“Fluctibus auri
Expleri calor ille nequit.”
Claudian, In Ruf., lib. 1.
[11] “Y quando aquello le oyó Cortés, y todos nosotros, estuvímos espantados de la gran bondad, y liberalidad del gran Monteçuma, y con mucho acato le quitámos todos las gorras de armas, y le dixímos, que se lo teniamos en merced, y con palabras de mucho amor,” etc. Bernal Diaz, ubi supra.
[12] Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 99.—This estimate of the royal fifth is confirmed (with the exception of the four hundred ounces) by the affidavits of a number of witnesses cited on behalf of Cortés to show the amount of the treasure. Among these witnesses we find some of the most respectable names in the army, as Olid, Ordaz, Avila, the priests Olmedo and Diaz,—the last, it may be added, not too friendly to the general. The instrument, which is without date, is in the collection of Vargas Ponçe. Probanza fecha á pedimento de Juan de Lexalde, MS.
[13] “Eran tres montones de oro, y pesado huvo en ellos sobre seis cientos mil pesos, como adelante diré, sin la plata, é otras muchas riquezas.” Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 104.
[14] The quantity of silver taken from the American mines has exceeded that of gold in the ratio of forty-six to one. (Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. iii. p. 401.) The value of the latter metal, says Clemencin, which on the discovery of the New World was only eleven times greater than that of the former, has now come to be sixteen times. (Memorias de la Real Acad. de Hist. tom. vi. Ilust. 20.) This does not vary materially from Smith’s estimate made after the middle of the last century. (Wealth of Nations, book 1, chap. 11.) The difference would have been much more considerable, but for the greater demand for silver for objects of ornament and use.
[15] Dr. Robertson, preferring the authority, it seems, of Diaz, speaks of the value of the treasure as 600,000 pesos. (History of America, vol. ii. pp. 296, 298.) The value of the peso is an ounce of silver, or dollar, which, making allowance for the depreciation of silver, represented, in the time of Cortés, nearly four times its value at the present day. But that of the peso de oro was nearly three times that sum, or eleven dollars sixty-seven cents. (See ante, Book II. chap. 6, note 18.) Robertson makes his own estimate, so much reduced below that of his original, an argument for doubting the existence, in any great quantity, of either gold or silver in the country. In accounting for the scarcity of the former metal in this argument, he falls into an error in stating that gold was not one of the standards by which the value of other commodities in Mexico was estimated. Comp. ante, vol. i. p. 161.
[16] Many of them, indeed, could boast little or nothing in their coffers. Maximilian of Germany, and the more prudent Ferdinand of Spain, left scarcely enough to defray their funeral expenses. Even as late as the beginning of the next century we find Henry IV. of France embracing his minister, Sully, with rapture when he informed him that, by dint of great economy, he had 36,000,000 livres—about 1,500,000 pounds sterling—in his treasury. See Mémoires du Duc de Sully, tom. iii. liv. 27.
[17] “Por ser tan poco, muchos soldados huuo que no lo quisiéron recebir.” Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 105.
[18] “Palabras muy melifluas; ... razones mui bien dichas, que las sabia bien proponer.” Bernal Diaz, ubi supra.
[19] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 105, 106.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 93.—Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 8, cap. 5.