In the early 14th century, the Mexica people were a wandering tribe looking for a permanent settlement in modern day central Mexico. They survived by hunting and gathering and were often hired to fight as mercenaries for the city-states scattered throughout the region. According to legend, their god, Huitzilopochtli, told them to establish a city of their own at a site where they would find an eagle eating a snake on top of a cactus. The legend relates that the people saw the eagle on a small, swampy island in the middle of the shallow Texcoco lake. The Mexica invented a resourceful system of gardening, called chinampas, which allowed them to grow small gardens, eventually drying out the lake. In 1325, they completed construction of a city there. That city, which they called Tenochtitlan, became the capital of the Aztec Empire, which dominated central Mexico until its destruction by Spanish Conquistadores led by Hernando Cortes.