every Indian man and woman had two altars, one near to where they slept, and the other near the door of the house. In these were placed several wooden boxes, which they termed petacas, full of small and large idols, flint knives used in the sacrifices, and books made of the bark of trees, which they call amatl, containing their signs to denote the seasons, and things that have happened. Most of the Indians, particularly those living on the coasts and in the hotter climates, were given to unnatural lusts. To such a dreadful degree was this practised, that men even went about in female garments, and made a livelihood by their diabolical and cursed lewdness.
The Indians ate human flesh in the same way we do that of oxen, and there were large wooden cages in every township, in which men, women, and children were fattened for their sacrifices and feasts. In the same way they butchered and devoured all the prisoners they took during war time. Sons committed incest with their mothers, fathers with their daughters, brothers with their sisters, and uncles with their nieces. They were addicted to the vice of drunkenness to a most terrible degree, and the inhabitants of Panuco had the most filthy and unheard-of custom, of injecting the wine of their country, by means of hollow canes, into their bodies, in the same way we should take a clyster. Various other vices and abominations were practised among them; and every man took as many wives as he liked.
We, the few veteran Conquistadores who escaped alive from the battles and perils we encountered, succeeded, with the aid of God, to turn these people aside from their abominations. It was through our exertions they began to lead a more moral life, and that the holy doctrine was introduced among them. We were the persons who made this good beginning, and it was not until two years later, when we had made the conquest, and introduced good morals and better manners among the inhabitants, that the pious Franciscan brothers arrived, and three or four years after the virtuous monks of the Dominican order, who further