History’s most famous pirate (real name: Edward Teach) is thought to have served as a British privateer during the War of Spanish Succession in the early 18th century before embarking on his brief but notorious career in piracy. But as one legend-handed down by some Aztec descendants-has it, more than 2,000 men retrieved the treasures and marched them (with Montezuma’s exhumed corpse) north, perhaps all the way to southern Utah. According to the most popular theory, the riches still rest on the bottom of Lake Texcoco, though many have searched for it there without success.
Though Cortés returned with a rebuilt army the next year and conquered the Aztecs for good, the so-called “Montezuma’s Treasure” would remain lost.
Spanish forces fled Tenochtitlan under full attack, and were forced to dump all their looted riches in the waters of Lake Texcoco in their mad rush to escape. After a brutal massacre during a religious festival, the Aztecs rose in rebellion, and Montezuma was killed in the confusion. Greedy for more, the Spaniards put Montezuma under house arrest instead, and with the help of local allies set about ransacking the city and terrorizing its inhabitants. The Aztecs even offered Cortés gold and silver in the hopes that these white-skinned “gods” would leave Tenochtitlan in peace. When Hernán Cortés arrived in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1519, Emperor Montezuma II greeted him and his men with great ceremony.
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