perversion may be most fortunate. FOOTNOTES [219] Villa Rica is the name appearing in the first royal charter of 1523, but with later foundations Vera Cruz became the title. _Panes_, _Extension Veracruz_, MS., 1 et seq. The municipal council, however, distinctly calls it _la Rica Villa de la Veracruz_ and ought to be the proper authority for the form of name first applied. _Carta del Ayunt._, in _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 1 et seq. ‘Y luego ordenamos de hazer, y fundar, è poblar vna Villa, que se nombró la Villa Rica de la Vera-Cruz; porque llegamos Jueves de la Cena, y desembarcamos en Uiernes Santo de la Cruz, é rica por aquel Cauallero que ... dixo que mirasse las tierras ricas.’ _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 29. ‘Llamola Villa Rica a la nueua poblaciõ, y de la Veracruz, por auer desembarcado el Viernes Sãto, y Rica, por la riqueza que se auia descubierto.’ _Herrera_, dec. ii. lib. v. cap. vii. Although nominally founded adjacent to San Juan de Ulua, there was no intention to build the town on that unhealthy and dreary spot. The first actual foundation took place at the harbor of Bernal. Nearly five years later the town rose anew on the present Rio de la Antigua, where it became known alone as Vera Cruz. In 1599 the actual or new Vera Cruz found itself finally planted on the very site of the first nominal foundation. The chief reason for this change was probably the need for the better protection against filibusters afforded by the island of San Juan de Ulua, whose batteries commanded the harbor. See _Albornoz_, _Carta al Emperador_, Dec., 1525, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, i. 495. The charter for la Nueva Ciudad de la Vera-Cruz was granted July 19, 1615. _Calle_, _Mem. y Not._, 68; _Clavigero_, _Storia Mess._, iii. 30; _Rivera_, _Hist. Jalapa_, i. 27; _Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._, i. 276-7. Alegre, _Hist. Comp. de Jesus_, i. 149-50, has some excellent remarks hereon. Few authors, however, are free from blunders with regard to the different sites, even Lorenzana committing more than one. _Cortés_, _Hist. N. España_, 381. [220] ‘Los Hombres mas Poderosos entendian en buscar Lugares en los Montes, y partes mas remotas, para conservar sus Mugeres, Hijos, y Hacienda.’ _Torquemada_, i. 403. [221] Inconsolable at the prospect of the strangers acquiring a footing in the country, Montezuma, after vainly searching for admission into the Hades of Cicalco, retired to the abode occupied by him ere he became emperor. _Sahagun_, _Hist. Conq._, i. 15-16. One reason for this is said to have been the result of the embassy to the oracle at Achiuhtla, in Miztecapan, which brought back the announcement that the Aztec empire must yield to strangers. _Burgoa_, _Geog. Descrip. Oajaca_, pt. ii. 129.