Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/29

Rh while supplies would be cheaper and of ready access. Cortés decided in favor of the majority, however, and maintained that the prestige of the city throughout the country was also a matter of consequence.

Mexico being accordingly chosen for the capital, municipal officers were appointed by Cortés from among the leading men, with Pedro de Alvarado as leading alcalde. As such he figures already in Dec. 1521. Pacheco and Cardenas, Col. Doc., xxvi. 30-1, so that the rebuilding must have begun in that year, and not later, as many suppose. Owing to the loss of the first year's record in the fire of 1692, the names of the first regidores are unknown. At first no regular book was kept, wherein to record their acts, 'sino papeles e memorias.' Libro de Cabildo, MS., Dec. 20, 1527. The first of the preserved records is dated March 8, 1524, and gives the attending members of the council as: Francisco de las Casas, alcalde mayor, Bachiller Ortega, alcalde ordinario, Bernaldino Vazquez de Tapia, Gonzalo de Ocampo, Rodrigo de Paz, Juan de Hinojosa, and Alonso Xaramillo, regidores, Francisco de Orduña acting as secretary. The sessions were for a long time held in Cortés' house. The most interesting are those from 1524 to 1529 inclusive, which take up the history of Mexico, so to speak, from the time Cortés leaves it in his celebrated letters, recording the acts of the eventful interregnum periods under Salazar, Ponce de Leon, Aguilar, and Estrada, and including the doings of the first audiencia. My copy, quoted as Libro de Cabildo, is a manuscript in 260 folio pages, taken from the volume rescued by the savant Sigüenza y Gongora from the fire of June 8, 1692, started by a hungry rabble. Besides the notes from his hand, it contains autograph annotations by the learned Pichardo, and forms a gem in the collection obtained by me from the Maximilian Library. By royal decree of October 22, 1523, Mexico was allowed 12 regidores, as a token of favor, and two years later the sovereign himself appointed one in the person of Alonso Perez. Méz., Extractos de Cédulas, MS. 2, 3, all of which relates to the decrees touching the city. Later, all leading cities were allowed 12 regidores. ''Recop. de Indias,'' ii. 33. Prompt measures were taken to open the streets and remove the ruins. Before this a host of natives had been sent in to take away the dead and clean the houses, while large fires throughout the infected quarters assisted to purify the atmosphere. These sanitary measures were the more necessary in view of the prospective diseases to follow in the wake of dispersing denizens of the capital, and to arise from