Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/372

348 gave out. and it was when the Spaniards had been about five months in the city that the destruction of the idols in the great teocalli took place. The scene in the temple is characteristic of the times and the man.

Human life was cheap in Cortes's eyes, and the cruelties inflicted on the natives in the furtherance of his designs show that it was not the inhumanity of the sacrifices which filled him with the most abhorrence. It was the sight of idolatry, of people given over to devil worship, that inflamed his Catholic blood, and there seems, on this occasion, to have been no friar Olmedo at hand to restrain him, as in Cholula. He first called the priests together and delivered a pious exhortation, explaining the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and other Christian beliefs, conjuring them to abandon the superstitions which imperilled their immortal souls, to purify the altars, and dedicate them to the true God and the saints. As the priests defended their own, the controversy enraged Cortes beyond control, and seizing an instrument he began smashing the idols right and left with such magnificent fury that Andres de Tapia declared that he seemed like a supernatural being. Montezuma was notified, and entreated him for prudence's sake to desist, as such profanation would provoke an uprising of the people. Cortes, however, was deaf to remonstrance, and the idols were cast out, the temple washed and put in order, two altars being set up, one to Our Lady and the other to Saint Christopher, with their respective statues upon them. Mass was thenceforth said there, and some of the Indians came to the ceremony, as they wanted rain and, their own gods being overthrown, they were willing to invoke the Spaniards' God. Cortes declared they should have rain, and, with the most confident faith, ordered prayers and a procession to obtain this blessing; although the procession set forth under a cloudless sky, it returned after Mass in such a downpour that the people waded ankle deep in the streets. Malintzin's religion was vindicated (Andres de Tapia Relacion, p. 584-6).