Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/498

478 connection may be mentioned an image of the virgin worshipped under the name of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, to which miraculous powers were attributed. This was among the images brought to Mexico by the soldiers of Cortés. It belonged to one Juan Rodriguez de Villafuerte, to whom it had been given by his brother, who said it had aided him greatly in his campaigns in Italy and Germany. The image was at first placed in a temple hastily built, and from that time became an object of veneration to Spaniards and Indians, on account of favors said to have been conferred on the public and on individuals in times of calamity. In 1574, as before mentioned, a church was founded for its reception, where four festivals were celebrated yearly—those of the nativity, purification, incarnation, and conception. Many great marks of favor were recorded, after the building of this temple; particularly in times of drought, storm, epidemic, earthquake, inundation, and famine. Down to 1696 the image had been solemnly carried in procession to the city as often as fifteen times.

Of all the viceroys of New Spain, the fifty-second, Don Juan Vicente de Güemes Pacheco de Padilla, conde de Revilla Gigedo, was one of the most able.