HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



55 



him, agreeably to the account given by the conqueror 

 Cortes, he was granted his life, his liberty, and all that 

 had been taken from him, and returned with glory to 

 his native country (a). The fame author relates, that 

 in a battle between the Cholulans and Huexotzincas, 

 the principal lord of Cholula grew fo warm in the con- 

 teft, that having inadvertently removed to a great dis- 

 tance from his own people he was made prifoner in 

 fpite of his bravery, and conducted to Huexotzinco, 

 where being put upon the gladiatorian ftone, he con- 

 quered feven combatants which were oppofed to him, 

 and gained his liberty ; but the Huexotzincas forefeeing, 

 that on account of his Angular courage he would become 

 the caufe of many difafters to them if they granted him 

 his liberty, put him to death contrary to univerfal cuf- 

 tom ; by which act they rendered themfelves eternally 

 infamous among thofe nations. 



With refpect to the number of the victims which were 

 annually facrificed we can affirm nothing ; the opinions 

 of hiftorians on that head being extremely different ( p). 



The 



(©) Several hiftorians fay, that when the firft combatant was overcome the 

 prifoner became free; but we are rather inclined to credit the Conqueror; 

 for it is not probable, that they would liberate a prifoner for lb fmall a rifle 

 who might ftill prove deftrudHve to them, or that they would deprive their 

 gods of a victim fo acceptable to their cruelty. 



(p) Zumarraga, the firft bilhop of Mexico, fays, in a letter of the iath of 

 June, 1531, addreffed to the general chapter of his order, that in that capital 

 alone twenty thoufand human viclims were annually facrificed. Some authors, 

 quoted by Gomara, affirm, that the number of the facrificed amounted to fifty 

 thoufand. Acofta writes, that there was a certain day of the year on which 

 five thoufand were facrificed in different places of the empire ; and another 

 day on which they facrificed twenty thoufand. Some authors believe, that on 

 the mountain Tepeyacac alone, twenty thoufand were facrificed to the goddefs 

 Tonantzin. Torquemada, in quoting, though unfaithfully, the letter of Zu- 

 marraga, fays, that there were twenty thoufand infants annually facrificed. • 

 But on the contrary, Las Cafas, in his refutation of the bloody book, written by 



