62 CHAPTER 3 THE CONQUEST OF AMERICA
the place of his throne and canopy, for that is what
he promised when he departed!”
The “winged towers” were the ships of the
Spanish captain Juan de Grijalva, sent by Governor
Diego Velázquez of Cuba to explore the coasts that
the slave-hunting expedition of Francisco Hernán-
dez de Córdoba (1517) had discovered. Córdoba
had landed at the peninsula of Yucatán, which was
inhabited by Maya peoples, whose cotton cloaks
and brilliant plumes, stone pyramids, temples, and
gold ornaments revealed a native culture far more
advanced than any the Spaniards had hitherto en-
countered. Córdoba met with disastrous defeat at
the hands of the Maya and returned to Cuba to die
of his wounds. He brought back enough gold and
other signs of wealth, however, to encourage Ve-
lázquez to outfi t a new venture, which he entrusted
to his kinsman Juan de Grijalva.
Grijalva sailed from Santiago in April 1518
and, following Córdoba’s route, reached the limits
of Moctezuma’s empire, where he was greeted by
natives waving white fl ags and inviting them by
signs to draw near. Here Grijalva’s fl agship was
boarded by the Aztec offi cial Pinotl, whose report
was to cause so much consternation in Tenochti-
tlán. A lively trade developed, with Aztecs barter-
ing gold for Spanish green beads. Grijalva was now
convinced that he had come to a wealthy kingdom
fi lled with many large towns. Near the present port
of Veracruz, Grijalva sent Pedro de Alvarado back to
Cuba with the gold that had been gained by barter.
Alvarado was to report to Velázquez what had been
accomplished, request authority to found a colony,
and seek reinforcements. Grijalva himself sailed on
with three other ships, perhaps as far as the river
Pánuco, which marked the northern limits of the
Aztec Empire. Then he turned back and retraced his
course, arriving in Cuba in November 1518.
CORTÉS-QUETZALCÓATL^2
Velázquez was already planning a third expedition
to conquer the Mexican mainland. He passed over
(^2) In relating the conquest of Mexico, we have often given
the Aztec version of events, with all its fantastic elements,
Grijalva and chose as leader of the expedition the
thirty-four-year-old Hernando Cortés, a native of
Medellín in the Spanish province of Estremadura.
Cortés was born in 1485 into an hidalgo family of
modest means. At the age of fourteen, he went to
Salamanca, seat of a great Spanish university, to
prepare for the study of law, but he left some years
later to pursue a military career. He had to choose
between Italy, the great battlefi eld of Europe, where
Spanish arms were winning fame under the great
captain Gonzalo de Córdoba, and the Indies, land of
gold, Amazons, and El Dorados. In 1504, at the age
of nineteen, he embarked for Hispaniola.
Soon after arriving on the island, he partici-
pated in his fi rst military exploit: the suppression
of a revolt of Arawaks made desperate by Span-
ish mistreatment. His reward was an encomienda
(a grant of indigenous tribute and labor). In 1511
he served under Velázquez in the easy conquest
of Cuba. The following year he was appointed al-
calde of the newly founded town of Santiago in
Cuba. In 1518 he persuaded Velázquez to give him
command of the new expedition to the Mexican
mainland, but at the last moment, the distrustful
governor decided to recall him. Cortés simply dis-
regarded Velázquez’s messages, however, and in
February 1519, he sailed from Cuba with a force of
some six hundred men. Because Velázquez had not
as told in the Florentine Codex, compiled by the great
missionary-scholar Bernardino de Sahagún, because it
offers a remarkable insight into the Aztec mentality and
reaction to the Conquest. In that version, the legend that
foretold the return of the god-king Quetzalcóatl plays a
prominent role; initially, at least, the conquistador Cortés
appears to have been identifi ed with the god himself or
with his emissary. Recently, however, some skeptical
scholars have suggested that the legend is a post-Conquest
native rationalization of the Aztec defeat or a combined
Spanish-Aztec creation, or even a pure invention of Cortés,
who twice cites a version of the legend as told by Moc-
tezuma. This skeptical point of view strikes us as ahistorical.
History records numerous legends that foretell the return
of redeemer-gods or -kings. If medieval Germans could
believe in the return of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa,
and if Renaissance Portuguese could believe in the return
of King Sebastian, why could not the Aztecs believe in the
return of the god-king Quetzalcóatl?