Before his arrival the Franciscan brotherhood had founded several convents. As early as 1521 Cortés, after the conquest of Tenochtitlan, had sent home an urgent request that priests should be sent from Spain to convert the heathen in the new province. For Cortés, through all his undertaking, earnestly regarded his mission as a crusade against the unbeliever; he never hesitated to destroy the temples and gods of the Aztecs, and his first step after victory was to forcibly baptize all his prisoners and the inhabitants of conquered cities into the Christian religion. As soon as the knowledge of so wide a field was noised abroad, five missionaries of the Franciscan order started for New Spain. One of them was Fray Pedro, of Ghent, a nation of Flanders, who of all the early missionaries in Mexico was the most able and zealous. He was especially endeared to the Emperor Charles V. on account of the holiness and usefulness of his life, and from him he was greatly aided in his work by grants of land and sums of money. Later twelve missionaries were sent out by order of the Emperor, and protected by a Bull from the Pope. These "twelve apostles of Mexico," as they are usually called, arrived in 1524. Their leader was Fray Martin de Valencia, who bore the title of Vicar of New Spain. To the religious orders in Mexico is due in great measure the firm base upon which the government of Spain was established there. The new viceroy fully recognized this, and encouraged the foundations of colleges and schools already undertaken by them. In every way he promoted the prosperity and growth of the country, and had the satisfaction in the course of his government, which lasted fifteen years, to see every thing bear the marks of his judgment and enterprise. It was he who founded two cities which have reached great importance. The first was Guadalajara, near the site where Nuño de Guzman had established a town under the name Espiritu Santo, in the state of Jalisco. Mendoza removed it from its first situation to the one it now occupies. It has become one of the largest and most flourishing cities in Mexico, and at the present time it is one of the most interesting, because, as it has been until very lately remote from railroad communication, it has preserved all the early characteristics of Spanish-Mexican civilization which attended its foundation and first growth. There may still be seen many customs and peculiarities of old Spanish life, which are fast disappearing from the Peninsula. The citizens are well educated, highly cultivated, with the manners of the pure hidalgo, and the houses contain relics and mementos of the past of Mexico, such as are nowhere else to be found.