Just as Cortés was at his lowest ebb, his expeditionary force defeated and chased out of the capital, Old World pathogens gave him a shot at redemption. The reversal in fortune was so abrupt and profound that the Spanish assumed it was divine intervention. As Francisco de Aguilar, another follower, put it: “When the Christians were exhausted from war, God saw fit to send the Indians smallpox, and there was a great pestilence in the city.”[18]
