Toward the close of 1523 the missionaries gathered at Belvis convent to perfect arrangements for the voyage. They numbered besides Valencia ten ordained priests and two lay brothers, nearly all belonging te the provincia de San Gabriel: Francisco de Soto, Martin de Jesus de la Coruña, José de la Coruña, Juan Juarez, Antonio de Ciudad Rodrigo, and Toribio de Benavente, preachers and learned confessors; García de Cisneros and Luis de Fuensalida, preachers; Juan de Ribas and Francisco Jimenez, priests; and the lay brothers, Andrés de Córdoba and Juan de Palos.[1] Soto was a man of recognized intelligence, who had occupied the position of guardian; Fuensalida became successor to Valencia, and Benavente figured as one of the leading apostles. They will nearly all appear during the history in more or less prominent positions.[2]
After a sojourn of a few weeks at Seville they left San Lúcar on the 25th of January, 1524, in company with twelve Domimicans, commissioned like them for evangelical work in the Indies. José de la Coruña alone failed to join them, having been despatched to the court on business.[3] At Santo Domingo the
- ↑ Palos replaced at the last moment Bernardino de la Torre, who figures at the end of the list given in the patent already quoted, and was found 'unworthy.' Camargo obtained a list of 15, not one of whom corresponds to the above. Hist. Tlax., 192.
- ↑ The family name of Benavente, known afterward as Motolinia, was Paredes, it seems, for so he signs the preface to his Hist. Ind., 13. Juarez, also written Suarez, became guardian at Huexotzinco. Afterward he, together with the lay brother Palos, an exemplary preacher among the natives, Joined Narvaez' expedition to Florida, where both perished miserably. Elected bishop of Rio de las Palmas, according to Herrera, dec. iv. lib. iv. cap. iii., followed by Vetancvrt, Menolog., 32, without date. The other lay brother, Córdoba, died in Jalisco, and was buried at Izatlan, his bones being held in great veneration. Their biographers may be found in Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 611-28; Torquemada, iti. 432-47; Fernandez, Hist. Ecles., 52, 63, et seq.; Vetancvrt, Menolog., 32 et seq., and in other authorities which will be given when they are spoken of in the course of history.
- ↑ The pope had recently died, and Beaumont believes that a ratification of the friar patent may have been sought from the new pontiff. Crón. Mich., iii. 181-3. Whatever his mission, José delayed, and after replacing an 'unworthy' lay brother, so as to conform in number to the 12 apostles, 'pues iban á ejercitar el mismo oficio apostólico,' Valencia embarked with his 11 companions. Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 207, 628. That 12, not 13, left, is confirmed by Motolinia, Hist. Ind., 14, 267; 'el padre Fray Martin . . . con once frailes;' although Valencia's expression in a letter of 1531 is doubtful; 'prœ-
