I was a Spanish major, and I recall a few things Bernal left out or didn't consider important at the time. Cortes came to Tenochitlan in the Aztec year, Reed One, which was when their god, Quetzalcoatl the plumed serpent god, was supposed to come back. I've heard that the legend also said that he was supposed to return in the form of a man with white skin, but that could have been Aztec priests back-filling the story (more on that), which was the cause for Moctezuma's hesitation. The Aztecs were pretty well hated by all neighboring tribes because of their demands of human sacrifice and gold as tribute to them so a lot of the tribes were happy to join up with Cortes.
You're right though - it's a lengthy but good read.
Back to back-filling. One of my Spanish professors had an interesting take on the founding of Tenochitlan. The legend has it that when the Aztecs were a nomadic tribe, their gods told them to look for a sign of an eagle eating a serpent while perched on a cactus. When they came to Lake Texcoco, they saw the sign, and one of their priests dived into the water where he was met by my namesake, Tlaloc, the god of wind and water, who told him that this was where they were to build their city.
My Spanish professor said he bet it happened more like this: After years of wandering around, the Aztecs came to Lake Texcoco, and they saw the eagle on the cactus eating the serpent. The priests got together to discuss things among themselves, decided they were ready to start living large as the priest class did in those days and said, "Let's say that eagle is a sign from our gods and get the peasants working on building a city. But first to really sell it, let's draw straws to see who should jump in the lake first to go underwater and pretend to talk to Tlaloc."
TlalocW
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