of thunder and lightning, and whom no mortal energies
could resist.

They had become as little children. This Cortez thought a very
suitable frame of mind to secure their conversion. He recommended that
they should cast down their idols, and accept instead the gods of
papal Rome. The recommendation of Cortez was potent over the now
pliant natives. They made no opposition while the soldiers, whose
hands were hardly yet washed of the blood of their relatives, hewed
down their images. With very imposing ceremonies, the religion of the
conquerors was instituted in the temples of Yucatan, and, in honor of
the Virgin Mary, the name of Tabasco was changed into St. Mary of
Victory.

In all this tremendous crime there was apparently no hypocrisy. Human
motives will seldom bear rigid scrutiny. Man's best deeds are tainted.
Cortez was very sincere in his desire to overthrow the abominable
system of idolatry prevailing among the natives. He perhaps truly
thought that these violent measures were necessary to accomplish this
object, and that Christianity, thus introduced, would prove an
inestimable blessing. We may abhor his conduct, while we can still
make generous allowances for the darkness of his mind and of the age
in which he lived. It requires infinite wisdom to adjust the balance
of human deeds.

Two of the Catholic ecclesiastics, Olmedo and Diaz, were probably
unaffected Christians, truly desiring the spiritual renovation of the
Indians. They felt deeply the worth of the soul, and did all they
could rightly to instruct these unhappy and deeply-wronged natives.
They sincerely pitied their sufferings, but deemed it wise that the
right eye should be plucked out, and that the right arm should be cut
off, rather than that the soul should perish. It is a consoling
thought, that "like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord
pitieth them that fear Him; for he knoweth our frame, he remembereth
that we are dust." The natives were assembled in their temples; they
came together in immense multitudes. The priests, through their
interpreter, Aguilar, endeavored to instruct them in the pure
doctrines and the sublime mysteries of Christianity. If the natives
perceived a marked difference between these precepts and the awful
carnage on the field of Ceutla, it was not the first time that
principles and practice have been found discordant.

A grand religious ceremony was instituted to commemorate the
conversion of the nation. The