Montezuma's messengers returned to the emperor with the terrifying reports of their encounter with the Spainards: their guns, horses, dogs and their lust for gold. Montezuma was paralyzed by their tales, and by the possibility that Cortés was the returning Quetzalcoatl, "the feathered serpent," an exiled deity who vowed to return one day to claim his kingdom
Cortés, meanwhile, weighed his options. He had not yet seen the magical city of Tenochtitlán, but he knew it was there, 200 miles away. He faced imprisonment or death for defying the governor if he returned to Cuba. His only alternative was to conquer and settle part of the land. To do this, he prompted his supporters to install a municipal and resigned from the post conferred on him by Velásquez. The legally-constituted "town council of Villa Rica" then offered him the post of captain-general. He accepted the post and severed his connection with Velásquez. Those of his men still loyal to the Governor of Cuba conspired to seize a ship and escape to Cuba, but Cortés moved swiftly to quash their plans. To make sure such a mutiny did not happen again, he decided to sink his ships, on the pretext that they were not seaworthy.
His ships sunk, Cortés marched into the interior, to the territory of the Tlaxcalans. They were resolute enemies of Mexico and Cortés thought they might join him in a military alliance against the Aztecs. After a long debate, the Tlaxcalans decided to fight Cortés instead, and they suffered terrible losses. Eventually they sued for peace and agreed to go with Cortés to Mexico. Cortés marched on with the Tlaxcalan warriors to Cholula, 20 miles from Tlaxcala. A story spread from the Tlaxcalans to Malinche that the Cholulans were planning to trap Cortés inside the city and massacre his army. When the Cholulan leadership and many of their warriors gathered, unarmed, in a great enclosure by the pyramid temple of Quetzalcoatl, the Spanish and the Tlaxcalans killed them. The massacre had a chilling effect, provoking other kingdoms and cities in Montezuma's empire to submit to Cortés' demands.

April 20,1519
A Display of Force From Potonchan, the fleet pressed on to the Isle of Sacrifices where Juan de Grijalva had landed the year before. Cortés was received warmly there by the Totonac people. The Totonacs remembered Grijalva, who had been careful to be kind them, and thought that the Spanish might become allies in their war of liberation against the Mexicans.
Several days later, the steward of the great king of Mexico, Montezuma, arrived. The steward's name was Teudile, and, like all functionaries of great kings, he was very aware of his own high status, gorgeously turned out in a parrot-feather cloak. Montezuma had instructed his steward to supply and feed his guests, and to offer them gifts of precious stones, and featherware. As he conveyed Montezuma's will, Teudile put a damp finger to the earth and raised it to his lips ("to eat dirt" was a gesture of respect in Aztec diplomacy), then he lit incense, and, to the Spaniards' surprise, bled himself and offered them his blood on straws.
Cortés presented himself as the ambassador of a king who ruled "the greater part of the world." Cortés asked after Montezuma. Teudile replied he would send a message to Montezuma to find out his wishes. Cortés then gave the Aztecs a demonstration of his guns and horses. His cavalry charged along the beach at full tilt with swords flashing and bells tinkling. If that were not intimidating enough, the big cannon were fired, at which Teudile and his men literally fell to the ground in fear.

The Spanish had made several expeditions to the nearby Yucatan in 1517 and had returned with wonderous tales of a high-cultured Mayan civilization and gold riches. The news of these discoveries made an electrifying impression on the Spanish colonists in Cuba. Among these was Hernán Cortés, Chief Magistrate of Santiago. The Spanish governor of Cuba, Diego de Velásquez, told Cortés that he would provide two or three ships if Cortés would find the rest of the money, and lead the army. Cortés agreed and on October 23, 1518, Velásquez appointed him "captain-general" of a new expedition to the Yucatan.
February 1519 Cortés Defies the Governor The Spanish colonies of the sixteenth century had gold fever and in hardly a fortnight Cortés had two ships, a brigantine and 300 men. Velásquez became concerned about the scale of Cortés' preparations and feared losing control over the expedition and sent orders to relieve Cortés of his command. But Cortés' brother-in-law killed the messenger and took the governor's papers to Cortés. Alerted to Velásquez' plans, Cortés now moved fast. Having seized all the meat supplies in Santiago, he decided to set sail at daybreak on February 18, 1519. Velásquez hurried down just as Cortés was pulling away in a small boat. Cortés ignored his protestations and gave orders to sail.
The crossing from Cuba to the Yucatan is only 120 miles, and Cortés coasted down to Cozumel, where, for the first time, he saw the Mayan pyramids, with their thatched sanctuaries on top. Almost immediately, he had an incredible stroke of luck. The people of the island told him that in the next-door land, known as "Yucatan," there were two Christians who had been carried there a long time ago in a boat, and held as captives. One of those men was Geronimo de Aguilar, who had been shipwrecked near Jamaica in 1511. Thanks to Aguilar's survival, Cortés now had a translator who could speak the local Mayan tongue.
Cortés continued round the tip of the Yucatan and disembarked at Potonchan, where the natives gave him small offerings of food and a gold mask, but then asked the Spanish to go: ''We wish neither war nor trade,'' they told Cortés. ''We have no more gold - you will be killed if you do not leave.'' Ultimately, the conversation ended in a battle in which 400 Indian warriors were driven off with heavy losses. The Indians submitted and gave the Spanish gifts, including 20 women to cook tortillas and serve them. Cortés discovered that one of these women, named Malinali, or Malinche as she is generally known, spoke both Mayan and Nahuatl, the Aztec language. Cortés had stumbled upon the key to his ambitions - through Geronimo de Aguilar, he would be able to talk to Malinche in Mayan, and then through her speak with the Mexicans in Nahuatl

In the decade before the Spanish arrived in Mexico, Aztec Emperor Montezuma II and his people were filled with a sense of foreboding. A series of evil omens had foretold of calamities to come. A fiery comet crossed the sky. The temple of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, burst into flames. The Lake of Mexico boiled and rose, flooding into houses. A weeping woman passed by in the middle of the night, crying "My children, we must flee far away from this city!" Fishermen discovered a bird that wore a strange mirror in the crown of its head. Montezuma looked into the mirror and saw a distant plain, with people making war against each other and riding on the backs of animals resembling deer.
An agitated Montezuma demanded that his soothsayers explain the meaning of these dire signs and was told that they prophesied the destruction of his kingdom. In fact, Montezuma had reason to be fearful - the Spanish had settled in Hispaniola and Cuba and were making their way toward his empire