[518] Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxii., says that the jails called quahucalco resembled the stocks; the other writers do not notice this difference.
[519] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 138.
[520] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 138-9; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 353; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxii.; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 138.
[521] Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 138.
[522] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 137.
[523] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 166, tom. ii., p. 381; Ortega, in Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. iii., p. 225; Boturini, Idea, p. 27. The number of ears of corn varies according to the different writers from three or four to seven, except Las Casas, who makes the number twenty-one or over, stating, however, that this and some other laws that he gives are possibly not authentic. Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxv. The Anonymous Conqueror writes: 'quando altri entrauano nelle possessioni altrui per rubbare frutti, ò il grano che essi hanno, che per entrar in vn campo, e rubbare tre ò quattro mazzocche ò spighe de quel loro grano, lo faceuano schiauo del patrone di quel campo rubbato.' Relatione fatta per vn gentil'huomo del Signor Fernando Cortese, in Ramusio, Navigationi, tom. iii., fol. 306. Clavigero agrees with the Anonymous Conqueror, that the thief of corn became the slave of the owner of the field from which he had stolen, and adds in a foot-note: 'Torquemada aggiunge, che avea pena di morte; ma ciò fu nel Regno d'Acolhuacan, non già in quello di Messico.' Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 133.
[524] Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxiii.; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 138.
[525] Ortega's statement reads: 'Casi siempre se castigaba con pena de muerte, á ménos de que la parte ofendida conviniese en ser indemnizada por el ladron, en cuyo caso pagaba este al fisco una cantidad igual á la robada.' Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. iii., p. 225.
[526] Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt ii., p. 33; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 166.
[527] Explicacion de la Coleccion de Mendoza, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 112.