374 THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 [eth.ann. H 



1539 and 1540 he continually reiterates the declaration of the pains 

 and losses sustained on account of his efforts to bring- colonists from 

 Spain to populate the New World. Whether he accomplished all that 

 these memorials claim is doubtful, for there are comparatively few ref- 

 erences to this class of immigrants during the years when Cortes was 

 in a position to accomplish his designs. Mendoza declared that the 

 increase of the European population in New Spain came largely after 

 his own arrival there, in 1535, and this was probably true. The "good 

 viceroy" unquestionably did more than anyone else to place the prov- 

 ince on a permanent basis. 1 



Mendoza supervised with great care the assignment of land to the 

 newcomers, and provided tools and stock for those who had not the 

 means of equipping their farms. As a royal decree forbade the grant- 

 ing of laud to unmarried men, besides directing an increase of royal 

 favor and additional grants proportionate to the increase of children, 

 the viceroy frequently advanced the money which enabled men who 

 were desirous of settling down to get married. When he came from 

 Spain in 1535, he brought with him a number of eligible spinsters, and 

 it is quite probable that, after these had found husbands, he main- 

 tained the supply of maids suitable to become the wives of those colo- 

 nists who wished to experience the royal bounty and favor. Alvarado 

 engaged in a similar undertaking when he came out to Guatemala in 

 1530, but with less success than we may safely hope rewarded the 

 thoughtfulness of Mendoza. 2 A royal order in 1538 had decreed that 

 all who held encomiendas should many within three years, if not 

 already possessed of a wife, or else forfeit their estates to married men. 

 Some of the bachelor landholders protested against the enforcement of 

 this order in Guatemala, because eligible white women could not be 

 found nearer than Mexico. To remove this objection, Alvarado brought 

 twenty maidens from Spain. Soon after their arrival, a reception was 

 held, at which they were given a chance to see their prospective hus- 

 bands. During the evening, one of the girls declared to her companions 

 that she never could marry one of these "old fellows, . . . who 

 were cut up as if they had just escaped from the infernal regions, 

 . . . for some of them are lame, some have only one hand, others 

 have no ears or only one eye, and some of them have lost half their 

 faces. The best of them have one or two scars across their foreheads." 



1 Fragmento Visita : Mendoza. Icazbaloeta's Mexico, vol. ii, p. 90, § 86. " Torque antes que el dioho 

 visorey viniese . . . habia may pooa gento y los correginuentos bastaban para proveellos ysusteu- 

 tallos, y coiuo despues de la venida del dieho visorey crecid la gente y se aumentd, y de cada dia vieuen 

 gentes pobres a quien so ha de proveer de comer, con la dicha baja y vacaciones se ban proveido y 

 remediado, y sin ella hubieran padecido y padeeieran gran necesidad, y no se poblara tanto latierra, 

 y dello se did noticia ;i S. M. y lo aprobd y se tuvo por servido en ello. ^ 194 (p. 117) : Despues que el 

 dicho visorey vino a esta Nueva EspaFia, continamente ha neogido en su casa a cahalleros y otras per- 

 aonas que vienen necesitados de Espafia y de otras partes, dandoles de comer y vestir, caballos y 

 armaa con que sirvan a S. M." . . . 



2 Garcilaso de la Vega, Comentarios Reales, part II, cap. i, lib. ii, p. 58 (ed. 1722), tells the story of 

 AJvarado's experiment. The picture of the life and character of the Spanish conquerors of America, 

 in the eyes of a girl fresh from Europe, is so vivid and suggestive that its omission would be unjusti- 

 fiable. 



