The Burning Ships of Hernan Cortes

In the year 1519, Hernin Cortes and some six hundred Spaniards1 arrived on the coast of a mysterious, new land in faraway America. They soon learned that it was an outpost of a powerful, warlike empire on a great inland plateau. We know that Cortes made history at that point by destroying his ships2 and, two years later, by completing the conquest of the Aztec empire. The figure of Mexico's conqueror, like most other world heroes, has been enveloped in an aura of legend (by no means always favorable to him). It should be mentioned now, in this connection, that Cortes did not actually burn his ships, as is popularly believed. Making what really happened more vivid and grandiose, the myth has become lodged in the common heritage of our historical beliefs and linguistic experience. Cortes did not burn his ships, although it is true that he destroyed them

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