agents to the emperor, and points out the painful anxiety in which he has been left by not receiving any reply to his many dutiful applications.
The local officials also addressed a letter to the emperor in the name of the army and settlers, extolling the deeds and loyalty of their leader, defending their treatment of Tapia, instigated as he was by the hostile Velazquez, and urging the prior claims of conquerors to grants and appointments. Father Olmedo supported these representations in a special letter, wherein he reviewed the prospects of conversion and requested that religious teachers be sent out. To add weight to the petitions, they received the usual accompaniment of treasure, in addition to the regular fifth. The present consisted of the choicest specimens of fabrics, feather-work, curiosities, and jewels, set apart from the late repartition, and increased from the subsequent influx of tributes, worth fully one hundred and fifty thousand ducats.[1] Its notable features were a number of pearls and an immense emerald, as it was supposed to be,[2] and trinkets, which wholly eclipsed the already familiar specimens of native goldsmiths' work, in the form of fishes with scales of different metals, of birds and other animals with movable heads and tongues, masks with mosaic ornamentation, and a variety of pieces after European models. Several large bones were also sent, uncovered at Coyuhuacan,
- ↑ 'Aunque otros dizen dos tanto.' Gomara, Hist. Conq., 216. The jewels, fabrics, etc., 150,000 ducats, the gold and silver as much more. The part set aside from the repartition after the fall of Mexico was worth more than 100,000 pesos de oro. Oviedo, iii. 468, 517. A list of the valuables sent to Spain is given in Memoria de Piezas, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xii. 253-68, 345-9. See also Herrera, dec. iii. lib. iii. cap. i.
- ↑ 'A fine emerald the size of the palm of a hand, of pyramidal shape.' Id. 'Perlas tamañas algunas dellas como auellanas.' Bernal Dias, Hist. Verdad., 163. This author alludes to a number of chalchiuites, 'like emeralds,' which can hardly include the stones called emeralds by others, for chalchiuites were never regarded as of much value by the conquerors, though the natives prized them above any other stones. The emerald referred to was a mere jade or serpentine, for Mexico possessed no emeralds. Alaman, Disert., i. 159. Peru they did have this precious stone, but the test to which the early adventurers submitted them — hammer blows — caused as a rule the rejection of the gennine stones, which were smashed in pieces, while the false ones were accepted.
