Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/566

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546
END OF MENDOZA’S RULE.

his labors till his death, which occurred in 1572 in Mexico.[1]

The memorable history of old Guadalajara has been already told in connection with Francisco Vazquez de Coronado and the Mixton war. In pursuance of the resolution during the siege to transfer the city to another place, on October 6, 1541, all the Spaniards, soldiers as well as settlers, accompanied by many friendly Indians, set out for the chosen site of Analco in the Atemajac Valley.[2] The movement attracted settlers who had been formerly scattered at or near to Tlacotlan, Tonalá, Tlajomulco, and Tetlan. The missionaries who had been laboring at the last-named place also removed to the new site, and on February 11, 1542, municipal officers were appointed.[3] The land around the new city was fertile in the extreme, and promised abundant supplies for a large population. It was in fact considered one of the most favorable spots in New Spain, being traversed by the River Tololotlan, which communicates with Lake Chapala,

  1. His funeral by the viceroy's order was a magnificent one, and the remains were interred in the Saint Francis couvent of Santiago Tlaltelulco, as he had made many generous donations to the Franciscan missionaries. To him Tula owed its famous bridge, which he caused to be built, employing 150 men. In Oct. 1559 he was granted a coat of arms as a descendant of the kings of Tezcuco, and created a knight of Santiago. The next year he was authorized to use another coat of arms, which he had before becoming a Christian, and which is described by Padre Vega, Memorias piadosas de la nacion Indiana, as being in two parts; in one was a fig-tree with a crowned eagle standing on it; in the other a fortified house with a viper upon it; the king added in the centre of the coat of arms the insignia of the order of Santiago with the motto 'Sodata regia magna operata tua.' The old captain seemed to have been forgotten till 1699, when the learned Tezcucan Indian, Francisco Isla, wrote a fine narrative in Aztec of his life, conquests, foundations, and feats of arms. Zerecero, Mem. Hist. Rev., 478-82; Valerio, Despacho, in Monumentos Domin. Esp., MS., 356. Alonso de Sosa is also mentioned as a general of Chichimecs who greatly codperated to the pacification of the country, particularly in the region of Guanajuato. He was born in Yuririapindaro and died in 1561. He gave large sums for building the church, and endowed the convent in his native town. Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin., ix. 167.
  2. The colony consisted of 58 Europeans. They tarried some time at Tetlan, where Fray Antonio Segovia had founded a small convent of Franciscans, the first in the province of Nueva Galicia. Frejes, Hist. Breve, 263-4.
  3. The first alcaldes were Fernando Flores and Pedro Placencia; regidores, Miguel Ibarra, Diego Orozco, and Juan Zubía. Jal., Not. Geog., in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, vi. 277.