number is so extensive, that I must pass them by in silence. Seven bishoprics have already been erected in New Spain; the very celebrated city of Mexico is the see of an archbishop, and there are three royal courts of audience. The reader would be astonished to see the number of cathedrals, and the monasteries of the Brothers of Charity, and of the Franciscan, Dominican, and Augustin friars; the hospitals, with their endowments, and the church of our dear lady of Guadaloupe, at Tepeaquilla, where Sandoval was stationed during the siege of Mexico: also the holy miracles which have taken place in the country, and those which happen daily, are astonishing; and we cannot sufficiently thank God and the blessed Virgin, who gave us the power to conquer this country, where everything has already become so Christian. In Mexico there is an universal college, where grammar, rhetoric, logic, philosophy, theology, and other sciences and arts are taught. In this city even books are printed both in the Latin and Spanish languages, and here also licentiates and doctors graduate.
I could enumerate many other matters of great importance, and describe the numerous silver mines which are worked in New Spain, and the new ones that are daily being discovered, and from which Spain draws so much wealth; but I have stated sufficient to prove that our heroic deeds were never surpassed in any age, and that no men ever subdued so many kingdoms as we, the true Conquistadores, conquered for our emperor and master: and though there were many brave men among us, yet I was not the least among them, and now I am the oldest alive. I repeat it, I, I, I am the oldest, and I have always served his majesty like a good soldier. And here I must relate something after the manner of a dialogue. When illustrious Fame resounded from one end of the world to the other our glorious deeds of arms, and the important services which we had rendered to God, our emperor, and the whole of Christendom, she cried aloud, and said, that we were more justly entitled to and deserving of lucrative possessions than those who had neither rendered his majesty any services here nor in any other place. Where, she asks, are your palaces,