MAY 16 "BURNING BRIDGES"
In 1519 Capitan Hernando
Cortes and a small army left the Spanish held island of Cuba and set out on one of the greatest
conquests in the history of the world, ~When Cortez, ordered his crew to fight the Aztecs in Mexico ,
he met resistance. After all, his crew was grossly outnumbered. What was the
incentive? Once they were ashore,
Cortez set fire to his own ships. Bernal Diaz tells that
Cortes was advised by his men to destroy his ships. Diaz states, “. . . we who
were his friends advised him . . . not to leave a single ship in port, but to
destroy them all immediately, in order to leave no cause of trouble behind.”
(Diaz, 130) Diaz goes on to say, “The ships were destroyed with our full
knowledge, with that act, he changed
the question from “Why should we attack the natives?” to “How will we win the fight?”
The incentive was now eminently clear to crew members-saving their own lives.
They no longer had a Plan B to fall back on. Interestingly, the Aztecs, who
witnessed the burning of the ships, collapsed in fear. They did not want any
part of a fight against a foe that was that confident of victory. If only Jesus would burn our ships!
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