Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/165

Rh out it would call down on their heads the vengeance of every god in Mexico. But Cortez coolly reminded him that the Aztecs would be glad to become allies of the Spaniards, and that if the Totonacs were not very civil to him he would leave them to settle the old score with their former masters without any help from him. This threat silenced the poor chief, but the people were furious. The priests called loudly on them to arise and defend their gods. They ran about in the crowd with wildly-streaming hair, beating their breasts in rage and despair.

As usual, Cortez improved this circumstance. He now ordered his men to seize the chief and the leading priests, and, taking them apart, he gave them to understand that if they did not quiet the mob the city would soon be too hot to hold them. In order to save their own lives, they were thus obliged to check the excited multitude, and actually to aid the soldiers to pile up the wooden gods, with all their finery, and to burn them in the public square. With what groans and lamentations this was done can better be imagined than described. The soldiers next took the temple in hand. Walls and floor, foul from disgusting worship, were soon cleansed and some bright new images set up in the empty shrine. Father Olmedo then gave the people a lesson in the worship due the idols of Rome just introduced to them; he ordered the priests to take off their black tunics and put on white, and, with candles in their hands, to join in the solemn procession which wound up the temple-stairs, never again to echo the footsteps of those who carried up human victims to die on that high altar. One thing at least was effected: the natives saw that the gods before whom they had trembled were unable to punish those who had thus insulted them, or to defend their worshipers.