Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/146

138 motto, translated, was, "Friends, let us follow the cross; in that sign we shall conquer."

After a solemn celebration of the mass and a devout prayer to St. James, the patron saint of Cortez, the expedition sailed for Mexico, February 18, 1519, in six ships, the largest of which were only from seventy to eighty tons burden. The fleet took the route to Yucatan, intending to creep westward along the shore until the domain of the great Indian chief was reached. Two priests, Olmedo and Juan Diaz, accompanied the army; the latter had been over the ground before with Grijalva. Both were very much in earnest about their missionary work.

The first attempts seem to have been more successful than some which followed. On the island of Cozumel was a large temple to which pilgrims came from long distances. Near it stood a huge stone cross which from the earliest times had been adored as the god of rain. Cortez began his work of reform in this holy place. As but very little could be done in the way of preaching, on account of ignorance of the language, Cortez gave the natives an object-lesson by ordering his men to pull down the gods enshrined in the temple. The people shuddered at his impiety, groaned and wrung their hands, expecting that fire would come down from heaven to punish this sacrilege. Then, finding that no such result followed, they yielded after a slight resistance, and even helped the soldiers to pull down the old idols, whose impotency had been made so plain, and to put up the saints and the Virgin in their places. This done, they began to burn incense before the new gods and to offer