Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/183

Rh conquest has found its way into museums. The greatest treasure discovered at one time by Cortés was that amassed by Axayacatl, father of Montecuzoma. Of this Diaz writes : "Cortés and some of the captains went in first (into the treasury), and they saw such a number of jewels and slabs and plates of gold and chalchihuites and other great riches that they were quite carried away, and did not know what to say about such wealth. . . . When I saw it I marvelled, and, as at that time I was a youth, and had never seen such riches as those in my life before, I took it for certain that there

could not be another such store of wealth in the whole world." This treasure was subsequently found to be of the value approximately of one and a half million sterling. Another of the conquerors relates the finding of 480 oz. of gold in one grave. But the accounts of the workmanship of the various articles surpass even their number. We read of "a very rich necklace of golden crabs, a marvellous piece of work" ; of "two birds made of thread and feather-work, having the quills of their wings and tails, their feet, eyes and the ends of their beaks, of gold, standing upon two reeds covered with gold, which are raised on balls of feather-work and gold embroidery, one white and the other