No place was left
unexplored by the rapacious Conquerors, and they occasionally
stumbled on a mine of wealth that rewarded their labors.
[Footnote 38: "Pues mando el marquez dar vn pregon que ningun
espanol fuese a entrar en las casas de los naturales o tomalles
nada." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]
[Footnote 39: Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap 123.]
In a cavern near the city they found a number of vases of pure
gold, richly embossed with the figures of serpents, locusts, and
other animals. Among the spoil were four golden llamas and ten or
twelve statues of women, some of gold, others of silver, "which
merely to see," says one of the Conquerors, with some naivete,
"was truly a great satisfaction." The gold was probably thin, for
the figures were all as large as life; and several of them, being
reserved for the royal fifth, were not recast, but sent in their
original form to Spain. *40 The magazines were stored with
curious commodities; richly tinted robes of cotton and
feather-work, gold sandals, and slippers of the same material,
for the women, and dresses composed entirely of beads of gold.
*41 The grain and other articles of food, with which the
magazines were filled, were held in contempt by the Conquerors,
intent only on gratifying their lust for gold. *42 The time came
when the grain would have been of far more value.
[Footnote 40: "Et fra l'altre cose singolari, era veder quattro
castrati di fin oro molto grandi, et 10 o 12 statue di done,
della grandezza delle done di quel paese tutte d'oro fino, cosi
belle et ben fatte come se fossero viue.
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