he feared he would not be pleased when he heard we had entered and lodged in this township without his permission.
To all this Cortes answered by our interpreters, "You must understand that we have come here from distant lands at the order of our king, Don Carlos, who has many great and powerful princes as his subjects, and he sent us to command your great Montezuma not to kindnap or sacrifice Indians, nor to seize any more lands, but to obey the comands of our king and master. And I declare to you, and the other caciques who are with you, that you must stop human sacrifices, no longer eat the flesh of your relations, and cease all unnatural offences and abominations, for such is the will of the Lord God in whom we believe, whom we adore and from whom come life and death."
One spot in this town I shall never forget. Near a temple I saw piles of human skulls in so regular an order that one could count them. I estimated them at more than one hundred thousand—I repeat, more than one hundred thousand. In another corner of the plaza there were dead men's thigh bones, more than you could count. Besides these, human heads were hanging from beams, and three papas stood guard of these bones and heads. Horrible sights such as this we saw in every town as we got further into the country.
