How did Hernán Cortés and his conquistador’s, who were in now Mexico, have enough ammunition to fight the natives while staying for years 1519–1521
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Any battle in the 16th century would end up in hand-to-hand combat even if both sides had firearms, the rate of fire was quite low. The Arquebus the Spanish would have a reload time of 30-45 seconds in ideal condition with a rested well-well-trained user. People get exhausted so 40 shots per hour would be the sustained rate. Because of the limit in range an opposing enemy force could simply run toward the enemy, there will be some losses but they can’t be stopped and the result is hand-to-hand combat.
The Spanish main advantage was metals. The people of America did not have the technology to make steel like the Europeans could. They did have gold and silver which is metal but it is not suitable for weapons or armour. They had some boze that was used is head of clubs, they were somewhere between the stone and bronze age in weapon technology
The Aztecs used wooden swords with obsidian blades on the side. Obsidian is a glass-like rock that can produce razor-sharp edges that can cut through fabric and flesh with ease but it is brittle and will shatter if you hit metal with it.
The conquistadors had metal armour and metal weapons. They alos have heavy cavalry with armoud rides and horses with lances and swords. This is what was primarily used to conquer the Aztec empire, not firearms. Crossbows would have been the most common ranger weapon not fire arms.
The firearms of the day were efficient against heavy enemy cavalry, the could penetrate the armor. So quite useful in Europe but in the Americas taking potshots at the opposing side to to scare them with something that did not know what it was that could kill them at a distance. So the usage was again enemy morale.
They did have artillery too, a cannon was used in the siege of Tenochtitlan, but the ammunition usage was not be enormous.
[https://www.thoughtco.com/armor-and-weapons-of-spanish-conquistadors-2136508](https://www.thoughtco.com/armor-and-weapons-of-spanish-conquistadors-2136508)
It should be said that the Spaniards did not capture the Aztec empire alone. They did not just wage war against everyone they met. The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlaxcaltec](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlaxcaltec) which had been the enemy of the Aztecs for centuries saw an opportunity with the help of the Spaniards to crush their enemy.
There were around 3000 Spaniards in total alongside 80,000-200,000 Tlaxcaltecs, they were just the largest indigenous allies of Spain. The Totonac provides around 10,000 men along with other groups.
It is extremely unlikely that Spain would have managed to capture the Aztecs alone with their small force. They were not invincible around 1000 or 1/3 died in battle, the indigenous allies lost tens of thousands.
The Tlaxcaltec did nominally become subjects of Spain but in practice, the large governed their own land independently. The Spanish government recognized Tlaxcala as an allied city instead of a conquered one.
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