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Hernan Cortes was not, in the strictest sense of the word, an explorer. His foray into Mexico was far from exploratory. His journey from Cuba, west to the Yucatan Peninsula and eventually to the Central Valley of Mexico was for the singular purpose of conquest and pillage. In fact, an argument could be made that Cortes and his marauding band of Spanish soldiers of fortune were practically given a guided tour by Mexican native tribes, who were fed up with Aztec oppression - taxes, tribute and unrelenting demands for human victims to sacrifice to the voracious Aztec gods.

Like most Spanish "explorers," of course, part of Cortes' mandate was to bring the heathen natives to Christianity and under the "protection" of the King and Holy Mother Church. So when the Governor of Cuba decided to outfit Cortes with ten ships for a 400-mile trek across the narrow straight to Mexico, Cortes' charter did include the mission to convert the natives.

Cortes' first contact with native Mexicans was on the island of Cozumel, where he found the people rather friendly and helpful. Supplies replenished, Cortes' little flotilla sailed around Yucatan along the coast to the Grijalva River, until, once again short of supplies, the Spaniards went ashore. Their second contact with the natives was not so friendly, though. Hostile natives figured they could overwhelm the foreign invaders by virtue of sheer numbers. However, cotton armor and wooden swords were no match for Spanish cannon, musketry and fearful cavalry charges on horses, beasts the natives had never seen before.

It was after this first victory that Cortes had a real stroke of luck. The defeated chiefs made the Spanish a present of 20 women, one of whom was a Nahua who spoke both the local Mayan and Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs). Known as La Malinche (or Malintzin and Dona [pronounced "doan-yah"] Marina, she was Cortes' final piece in the puzzle on his "guided tour" to conquering Mexico's heartland. Now Cortes, through using a somewhat awkward three-way translation (Nahuatal to Mayan - via La Malinche - and Mayan to Spanish - via one of Cortes' officers) could readily converse with the Aztec officials he encountered, and eventually with the Aztec "Revered Speaker" himself, Moctezuma.

Before his encounter with the powerful Aztecs, Cortes had to establish a coastal base. He did so by building the first Spanish settlement in Mexico, and he called it Villa Rica de La Vera Cruz (the rich village of the cross). From Vera Cruz, Cortes

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