creased tribute was to be considered, as well as the question whether those portions of the country hitherto exempt could not be taxed. Moreover industries were to be encouraged for the promotion of the welfare of the country and the benefit of the royal treasury; the accounts of the royal officials were to be examined and the collection of all balances due was ordered. Instructions were also given for the erections of forts, and provisions were made with regard to arms in order to insure the safety of the country.
About the beginning of October 1535, Mendoza arrived at Vera Cruz,[1] and preparations were made to receive him with becoming ceremony. He was conducted in great state to the capital, where he was sumptuously entertained by the authorities. Nevertheless the reception was quite tame as compared with later ones, when the viceroy was conducted with excessive pomp and pageantry, involving great expense, from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico, the whole journey being a triumphal march, the road spread with palm-branches and spanned by arches of fresh evergreens and flowers; the entrance into Tlascala, Puebla, and all the principal towns on his route being signalized by martial music, and processions of multitudes of natives decked in brilliant colors and bearing aloft the banners and devices of their towns. High in front of the viceregal party there used to float a richly embroidered flag, on one side of which were worked the arms of the king and on the other those of the viceroy. The solemnity of the reception on
- ↑ Herrera only mentions the year without giving the month. Id. Torquemada says in 1534, Monarg. Ind., i. 608; followed by Figueroa, Vindicias, MS., 126, Vetancurt, Trat. Mex., 7, and several minor authorities. Padre Medina assigns the 15th of August, 1535, as the date of his arrival in Mexico, Chron. de San Diego de Mex., 233; but the acts of the ayuntamiento of Mexico show that on the 13th of October dispositions were made for the reception of Mendoza, and on the 17th the commission made a report of the conference held with him, Presuming that the conference was held on the 16th, his arrival probably took place on the 15th. Zamacois accepts this date. Hist. Méj., iv. 586; and Rivera, Gob. Mex., i. 29.
native nobles had been buried there with great riches. The question of sending slaves from Spain or elsewhere to work in the mines was also to be examined Id.
