z immediately decided that
the distant province of the Zapotecans was in a threatening attitude,
and needed looking after. They were a fierce people, dwelling among
almost inaccessible cliffs, where no horse could climb and no
artillery be dragged. From such an enterprise it was little probable
that the troublesome man would ever return. He was consequently
honored with the command of the expedition. For apparently the same
reason, Bernal Diaz, whose complaints we have just read, was appointed
to accompany the detachment.

The forlorn party entered boldly the defiles of the mountains, and
wading through marshes, and struggling through ravines, and clambering
over rocks, with the utmost difficulty and peril penetrated the savage
region. The natives, nimble as the chamois, leaped from crag to crag,
whistling an insulting defiance with a peculiarly shrill note, with
which every rock seemed vocal. Stones were showered down upon them,
and immense rocks, torn from their beds, leaped crashing over their
path. Their peril soon became great, and it was so evidently
impossible to accomplish any important result, that they abandoned the
expedition, nearly all wounded, and many having been killed.

During the period of four years Cortez devoted himself with untiring
zeal to the promotion of the interests of the colony. The new city of
Mexico rose rapidly, with widened streets and with many buildings of
much architectural beauty. Where the massive temple once stood,
dedicated to the war-god of the Aztecs, and whose altars were ever
polluted with human sacrifices, a majestic temple was reared for the
worship of the true God. Cortez erected for himself a gorgeous palace
fronting on the great square. It was built of hewn stone. All the
houses constructed for the Spaniards were massive stone buildings, so
built as to answer the double purpose of dwellings and fortresses.

The zeal of Cortez for the conversion of the natives continued
unabated. In addition to the spacious cathedral, where the imposing
rites of the Catholic Church were invested with all conceivable
splendor, thirty other churches were provided for the natives, who had
now become exceedingly pliant to the wishes of the conqueror. Father
Olmedo watched over the interests of religion with great purity of
purpose and with unwearied devotion until his death. Twelve Catholic
priests were sent from Spain. Benighted as they were in that dark age,
the piety of many of these men