Jewelers Of Renaissance

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

4. Wealth Of The Incas And The Aztec Treasure

When vast and ever increasing wealth pours into the palaces of kings, there are usually stories, not always pleasant stories, concerning the sources of those floods of gold. And behind all the extravagant display of gold and jewels in the English court, behind the growing wealth of Spain and of thte principal cities of Italy, there lies a story of cruelty and loot that reaches across the Atlantic and ties up with the western continent.

In 1492, eighty seven men and one visionary leader set sail in three none too seaworthy ships. A year later the explorers returned, bringing with them, among other things, gold and marvelous tales. Columbus had not succeeded in finding a new route to the East, but he had blazed the trail for the adventurous Spaniards, who were presently to plunder two ancient civilizations—the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru.

‘The gold of the Incas!’ Ever since the fifteenth century that phrase has spelled high adventure, fabulous wealth, and a game of hide and seek. Once set in motion a tradition of hidden treasure and the lure of it passes from generation to generation. We still search for the treasure of the Incas. How much of it remains hidden to this day?

It is said a man may well go mad at the sudden acquisition of heaped gold and gems. At all events, in Mexico and Peru the Spanish conquerors came upon such hoarded wealth as seldom falls to the lot of adventurers, and it may be inferred that their joy was not hampered by considerations of justice or mercy.

Among the treasures of the Incas were rich personal ornaments made of precious metals and quantities of emeralds and pearls. Temples were filled with vast amounts of gold and silver and their stucco walls were studded with gems.

All this wealth was treasure trove for the victorious Spaniards, but the appetite for riches grew with what it fed on. There must be more emeralds where these came from....But when the Spaniards questioned them concerning the whereabouts of the emerald mines, the Incas refused to tell. Even when the new masters attempted to extract the information by means of torture their victims remained mute.

So the Spaniards set out to discover for themselves the source of the valuable stones, but with such care had the Indians eliminated all trace of the tunnel-like openings into underground pockets of emeralds, and so quickly did the jungle growth conceal the paths that led to them, that the Spaniards did not succeed in finding a single mine until years later when, in 1555, one of the native mines of Muzo, in Colombia, was discovered quite by accident.

Peru was not only source of the treasure which voyagers brought from the new world across the sea and dispersed among the rich and the royal of Europe. There was also Mexico to provide plunder.

An old record, printed in 1521, which has the distinction of being the first printed account of events in the New World, tells of the marvelous craftsmanship of the goldsmiths of Mexico. Earrings, necklaces of hollow gold beads, armlets of gold are listed; and little figures of fish, ducks and frogs; golden fish-hooks and tiny golden bells are described.

By the time the Spaniards reached Mexico in full force the royal regalia of the Aztecs had been accumulating for generations and had become a mighty treasure.

Cortés and his soldiers marched into Mexico, following as they went the customary practice of ‘persuading’ the natives to join their standard. Before Cortés entered Mexico City, its ruling chief, Montezuma II, warned no doubt by rumors of what might be expected, had taken means to protect the massed store of gold and gems from the looting band, not, however, by force of arms but by strategy. The soldiers were allowed to roam the city in search of valuables, and they did, to be sure, find much gold and other treasure. But unfortunately for Montezuma’s policy there was an ex-carpenter among Cortés men. With the observant eye of the craftsman, he noticed that at a certain place in the plastered wall of a passageway the faint outline of a doorway was still visible under its camouflage layer of plaster. The man reported his suspicions to Cortés—and the fat was in the fire. The plaster was torn off and there indeed was a door underneath it.

We are fortunate in having the report of an eyewitness, Diaz del Castillo, the Spanish soldier-historian, concerning what happened when that hidden door was finally opened. Cortés and some of his captains were the first to enter the secret chamber. Says Diaz:

On entering a narrow and low door, they found a large and spacious room, in the middle of which was a heap of gold, jewels and precious stones as high as a man; so high was it that one was not to be seen on the other side of it....It was the treasure of all the kings. Platters, cups some with feet and some without, all gold....

This treasure of ‘all the kings’ was doomed to a fate so common to plundered jewels. The stones were pried from their settings and the elaborately wrought gold was consigned to the melting pot.

We began to melt it down with the help of natives. The resulting bars measured three fingers of a hand across. Many captains ordered very large golden chains made by the great Montezuma’s goldsmiths.... Cortés, too, ordered many jewels made, and a great service of plate.

Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico speaks of great emeralds of wonderful brilliance which had been carved by the Aztecs into fantastic forms of fishes and flowers.

Avid desire for treasure was not satisfied even by all the conveniently-at-hand collected hoards of Peru and Mexico. Shortly, the Spaniards began to work the emerald mines of Colombia and to gather pearls along the coast of South America. Back to Europe went ships whose cargoes list such items as two chests, each containing ‘one hundred weight of emeralds,’ and pearls in such numbers that they were sold at public auction in Seville—not singly but by the basket.

The rich in all high places of Europe fairly wallowed in jewels.

Jewelers Of Renaissance (continued)