This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text.
Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book
(without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.
1836 edition. Excerpt: ...relate, the hearts of the victims were
torn out: --yes --but no officious cicerone leads you to the court
of the Dominican convent, and points the broad perforated stone,
where the hundreds and thousands of poor benighted, ignorant
heathen, expired at the stake amidst smoke and flame. No one
reminds you that about the time the idolatrous worship of the
Aztecs was extirpated in Mexico; the same Inquisition, then in its
first flush of power, burnt eighteen thousand victims at the stake,
in the old world; and consigned two hundred and eight thousand to
infamy and punishment, scarcely better than death itself. The
simple fact is, that at the present day, dark as we consider it,
the Roman Catholicism of Europe, is light, when compared to that
established in this country, and practised by its inhabitants. A
change of names, --a change of form and garb for the idols, --new
symbols--altered ceremonials--another race of priests, --so much
and no more has been effected for the Indians. The change was
easily made. The ancient superstition abounded with fasts, feasts,
and penances; so did the new. The whole system of the aboriginal
religious hierarchy bears a singular resemblance to that which took
its place under the domination of Spain. Even the monk found his
vocation excited no surprise; the existence of regular orders of
celibates of both sexes, whose lives were devoted to the service of
certain amongst their gods, seems indisputable. With the Indians,
Teotl, the unknown God, --" He by whom we live," as He was termed,
--He whom they never represented in idol form, --is still the
supreme Being under the name of Dios. They continue to adore the
god Quetzalcoatl--the Feathered Serpent, under the name of San
Thomas. It is indifferent to them, whether the evil...
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