eaten at their feast, and our entrails, with the remaining part of our bodies, were to be thrown to the serpents and tigers, which they kept confined in wooden cages, as will be mentioned in the proper place. It may well be imagined that the chastisement we gave the inhabitants of Cholulla spread like wildfire through the whole of New Spain. If, previously, the battles of Potonchan, Tabasco, Cingapacinga, and Tlascalla, had spread the fame of our invincible courage, and obtained for us the name of teules or gods of a fearful nature, we were now looked upon as divinities of a superior order, from whom nothing could be kept a secret, and the greatest veneration was consequently paid to us. The kind reader has now, no doubt, heard enough of this occurrence at Cholulla, and I myself would gladly break off here, but must add a word or two about the wooden cages we saw in this town. These were constructed of heavy timber, and filled with grown-up men and little boys, who were fattening there for the sacrifices and feasts. These diabolical cages Cortes ordered to be pulled down, and sent the prisoners each to their several homes. He likewise made the chiefs and papas promise him, under severe threats, never again to fasten up human beings in that way, and totally to abstain from eating human flesh. But what was the use of promises which they never intended to keep? These are, among others, those abominable monstrosities which the bishop of Chiapa, Las Casas, can find no end in enumerating. But he is wrong when he asserts that we gave the Cholullans the above-mentioned chastisement without any provocation, and merely for pastime. I can, however, produce as witnesses to the contrary the pious Franciscan friars who were the first monks our emperor despatched thither after the conquest of New Spain. These venerable men were purposely sent to Cholulla to make the minutest investigation into this affair. They gained all their information from the elders and papas of the town itself, and they were fully convinced that everything had really taken place as I have related above: and, indeed, if we had not made an example here, we should have lived in constant alarm, as we were completely surrounded by Mexican and Cholullan troops, who were everywhere lying in ambush. If we had been destroyed at that time, New Spain would certainly not have been so speedily conquered; a second armament would not so easily have found its way there; and if it had, there would have been hard work with the Indians who defended the coasts; and they would have continued in their idolatrous worship. I have myself heard the very pious Franciscan brother Toribio Motelmea[40] say that it would certainly have been better if we could have avoided spilling so much blood, and the Indians had not given us the cause to do so; but it had this good effect, that all the inhabitants of New Spain became convinced that their idols were nothing but deceitful demons, and