The meals were served in a large hall, in which Moctezuma was accustomed to eat, and the dishes quite filled the room, which was covered with mats and kept very clean.

So loud was the wailing of the women and children that there was not one man among us whose heart did not bleed at the sound.

Chocolate is the divine drink which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food.

There are fully forty towers, which are lofty and well built, the largest of which has fifty steps leading to its main body, and is higher than the tower of the principal tower of the church at Seville.

The priests are debarred from female society, nor is any woman permitted to enter the religious houses.

Furthermore, they had calculated that if 25,000 of them died for every one of us, they would finish with us first, for they were many and we were but few.

Thus they have an idol that they petition for victory in war; another for success in their labors; and so for everything in which they seek or desire prosperity, they have their idols, which they honor and serve.