Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/592

572 and kept it by finally killing his captive. Atahualpa was garroted in prison, by order of Pizarro, just before the glittering pile had reached the stipulated mark. The rapidity with which this vast treasure came in showed the wealth of the empire. The gold and silver of the Peruvians was lodged for the most part in the temples of the sun, and the palaces of the inca. The chief places of deposit were Quito and Cuzco, five hundred leagues apart, and the metal was transported from every quarter of the realm on the backs of native porters. Sometimes treasure to the value of 40,000 or 60,000 Castellanos would arrive in a single day.

The articles gathered consisted of plates and other decorations for the temples and royal edifices, domestic ornaments and utensils, vases, salvers, and goblets, besides curiously wrought representations of animals and plants. The golden ear of maize encased in silver husk and tassel; singing birds with gold and silver plumage; golden fountains with golden fishes swimming in their waters were among the articles which composed this motley mass. All this except such of the finest specimens as were set aside for a royal present, was melted down into ingots of a uniform size and standard.

Three Spaniards who were sent to Cuzco to superintend the collecting, stripped from the sacred edifices 700 plates, each about fifteen inches in length by ten inches in width. One of the temples was adorned by a cornice of solid gold, which however was so firmly