[568] Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxiii.; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 136.
[569] Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iii., cap. x.; Beaumont, Crón. Mechoacan, MS., p. 51.
[570] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 166, tom. ii., p. 380; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxv.; Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. iii., p. 423; Ortega, in Id., p. 224; Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt ii., p. 33; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 137; Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., pp. 245. Carbajal Espinosa differs from these in saying: 'al pasivo le arrancaban las entrañas, se llenaba su vientre de ceniza y el cadáver era quemado.' Hist. Mex., tom. i., p. 603.
[571] Camargo, Hist. Tlax., in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 193. Carli is therefore mistaken in saying this crime was punished with death. Cartas, p. 122.
[572] Lettre, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i., tom. x., p. 197.
[573] Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxiii. Clavigero writes: 'Appresso tutte le Nazioni di Anahuac, fuorchè appresso i Panuchesi, era in abbominazione sì fatto delitto, e da tutte si puniva con rigore.' This writer is very bitter against M. de Pauw for stating that this pederasty was common among the Mexicans, and adds: 'ma della falsità di tal calunnia, che con troppa, ed assai biasimevole facilità addottarono parecchj Autori Europei, ci consta per la testimonianza di molti altri Autori imparziarli, e meglio informati.' Clavigero does not, however, state who these 'more impartial and better informed writers' are. That the crime of sodomy was prevalent in Tabasco, we have the testimony of Oviedo, who writes that among the idols that the Christians saw there 'dixeron que avian hallado entre aquellos çemís ó yolos, dos personas hechas de copey (que es un árbol assi llamado), el uno caballero ó cabalgando sobre el otro, en figura de aquel abominable y nefando pecado de sodomia, é otro de barro que tenia la natura asida con ambas manos, la qual tenia como çircunçiso ... y no es este pecado entre aquellas mal aventuradas gentes despresçiado, ni sumariamente averiguado: antes es mucha verdad quanto dellos se puede deçir é culpar en tal caso.' Hist. Gen., tom. i., p. 533. Zuazo, speaking of the Mexicans, says: 'estas gentes tienen la tria peccatela que decia el Italiano: no creen en Dios; son casi todos sodomitas: comen carne humana.' Carta, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 365.
[574] Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxiii.
[575] Las Casas, among his unauthentic laws has one which prescribes death in this case, but in another list, which he says is composed of authentic laws, banishment and confiscation of property is given as the penalty. Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxv.; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 380; Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. iii., p. 423.
[576] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 380; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxiii.; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 137. Ortega adds that their heads were rubbed with ashes; 'se les untaba con ceniza caliente.' Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. iii., p. 225.
[577] Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., p. 246; Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., p. 224.