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Greetings and welcome to the Explorers Podcast.

Today is part two in our series on Spanish conquistador, Arnan Cortez, and the conquest of Mexico.

Let's get right to it.

Last time we left Cortez poised to move up the coast of Mexico from the city of Patension, where Cortez and his men had defeated the local Tabaskan people at the Battle of Sentla.

The Spanish had suffered only two deaths in the fighting, while the Taboscans had lost over 800 men.

In the wake of his great victory, Cortez had been presented with the spoils of war,

including slaves, jewelry, silver, and gold.

The latter is what the Spanish coveted most,

and they were told it was found in abundance to the west.

I often make fun of the Spanish as they fall for this trick throughout history.

They ask the native people, where is the gold? And the natives reply,

we don't have any, but go that way and you'll find a bunch of it. The Spanish inevitably

go chasing after whatever tale they were told and usually end up disappointed or dead. However, this time the

local Maya people were not feeding Cortez a bunch of fairy tales. To the west lay the great

Aztec Empire, which was rich and powerful.

Cortez in his fleet sailed roughly 250 miles along the coast of Mexico,

reaching San Juan de Alua, which is at Modern de Vera Cruz,

on April 20, 1519.

San Juan de Alua boasted a good harbor

where the ships would be protected from bad weather.

It did not take long for some boats

...