Hernan Cortes Size:Standard: 6 x 4in Original painting pasted onto a

Original painting pasted onto a backing sheet

View showing figures including a detatchment of mounted soldiers and a milkmaid

John Bartlett

'When the strange-looking blackfellows were close to him

Hernan Cortes Size:Standard: 6 x 4in Original painting pasted onto aHernan Cortes, Spanish conquistador, (1780). Landing in Mexico in 1519, with a force of only some 600 men, Cortes (1485 1547) succeeded in overthrowing the empire of the Aztecs, a civilization numbering 5 million. He was able to achieve this partly due to the natives being terrified of the Europeans' horses and firearms, neither of which they had seen before. In addition, the Aztecs believed a prophecy that they would be visited by a light skinned