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had assumed the position of Castile's leading colony in the Indies, and the cross had ex tended its sway from ocean to ocean before the church proper stepped forward to assume control. Nevertheless a see and a bishop had been granted prior to a single conversion. On the strength of the glowing reports brought by the expeditions of Córdoba and Grijalva, Bishop Fonseca had hastened to confer upon his confessor, Julian Garcés, a Dominican, the title of bishop of Cozumel, and this proving an in significant island, his jurisdiction was extended over Yucatan. The peninsula remained unsettled, how ever, and the see was in 1526 extended over the Tabasco and Vera Cruz districts to Chiapas, including

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