Corts and Montezuma [Paperback]

Landing on the Mexican coast on Good Friday, 1519, Hern?n Cort?s felthimself the bearer of a divine burden to conquer and convert the firstadvanced civilization Europeans had yet encountered in the West. ForMontezuma, leader of the Mexicans, April 21, 1519 (known in theirsophisticated astronomical system as 9 Wind Day) was the precise date ofa dire prophesy: the return of Quetzalcoatl, a fearsome god predictedto arrive by ship, from the East, with light skin, a black beard, robedin blackexactly as Cort?s would. The ensuing drama is described byeminent historian Maurice Collis in a style that is equal parts storyand scholarship. Though its consequences have been treated by writers asdiverse as D.H. Lawrence and Charles Olson, never before have the factsof this event been rendered with such extraordinary clarity andelegance.A fascinating piece of history...Maurice Collis tells an extremely intricate story with perfect clarity, and he writes also with obvious delight at having such a good story to tell.Collis has set out not merely to retell the fabulous story of the conquest of Mexico, but to study in some detail the characters of Montezuma and Cort?s.... Written excitingly, [it is] a book that was needed and could hardly have done better.The convergence of Cort?s and Montezuma is the most emblematic event inthe birth of what would come to be called America.