"Hernan Cortes, The Fatal Mistake Of Montezuma"
             The Spanish soldier Cortes is known as the conqueror of Mexico. He was born in the small town of Medellin Extremadura in 1485. He studied law at the University of Salamanca, but did master in a degree. In this article you will read about Hernan Cortes and his mission to conquer the Aztecs.
             When Hernan Cortes was 18 he sailed with an expedition to Santo Domingo in the West Indies where he remained until 1511. In 1511 Don Diego Columbus, son of Christopher Columbus, sent Diego Velasquez with three hundred men to take Cuba. Velasquez invited Cortes to join him in his expedition to conquer Cuba. This was successful and Velasquez became governor and Cortes Mayor of Cuba.
             Cortes, making promises he would not keep, finally earned Velásquez's trust and started to prepare for his voyage to find riches. Velasquez soon suspected Cortes of ambitions beyond his orders and canceled the expedition. Cortes, however, assembled men and equipment and set sail, on November 16, 1518. On February 10, 1519 he set sail for Mexico in command of eleven ships, five hundred and eight soldiers, two hundred Cubans, some Indian women, and sixteen horses.
             He rounded the peninsula at Yucatán and touched Mexico on the coast of what is now the state of Tabasco. During a battle with Indians there he took many captives.
             Cortes knew nothing about the people he set off to conquer. The information from earlier expeditions to the Yucatan of Mexico had provided him with no information about the powerful Aztecs. The only thing on Cortes's mind was how somewhere beyond the mountains there were pots of gold which he would have to pass through and subdue the coastal tribes on the mainland, so he could reach the gold.
             On Nov. 8, 1519, Cortes reached Tenochtitlán and was graciously received by Montezuma, the Aztec emperor. Soon after Cor
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