y and the Saints, which excited not a
little feeling in Muteczuma and the inhabitants, who at first
remonstrated, declaring that if my proceedings were known throughout
the country, the people would rise against me; for they believed that
their idols bestowed upon them all temporal good, and if they permitted
them to be ill-treated, they would be angry and withhold their gifts,
and by this means the people would be deprived of the fruits of the
earth and die of famine. I answered, through the interpreters, that
they were deceived in expecting any favors from idols, the work of
their own {154} hands, formed of unclean things; and that they must
learn there was but one God, the universal Lord of all, who had created
the heavens and the earth, and all things else, and had made them and
us; that He was without beginning and immortal, and that they were
bound to adore and believe Him, and no other creature or thing. I said
everything to them I could to divert them from their idolatries, and
draw them to a knowledge of God our Lord. Muteczuma replied, the
others assenting to what he said: "That they had already informed me
that they were not the aborigines of the country, but that their
ancestors had emigrated to it many years ago; and they fully believed,
after so long an absence from their native land, they might have fallen
into some errors; that I, having been recently arrived, must know
better than themselves what they ought to believe; and that if I would
instruct them in these matters, and make them understand the true
faith, they would follow my directions, as being for the best."
Afterward Muteczuma and many of the principal citizens remained with me
until I had removed the idols, purified the chapels, and placed images
in them, manifesting apparent pleasure; and I forbade them sacrificing
human beings to their idols, as they had been accustomed to do;
because, besides being abhorrent in the sight of God, your sacred
Majesty had prohibited it by law and commanded to put to death whoever
should take the life of another. Thus, from that time, they refrained
from the practice, and during the whole period of my abode in that
city, they were never seen to kill or sacrifice a human being.

The figures of the idols in which these people believe surpass in
stature a person of more than the ordinary {155} size; some of them are
composed of a mass of seeds and leguminous plants, such as are used for
food, ground and mixed