sodomy, in this case the conquest of Mexico could have represented simply an extension of the Spanish reconquest of the infidels, represented then by the Moors. Thus the circle was closed with the relationship of Moor, sodomite, Indian. Viceroyalty of New Spain The Spaniards were shocked to observe homosexual behavior elsewhere in the New World. They had encountered a cultural tradition unknown to Europe but common to many indigenous tribes in North and South America: publicly recognized gender role reversal. As described by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés on his 1526 "Natural History of the Indies": As conquerors, the Spanish sought to justify the subordination of native peoples. When they encountered cultures that sanctioned male-male sexual relations, they immediately labeled such behavior "sodomy," after the biblical city of Sodom, which was said to have been destroyed by God for the sinful behavior of its inhabitants. That the biblical sin in question was the failure to show hospitality to strangers was irrelevant in the light of subsequent ecclesiastical interpretation, which ascribed it to homosexuality. Thus homosexual behavior among many of the native peoples became one of several theological justifications for the destruction of their culture, subjugation of their societies, and conversion to Roman Catholicism. As of the middle of the 16th century, there appeared the first historians who really lived and worked in New Spain. Friar Toribio de Benavente, later called Motolínia, one of the most important historians of this era, writes that the indigenous people "drank a certain wine called pulque, to the point of drunkenness, followed by sacrifices and vices of the flesh, especially [...] the unspeakable sin". Again all the indigenous people are demonized as crazy drunks. Worst were the official historians, like Francisco López de Gómara, who filled America with fantastic beings despite never having set foot on American soil, or Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who thought that the indigenous people had been predetermined by nature for servitude. Also, Friar Bernardino de Sahagún dedicated the chapter "Of the depraved people such as ruffians and sodomites" of his General history of the things of New Spain (1558–1565) to the subject. Bernal Díaz del Castillo also write about sodomy as of 1568. Again, he connects the Indian religions and their priests with cannibalism, human sacrifice, and sodomy. In 1569 Tomás López Mendel also blames the indigenous priests for spreading sodomy among the people. In reaction to these writings,