While all this was going on in Spain, Cortes was very busily employed in rebuilding the city of Mexico, and he strove by every possible means to increase its population by holding out rewards to the inhabitants of the country to settle there. For this purpose he declared the town free from all tribute, until all the buildings should be completed, the causeways, aqueducts and bridges repaired, and the churches and the hospitals were entirely finished both inside and out.[44] The superintendence of the latter he gave to the excellent father Olmedo, who had already brought together all the Indians who were suffering from ill health, and attended to them with the most affectionate care. But about this time there likewise arrived in Vera Cruz twelve Franciscan monks from Spain, who were accompanied by the very pious father, Martin de Valencia, whom his holiness had appointed vicar-general of New Spain. He was a native of the village of Valencia de san Juan, in the district of Campo, and we shall see in the following chapter how this reverend father was received in Mexico.
CHAPTER CLXXI.
How twelve monks of the order of St. Francis, with the vicar-general and father-superior Martin de Valencia, arrive at Vera Cruz, and how they are received by Cortes.
The reader will remember my mentioning in a former chapter that we begged of his imperial majesty to send to New Spain some really good and pious monks of the Franciscan order, that they might assist us to convert the Indians to Christianity, and preach the doctrine of our holy faith to them, in which father Olmedo had made so good a beginning. Cortes and the whole of us Conquistadores had also on the same occasion written to the general of the Franciscan order, who was afterwards the cardinal, brother Francisco de los Angeles, and begged of him to send us some very pious men of his order, that we might be enabled to fulfil our promise to the Indians, whom we had so often assured that the emperor would despatch to them religious men, who led a much more pious life than we did. This we had repeatedly told the Indians, and they always inquired of us in return if those men would possess the same good qualities as father Olmedo. To which we answered in the affirmative.
It was in compliance with this, our request, that the general of the Franciscan order sent the twelve monks, with their superior, who arrived in Vera Cruz. Among these religious men was also the father Toribio Motalma, to whom the caziques and distinguished personages of Mexico gave the name of Motolinia,[45] which signifies the poor brother, because he distributed everything he received among the Indians; so that it often happened he had nothing left to still his hunger. He was always clad in the meanest garments, went barefoot, and was continually preaching to the Indians, who became greatly attached to him, and they revered him as a holy person.
When Cortes received intelligence of the arrival of these reverend personages in Vera Cruz, he gave orders that they should be received with the profoundest respect in every town they passed through on their road to Mexico, whether Indian or Spanish. If they halted at a distance from any habitations, huts were to be constructed for them; in every township they came to the bells were to be rung, the whole of the inhabitants were to go out to meet them with crosses, wax lights, and flying colours; and in order to give the Indians some notion of humility and veneration, the Spaniards were particularly instructed to fall down on their knees before them, and to kiss their hands and their cowls.
Besides all this, Cortes sent refreshments for these monks to every stage along their route, and wrote most affectionate letters to them. When they had arrived within a short distance from Mexico, Cortes himself, accompanied by father Olmedo, and the whole of his brave officers and men, went out to meet them; as also Quauhtemoctzin, lord of Mexico, with the most distinguished Mexicans, and a great number of other caziques from the principal townships. As soon as we beheld these pious men, Cortes and all the rest of us dismounted, and walked up to them; and the first who went down on his knees before Francisco de Valencia was our general himself; but when he was going to kiss the reverend father's hand, the latter would not allow him, and Cortes then only kissed his cowl.
The meeting between father Olmedo and the newly-arrived was of the most affectionate kind, and they embraced each other most heartily; then we officers and soldiers, with Quauhtemoctzin, and the other caziques, likewise knelt down before them, and kissed their garments.
Cortes' respectful conduct towards these monks made a deep and astonishing impression on the Mexican monarch, and the other grandees of the country; and it served as an excellent precept to all Indians, when they beheld the man whom they almost feared, and revered as a god, humble himself before these religious men, and stand in their presence with his head uncovered. In the presence of men who came without any covering to their feet, their garments of the meanest kind, their appearance altogether poverty stricken, and their countenances emaciated, besides that they came on foot, and not on horseback; all this amazed the Indians, who ever after throughout the whole country paid the greatest veneration to these men.