Good points. In the story several ships are wrecked. While the story is told first person thru this one young pirate's eyes (to allow him to stay around for 30+ years), there are a few older pirates taken to Mexico City as well with. Together, these men have the basic smithing and armoring skills to keep a bunch of pirates well equipped. Even with this help, the Aztecs who land in France are most definitely not the technological or social equals of the Moors, and they are vanquished fairly quickly.