With Pizarro in Peru (Volume 2619) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892. Excerpt: ... XVIII. After the death of Inca Tupac Amaru, the Spaniards continued the painful examination of the Indians regarding the Inca treasure. The governmental secretary, Amudor de Calabrera, was forced to take an active part in these proceedings, so horrible to him. One day he said to one of the judges: "Why do you continue your search for Inca treasures, which certainly are no longer at hand? I was at Vilcabamba at the time when the country was in the height of its prosperity, and when I make an estimate of the spoils which Don Loyola brought back with him, I am convinced that almost all the gold and silver of Vilcabamba has fallen into the hands of the Spaniards. Something else is to be sought in Vilcabamba, the key to the immeasurable treasures which are hidden in the mountains. There must be quicksilver mines there. I obtained gold amalgam there at Inca Manco's orders." This speech of Amador came to the ears of the iron viceroy. He summoned the knightly secretary to him, and asked for more exact particulars. "The torture of the Indians is comparatively fruitless," Amador de Calabrera concluded his report. "The Indians have had from ancient times a premonition of the secret powers of mercury, and the Incas have kept these secrets of the mines for themselves. But a very few of the common Indians have the slightest knowledge of these mines, and it is most certainly the innocent and ignorant who have been and are being tortured. But Princess Aclia must have known of this secret. If she is still alive, and if I could speak with her in Vilcabamba, she would surely confide the secret to me, now when there are no longer any Incas." The viceroy agreed to this opinion, and Amador received leave of absence, and letters of recommendation to Spanish governors. On the ve...