The Marquis Was Now Grown Old And Worn Out By Long And Severe Fatigue, And
Was Anxious To Have Returned To New Spain, To Settle His Affairs:
But he
waited the celebration of a marriage, between his eldest daughter Donna
Maria and Don Alvaro Pinez Osorio, son and heir to the Marquis of Astorga,
and had agreed to give his daughter a fortune of 100,000 ducats.
He had
sent to bring over his daughter from Mexico, and had even gone himself to
Seville to meet her; but the match was broke off, as is said by the fault
of Don Alvaro. Cortes was much disappointed at this, and as his health was
already in a bad state, he declined so rapidly, that he retired to
Castileja de la Cuesta, to attend to the concerns of his soul, and to make
his testament. Having arranged all his affairs, both for this and the next
world, he departed this life on the 2d of December 1547. He was buried
with great pomp in the chapel of the dukes of Medina Sidonia; but,
according to his will, his remains were afterwards, removed to Cojohuacan
or Tezcuco in New Spain, I am uncertain which. By his latter will, he left
funds for the endowment of an hospital in Mexico, and a nunnery in his own
town of Cojohuacan. In 1519, when we went along with him from Cuba against
Mexico, he used to tell us that he was then thirty-four years old; and as
he died 28 years afterwards, he must have been exactly 62 at his death.
The arms granted to him by his majesty, when he was created a marquis,
were the heads of seven kings surrounded by a chain, implying Montezuma,
Cacamatzin, Guatimotzin, Tulapa, Coadlavaca, and the princes of Tacuba and
Cojohuacan.
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