*44
[Footnote 44: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 26;
lib. 6, cap. 2 - Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 24. - Cieza de
Leon, Cronica, cap. 94.
The last writer speaks of a cement, made in part of liquid gold,
as used in the royal buildings of Tambo, a valley not far from
Yucay! (Ubi supra.) We may excuse the Spaniards for demolishing
such edifices, - if they ever met with them.]
If this dazzling picture staggers the faith of the reader, he may
reflect that the Peruvian mountains teemed with gold; that the
natives understood the art of working the mines, to a
considerable extent; that none of the ore, as well shall see
hereafter, was converted into coin, and that the whole of it
passed into the hands of the sovereign for his own exclusive
benefit, whether for purposes of utility or ornament. Certain it
is that no fact is better attested by the Conquerors themselves,
who had ample means of information, and no motive for
misstatement. - The Italian poets, in their gorgeous pictures of
the gardens of Alcina and Morgana, came nearer the truth than
they imagined.
Our surprise, however, may reasonably be excited, when we
consider that the wealth displayed by the Peruvian princes was
only that which each had amassed individually for himself. He
owed nothing to inheritance from his predecessors. On the
decease of an Inca, his palaces were abandoned; all his
treasures, except what were employed in his obsequies, his
furniture and apparel, were suffered to remain as he left them,
and his mansions, save one, were closed up for ever.
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