Leisure hours among the gems

by Augustus C. Hamlin

The Mexicans carved the obdurate jade and emerald with wonderful skill, using, like the Peruvians, nothing but silicious powder and copper instruments alloyed with tin. They also worked with exquisite taste in gold and silver, and they represented Nature so faithfully and so beautifully that the great naturalist Hernandez took many of these objects thus portrayed for his models when describing the natural history of the country.

When Cortez returned home he displayed five emeralds of extraordinary size and beauty, and presented them to his bride, the niece of the Duke de Bejar. On his famous expedition along the Pacific coast and up the Gulf of California he was reduced to such want as to be obliged to pawn these jewels for a time. One of them was as precious as Shylock’s turquoise, and Gomara states that some Genoese merchants who examined it in Seville offered forty thousand golden ducats for it. One of the emeralds was in the form of a rose; the second in that of a horn; the third like a fish with eyes of gold; the fourth was like a little bell, with a fine pearl for a tongue, and it bore on its rim the following inscription in Spanish: “Blessed is he who created thee!” The fifth, which was the most valuable of all, was in the form of a small cup with a foot of gold, and with four little chains of the same metal attached to a large pearl as a button: the edge of the cup was of gold, on which was engraved in Latin words, “Inter natos mulierum non surrexit major.” These splendid gems are now buried deep in the sand on the coast of Barbary, where they were lost in 1529, when Cortez was shipwrecked with the Admiral of Castile whilst on their way to assist Charles V. at the siege of Algiers.

Mariana, in his history of Spain, declares that Cortez had, besides the five great historical emeralds, also two emerald vases which were valued at 300,000 ducats. Whether these remarkable treasures were swallowed up by the sea with the other five when the conqueror of Mexico was shipwrecked, history does not relate.

Among the presents sent to Charles V. of Spain by the first Spanish commissioners, Puerto Carreso and Montijo, in 1519, and also by Montezuma through his governor Teuthlili, were the following articles, according to the description given by Peter Martyr, the learned Italian, who enjoyed the friendship of Columbus and the confidence of the Spanish Court. The Chronicles of Gomara also contain the same list: a gold necklace composed of seven pieces with 183 small emeralds set in it, and 232 gems similar to small rubies, from which hung 27 little bells of gold and several fine pearls; another necklace composed of four pieces of gold with 102 red gems like small rubies, 172 emeralds, and 10 fine pearls, with 26 little bells of gold attached.

The historians, Gomara and Martyr, mention among the prizes which fell into the hands of Cortez, an immense emerald of a pyramidal form, whose base was as large as the palm of the hand; and which may have been the identical stone which crowned the skull which stood before the throne in the palace of Tezcuco. At all events, an emerald of this description Cortez sent as a present to the Emperor of Spain, together with his letters of explanation, after the fall of the city of Mexico. The letters and the various presents were intrusted to the care of two of his confidential officers, Quinones and Avila. Arriving at the Azores, Quinones lost his life in a brawl, and jeopardized the mission; but Avila escaped and put to sea, to be captured shortly after by a French privateer; and the rich spoils of the Aztecs were presented to the King of France, instead of the Emperor of Spain. Francis I. gazed with delight upon the splendors of the gem, and with a feeling of envy exclaimed that he “would like to see the clause in Adam’s testament, which entitled his brothers of Castile and Portugal to divide the New World between them.” What has become of this historic stone?

The quantity of emeralds obtained by the Spaniards in their pillage of Mexico was large; but it was trifling when compared with that collected by Pizarro and his remorseless followers in the sack of Peru. Many large and magnificent stones were then obtained by the Spaniards; but the transcendent gem of all, called by the Peruvians the Great Mother, and nearly as large as an ostrich egg, was concealed by the natives, and all the efforts of Pizarro and his successors to discover it proved unavailing.

Previous to the plunder of America by Cortez and his followers, emeralds were not numerous in Europe; but early in the sixteenth century they began to appear in Spain, and were soon afterwards distributed among the powerful and wealthy throughout Europe. England seems to have had at one time a large share of them, and perhaps many of them were taken by her freebooters from the richly laden Spanish galleons. In the days of Queen Elizabeth emeralds were exhibited in profusion, if we can give credence to the chronicles and inventories of that period.

The parure of emeralds which the Queen of Navarre bequeathed in 1572, to her daughter Catherine, must have been of wonderful beauty and perfection.

What is the stone lately given to Mustapha, the ex-premier of Tunis, by the Bey, and described as the famous emerald once belonging to the Spanish Crown? Was it one recovered from the shipwreck of Cortez, or was it one of those given away by the Spanish rulers in the early days of the conquest of Peru, when they imagined the emerald mines were as broad and exhaustless as the silver beds of Potosi?

The finest emerald in Europe is said to belong to the Emperor of Russia. It weighs but thirty karats; but it is of the most perfect transparency, and of the most beautiful color. There are many other fine emeralds among the imperial jewels of the Czar, some of which are of great size and rare beauty. The ancient crown of Vladimir glitters with four great stones of unusual brilliancy. The grand state sceptre is surmounted by another emerald of great size. The sceptre of Poland, which is now treasured in the Kremlin, has a long green stone, fractured in the middle. It is not described, and may be one of the Siberian tourmalines, some of which closely approach the emerald in hue. The imperial orb of Russia, which is said to be of Byzantine workmanship of the tenth century, has fifty emeralds. This fact alone would seem to prove that emeralds were known in Europe or Asia Minor long before the discovery of America; but, on the other hand, the ancient crown which was taken when Kazan was subjugated in 1553, is destitute of emeralds. And hence we are inclined to believe the imperial orb to be of modern workmanship, especially as some of the ancient state chairs do not exhibit emeralds among their decoration of gems and precious stones.