In the decade before the Spanish arrived in Mexico,
Aztec Emperor Montezuma II and his people were filled with a
sense of foreboding. A series of evil omens had foretold of
calamities to come. A fiery comet crossed the sky. The temple
of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, burst into flames. The Lake
of Mexico boiled and rose, flooding into houses. A weeping woman
passed by in the middle of the night, crying "My children, we
must flee far away from this city!" Fishermen discovered a bird
that wore a strange mirror in the crown of its head. Montezuma
looked into the mirror and saw a distant plain, with people making
war against each other and riding on the backs of animals resembling
An agitated Montezuma demanded that his soothsayers explain the
meaning of these dire signs and was told that they prophesied the
destruction of his kingdom. In fact, Montezuma had reason to be
fearful - the Spanish had settled in Hispaniola and Cuba and were
making their way toward his empire.
The Spanish had made several expeditions to the nearby Yucatan
in 1517 and had returned with wonderous tales of a high-cultured
Mayan civilization and gold riches. The news of these discoveries
made an electrifying impression on the Spanish colonists in
Cuba. Among these was Hernán Cortés, Chief Magistrate
of Santiago. The Spanish governor of Cuba, Diego de Velásquez,
told Cortés that he would provide two or three ships
if Cortés would find the rest of the money, and lead
the army. Cortés agreed and on October 23, 1518, Velásquez
appointed him "captain-general" of a new expedition to the Yucatan.
Every night there arose a sign like a tongue of fire.
A woman was heard weeping,"My children, we must flee far away from this city!"
Montezuma sees fighting men in the distance, riding the
backs of deer.
Credit: "General History of
the Things of New Spain" (Florentine Codex), Books
I-IX and XII, translated by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles
E. Dibble. Santa Fe, New Mexico and Salt Lake City: The
School of American Research and the University of Utah Press.
Used courtesy of the University of Utah Press.