"Seeing how vile and despicable the idol was, we went outside to ask why they cared about so crude and ungainly a thing. But the
y, astounded at our daring, defended the honor of their god and said that he was Pachacamac, the Maker of the World, who healed their infirmities. According to what we were able to learn, the devil appeared to their priests in that hut and spoke with them, and they entered there with petitions and offerings from the entire kingdom of Atahualpa, just as Moors and Turks go to the house in Mecca. Seeing the evil of what was there and the blindness of all those people, we gathered together their leaders and enlightened them. And in the presence of all, the hut was opened and torn down and with much solemnity a tall cross was raised over the seat which for so long the devil had claimed as his own." Miguel de Estete, Spanish mercenary soldier, account of an expedition to The Spanish actions described in the passage differed from European attempts to promote Christianity in South and East Asia in the period 1450–1750 in that
The Spanish soldiers, still under the catholic spell of the sacred inquisition, saw the indigenious civilizations (Inka´s, Maya´s and Aztecas) and their religions as the devil in disguise. Little did they know that their own cruel behaviour - for example that of Hernán Cortés in México - blinded by their own insane and outrageously cruel religion, was even worse and had tremendous impact on the society they destroyed. The effects of which still can be seen all over Latin America; by destroying the indigenious religion and belief they destroyed their culture, hence their identy.
