This reading is an excerpt from Letter from Mexico which is written by Hernan

Cortes, a Spanish conquistador. He wrote this to the king of Spain. In the letter,
Cortes describes his first meeting with the king of Tenochtitlan Moctezuma. Cortes
was sent to conquer Mexico and he eventually arrived in Aztec Empire that was
ruled by Montezuma at that time. When Cortes arrives in the city of Tenochtitlan,
Montezuma greets him with great admiration and mistaken him for a god of their
land. They both exchanged gifts with each other and Montezuma gave his welcome
speech and explained his situation with Cempoal and Tascalteca during the
meeting. King Montezuma also agreed to provide food and shelters to Cortes and
treat him as a valuable guest that was sent by their nature lord. The intended
audience for this letter is the king of Spain and possibly written for the use of future
record as well. The purpose of this letter is to inform the king on the progress of
taking over Mexico. This letter outlined important events and documented Cortess
conquest process in Aztec. This source is considered as a credible source for early
U.S. history because it gave us an insight of Spanish presence in Mexico. This source
is valuable because it indicates the fall of Aztec Empire which leads to the Spanish
conquest of America.

King Moctezuma's first reaction to Cortes is friendly and welcoming. He sees

these Europeans are descendants from their sovereign who has generously given
them their lands decades ago and he claims he would obey the lord and the
Europeans. He didn't show fear but respect to his guests from Spain. He surprising
didn't act superior to them. Instead, he subordinate himself to them because he
believed that they were here to take back what they deserved. Moctezuma didn't
understand the appearance of the Europeans so he mistaken them as originated
ancestors of this land. I believe the King mistaken invaders as god because of his
religious belief. At that time, native people paradise their god and willing to do
anything for their god.