which quite a number succumbed.[1] The superintendence of the different branches of the work was intrusted to Spanish artisans and officers, who instructed the natives in the use of iron tools, in transporting and lifting material, and in building, the native Americans everywhere proving apt learners.
So rapid was the growth of the city[2] that, from representations made in 1522, the sovereign was pleased to award it official recognition by conferring a coat of arms, representing a water-blue field, in allusion to the lake of Mexico, having in the centre a gilt castle to which three paved causeways led. At the end of the two lateral, not connected with the castle, stand two lions rampant, each grasping the castle with its paws, in token of Spanish victory. A gilt border surrounds the field, containing ten maguey leaves, and a crown surmounts the shield.[3]
The native arms represented a maguey plant in the middle of a lake, and thereon an eagle with a snake in its bill. This was also permitted to be used in certain connections,[4] though with some changes, in accordance with the more or less bigoted ideas of the authorities in Mexico. At times all allusion to the native eagle and maguey was forbidden as of demoniacal influence.[5] Seven years later the city was ac-
- ↑ Herrera, dec. iii. lib. iv. cap. viii. 'Era tanta la gente que andabs en las obras que apenas podia hombre romper por algunas calles.' Motolinia, Hist. Ind., i. 18.
- ↑ In his letter of October 1524, Cortés indicates 30,000 settlers (vecinos), Cartas, 309, which must include many temporary dwellers, for about 80 years later Torquemada, i. 299, assumes as a high estimate 7,000 Spanish and 8,000 native settlers or families. Gomara, who wrote about 1550, mentions 2,000 Spanish settlers. Hist. Mex., 236. Some 20 years before this the anonymous conqueror speaks of 400 leading Spanish houses. Ramusto, Viaggi, iii. 309.
- ↑ This was granted July 4, 1523, in consideration of the city being 'tan insigne y Noble, y el mas principal Pueblo, que hasta ahora, en la dicha tierra, por Nos se ha hallado.' Órdenes de la Corona, MS., ii. 67-8; Mex., Extr. de Cédulas, MS., 3, 13.
- ↑ Calle, Mem. y Not., 43. In recognition of the city having been the capital of the country. Vetancurt describes this coat of arms with the addition of a castle with 3 towers, and 2 lions supporting the shield, which is surmounted by a crown. Trat. Mex., 5, 6.
- ↑ Archbishop and Viceroy Palafox caused the eagle to be replaced with a cross, The changes and mixtures thus introduced in the course of three centuries of colonial rule, as represented on coins, standard, and seals, are almost
