_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.