Uploaded April 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Mountains on the sea that signalled the coming apocalypse. This was the news that terrified the Aztecs and most of all their leader Moctezuma II. Here we have their description of first contact with Europe, researched and written down by Bernardino de Sahagún and the Nahuatl people throughout the second half of the 16th century.

Broken Spears by Miguel Leon-Portilla
Copyright © 1962, 1990 by Miguel Leon-Portilla
Expanded and Updated Edition © 1992 by Miguel Leon-Portilla
Reprinted with permission from Beacon Press, Boston

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Thanks to:

Diego Rivera / CC BY-SA (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
Madman2001
De Ckn8u - Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48588870
Hans Hillewaert
British Museum
Asele S.
www.todocolección.net
José Luis Pescador - Cortes en Veracruz