Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/88

68 (la Concepcion) in Mexico, and for a college and monastery at Coyohuacan, but the funds ran short, and only the hospital was really established according to his intention. Masses were directed to be said at his father's tomb, and two thousand masses were provided for the souls of those who had fought with him in the conquest, a provision which cannot be considered in excess of their probable spiritual necessities.

In his will it was provided also that his body should be buried wherever he died for a period of ten years, at the expiration of which time his remains were to be taken to Mexico, to be there entombed in the monastery he had founded in Coyohuacan; consequently his body was first laid to rest with fitting ceremonies in the family Chapel of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia, in the Church of San Isidro at Seville.

The following epitaph was composed by his son Martin:

 Padre, cuya suerte inpropiamente Aqueste bajo mundo poseía, Valor que nuestra edad enriquecía Descansa ahora en paz, eternamente. (Andres Calvo, Los Tres Siglos da Mexico.)

There his body lay, until by order of his son Don Martin Cortes, second Marques del Valle, it was removed in 1562 to Mexico, but, contrary to the provisions in the will, the place of sepulture was chosen in the monastery of St. Francis in Texcoco, where his mother and one of his daughters were already buried.

In 1629 Don Pedro Cortes fourth Marques del Valle died in Mexico, and with his death the male descendance of Cortes came to an end.

It was decided between the Viceroy, the Marques de Cerralbo, and the Archbishop of Mexico, D. Francisco Manso de Zuñiga, to translate the body of the Conqueror