There were gods of the Water, of the Earth, of Night, Fire, and Hell;
goddesses of Flowers and of Corn: there were oblations offered of bread and
flowers and jewels, but we are assured that from twenty to fifty thousand
human victims were sacrificed annually in Mexico alone! That these accounts
are exaggerated, even though a bishop is among the narrators, we can
scarcely doubt; but if the tenth part be truth, let the memory of Cortes be
sacred, who, with the cross, stopped the shedding of innocent blood,
founded the cathedral on the ruins of the temple which had so often
resounded with human groans, and in the place of these blood-smeared idols
enshrined the mild form of the Virgin.

Meanwhile we entered the Christian edifice, which covers an immense space
of ground, is of the Gothic form, with two lofty ornamented towers, and is
still immensely rich in gold, silver, and jewels. A balustrade running
through it, which was brought from China, is said to be very valuable, but
seems to me more curious than beautiful. It is a composition of brass and
silver. Not a soul was in the sacred precincts this morning but miserable
_leperos_, in rags and blankets, mingled with women in ragged
_rebosos_;--at least a sprinkling of ladies with mantillas was so very
slight, that I do not think there were half a dozen in all. The floor is so
dirty that one kneels with a feeling of horror, and an inward determination
to effect as speedy a change of garments afterwards as possible. Besides,
many of my Indian neighbours were engaged in an occupation which I must
leave to your imagination; in fact, relieving their heads from the pressure
of the colonial system, or rather, eradicating and slaughtering the
colonists, who swarm there like the emigrant Irish in the United States. I
was not sorry to find myself once more in the pure air after mass; and have
since been told that, except on peculiar ocasions, and at certain hours,
few ladies perform their devotions in the cathedral. I shall learn all