Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/184

164 Toward the close of 1523 the missionaries gathered at Belvis convent to perfect arrangements for the voyage. They numbered besides Valencia ten ordained priests and two lay brothers, nearly all belonging te the provincia de San Gabriel: Francisco de Soto, Martin de Jesus de la Coruña, José de la Coruña, Juan Juarez, Antonio de Ciudad Rodrigo, and Toribio de Benavente, preachers and learned confessors; García de Cisneros and Luis de Fuensalida, preachers; Juan de Ribas and Francisco Jimenez, priests; and the lay brothers, Andrés de Córdoba and Juan de Palos. Soto was a man of recognized intelligence, who had occupied the position of guardian; Fuensalida became successor to Valencia, and Benavente figured as one of the leading apostles. They will nearly all appear during the history in more or less prominent positions.

After a sojourn of a few weeks at Seville they left San Lúcar on the 25th of January, 1524, in company with twelve Domimicans, commissioned like them for evangelical work in the Indies. José de la Coruña alone failed to join them, having been despatched to the court on business. At Santo Domingo the