by exchange of or barter of one commodity for. another. But where this was inconvenient. cacao passed current as money among all the nations . . . According to Cogoludo copper bells and rattles of different sizes, red shells in strings, precious stones and copper hatchets often served as money, especially in foreign trade." It is thus seen that the Book of Mormon is false in every particular.
The next question that demands our attention is, Did any of the ancient inhabitants of Central America ever enjoy a Christian civilization? The Mayas being the most enlightened of all the ancient inhabitants of Central America and living at the time and place where it is claimed that the Nephites enjoyed such advanced Christian civilization, we would expect, if the Book of Mormon be true, that the antiquarians would find evidences of such civilization. Unfortunately, however, for the cause of Mormonism, those ancient Mayas were the veriest idolaters! There is not a vestige of anything Christian in any part of their history. Bancroft, "Native races of America," vol. 2, p. 704, says, "The gods of the Yucatecs (the ancient Mayas of Yucatan) required far fewer human lives at the hands of their worshipers than those of the Nahuas. The pages of Yucatec history are not marred by the constant blood blots that obscure the Nahua record. Nevertheless the Yucatec religion was not free from human sacrifice; and although captives taken in war were used for this purpose, yet it is said that such was their devotion that should a victim be wanting they would dedicate their children to the altar rather than let the gods be deprived of their due." Again vol. 2, p. 725. "The custom of eating the flesh of human victims who were sacrificed to the gods was probably practiced more or less in all the Maya regions, but neither this cannibalism nor the sacrifices that gave rise to it were so extensively indulged in as by the Mexicans.
Of a certain ruler named Quilzokoatl, who undertook various reforms in ancient Mexico, Bancroft, Vol. 5, p. 261, says: "Most prominent among his peculiar reforms, and the one that
