The Aztecs believed that Tezcatlipoca was the ruler of the fifth age, and while they believed that the fifth sun was the last sun, Tezcatlipoca's reign was not certain. But, if Quetzalcoatl did return, how would he be recognized? When Emperor Moctezuma II heard word in 1519 that the Spanish had arrived along the eastern coast, this was most certainly on his mind. As the Aztec elite evaluated the coming of these nautical immigrants, the return of Topiltzin-Quetzalcoatl, who had fled to the east via water, appeared a distinct possibility. To test the intruders' actual intentions, Moctezuma sent them a gift of food and the ceremonial garments of four gods (one set of which belonged to Quetzalcoatl). Cortes may have appeared to be a deity, what with his conical helmets and sailing ships propelled by the wind, but his deeds soon demonstrated that he was not the morally upright Quetzalcoatl. 10 Finally, the mythology that Moctezuma and the Aztecs thought Cortes was Quetzalcoatl was ...