to Tlacopan, stood the _tzompantli_, which was an oblong
parallelogram of earth and masonry, one hundred and fifty-four feet
(long) at the base, ascended by thirty steps, on each of which were
skulls. Round the summit were upward of seventy raised poles about
four feet apart, connected by numerous rows of cross-poles passed
through holes in the masts, on each of which five skulls were filed,
the sticks being passed through the temples. In the centre stood two
towers, or columns, made of skulls and lime, the face of each skull
being turned outwards, and giving a horrible appearance to the whole.
This effect was heightened by leaving the heads of distinguished
captives in their natural state, with hair and skin on. As the skulls
decayed they fell from the towers or poles, and they were replaced by
others, so that no vacant place was left."

Concerning the cruelty of the Spaniards, the contrast between the
opposing religions must be considered. Ruthless as the conquerors
were, there is no possible comparison between the most indifferent
principles of the Christian Religion and the application of the awful
principles of the Mexican religion. MacNutt, the author of the latest
and best life of Cortes, makes this interesting comment on the
Christianity of the Spanish adventurers of the time:

"Soldier of Spain and soldier of the Cross, for the Cross was the
standard of militant Christianity, of which Spain was the truest
exponent, his religion, devoutly believed in, but intermittently
practised, inspired his ideals, without sufficiently guiding his
conduct. Ofttimes brutal, he was never vulgar, while as a lover of
sheer daring and of danger for danger's sake, he has never been
eclipsed. . . . {129} Sixteenth-century Spain produced a race of
Christian warriors whose piety, born of an intense realization of, and
love for a militant Christ, was of a martial complexion, beholding in
the symbol of salvation--the Cross--the standard of Christendom around
which the faithful must rally, and for whose protection and exaltation
swords must be drawn and blood spilled if need be. They were the
children of the generation which had expelled the Moor from Spain, and
had brought centuries of religious and patriotic warfare to a
triumphant close, in which their country was finally united under the
crown of Castile. From such forebears the generation of Cortes
received its heritage of Christian chivalry. The discovery of a new
world