After the ignominious retreat of Cortes and his remaining men, the many months staying with the still allied Tlaxcalans, after the waves of small pox that had decimated the incalculably huge number of locals, in the spring of 1521, Cortes was convinced he had to strike.
There had been many who needed to recuperate from wounds and sicknesses that also spread among the Europeans. Cortes himself had a couple fingers of his left hand chopped off in order to stop grangrene. The overall size of his European forces had increased with all of the men who had arrived with Narvaez and come over to his command. But many of those had perished during the Night of Sorrows when they had retreated from the great city. With so much disaster - and the small pox continuing to heavily plague their allies - a few things became crucial to moving forward.
A fleet of seven ships had been sighted on the coast. One of these was sent from Cortes' father bearing men and arms and food and wine. Three more ships would arrive in the spring of 1521. Another crucial thing was the local allies and how quickly the Tlaxcalans learned to help build ships - Cortes called them brigantines - for the siege inland on the great city. The other crucial thing was the supply chain of allies that led back to Vera Cruz and the eastern coast that allowed the relatively free movement of information and eventually goods and men and arms from the coast. Without any of these, the plan to move ahead and try to take the city would very likely fall through. The arrival of more ships in the spring must have been especially heartening.
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