Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/747

Rh his death, which occurred at the age of sixty-two. His government was strict. Besides these were Juan de Córdoba, an old soldier, and one of the humblest as well as most efficient members; Francisco de Aguilar, one of Cortés' prominent and trusted soldiers at the conquest of Mexico, a man of lofty thoughts and generous impulses, beloved by the natives, and who wore the habit forty-two years, proving himself as good a soldier of Christ as he had been of the king; Juan de la Magdelena, a son of Juan Alonso de Estrada, who was governor of Mexico in 1527, and who died in Ciudad Real of Chiapas in 1579; Tomás de San Juan, a good scholar, exemplary, religious, and an eloquent preacher; and Domingo de la Anunciacion, who never ate flesh, wore linen, or rode on horseback. Of the last named it is said that once when in great peril of being drowned, he was saved by a piece of the lignum crucis that he carried on his person. He died in Mexico in 1591, at the age of eighty, an object of love and veneration. The rich province of Oajaca was almost entirely intrusted to the Dominicans. They lost no time in taking possession of the most convenient places, where they erected convents, many of whose priests won for themselves and their order honorable distinction. Their progress seems to have been slow at first, and beset with much difficulty, the old idolatrous doctrines having such a powerful hold on the Indian heart. Cociyopu, king of Tehuantepec, who had been dispossessed of his dominions, notwithstanding he had adopted Christianity and submitted in peace to the Spanish rule, feeling indignant at such treatment, and believing that a religion which permitted