They had carried irrigation,
agriculture, and the cutting of gems to a point equal to that of the Old
World. Their accumulations of the precious metals exceeded anything
previously known in the history of the world. In the course of
twenty-five years after the Conquest the Spaniards sent from Peru to
Spain more than eight hundred millions of dollars of gold, nearly all of
it taken from the Peruvians as "booty." In one of their palaces "they
had an artificial garden, the soil of which was made of small pieces of
fine gold, and this was artificially planted with different kinds of
maize, which were of gold, their stems, leaves, and ears. Besides this,
they had more than twenty sheep (llamas) with their lambs, attended by
shepherds, all made of gold." In a description of one lot of golden
articles, sent to Spain in 1534 by Pizarro, there is mention of "four
llamas, ten statues of women of full size, and a cistern of gold, so
curious that it excited the wonder of all."
Can any one read these details and declare Plato's description of
Atlantis to be fabulous, simply because he tells us of the enormous
quantities of gold and silver possessed by the people? Atlantis was the
older country, the parent country, the more civilized country; and,
doubtless, like the Peruvians, its people regarded the precious metals
as sacred to their gods; and they had been accumulating them from all
parts of the world for countless ages.
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