I didn't say the Natives didn't have similar superstitions. My point is that the Spanish were just as magical in their thinking as the Native Americans. The narrative we get in history class usually casts the Natives are a noble but backwards people who were easily duped by the Spanish and their Renaissance mindset. It's almost presented like one of those time traveller movies were a visiter from the future becomes king of the barbarians because of a radio and a zippo. I'm not trying to reverse the narrative and cast the Spanish as superstitious fools and the Native Americans as misunderstood geniuses. It's just that the Natives were every bit as complex in their thinking as the Europeans, and the Europeans were every bit as superstitious in their thinking as the Native Americans.

As far as the Gods thing goes, as I mentioned, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest uses first-hand accounts to discount the myth that the Natives worshiped the Conquistadors and simply let them walk in and take over. These were massive empires with vast trade networks and complex cultures. The Spanish conquered them the same way most civilizations are conquered: the took advantage of an opportune climate (an uneasy unification after civil war and a population devastated by disease) and formed beneficial alliances with the people with the most power and the biggest armies. Guns and horses certainly the Spanish a tactical advantage, but conquering was a numbers game, and even if the other army is armed obsidian swords and war clubs, if they have bigger numbers and a stable infrastruction backing them up, you need more than muskets. The Spanish knew this, of course, but that's not as simple or appealing a story as "We were worshiped like Gods and easily toppled an empire." The Gods was, in essence, propaganda for Spain. Keep in mind there was a popular belief that the New World might be the Garden of Eden, so the idea of a Christian army worshiped by heathens was deeply appealing.

I can't find where I originally read the quote about the rope bridge, although I'm fairly sure it was in Seven Myths. I think I worded it poorly. I didn't mean to imply they simply turned around and left. Many of the soldiers were just deeply reluctant to cross the bridge because, as the article above says, it was "the devil's work." Keep in mind this was time before suspension bridges, and the average Spanish solider wasn't exactly educated.

Anyways, if you're interested in this topic at all, I can't recommend Seven Myths enough. It's very well researched.