Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/132

106 them in golden spoons to the principal idols,—the rest of their bodies being burned as incense. It is currently stated that the number of human victims, annually sacrificed in this city, amounted to between twenty and thirty thousand!

"Blessed, then," exclaimed the bishop, in conclusion—"blessed be those glorious Christians from Spain, who first abolished these barbarities; and raised the standard of the Holy Cross, and the Image of the Blessed Virgin, in this polluted and benighted land!"

I could not but freely acknowledge that the Catholic religion, inefficient and abused as it has become, is a religion of charity and mercy, compared with the one so truthfully depicted by the provincial bishop; though courtesy restrained the utterance of my regret, that the Christian spirit of love and self-sacrifice is not at present exemplified in the church of Mexico.

By this time it began to grow late: the finger of the time-piece was fast approaching the hour of one; the dancers were evidently fatigued; the card-parties had broken up; several ladies, with their partners, had departed; and it was time for the remaining