Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/371

Rh or a vast cathedral close. In one of the temples the Spaniards estimated that a symmetrical pyramid of bones contained one hundred and thirty-six thousand human skulls. Amongst these temples there was one dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, circular in form and having its entrance built in imitation of a serpent's open mouth. Bernal Diaz says that this was a veritable hell, or abode of demons, in which they saw frightful idols, cauldrons of water in which to prepare the flesh of the victims, which the priests ate, and furnishings like those of a butcher's stall; so that he never called the place other than "hell."

Human sacrifices and cannibalism were practised even in honour of the beneficent deity of the Toltecs, whose mild teachings, pure life, and aversion to war, persuade us that he must have been a Christian bishop. Nothing more conclusively proves that, in spite of their material prosperity, their extended empire, and a certain refinement in their social life, the Aztecs occupied a much lower moral and intellectual level than did their Toltec predecessors in Anáhuac. From the Toltecs they had received the foundations of their civilisation; all that was good in their religion or true in their philosophy, all that was known amongst them of science, they received from that mysterious race whose only records are a few neglected and almost unknown ruins.

After the conquest, the great temple was razed to the ground. In its foundations were found a quantity of treasures, which had been placed there as offerings when the pyramid was first begun. The stone idols and carvings were for the most part built into the foundations of the Christian cathedral which stands upon its site.

Montezuma had readily assented, very soon after the arrival of the Spaniards, to the installation of a chapel in the Spanish quarters, and a room was consequently prepared, in which mass was said daily, as long as the supply of wine held out. The soldiers said their daily prayers before the cross and the sacred images, especially at the hour of the Ave Maria.

While seeking for the best place to erect the altar in this room, Alonso Yañez discovered a concealed door, which Cortes, who was informed of the discovery, ordered to be forced open. Beyond was a vast chamber containing the treasure of Axayacatl and other Aztec kings, forming a great heap of gold and jewels in the centre of the room, while all the walls were covered with splendid stuffs, thick feather-work, shields, and other objects of precious metals. After inspecting the fabulous collection, Cortes had the door sealed up again, and cautioned his followers not to betray their knowledge of its existence to the Mexicans (Bernal Diaz, cap. xciii.). Andres de Tapia's account (Incazbalceta, Doc. Ined., tom, ii., p. 580) says that Cortes told Montezuma of his discovery, and that the emperor presented him with all the gold and jewels in that treasury.

After repeated conversations with Montezuma on religious subjects, none of which seemed to advance his conversion, the patience of Cortes