Quick Overview

According to the Aztec chronicles recorded by Sahagún, the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II believed Hernán Cortés was the returning god Quetzalcoatl. Aztec legends indicated Quetzalcoatl would one day return to reclaim his throne. Cortez was thus welcomed with great pomp. Sahagún reports that Moctezuma welcomed Cortés to Tenochtitlan on the Great Causeway into the "Venice of the West".

A fragment of the greetings of Moctezuma say: "My lord, you have become fatigued, you have become tired: to the land you have arrived. You have come to your city: Mexico, here you have come to sit on your place, on your throne. Oh, it has been reserved to you for a small time, it was conserved by those who have gone, your substitutes... This is what has been told by our rulers, those of whom governed this city, ruled this city. That you would come to ask for your throne, your place, that you would come here. Come to the land, come and rest: take possession of your royal houses, give food to your body."