Pacal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> the idea that the Indians took the spanish for
> "gods" is familar legend in academia. The
> evidence does not in fact offer much support.
>
> I could give a long list of the attempts by the
> Indians to kill and / or deceive the Spanish
> before getting to the Aztec capital of Tenoticlan.
> None of which indicates that they thought the
> spanish as "gods". If you are talking about the
> possibility that some of the Indians may have for
> a time entertained the possibility that the
> Spanish were "gods", then that is in my opinion
> rather likely. Certainly a lot of Montazuma's
> behavior seems inexplicable, but then I suspect
> any lingering notion that Cortez was a "god"
> disapeared 5 seconds after meeting him.

We will just have to disagree. Miguel Leon Portilla, the top Mexican scholar on the Aztecs, supports my position in his book Broken Spears. My mentor, Charles Dibble, the translator of the Florentine Codex and a pre-eminent Aztec scholar published The Conquest through Spanish eyes Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press (1978){the 41st Annual Frederick William Reynolds Lecture}. As far as I'm concerned, his evidence, consisting of many direct quotes from the Nahuatl text of the Florentine Codex, is clear and convincing. The Mexica (the ones that count) did not try to kill the Spanish before the "Noche Triste incident." The Spanish did fight and slaughter a number of different ethnic groups such as the inhabitants of Cempoala.

pp.22-23 "When, then, did the Spaniards become true enemies of the Aztecs? They had enteredand quartered themselves in the capital city uncontested. I believe two events at this time raised doubts of their divine nature in the minds of the natives. The Aztec's most precious possessions were quetzal feathers and green stones, sometimes called jade. The workers of precious feathers and green stones represented the highest level of craftmanship and artisanship. thus, when the Spaniards ransacked the treasure houses and seizwed the feather shields ands feather devices, the Aztecs observed: 'Thereupon was detached the gold which was on all the de4vices. And as all the gold was detached, at once they ignited, set fire to all the various precious things [which remained]. They all burned [fig. 14. [ Florentine Codex, book 12, p. 48]
To the Aztec way of thinking, anyone who would burn precious feathers is devoid of divinity.
A second disilusioning event occurred while Cortes was still on the cost. pedro de Alvarado expressed a desire to witness the festival at the temple of Huitzilopochtli. The Aztecs complied, and while the ceremony was in progress, the Spaniards placed their cannons at the exits of the temple courtyard and systematically massacred the participants.. . By this act tyhe ver y heart of the empire had been pierced. the spot wheree the god Huitzilopochtli had founded his city had been defiled. The natives recaled these events with these words:
;And when came the feast day of Uitzilopochtli, Don Pedro Alvarado and the Spaniards who were with him slew many Mexicans while they were observing the feast day of Uitzilopochtli. Thus the war began. [Florentine Codex, book 12, p. 56].


>
> Early Indian sources do not indicate that
> Quetzecoatl was "white", but later Spanish and
> Spanish influenced have this "urban legend".

yes

Bernard
>
>
> Pierre