*They have a custom, horrible, and abominable, and deserving punishment... Whenever they ask anything of their gods, in order for their request to be fulfilled, they take many boys, girls, men, and women, and in the presence of the statues of their gods they cut open their chests. While they are still alive they take out their hearts and entrails. Then they burn the organs, offering the smoke as a sacrifice to their gods...No year passes in which they do not kill and sacrifice 50 souls at each temple in their kingdom... I did everything I could to steer them away from their false gods and to draw them to our Lord God. Montezuma agreed that I probably knew best...He said that as long as I taught the Aztecs our religion they would follow my directions. Therefore, I removed the statues of the false gods, cleaned the temples, and taught the people our religion. The rest of the Aztecs did not accept the new religion that I was giving them. They did make sure, though, that they did not sacrifice any more humans while I was in the city..." --Hernando Cortes, Letter to Charles V Based on the quote, what was the purpose of human sacrifice? to scare the conquistadors to get rid of rival tribes to reduce the population to honor the gods​