Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/499

Rh Hernan Cortés expired. Two days afterward his remains were deposited with due solemnity and pomp in the monastery of San Isidro, on the outskirts of Seville, the sepulchre of the dukes of Medina Sidonia. The bearer of that title and guardian of young Cortés, second marqués del Valle, and many other distinguished personages from Seville and the neighboring country were present at the obsequies.

The remains of Cortés rested at San Isidro until 1562, when they were removed by order of Martin Cortés to New Spain, to the city of Tezcuco. Pursuant to a provision of the will they were to have been deposited in his favorite city, Coyuhuacan, within ten years after his death. This, however, was never done. They were destined to wander from place to place, till in 1823 they disappeared altogether from the city of Mexico.It was provided in the will that in whatever place in Spain Cortés died his remains were to be deposited, to be transferred within ten years to Coyuhuacan in New Spain. The remains of his mother and of his son Luis, at Cuernavaca, were to be transferred to the same place at that time. Concerning the funeral services, it was provided that all curates and friars of the place in which he died should attend at the obsequies; 50 poor people were to receive new suits of clothes and one real to attend with torches; new clothes for mourning being given also to all his servants and his son's, and 5,000 masses were to be read; 1,000 for the souls in purgatory, 2,000 for those who died in his service in New Spain, and the remainder for those he had wronged unknowingly and whose names he could not remember. Cortés, Testamento, in ''Col. Doc. Inéd.,'' iv. 239-77. In the year 1629, on the death of Pedro Cortés, fourth marqués del Valle, the bones of the conqueror were removed from Tezcuco and deposited in the Franciscan church in Mexico, with great pomp; and in 1794 the relics were transferred to the hospital of Jesus Nazareno. This new sepulchre, surmounted by a chaste monument adorned with the arms and the bust of Cortés, the work of the celebrated sculptor Tolsa, had been erected through the exertions of Viceroy Revilla Gigedo and the assistance of representatives of the Cortés family. The ceremonies observed on the occasion of this last transfer eclipsed in grandeur anything heretofore witnessed in the city of Mexico. But scarcely 30 years elapsed before the relics were again disturbed. When in 1823 the remains of the patriots who proclaimed the independence of Mexico in 1810 were to be transported to the capital, pamphlets appeared exciting the populace to reduce to ashes the remains of Cortés. The outrage was however prevented by the friends of the family, who obtained an order from the government to remove the casket to a secure place. The order was made effective by Alaman, then a member of the cabinet, who says in connection with the event in his Disert., ii. 60: ‘Habiendo yo intervenido en la pronta egecucion de estas órdenes, en virtud de las funciones públicas que desempeñaba.' During the night of September 15th the chaplain of the hospital. Dr Joaquin Canales, removed the remains, and by disposition of Count Lucchesi, acting for the family, they were provisionally deposited under the platform of the altar of Jesus. The