The colony Cortez succeeded in establishing received the name of Vera Cruz, because they had reached the spot on Holy Saturday; the words Villa Rica were added to mark the fertility of the surrounding country. Visits were made to neighboring pueblos with profitable results. At Cempoala twenty of the leading men, accompanied by their chief, presented themselves; there were the usual valuable offerings, and Cortez took care to promise his aid in defending and helping his new acquaintances. The chief complained of the oppression of Montezuma, explaining that his people had only lately been conquered and had been deprived of much treasure. They were obliged to carry out his orders, he said, because the Aztec was the lord of great cities, lands, vassals, and armies of warriors. Before leaving the pueblo, Cortez spoke of his philanthropic mission as the representative of the Emperor Charles V, promising that after he had returned to his fleet he would see that their grievances were remedied. The impression made by the benevolent stranger was so great that at Cempoala 400 natives were offered by the chief of the pueblo as pack-carriers--men of great endurance, the chronicler says, who could carry fifty pounds weight five leagues. This was a great relief to the Spaniards, who had hitherto been obliged to transport the valuables they collected from the villages through which they passed on their own shoulders in small sacks. Other pueblos were treated to the same successful diplomacy. The more Cortez heard of the country, the more he was convinced that the real objective of the expedition must be Montezuma and his capital. The presents received by the adventurers and the tales they heard showed that their journey must, if their hopes were to be realized, have its termination in Mexico. When the second installment of presents came from the Aztec capital, the astute commander remarked to some of his men nearby, in admiration of the valuable articles so freely placed in his hands, that the Aztec overlord must be great and rich. “If God wills,” he said, “some day we shall have to go and see him.” This pious aspiration fell on no unwilling ears, and the opportune moment came sooner than even the most sanguine adventurer could have hoped, for Cortez soon succeeded in forming an alliance with thirty pueblos, contiguous to his own settlement, all of them ready to follow him as their leader in an expedition which was to free them from the burdensome yoke of Aztec despotism. The fighting force now available must have been considerable, for we know that one pueblo, Quiahuistlan, half a league distant from Vera Cruz, offered to supply 5000 men.