Americans, perhaps thirty million strong, did not submissively accept the rule of Europeans. Their resistance and reception of the foreigners varied greatly. We visit Dominican Republic, where Columbus established a beachhead and then to the Mexican port of Veracruz where Hernan Cortes landed 28 years later. We follow his route across lofty mountain chains to Tenochtitlan of the Aztecs, today's Mexico City, where the final showdown took place. Along the way we show some of what Cortes encountered.