Certain it is, that the glowing picture I have given
is warranted by those who saw these buildings in their pride, or
shortly after they had been despoiled by the cupidity of their
countrymen. Many of the costly articles were buried by the
natives, or thrown into the waters of the rivers and the lakes;
but enough remained to attest the unprecedented opulence of these
religious establishments. Such things as were in their nature
portable were speedily removed, to gratify the craving of the
Conquerors, who even tore away the solid cornices and frieze of
gold from the great temple, filling the vacant places with the
cheaper, but - since it affords no temptation to avarice - more
durable, material of plaster. Yet even thus shorn of their
splendor, the venerable edifices still presented an attraction to
the spoiler, who found in their dilapidated walls an
inexhaustible quarry for the erection of other buildings. On the
very ground once crowned by the gorgeous Coricancha rose the
stately church of St. Dominic, one of the most magnificent
structures of the New World. Fields of maize and lucerne now
bloom on the spot which glowed with the golden gardens of the
temple; and the friar chants his orisons within the consecrated
precincts once occupied by the Children of the Sun. *22
[Footnote 22: Miller's Memoirs, vol. II. pp. 223, 224.]
Besides the great temple of the Sun, there was a large number of
inferior temples and religious houses in the Peruvian capital and
its environs, amounting, as is stated, to three or four hundred.
Pages:
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138