53 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



they saw therein " many trinkets of gold and silver, all of which they 

 took away." 



These facts demand particular attention when it is known that this 

 account of the expedition was composed upon the evidence of surviv- 

 ing natives, and the recollections of disinterested soldiers. 



We desire to refer in this connection to the fact that Sahagun's 

 vague and only mention of silver, namely, that it was seen with gold, 

 feathers, and stones in Montezuma's private chamber, called Totocalco, 

 or the House of the Birds, is also the only one of which the eye-wit- 

 ness Tapia speaks. The latter frankly says that "trinkets of gold, 

 silver, and greenstones of not very fine quality, were shown to him- 

 self and another Spaniard in the House of the Birds " (Casa de las 

 Aves). 



These two sober accounts can not be impeached. They are the 

 testimony of eye-witnesses who had no thoughts of how their stories 

 could secure the censor's license. The one innocently confirms the 

 other, and we are forced to accept them as giving us an honest, truth- 

 ful picture of just what metals the Spaniards actually saw. 



Thus we have presented everything upon which the historic view of 

 our subject can properly and authoritatively rest. We can not, how- 

 ever, conscientiously believe the best part of the somewhat idealized 

 stories of Cortes and Bernal Diaz, for we have seen how Cortes's letters 

 were influenced by his ambition, and why the printed edition of Diaz 

 can not be accepted as a verbatim copy of his original manuscript. 

 Besides this, not only do the natural conditions of the country refute 

 many of their statements, but, strange to say, nowhere in all our 

 archaeologic archives is there to be found a single relic of the wealth 

 and elaborate conveniences that they describe. We accordingly feel 

 warranted in discrediting this much of what they say, namely, that 

 Diaz once saw for sale "axes of bronze," and Cortes " trinkets of lead, 

 bronze, and tin," in Mexico, and tin coins among the natives of Tasco. 



A careful examination, both of the ancient pictures and the early 

 chronicles, does not develop the fact that copper, much less bronze, 

 was ever employed by the natives in implements of war. Scarcely 

 anything either is said concerning metal tools. Diaz is the only man 

 who is said to have seen some, and these were axes only, but neither 

 he nor any one else saw one in actual use. These facts can not be 

 reconciled with the idea that they worked so extensively as to have, 

 as Baron Humboldt says, galleries and shafts, and that they smelted 

 the ore, and alloyed the refined metal to make bronze. 



We are not surprised when the records tell us of so much gold, 

 nor even of silver in Mexico, but we would be if they contained any- 

 thing that spoke of an extensive use of copper, for we know that na- 

 tive copper in Mexico is found only in a very limited degree. This 

 native copper, with perhaps some that came from Lake Superior, 

 through an extensive traffic, was doubtless all that they possessed. 



