The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-10-17
Americas Golden Age.

Americas Golden Age.
The Museum Of the University of
Pennsylvania has recently acquired
two notable collections of American
gold; one a purchase from France
representing all the ancient American
gold working civilizations from Mexico
to Peru, the other a group of gold OBJ
jects eycavated in the mountains Of
Colombia and representing the great
, est discovery of buried treasure In
South America since the days of the
Spanish conquest.
These collections are striking evil
dences of the wonderful treasure of
gold In America at the time of its dis
covery by COLUMBUS. The stories of
golden splendor told by the Spanish
conquerors, even the historic details
| furnished by PRESCOTT, seem at times
too amazing. for belief. But late re-
search proves conclusively that the
native inhabitants from Mexico to
4 Peru and in many of the West Indies
at the time of CoLUMBUs's coming
were truly living In a golden age.
They had achieved remarkable results
in metal working; no other people
ever used gold so lavishly as did these
early Americans. An instance of this
was the fact that the golden treasure
| OF MoNTEzUMA confscated by CoRTEz
in his conquest of Mexico was valued
kat $T,500,000. HEREDIA brought back
to the coast from his first short explor-
| ing expedition in the interior of Co.
lombia gold to the amount Of $3,000,-
a room in which PIzARRo had confined
the unfortunate monarch was filed
in few days to the height of man
with gold estimated to be worth from
S10,000,000 to $15,0O0000.
The lure of this ancient gold for
the early European explorers and the
cruelties they practised in extorting
it from the natives are related IN the
reports of the conquistadores and in
the records and histories of Mexico
and the Central and South American
States. CoRTEz, il is said, told Mon
TEzUMA that the SpaDiards were suf-
| fering from disease which gold
alone could cure. The Aztec King sent
liberal supplies Of the yellow metal
to alleviate this suffering, but 70 md
out in the end that the disease was
! lncurable. Other native rulers whose
territories were invaded by PIzARRo.
QUEsADA, DE BELALcAzAR, VIDuLo and
ALFINGER all made the same discov-
cry. The search for gold began with
the first landing of COLUMBUS; the
West Indian islands of Cuba and Santo
Domingo were combed for the pre-
cious metal, but the high point Of sue
cess was not reached until the ex-
ploration Of the continent was under
taken. 1t lasted until the original
stores were exhausted and the people
who had produced them were very
nearly destroyed.
The goldsmiths among many of the
South American tribes were men Of
! Importance, and In matter of ex-
change with other tribes one gold
smith was worth at least two men Of
any other occupation. These workers
in gold had n method Of their own.
which was the same from Mexico to
Peru. The fact that no moulds were
ever found puzzled researchers into
the secrets of their art DIR. WILLIAM
Curtis FARABEE, curator Of the Amer
lean department Of the Museum, ex-
plains this In the Museum Journal
by saying that the process was known
as cire perdue and was as follows;
Powdered charcoal was mixed
with clay and moulded into the de-
sired form on which the ornaments
were engraved, Prepared wax was
then applied to the details Of the Ge-
signs The whole wae then covered
with powdered charcoal and clay
A connection with the wax model
was made by means OF n rod OF wax
coated with clay, The whole thing
was then fred, the melted wax al
lowed to escape and gold poured into
the resultant mould. 1t was necessary
to break the mould 20 get the object.
and this accounts for the fact that no
moulds of any kind have ever been.
found IN the whole region"
The description Of some Of the re.
markable examples Of these ancient
gold workers Is preserved In the re-