In every way he promoted the prosperity and growth of the country, and had the satisfaction in the course of his government, which lasted fifteen years, to see every thing bear the marks of his judgment and enterprise.
It was he who founded two cities which have reached great importance. The first was Guadalajara, near the site where Nuño de Guzman had established a town under the name Espiritu Santo, in the state of Jalisco. Mendoza removed it from its first situation to the one it now occupies. It has become one of the largest and most flourishing cities in Mexico, and at the present time it is one of the most interesting, because, as it has been until very lately remote from railroad communication, it has preserved all the early characteristics of Spanish-Mexican civilization which attended its foundation and first growth. There may still be seen many customs and peculiarities of old Spanish life, which are fast disappearing from the Peninsula. The citizens are well educated, highly cultivated, with the manners of the pure hidalgo, and the houses contain relics and mementos of the past of Mexico, such as are nowhere else to be found.
Mendoza also founded the city of Valladolid, in the late kingdom of Michoacan, of which the poor King Calzonzi had lately been sacrificed to the greed of Nuño de Guzman. This latter received the just punishment for his cruelty. He was imprisoned in 1537, and shortly after died, "in misery and oblivion," says the chronicle.
The large province of Michoacan, now one of the states of Mexico, called by the same name, stretches from the state of Mexico to the Pacific ocean. It contains some of the most beautiful scenery to be found in the whole country, now revealed by the National Railway, which runs from the city of Mexico to Morelia, the capital of Michoacan, and farther on to Patzcuaro. The ultimate destination of the road is Colima, near the Pacific coast. The country of Michoacan was peopled by Tarascans, who, as we have seen, preserved their kingdom until after the Conquest. They have always been known for their sturdy independence, like other mountaineers, for their state is traversed by ridges of lofty hills, making picturesque effects of scenery. It was in suppressing the Indians of Michoacan and the neighboring Jalisco that the ferocious Pedro de Alvarado received a blow, from which he died in 1541.
Mendoza the better to civilize these turbulent tribes, chose a site for a city in the midst of their population. The royal parchment exists, sent from Spain by Queen Juana, under the date of October 27, 1537, in which permission is given to the viceroy—"Insomuch as I am informed by the relation you have made to me, that in these lands you have found or discovered a most beautiful site towards the part of the Chichimecas, in the Province of Michoacan, in which, as it is a place both attractive and convenient, you wish to establish and found a city with more than sixty Spanish families and nine religious advisers, for this purpose acknowledging the service of God and of the Royal Crown, we give and concede faculty and license to the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza, to establish and people the said city."
The day being fixed for the ceremonial of founding the city, all the pueblos in the neighborhood were summoned, and a great conference of people, both Indians and Spaniards, assembled to listen to the royal mandate, which was read aloud. Then the commissioners and the governors of the Indios kissed the parchment in sign of obedience; a mass was celebrated upon an altar, which had been improvised for the occasion under a canopy made of the branches of trees, for the ceremony took place in the open air. Thereupon followed festivities, which lasted several days; the plan of the city was laid out, and lots assigned to the "more than sixty families," who took possession at once.
Among the lists of these families, of which the names remain, is Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, a connection, we may assume, of the viceroy. Other noble families were later sent to occupy the new city, so that Valladolid had every reason to hold itself high as a town of distinction.
It was named Valladolid after the birthplace of Mendoza in Spain, and called always Valladolid de Michoacan, in distinction from the town in the old country, until the name was changed, in this century, to Morelia, for reasons we shall understand better further on in the story.
It is hard to account for the presence in Mexico of the "more than sixty families," and many, many more which served as nucleus for all the cities founded by the Spaniards. In the prosperous condition of Spain at that time, when the empire of Charles V. was at the greatest period of glory, it is a question to solve why any noble families took the trouble to risk a perilous voyage, in those days long and, to say the least, uncomfortable, in order to make a new life in the recently conquered colony. Doubtless the reports given by the Conquistadores of the great wealth of the new land attracted many adventurers, who left their country for their country's good, thus seizing a short cut to wealth; but this does not account for whole families, in numbers sufficient to settle city after city over the newly grasped possessions in the hands of the viceroy. Religious liberty was not the motive, for here the strong arm of the Church was stretched as firmly as at home. As early as 1527 a royal order was issued, by which all Jews and Moors were banished from New Spain. The Inquisition was established in 1570, but although the auto da fé was of frequent occurrence during two centuries, the institution never flourished with the vigor it acquired in the old country.
The city of Valladolid flourished exceedingly. Its native population to this day has the reputation of being industrious, docile, and self-restrained. While moderate, at the same time true to heroism, jealous of independence and liberty, restless under oppression, but easily led by gentleness and reason. The character of the Spanish families is hospitable, their manners open and attractive, while at the same time they are exclusive and tenacious of their birth, position, and religious belief.