Volume 1

History of the conquest of Peru : with a preliminary view of the civilization of the Incas / William H. Prescott.

  • William Hickling Prescott
Date:
[1905?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: History of the conquest of Peru : with a preliminary view of the civilization of the Incas / William H. Prescott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    burnished gold, spread over the walls in a recess of the great temple, and which, for some reason or other,— perhaps because of its superior fineness,— was not recast like the other ornaments. This rich prize the spendthrift lost in a single night; whence it came to be a proverb in Spain, Juega el Sol antes que ama- nezca, “ He plays away the Sun before sunrise.'^ ^ The effect of such a surfeit of the precious metals was instantly felt on prices. The most ordinary articles were only to be had for exorbitant sums. A quire of paper was sold for ten pesos de oro ; a bottle of wine, for sixty ; a sword, for forty or fifty; a cloak, for a hundred,—sometimes more ; a pair of shoes cost thirty or forty pesos de oro, and a good horse could not be had for less than twenty-five hundred.*^ Some brought a still higher price. Every article rose in value, as gold and silver, the representatives of all, declined. Gold and silver, in short, seemed to be the only things in Cuzco that were not wealth. Yet there were some few wise enough to return contented with their present gains to their native country. Here their riches brought them consideration and competence, and, while they excited the envy of their countrymen, stimulated them to seek their own fortunes in the like path of adventure. Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. 1, lib. 3, cap, 20. Barcia, tom. iii, p. 233. END OP VOL. ] Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine Printed by the Alotley Press.
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