Cortes was probably not much of a polemic. At all events, he preferred
on the present occasion action to argument; and thought that the best
way to convince the Indians of their error was to prove the falsehood
of the prediction.
He accordingly, without further ceremony, caused the venerated images
to be rolled down the stairs of the great temple, amidst the groans
and lamentations of the natives. An altar was hastily constructed, an
image of the Virgin and Child placed over it, and mass was performed
by Father Olmedo and his reverend companion for the first time within
the walls of a temple in New Spain.
The patient ministers tried once more to pour the light of the gospel
into the benighted understandings of the islanders, and to expound the
mysteries of the Catholic faith. The Indian interpreter must have
afforded rather a dubious channel for the transmission of such
abstruse doctrines. But they at length found favour with their
auditors, who, whether overawed by the bold bearing of the invaders,
or convinced of the impotence of deities that could not shield their
own shrines from violation, now consented to embrace Christianity.