Excerpt from The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, Vol. 59: May to August, 1863 The representations of the conquerors of Peru must of course be received with considerable reserve. They were thrown into a state of temporary delirium by the wonderful wealth that met their eyes on every side. In a country which possessed no external commerce, and where money was unknown, gold and silver could have been valued only as ministering to luxury, or as a plicable to ornament and to the arts. T is quite credible, therefore, that the royal gardens at Cuzco possessed fountains of solid gold, and imitations in gold and silver of flowers, fruits, insects, animals, and birds. Vases and statues of gold on every side resented themselves to the excited Spaniards; but when they pretend to describe funeral piles con structed of golden faggots, and vast gran aries bursting with a plethora of gold dust, we may be certain that they have wandered into the regions of romance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.