The Last Aztec
Vera Cruz and San Juan de Ulúa
In 1519, 34-year-old Hernán Cortés set off from the Spanish colony of Cuba to seek fortune and influence for Spain in the lands to the west. He had 100 sailors and about 400 soldiers. Some of these had more experience as miners, planters or adventurers than as warriors. Many were also intensely religious: plunder was to go hand in hand with Christianising.
Gods that walked the earth
Cortés first landed south of Vera Cruz then sailed north into Aztec-controlled land, anchoring opposite the islet of San Juan de Ulúa in what is now Vera Cruz harbour. Envoys of the emperor Moctezuma II met the Spanish on the shore. News of the strangers had already reached their capital Tenochtitlan and caused deep unease.
In the Aztecs’ religion, gods walked the earth, and there was a legend that one of their ancient god kings would one day return with his followers to claim the land. They wondered if this prophecy were now being fulfilled.
Plunder was to go hand in hand with Christianising
Meanwhile, Cortés, having heard that Tenochtitlan was a rich city, full of treasures, was eager to know more and requested a meeting with Moctezuma. Politely, the Aztec envoys prevaricated. Mindful that they might be meeting gods, they offered gifts of food, ornate ritual costumes and gold. The Spanish reciprocated with glass beads. Both sides were wary and anxious for information.
‘A great noise’
Although the Aztecs’ civilisation was in many ways very sophisticated, they had no iron or horses: impressed and dismayed by the newcomers’ crossbows, swords and guns, the envoys recorded all they saw in paintings (codexes) to take back to their emperor.
Cortés ordered our gunners to load the lombards with a great charge of powder so that they should make a great noise … and he told Pedro de Alvarado that he and all the horsemen should get ready so that these servants of Montezuma might see them gallop … and as it was quite still at that moment, the stones went flying through the forest resounding with a great din, and the two governors and all the other Indians were frightened by things so new to them ...
Father Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a priest on Cortés’s expedition
