The Conquest of Tenochtitlan
Upon entering the great Azetc City of Tenochtitlan, Cortez's conquistadores behold the following: By far the largest city in the Americas, Tenochtitlan occupied a cluster of islands in a large lake. Interwoven with canals, the city reached the mainland by three long and narrow causeways. Fresh water arrived by a stone aqueduct. Most of the whitewashed stone adobe buildings were small and humble, but some lofty aristocratic houses embraced internal courtyards and gardens. Above all, the Spanish marveled at the immense palace of Moctezuma. Cortez declared, "In Spain there is nothing to compare with it." The city's central plaza of tall stone pyramid-temples also dazzled with a combination of red, blue, and ocher stucco. Dedicated to both Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec's god of war, and Tlaloc, their god of rain, the largest pyramid stood sixty meters tall. Every year it hosted public ritual human sacrifices of captured people, their...