The days when fleets of treasure sailed from the distant cordilleras of the Spanish Main had begun. The tall, enchanted galleons of Lima spread sail, with their
“Escutcheoned pavisades, emblazoned poops,
Banners and painted shields and close-fights hung
With scarlet broideries. Every polished gun
Grinned through the jaws of some heraldic beast,
Gilded and carven and gleaming with all hues.”
At first the argosies bore off the ransom of Atahualpa, the golden ornaments belonging to the Sun.
Albrecht Dürer, in his Tagebuch, wrote of having seen a boatload of such booty from the Indies. “And, moreover, have I seen the things which were brought from the new golden land to the king—an entire sun of gold, a full fathom wide, likewise a silver moon of the same size, also two rooms full of armor, all manner of weapons, harness, war-trappings, and strange accoutrements, curious raiment, bed-draperies and many kinds of wondrous things for divers uses, fairer to behold than marvels. They are all so precious that they are held to be worth a hundred thousand gulden.
“Nor have I in all the days of my life seen aught that did so fill me with delight. For I saw there fine-wrought things of cunning design, and marveled at the subtle skill of men in far countries. Nor know I how to tell of all the things which I saw there.”
Loot of golden treasure gave way to mountains of silver, which poured forth their wealth in such profusion that it staggers even oriental imagination. Loading at Arica, ships brought silver direct from the mines of Potosí. Then there was plunder of Peruvian churches, jeweled chalices, and gold shrines. There were emeralds from the north—a land where they were sacred, small emeralds being sacrificed to larger ones.
These glittering cargoes were carried home to Seville, the “Queen of the Ocean.” Its wonderful Casa de Contratación dealt with the wealth of the Indies and, to quote Alonzo Morgado, “the riches which flowed into its offices would have been sufficient to pave the streets of Seville with gold and silver slabs.”
Like most stories of Peru, the gold and silver it exported seem mere extravaganza. Contemporary accounts, mostly in cipher, may be quoted.
In 1538, G. Loveday wrote to Lord Lisle: “Spanish ships have returned from Peru so laden that the emperor’s part amounts to two million ducats.... The emperor has borrowed the whole from the owners.” Being “occasionally pinched for money,” he found it most convenient to seize the ships laden with private treasure from his “Indyac of Perrow.”
In July, 1555, the Venetian ambassador in England wrote to the Doge and Senate of a fleet of caravels, “all very richly freighted according to the usual parlance of these Spaniards, who invariably reckon by millions.”