During the period of four years Cortez devoted himself with untiring zeal to the promotion of the interests of the colony. The new city of Mexico rose rapidly, with widened streets and with many buildings of much architectural beauty. Where the massive temple once stood, dedicated to the war-god of the Aztecs, and whose altars were ever polluted with human sacrifices, a majestic temple was reared for the worship of the true God. Cortez erected for himself a gorgeous palace fronting on the great square. It was built of hewn stone. All the houses constructed for the Spaniards were massive stone buildings, so built as to answer the double purpose of dwellings and fortresses. The zeal of Cortez for the conversion of the natives continued unabated. In addition to the spacious cathedral, where the imposing rites of the Catholic Church were invested with all conceivable splendor, thirty other churches were provided for the natives, who had now become exceedingly pliant to the wishes of the conqueror. Father Olmedo watched over the interests of religion with great purity of purpose and with unwearied devotion until his death. Twelve Catholic priests were sent from Spain. Benighted as they were in that dark age, the piety of many of these men can hardly be questioned. Cortez received them with great distinction. Immediately upon being informed of their arrival at Vera Cruz, he ordered the road to Mexico to be put in order, to render their journey easy, and houses to be furnished, at proper distances, with refreshments for their accommodation. The inhabitants of all the towns along their route were ordered to meet them with processions and music, and all demonstrations of reverence and joy. As they approached the metropolis, Cortez, at the head of a brilliant cavalcade, which was followed by a vast procession bearing crucifixes and lighted tapers, set out to receive them. The Catholic missionaries appeared with bare feet and in the most humble garb. Cortez dismounted, and, advancing to the principal father of the fraternity, bent one knee to the ground in token of reverence, and kissed his coarse and threadbare robe. The natives gazed with amazement upon this act of humiliation on the part of their haughty conqueror, and ever after regarded the priests with almost religious adoration. When conversion consists in merely inducing men to conform to some external ceremony, while the heart remains unchanged, it is easily accomplished. The missionaries, with great zeal, embarked in the enterprise of establishing the Catholic religion in every village of the subjugated empire. They were eminently successful, and in a few years almost every vestige of the ancient idolatry had disappeared from Mexico.