It is interesting to turn from the customs described as occurring in the remote town of Micla, to the events that happened in the city of Mexico, several hundreds of leagues distant. It was late in the afternoon of a summer’s day, in the year 1521. The Spaniards had been repulsed in one of their most important attacks on the enemy, and had been driven back over the causeway after suffering serious losses; Cortes was wounded, and sixty Spaniards had been captured, together with many of their Indian allies. In accordance with the Aztec superstitious rites, these captives were at once conveyed to the Teocalli of the war gods. Bernal Diaz, who had taken a prominent part in the battle, states that “during the retreat, they frequently heard the great drum resounding with a deep and dismal noise.” At last the Spanish troops reached a place of comparative safety, where they were secure from the enemy’s attacks, and out of reach of stones and arrows, and then, Diaz says, “Sandoval and Francisco de Lugo, and Andres de Tapia with Pedro de Alvarado, were each relating what had happened and what orders Cortes had given, when the drum of Huitzopotli again began to sound, together with kettledrums, shell horns and other instruments like trumpets, and these sounds were horrible and dismal, and we looked at the summit of the highest Kue, and we saw our companions who had been captured in the rout, and that they were being carried up by force, and with blows and thrusts, and being taken violently to be sacrificed, and when they had reached the top at a place where was the shrine in which were the accursed idols, we saw that many of them had feathers put upon their heads, others were made to dance before Huitzopotli, and after they had danced they were thrown on their backs on the top of the sacrificial stone, and then they cut open their breasts with flint knives, and pulled out their heating hearts and offered them to the idols that were in that place. The bodies and feet were thrown down the steps below, where other Indian butchers were waiting, and who cut off their arms and legs, and then flayed the skin from their faces, and tanned them like glove skins with the beards on, and kept them to show at their festivals and when they had their drunken feasts. In this manner were all sacrificed; they devoured the legs and arms, and the hearts and blood were offered to the idols.[65] These cruelties were seen by the whole camp, and by Pedro de Alvarado, and Gonzalo de Sandoval, and all the captains, and we said amongst ourselves, thank God that I was not carried off to-day to be sacrificed.”[66] In the whole range of American history, there is nothing which more vividly strikes the imagination than the scenes described by the Spanish conquerors during the siege of Mexico. The human sacrifices and the subsequent cannibalism, represent the most revolting acts of superstition that have ever disgraced human nature.