can hardly be questioned. Cortez
received them with great distinction. Immediately upon being informed
of their arrival at Vera Cruz, he ordered the road to Mexico to be put
in order, to render their journey easy, and houses to be furnished, at
proper distances, with refreshments for their accommodation. The
inhabitants of all the towns along their route were ordered to meet
them with processions and music, and all demonstrations of reverence
and joy. As they approached the metropolis, Cortez, at the head of a
brilliant cavalcade, which was followed by a vast procession bearing
crucifixes and lighted tapers, set out to receive them. The Catholic
missionaries appeared with bare feet and in the most humble garb.
Cortez dismounted, and, advancing to the principal father of the
fraternity, bent one knee to the ground in token of reverence, and
kissed his coarse and threadbare robe. The natives gazed with
amazement upon this act of humiliation on the part of their haughty
conqueror, and ever after regarded the priests with almost religious
adoration.

When conversion consists in merely inducing men to conform to some
external ceremony, while the heart remains unchanged, it is easily
accomplished. The missionaries, with great zeal, embarked in the
enterprise of establishing the Catholic religion in every village of
the subjugated empire. They were eminently successful, and in a few
years almost every vestige of the ancient idolatry had disappeared
from Mexico.

Cortez did every thing in his power to induce the natives to return to
the capital. He introduced the mechanic arts of Europe, and all the
industrial implements of that higher civilization. The streets were
soon again thronged with a busy population, and the Indian and the
Spaniard, oblivious of past scenes of deadly strife, mingled together
promiscuously in peaceful and picturesque confusion.

Many colonies were established in different parts of the country, and
settlers were invited over from Old Spain by liberal grants of land,
and by many municipal privileges.

In the midst of these important transactions, while Cortez was living
quietly with the amiable Marina, who had borne him a son, a ship
arrived at Vera Cruz bringing Donna Catalina, the wife of the wayward
adventurer. This lady, accompanied by her brother, weary of the
solitude of her plantation, where she had now been left for many
years, came in search of her unfaithful spouse. Cortez made great
pret