Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/190

170 Thus by precept and example Cortés sought to impress the natives with the superiority of the friars even to himself, the representative of the greatest ruler on earth, and the conquered were only too eager to conform to the orders of their masters by tendering respect and obedience to the holy men. So deep, indeed, was the impression made that their arrival became a starting-point in their chronology under the term of "the year when the faith came." While recognizing the policy of maintaining a high rank among the flock, the friars nevertheless dissipated the more extravagant notions, and presented themselves as humble and mortal servants of the ruler of heaven and of princes, sent to impart the blessings of the only saving faith, and to rescue the natives from the misleading rites of the evil one. To this end they requested that the children be intrusted to their care for instruction, which afterward should be imparted also to the elders, and that as the first step to its accomplishment a building should be erected close to the convent, comprising school, chapel, dormitory, and refectory, sufficiently large to accommodate a thousand children.

The chiefs hastened to obey, but when the time came for surrendering their children several held back partly from devotion to native gods, and sent instead