So many people, once upon a time gained their freedom from what we find contending against us in our times.

Ritual sacrifice, cannibalism, terrorizing children and murdering them, pedophilia, sodomy, prostitution.

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“Cortes received them with a gracious smile, and thanked the chiefs for their gift. He said, however, that before we could accept and become their brothers, they would have to abandon their idols which they mistakenly believed in and worshipped, and sacrifice no more souls to them; and that when he saw those cursed things thrown down and the sacrifices at an end, our bonds of brotherhood would be very much firmer.

The girls, he added, must become Christians before we could receive them, and the people must give up sodomy, for they had boys dressed as women who practised that accursed vice for profit. Moreover every day they sacrificed before our eyes three, four, or five Indians, whose hearts were offered to those idols and whose blood was plastered on the walls. The feet, arms, and legs of their victims were cut off and eaten, just as we eat beef from the butcher’s in our country. I even believe that they sold it in the tianguez or markets.

Cortes told them that if they gave up these wicked practices, not only would we be their friends, but we would give them other provinces to rule. The Caciques, papas, and dignitaries all replied that it would be wrong for them to give up their idols and sacrifices, for these gods of theirs brought them health and good harvests and all that they needed; but as for sodomy, measures would be taken to see that the practice was stopped.

This insolent reply was more than Cortes or any of us who had seen all their cruelties and obscenities could stand. Reminding us of the doctrines of our holy faith, Cortes asked us: ‘If we do not pay God so much honour as to stop them from making sacrifices to their idols, how can we ever accomplish anything worth doing?’

He told us we must overthrow the idols that very day, and be absolutely prepared to fight if they tried to prevent us. Since we, as usual, were all armed and ready, Cortes at once told the Caciques that the idols must come down. Thereupon the fat Cacique and his captains ordered their warriors to assemble and defend them; and when they saw us preparing to ascend the many steps – I do not remember how many there were – of their cue or temple, which was very high, the fat Cacique and the rest shouted to Cortes in a great fury, inquiring why he wanted to destroy their gods, since if we desecrated and overthrew them their whole people would perish, and we with them.

Cortes replied in a fierce voice that he had already told them to stop their sacrifices to these evil images and that we were going to get rid of them in order to save them from their false beliefs. He warned them that if they did not themselves remove their idols at once we would ourselves send them rolling down the steps. He said that we could no longer consider them our friends, but our mortal enemies, since we had given them good advice which they would not trust, and since he now saw their companies coming armed for battle. He added that he was angry with them, and that they would pay for their stubbornness with their lives.

No sooner were the words out of their mouths than some fifty of us soldiers clambered up and overturned the idols, which rolled down the steps and were smashed to pieces. Some of them were in the form of fearsome dragons as big as calves, and others half-man half-dog and hideously ugly. When they saw their idols shattered the Caciques and the papas who were with them wept and covered their eyes; and they prayed to their gods for pardon in the Totonac language, saying that they had been overborne and were not to blame, that it was these Teules who had overthrown them, and that they dared not attack us for fear of the Mexicans.

After the destruction of the idols, the warriors who, as I have said, had come ready to attack us prepared to shoot their arrows. But when we saw this we seized the fat Cacique, six papas, and some other dignitaries, and Cortes shouted a warning that in case of any warlike action all these men would be killed. The fat Cacique commanded his men not to attack, but to retire from in front of us.

Once the Caciques, papas, and dignitaries had calmed down, Cortes ordered that the idols we had overthrown and shattered should be taken out of sight and burnt. Then the eight papas who were in charge of them came out of a room and carried them back to the house from which they had come, where they burnt them. These papas wore black cloaks like those of canons, and others smaller hoods like Dominicans. They wore their hair very long, down to their waists, and some even down to their feet; and it was all so clotted and matted with blood that it could not be pulled apart.

Their ears were cut to pieces as a sacrifice, and they smelt of sulphur. But they also smelt of something worse: of decaying flesh. As they told us, and we afterwards found out for ourselves, these papas were the sons of chiefs and had no wives, but indulged in the foul practice of sodomy. On certain days they fasted, and what I saw them eat was the pith or seed of cotton when it was being cleaned. But they may have eaten other things that I did not see.

Cortes then spoke eloquently to the Indians through our interpreters, telling them that now we would treat them as brothers and give them all possible help against Montezuma and his Mexicans”

Excerpt From

The Conquest of New Spain

Bernal Diaz Del Castill