Although the Spanish had established colonies in the Caribbean starting in 1493, it was not until the second decade of the sixteenth century that they began exploring the coast of Mexico. The Spanish first learned of Mexico during the Juan de Grijalva expedition of 1518. The natives kept "repeating: ''Colua, Colua'', and ''Mexico, Mexico'', but we explorers did not know what ''Colua'' or ''Mexico'' meant", until encountering Montezuma's governor at the mouth of the Rio de las Banderas.  The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire began in February 1519 when Hernán Cortés landed on the Gulf Coast and founded the Spanish city of Veracruz. Around 500 conquistadores, along with horses, cannons, swords, and long guns gave the Spanish some technological advantages over indigenous warriors, but key to the Spanish victory was making strategic alliances with disgruntled indigenous city-states (''altepetl'') who supplied the Spaniards and fought with them against the Aztec Triple Alliance.  Also important to the Spanish victory was Cortés's cultural translator, Malinche, a Nahua woman enslaved in the Maya area whom the Spanish acquired as a gift.  She quickly learned Spanish and gave strategic advise about how to deal with both indigenous allies and indigenous foes.  The unconquered city-state of Tlaxcala allied with the Spanish against their enemies, the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan. The Spanish gained other indigenous allies, who also joined in the war for their own reasons.