Years went past. The Toltecs dominated east-central Mexico and exerted their influence on the declining Mayan Empire in Yucatán. During the subsequent rise of the Aztec Empire, Aztec nobles intermarried with the Toltec royal family. As a consequence, a new empire was formed by combining the more politically and artistically sophisticated culture of the Toltecs with their own warlike culture. Eventually, the Aztec empire became known as the “Triple Alliance” formed by the Nahuatl-speaking Indians of Tenochitlán (now Mexico City), Texcoco, and Tlacopan. Tenochitlán was the heart of the Aztec Empire.
The Triple Alliance exerted its influence throughout Mexico. Numerous city-states were conquered by the Aztecs and forced to pay tribute to the empire. Tribes on the border of the empire resented the Aztecs and were only too happy to ally themselves with Cortés and the Spanish Crown. The invasion of Mexico by Hernán Cortés in 1519 ended the Aztec Empire at its peak of development.
With the discovery of Mexico by Juan de Grijalva in 1518, Velázquez, the governor of Cuba, chose Cortés to lead an expedition to the mainland. Cortés assembled five hundred well-armed men, eleven ships, thirteen horses, and a small number of canons for his invasion of the Mexican mainland. But at the time the expedition was about to embark, Velázquez became suspicious of Cortés’s intentions and told him to stand down. However, Cortés chose to ignore the Velázquez’s orders and left with his expedition to the mainland.
Cortés was the General Patton of Spain. He was a gifted military man who moved swiftly and decisively and wasn’t much for obeying orders from his superiors. After being blown off course by a storm, Cortés landed in Cozumel. There he met a Spaniard by the name of Jer´nomo de Aguilar, who had been captured by the Mayans but was allowed to become part of the tribe. Aguilar spoke Mayan and served as valuable translator for Cortés in Yucatán. The Mayans gave Cortés gifts of gold and told him of the great wealth of the powerful Aztec Empire on the mainland and of its emperor, Moctezuma II. The lust for gold, together with the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic Church, became the driving force of the Spanish exploration of the Western Hemisphere.
When Cortés and his troops subdued the Indians of Tabasco on the mainland, he found that his interpreter, de Aguilar, could not understand the Nahuatl Indian Language. Fortunately, one of his female captives, La Malinche, could speak both the Mayan and Nahuatl languages. Malinche and de Aguilar became a valuable team of interpreters for Cortés’s conquest of the Aztecs.
After Cortés and his troops took over Veracruz, he denied the authority of the Cuban Governor, Velázquez, and claimed the land for the Spanish Crown. Moreover, he scuttled all of his ships to prevent his troops from retreating. In Veracruz, Cortés met envoys from Moctezuma II and requested a meeting with the emperor, but Moctezuma turned down this request. Cortés marched on Tenochitlán with several thousand Indian allies.
Moctezuma and his predecessors knew about the stone box containing the strange metal disk; they had translated the Mayan inscriptions on the box and had examined its contents many times. Moctezuma told his nobles and chiefs, “We now face doom because we failed to heed the words inscribed on the box.”
Moctezuma II and the Aztec nobles were at first friendly to Cortés. Many of them believed him to be the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl. This belief was perhaps fostered by the fact that Cortés was fair-skinned and covered with shiny armor not unlike that of the visitors from space that the Mayans had encountered. Cortés was allowed to enter Tenochitlán and was offered treasures of gold. In the meantime, Moctezuma II dispatched one of his war chiefs, Zapalotyl, and seventy of his best warriors to return the alien device to the cave in the canyon of the Río Vinasco.
The journey to the canyon took nearly three days. When the Aztecs neared the cave, they were attacked by Indians allied to Cortés. Zapalotyl and his group were annihilated. The chief, though badly wounded, managed to hide from his assailants. He finally was able to take the box containing the alien device to the far reaches of the cave. He died there, his body draped over the box.
After nearly losing Tenochitlán to the Aztecs and fighting numerous battles, Cortés was able to subdue the Aztecs and claim their empire for the Spanish Crown. Moctezuma II was allegedly stoned to death by some of his subjects.
However, rumors still exist today about the hiding place of his treasure. Some claim the treasure is hidden in Mexico; others claim that it may be hidden in Arizona, New Mexico, West Texas, or even Colorado.