Chapter CCVIII

_Of the human sacrifices and abominations practised by the
inhabitants of New Spain; how we abolished these, and introduced the
holy Christian faith into the country._

After thus describing our glorious deeds of arms, I will show how advantageous they proved in the service of God and of our emperor. These advantages were purchased with the lives of most of my companions in arms, for very few had the good fortune to escape being captured and sacrificed by the Indians.

I will commence with the human sacrifices and the other abominations which were practised throughout the whole of the provinces we subdued. According to the computations of the Franciscan monks, who arrived in New Spain subsequent to father Olmedo, above 2500 persons were annually sacrificed to the idols in Mexico, and some of the towns lying on the lake.[60] As this barbarous custom was also prevalent in all the other provinces, the number, of course, is much greater. But these human sacrifices were not the only abominations that were practised by the inhabitants; I should, however, scarcely know where to end, if I were to enumerate them all. I will, therefore, only relate what I witnessed with my own eyes, and heard with my own ears. Of the victims that were sacrificed, the faces, ears, tongues, lips, the breast, the arms and legs, were brought as a burnt-offering to the idols.

In some provinces circumcision took place, which was effected by means of sharp knives made of flint. The cursed idol temples were called cues, and were as numerous as the churches, chapels, and monasteries in Spain. Every township had its own temples, and these infernal buildings were filled with demons and diabolical-looking figures. Besides these, every Indian man and woman had two altars, one near to where they slept, and the other near the door of the house. In these were placed several wooden boxes, which they termed petacas, full of small and large idols, flint knives used in the sacrifices, and books made of the bark of trees, which they call amatl, containing their signs to denote the seasons, and things that have happened. Most of the Indians, particularly those living on the coasts and in the hotter climates, were given to unnatural lusts. To such a dreadful degree was this practised, that men even went about in female garments, and made a livelihood by their diabolical and cursed lewdness.

The Indians ate human flesh in the same way we do that of oxen, and there were large wooden cages in every township, in which men, women, and children were fattened for their sacrifices and feasts. In the same way they butchered and devoured all the prisoners they took during war time. Sons committed incest with their mothers, fathers with their daughters, brothers with their sisters, and uncles with their nieces. They were addicted to the vice of drunkenness to a most terrible degree, and the inhabitants of Panuco had the most filthy and unheard-of custom, of injecting the wine of their country, by means of hollow canes, into their bodies, in the same way we should take a clyster. Various other vices and abominations were practised among them; and every man took as many wives as he liked.

We, the few veteran Conquistadores who escaped alive from the battles and perils we encountered, succeeded, with the aid of God, to turn these people aside from their abominations. It was through our exertions they began to lead a more moral life, and that the holy doctrine was introduced among them. We were the persons who made this good beginning, and it was not until two years later, when we had made the conquest, and introduced good morals and better manners among the inhabitants, that the pious Franciscan brothers arrived, and three or four years after the virtuous monks of the Dominican order, who further continued the good work, and spread Christianity through the country. The first part of the work, however, next to the Almighty, was done by us, the true Conquistadores, who subdued the country, and by the Brothers of Charity, who accompanied us. To us and them are due the merit and praise of sowing the first seeds of Christianity among these tribes: for when the beginning is good, the continuation and completion are sure to prove praiseworthy!

But enough of this; I will now speak of the great advantages which the inhabitants of New Spain derived from our exertions in their behalf.