Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/100

80 and other officers and servants attached to the said hospital.

X. Item: I direct that in the chapel of the monastery of St. Francis in Medellin, where my father Martin Cortes is buried, the memorial masses, for which I leave provision, shall be celebrated yearly in perpetuity. My successor or successors shall for all time see to this, for which purpose I name, as patron of the said chapel, my son and successor Don Martin Cortes, and after him those who shall follow him in the succession. He, holding the said patronage (or those who succeed him by right of primogeniture), may name as his substitute for the exercise of the said patronage such person or persons as may be desirable for such time as may please him, and hold full power to revoke such appointment whenever he may so desire, substituting any other who is deemed suitable. Such person, thus appointed, shall, in the absence of the head of my house, hold the same power and faculties as the said patron himself, for such time as his appointment may last.

XI. Item: I declare that since Almighty God Our Lord has vouchsafed to advance and favour me in the discovery and conquest of New Spain, and I have always received from His merciful hand very great favours and mercies, both in my victories over the enemies of His Holy Catholic Faith, and in the pacification and settlement of those kingdoms, from which I hope great service may accrue to God our Lord, I order that the following works be undertaken in grateful recognition of those said favours and mercies, and also to discharge and satisfy my conscience for whatsoever faults or burdens may lie thereon, but of which my memory no longer takes account to enable me to specify them:

XII. I order and direct that, in addition to the aforesaid hospital which I have already provided shall be built in the city of Mexico, a monastery of the nuns of the Conception, belonging to the Order of St. Francis, shall be built in my town of Coyoacan, in such place, and according to such plan as I shall indicate; and should I not leave these instructions, then I direct that my successor or his deputy shall found and build it, providing a community with such endowment as