In 1536 was issued the first book printed in Mexico, on a press imported
by Mendoza, and put into the hands of one Juan Pablos. In the same year
both silver and copper coins were stamped, the latter in the form of an
irregular polygon. In 1550 this good ruler sailed away from Mexico,
where he had done so much to advance the interests of his royal master.
He passed on to take charge of the government of Peru, by a practice
which came to be quite common--a sort of diplomatic succession by which
the viceroys of New Spain were promoted to the post at Peru.
XXI.
FRAY MARTIN DE VALENCIA.
Don Luis de Velasco, second viceroy of New Spain, made his entrance into
the capital with great pomp, at the end of the year 1550. He, like his
predecessor, had been selected with care by the orders of Charles V., if
not from his personal knowledge, and he brought to his new position
qualities as admirable. His first decree was one liberating one hundred
and fifty Indians from slavery, who were working chiefly in the mines,
and when the objection was raised that this industry would be paralyzed
by the step, he stated that the liberty of the Indians was of more
importance than all the mines in the world, and that the rents due to
the crown were not of such a nature that for them must be interrupted
laws human and divine.
He established in Mexico, for the security of travellers upon the
highway, the tribunal of the Holy Brotherhood, instituted in Spain for
the same purpose in the time of Isabella. He founded the Royal
University of Mexico, and the Royal Hospital for the exclusive use of
the natives. He recognized the capacity of these Indians for developing
lands hitherto uncultivated, and, in fact, favored them by every means
in his power, while he encouraged the development of all the resources
of the country, especially the mines, of which some important
discoveries were made in his time.
The building of the cathedral at Puebla was pushed with great activity
under this viceroy, although the building was not finished until the
middle of the next century.
Puebla de los Angeles, second in importance in all Mexico to Guadalajara
only, receives its name from the tradition that before the light of
Christianity was shed on New Spain, the heathen used to see visions of
angels marshalled in mighty hosts in the heavens above the spot where
the city stands. It is in the Province of Tlaxcalla, where Cortés found
his first friends and stanch allies, on the highway between the coast
and the capital.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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