Note 40 — Chapter IX · IN THE OLDEN TIME.

It is the way of Christian communities to speak with holy horror of the human sacrifices these heathen were accustomed to offer at each new year to their gods; the bloodthirsty Christian Spaniards spoke much in the same way of these sacrifices three centuries ago. While the Indios did what they honestly believed was right, and did it in a most merciful manner, without torture, the cruel invaders, in the name of the gentle Jesus of Nazareth and of the Mother of God, burned these poor Indios alive by hundreds (Las Casas says by thousands), or gave them to be torn in pieces by the dogs. Let the Christian nations hold their peace over the human sacrifices of Central America, when they remember the Holy Inquisition, St. Bartholomew, and the tortures of Jews, Turks, witches, Quakers, and other heretics, sanctioned by the Christian Church,—murders so cruel, so unprovoked, that they make the sacrifices of the Indios seem no worse than justifiable homicide. Were the sacrifices to Tohil so much more sinful than the sacrifices so common in this enlightened nation of children born, or unborn, to the Molochs of Comfort or Reputation?