That little band of Franciscans in the wake of Cortes, who brought the light of faith to the Aztecs, and gave to Mexico, or New Spain, as it was then called, its first bishop, Don Francisco de Zumarraga, had its counterpart in the company of twenty-two sons of St. Dominic, who landed at Santa Marta on the southern shores of the Caribbean Sea, four hundred years ago, July 29th, 1529. Don Tomas Ortiz was their leader, and he in his turn was the first bishop of Santa Marta, the first, indeed, in New Granada. Another of the friars, Don Domingo de las Casas, was a near relative of the intrepid Fray Bartolomé, so conspicuous for his defence of the natives, since he fourteen times crossed the ocean to gain the ear of Charles and of Philip on their behalf.

Don Domingo was selected by Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada as chaplain to his troops on that expedition into the interior which resulted in adding to the Spanish crown the famous empire of the Muysca Indians or Chibchas. It was due, indeed, mainly to the brave friar’s encouragement and exhortations that they eventually reached the great plateau of Bogota and took possession of the capital.

At sight of his soldiers decimated by hunger and thirst, and the appalling difficulties of the passage of the Cordilleras, de Quesada was several times on the point of turning back to Santa Marta, but the good Dominican urged him to press forward and animated his troops by the thought that they were suffering for the eventual triumph of the Faith.