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It is now proper that I fliould relate the good effedls of our exer- 

 tions for the fervice of God and his Majefty, by our iUuftrious conquefts, 

 in which mofi: of our companions loft their lives, being facrificed to the 

 idols Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatepuca. In the firft place, we purged 

 the land of its wickednefs and evil cuftoms, as for inftance that of hu- 

 man facrifice. By the accounts taken by certain reverend Francifcan 

 fathers, the firft who came here after Fray Bartholome de Olmedo, it 

 appears, that in the city of Mexico, and fome adjacent towns in the lake, 

 they facrificed every year above two thoufand five hundred human beings, 

 young and old. Of courfe in the whole extent of the country the num- 

 ber thus put to death annually, muft have been much greater. Their 

 various horrid pradtices of this nature exceed the powers of my pen ta 

 defcribe. Their curfed adoratories were fo many that I beftow on all of 

 them a hearty malediction; it feems to me that they refembled what 

 we have in Caftille, for as we fee there in every city, holy churches, 

 and hermitages, and chapels, fo they had in this country their houfes 

 of idols, devils, and diabolical figures. Befides thefe, each native, 

 male or female, had two altars, one by the place where he or (he flept, 

 the other at the door of the houfe, with chefts containing idols large 

 and fmall, ftones, and ftone knives, with books made of the bark of 

 trees, in which were noted doWn their records of paft times. They 

 were much addided to abominable praftices, efpecially upon the coaft, 

 and in the fultry provinces, where boys wore female attire. They eat 

 humaji flefh, as we do beef which we buy in the market, and in every 

 town they had wooden cages, wherein they kept and fattened thofe 

 men, women, and children, who were deftined for that purpofe, as 

 was the cafe with all thofe whom they took in their wars. Inceft was 

 common amongft them ; and they were drunkards in an extreme. In 

 the province of Panuco in particular, they took the wine into their 

 bodies in the manner a medicine is adminiftered, by means of a hollow 

 cane; an unheard-of beaftlinefs ! They had as many wives as they 

 pleafed, and all thefe, and other abominations, it was the will of our 

 Lord Jefus Chrift that we fhould be the inftruments to fweep from the 



land, 



