Cort S and Montezuma

Description

Landing on the Mexican coast on Good Friday| 1519| Hernan Cortes felt himself the bearer of a divine burden to conquer and convert the first advanced civilization Europeans had yet encountered in the West. For Montezuma| leader of the Mexicans| April 21| 1519 (known in their sophisticated astronomical system as 9 Wind Day) was the precise date of a dire prophesy: the return of Quetzalcoatl| a fearsome god predicted to arrive by ship| from the East| with light skin| a black beard| robed in black exactly as Cortes would. The ensuing drama is described by eminent historian Maurice Collis in a style that is equal parts story and scholarship. Though its consequences have been treated by writers as diverse as D.H. Lawrence and Charles Olson| never before have the facts of this event been rendered with such extraordinary clarity and elegance.”