“This infernal temple, from its great height, commanded an extensive view of the surrounding country. From it we could see the three causeways leading to the city,—that one from Iztapalapan, by which we had entered the city four days before; that one from Tlacupa, along which we took our flight eight months after, when we were driven out of the city by the new monarch, Cuitlahuatzin; the third, the one from Tepeaquilla. We also saw the aqueduct, which extended from Chapultepec, and supplied the city with fresh water. We could also distinctly see the bridges across the openings in the causeways, through which the waters of the lake ebbed and flowed. The lake was crowded with canoes conveying provisions, manufactured articles, and other merchandise to the city. We also observed that the only means of intercourse between the houses in this city, and between those of all the other towns built in the lake, was by draw-bridges or canoes. In all these cities the beautiful white-plastered temples rose above the smaller ones, like many of the towers and castles in our Spanish cities. The view from the top of the temple, it may be imagined, was a splendid sight.
“After we had sufficiently gazed upon this magnificent picture, we again turned our eyes toward the great market, and beheld the vast number of buyers and sellers who thronged it. The bustle and noise caused by this multitude of human beings was so great that it could be heard at a distance of more than four miles. Some of our men, who had been at Constantinople and at Rome and had travelled through the whole of Italy, said that they never had seen a market-place of such large dimensions, or which was so well regulated, or so crowded with people as this one in Mexico....
“We were conducted to a small temple with one room, in which we saw two bases resembling altars, decked with coverings of extreme beauty. On each of them stood a gigantic, bulky-looking figure. The one on the right hand represented the god of war, Huitzilopochtli. This idol had a very broad face with distorted and terrible eyes, and was covered with jewels, gold, and pearls, fastened with a paste made from a certain root. Large serpents, also, covered with gold and precious stones, wound round the body of this monster, which held in one hand a bow, and in the other a bunch of arrows. Another but smaller idol, its page, standing by its side carried the monster’s short spear and golden shield, studded with precious stones. Around Huitzilopochtli’s neck were figures representing human faces, and hearts made of gold and silver and decorated with blue stones. In front of him stood several perfuming pans containing copal, the incense of the country; also the hearts of three Indians, who had been killed that day. The hearts were consuming before him as a burnt-offering. The walls of the temple and the whole floor were almost black with human blood, and the stench was highly offensive.
“On the left hand stood another figure of the same size as Huitzilopochtli. Its face resembled very much that of a bear. Its shining eyes were made of tetzcat, the reflecting-glass of the country. This idol, like its brother Huitzilopochtli, was covered with precious stones, and was called Tetzcatlipuca. This was the god of hell.... A circle of figures wound round its body, resembling diminutive devils with serpents’ tails. The walls and floor around this idol were also besmeared with blood, and the stench was greater than that of a Spanish slaughter-house. Five human hearts had that day been offered to him. On the very top of this temple stood another; the wood-work of which was exceedingly elaborate and richly carved. In this temple there was another idol, half man and half lizard, completely covered with precious stones; half of this figure was hidden from view. We were told that the concealed half was covered with the seeds of every plant on the earth, for this idol was the god of seeds and fruits.... In the temple was a drum of enormous dimensions, the sound of which was so deep and solemn that it was appropriately called the drum of hell. The drum-head was made from the skin of an enormous serpent. The sound of the drum could be heard eight miles. The platform of the temple was covered with a variety of hellish objects,—large and small trumpets, great slaughtering knives, the burnt hearts of Indians who had been sacrificed,—every thing being clotted with coagulated blood, terrible to view and filling the mind with horror....
“If I remember rightly, this temple occupied a space of ground on which we could have placed six of the largest buildings commonly found in our country. The building had the form of a pyramid, on the summit of which was the small temple with the idols....
“Cortes and the rest of us at last grew weary with the inspection of so many idols and the implements used for sacrifices, and we returned to our quarters accompanied by a great number of the chief men and caciques, whom Montezuma had ordered to attend us.”
It is unnecessary here to follow farther the movements of the conquerors (conquistadores) of New Spain. The beautiful and famous metropolis of Mexico, twenty-two months after Cortes and his followers had entered it, was in ruins, filled with the innumerable dead bodies of its heroic defenders. The siege of the city lasted ninety-three days, ending the 13th of August, 1521. When the terrible drama ended, Cortes permitted those of its inhabitants who had not been killed, starved, or stricken with disease, to leave the charnel city. “The causeways,” says Diaz, “were crowded for three days and nights with men, women, and children, on their way to the main-land. These poor beings were much emaciated, and had a deathlike appearance.... The houses were found filled with dead bodies.... The soil in the city looked as if it had been ploughed, for the famished inhabitants had dug every root out of the ground, and had even peeled the bark from the trees to appease their hunger. We did not find any fresh water in the city, for that in all the wells was salty. During the horrible famine the Mexicans had not eaten the flesh of their countrymen, although they greedily devoured that of the Tlascallans and Spaniards. Certainly no people in this world ever suffered so much from hunger, thirst, and the horrors of war, as the inhabitants of this great city.” As the emperor’s share of the booty, Cortes sent to Spain two vessels carrying eighty-eight thousand pesos of gold in bars, and the wardrobe of Montezuma. “The latter,” Diaz observes, “was a valuable present, and well worthy of our great emperor’s acceptance, for it embraced jewels of the greatest value, pearls of the size of hazel-nuts, and various precious stones, the number of which my memory will not permit me to designate. At the same time were sent the bones of the giants which we found in the temple of Cojohuacan, which were similar to those given to us by the Tlascallans that we had previously sent to Spain.”[332]