be
extended to this land, because of the commerce with strangers here
carried on, and because of the many corsairs abounding upon our coasts,
which strangers may bring their evil customs among both natives and
Castilians, who, by the grace of God, should be kept free from heresy."
The full fruit of the declaration ripened only in 1570, when Don Pedro
Moya de Contreras was appointed Inquisitor-General, with head-quarters
in the city of Mexico. The Indians were especially exempted from its
jurisdiction, only heretics from other nations falling under the ban.
The _Quemadero_, a burning place in the city of Mexico, upon land since
included in the Alameda, was a square platform in a large open space,
where the spectacle could be witnessed by the population. The first
_auto-da-fé_ was celebrated in the year 1574, when, as its chronicler
mentions cheerfully, "there perished twenty-one pestilent Lutherans."
From this time such ceremonies were of frequent occurrence, but the
Inquisition never reached the point it did in Old Spain. Although large
numbers undoubtedly perished in these, _autos-da-fé_, the number of
those actually burned to death was comparatively small and insignificant
compared to that of the victims to this religious fury in Europe. Early
in the present century the Holy Office was suppressed throughout Spain
and all Spanish dependencies, and, although the Inquisition was again
established, it was only for a short time.
Philip II. died just before the end of the century. With him ends the
greatness of Spain, which from that time declined rapidly. Naturally the
remote provinces felt the loosening of the firm hand which had
controlled them, yet it is to be observed that the viceroys of New Spain
under Philip III. were, for the most part, men of judgment and
moderation. While the government at home, in the hands of profligate
favorites, was growing weaker and weaker, that of Mexico was becoming
more firmly established. Spanish blood had descended into a new
generation, with Mexican habits, thoughts, and impressions. The national
character, as always happens with colonists remote from their origin,
was becoming modified into a new shape by change of climate and
environment. Meanwhile the Indians were undoubtedly greatly improved by
the genial influence of their new religion. They were like children, for
it was not the intention of the Church to teach them to think, as they
were only too ready to acquire the knowledge of how to obey.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century the city of Mexico was
overwhelmed by inundations such as had from time to time caused the
Aztecs great trouble. Their works were quite ineffectual against the
floods which invaded the city, and it was evident that some vigorous
measure must be taken. There was question, once more, of removing the
whole city to the solid ground of Tacubaya; but this plan was open to
great objections.
The engineer Enrico Martinez offered a plan for the rescue of the city
which was accepted. It was to reduce the highest of the several lakes
belonging to the network in the valley of Mexico, by diverting its
waters elsewhere, and thus prevent its overflow. Work was begun in 1607.
Fifteen thousand Indians were set to sinking shafts at intervals in
order to bore a tunnel, to lead off the water, more than four miles
long, and eleven feet wide by thirteen in height. It was completed in
eleven months, and the event was celebrated by the presence of the
viceroy himself with great pomp, who gave the first stroke with his
spade. Mass was said, and there were great rejoicings. This cut was call
the _desaguë_ of Huehuetoca, a small village near the hills of
Nochistongo.
The canal proved too small, and several schemes were tried for enlarging
and strengthening it, with varying and moderate success. The novelty of
the enterprise having worn out, people began to think, during a series
of dry years, that the peril from the lakes after all was not so great.
The engineer Adrian Boot was sent from Spain to visit the canal of
Huehuetoca; having done so, he qualified it as insufficient, in which he
shared the opinion of those who had not come so far. He failed in making
it more efficacious, for, in 1629, came another inundation. In 1614,
the rainy season having set in with unusual violence, Martinez, the
engineer, himself gave orders to close the mouth of the tunnel, perhaps
to rouse the people to its importance, and the importance of not
neglecting it. The result was frightful. The whole city was instantly
under water, and for five years it was converted into an unwilling
Venice, during which the streets were passable only in boats.
Martinez, who was put in prison for blocking the tunnel, was released in
order to open it again. This he did, and erected a strong dyke which
afforded some relief, but inundations were always recurring at
intervals, until the whole plan of the work was altered by an open cut
to replace the tunnel. This work was undertaken vigorously in 1767, and
pressed to a conclusion by 1789. The _tajo_ of Nochistongo, as it is
called, can be seen from the Central Railway, whose track runs through
it, at an elevation of fifty feet or more above the stream.