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gods—and the goodwill of its neighbors—for defense.
    The advancing army arrived peacefully, but not without tension. What happened next is in doubt. Cortés' side of the story is that Doña Marina heard from a Cholulan noblewoman of a plot to murder the Spanish in their sleep. The Tlaxcalteca version is that Cortés had promised them Cholula, and they were enraged when they found out that the Cholulans had tortured their ambassador. It may only have been a rumor. The Aztecs claimed that the Tlaxcala were angry at the Spanish for delaying in Cholula and were ready to attack them unless they did something.
    Whatever the reason, Cortés and his men massacred the Cholulans. In his own account, Cortés claimed his men set fire to the city and killed 3,000 people in less than three hours. Another Spaniard who was there put the total number of dead at 30,000.
    The massacre sent a shock wave through the area. Terrified of the Spanish and their allies, the local people did not oppose their march through their country. To add to the terror campaign, Cortés sent emissaries to the Mexica, telling them that because the people of Cholula hadn't shown him proper respect, they had had to be punished. He also added that gold would be an appropriate way to show respect.
    Arriving at Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519, Cortés and his men must have marvelled. With 300,000 residents, Tenochtitlan rivalled any European city except Constantinople. Tenochtitlan was built on an island and was accessible only by boat or by one of four narrow causeways. Moctezuma greeted Cortés personally with a great celebration and dressed him in a floral robe, the highest honor his people could bestow.
    Moctezuma housed and fed the 3,500 invaders in his brother's palace. Cortés demanded gold, and Moctezuma gave it to him. Cortés insisted on more. Again he was given what he wanted. He demanded that the two most important idols in the main temple pyramid be destroyed and replaced by statues of the Virgin Mary and St. Christopher. Again, to avoid war with the well-armed Spanish and their allies, his will was granted. Sensing tension among the locals, Cortés then took Moctezuma prisoner, telling the Mexica that his life would be spared as long as they did not revolt.
    Word then arrived that another, much larger group of Spaniards was in Mexico. Pánfilo de Narváez had been sent by the governor of Hispaniola to arrest Cortés and colonize the Aztecs. Desperate, Cortés led 260 of his soldiers to meet de Narváez and his 900 men. Catching them by surprise, Cortés won a brief but intense battle and took de Narváez (who lost an eye in the fighting) prisoner. Upon hearing about the gold of Tenochtitlan, most of de Narváez's men joined Cortés.
    Returning to Tenochtitlan, Cortés was shocked to see the Spanish who had been left behind being held prisoner by the Mexica. In an effort to calm the situation, Cortés arranged to have Moctezuma appear on a high balcony and give a speech imploring the Mexica to let the Spanish leave peaceably. The crowd started to shout insults and throw stones at Moctezuma. He was hit by some and badly injured, dying a few days later.
    Cortés joined his men under siege and started to make a plan. Since the Mexica had removed large sections of each of the causeways, Cortés had his men construct a wooden platform they could use to bridge the gaps. Using both darkness and rain as a cover, the Spaniards snuck out of the palace where they were being held late in the evening of July 1, 1520. They were detected after having crossed the first gap, where the platform got stuck. The Spaniards and their allies were unable to dislodge it before they were set upon by thousands of Mexica soldiers. Cortés and other nobles on horseback (and at least one man on foot) were able to leap over the second gap to safety, but the remaining Spaniards and their allies had to jump into the lake and try to