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According to the Aztec chronicles recorded by Sahagun, a Spanish Franciscan missionary, the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II believed the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes was the returning god Quetzalcoatl (the all powerful feathered serpent). Aztec legends predicted the return of the mighty god and foretold the god would once again reclaim his thrown. Upon this background the Aztecs pondered what their reaction should be to the arriving pale skinned bearded strangers who arrived from the sea on floating mountains and who rode on the backs of giant deer.

Instead of receiving a full attack by the Aztecs, Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes was thus welcomed with great pomp into the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Sahagun further reports that Moctezuma II welcomed Cortes to Tenochtitlan on the Great Causeway with the greeting, “My lord, you have become fatigued, you have become tired: to the land you have arrived. You have come to your city: Mexico, here you have come to sit on your place, on your throne. Oh, it has been reserved to you for a small time; it was conserved by those who have gone, your substitutes… This is what has been told by our rulers, those of whom governed this city, ruled this city. That you would come to ask for your throne, your place, that you would come here. Come to the land, come and rest: take possession of your royal houses, give food to your body.”

Indigenous accounts written in the native Nahuatl tongue, described seven omens that were believed to have occurred prior to the arrival of the Spanish that according to prophecy foretold the return of Quetzalcoatl : – a strange appearance in the eastern sky – fire consuming the temple of Huitzilopochtli in the great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan – a lightning bolt destroying the straw temple of Xiuhtecuhtli – the appearance of streaking fire across the oceans – the “boiling,” and later flooding, of a lake near Tenochtitlan – an unseen woman heard weeping night after night but no woman was ever located – the capturing of an unknown creature (a bird the color of ashes) with a fishing net. This bird wore a strange mirror in the crown of its head. The mirror was pierced in the center like a spindle whorl, and Moctezuma II was able to see frightening images upon that mirror.

Further, the Spanish ships were sighted off the coast of Veracruz in the year 1-Reed, the exact date foretold in Aztec legends for the return of Quetzalcoatl and the exact location where Quetzalcoatl was supposed to have departed in the past. Upon all these prophetic happenings, the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II was said to have consulted fortune tellers to determine the causes of these omens and if they could be signs for the return of Quetzalcoatl from across the waters.

Mexico Conquest the End of the Aztecs
On 8 November 1519 after nearly three months of travel from the coast, Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes arrived at the outskirts of Tenochtitlan, the island capital of the Mexica-Aztecs. It is believed that at the time the city was one of the largest in the world. Of all the cities in Europe, only Constantinople was larger than Tenochtitlan. The most common estimates put the population at around 60,000 to over 300,000 people.

The end had arrived. The meeting of the two worlds inevitably meant that one would end. As it often happens, the future as well as the past of those conquered is written by the victor. When the affairs of the destruction of Tenochtitlan and its army were concluded in 1521 the mighty Aztec Empire was no more. The mighty city of Tenochtitlan was leveled to the ground. Old gods were replaced with new and the once proud Aztecs; the ones that survived the battle, the famine and the smallpox were left to wonder; did Quetzalcoatl return?

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Sigi Frias spends his time in Mexico traking down pre-Columbian style home/office decore items. He is familiar with Maya glyphs and Aztec history. He has also spent time with the Raramuri in the Cooper Canyon of Chihuahua.
View his collection at http://AncientMexImports.com

Tags: aztec, conquest, conquistador, cortes, cortez, hernan, mexico, moctezuma, montezuma, tenochtitlan