Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/595

Rh, the division was made as at Caxamalca. Specimens of the finest workmanship were set aside for the emperor; the whole mass was melted down by native goldsmiths, the king's fifth deducted, and the remainder divided in like proportion as before. The total amount is said by some to have exceeded the inca's ransom. Others place the amount as low as 580,200 Castellanos of gold, and 215 marks of silver. The immediate effect of such vast wealth distributed so suddenly among a band of coarse, lawless men, unaccustomed to the use of money and incapable of self-restraint, was to 'excite the soldiers to every species of debauchery and gaming, and to raise exorbitantly the prices of all such commodities or articles as would minister to their pride or lust. The vice of gambling invariably stands prominent in such cases. Immense sums were ventured on the turn of a card, or on a single throw of the dice. Some lost their entire portion in a single day. A story is told of a horseman named Leguizarro to whom had fallen, in the distribution at Cuzco, an image of the sun. The figure was finely embossed on a burnished plate of solid gold. It had been taken from the wall of the great temple of the sun, and for some reason had not been recast. One night this cavalier continued his play until a late hour. His sun was the bank from which he drew his stakes; in the attempt to retrieve his losses, and just before morning, his sun was gone. Hence the proverb, "Juega el sol antes que amanezca." Gamble away the sun before daybreak. An ordinary horse at that time in Cuzco brought 2,500 Castellanos, equivalent at the present time to about forty thousand dollars. A pair of shoes sold for thirty Castellanos; a quire of paper for ten; a bottle of wine for sixty; a sword for fifty, and a cloak for one hundred. The cavaliers shod their horses with silver.

While Pizarro was thus reaping his magnificent harvest at Caxamalca and Cuzco, the attention of envious cavaliers was turned towards Quito, where like