WHOLE VOL, THE WEST INDIES — VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 27 



dead with part of the riches which they possessed. Aaron (as is 

 stated in chapter XX of Numbers) was buried on Mount Hor, Joshua 

 on Mount Ephraim, and in like manner all the others. King David, 

 who died in the year 2931 after the Creation, 477 after the children 

 of Israel left Egypt, and 1036 B.C., was laid in his sepulchre on the 

 mount by his son Solomon with great wealth of gold, jewels, and 

 precious stones of inestimable value ; these were utilized by Duke 

 and High Priest Hyrcanus, son of Simon Maccabeus, in the year of 

 the Creation 3835, 904 years after the death of blessed King David ; 

 since he was in great need, as is told by Josephus in his "Antiquities," 

 he took from the tomb 3,000 talents of gold to finance the war against 

 his enemies and to meet other needs ; and even Herod, inflamed and 

 made covetous by the report of the riches existing in the tomb of 

 the sainted Prophet King, attempted the same exploit, being miracu- 

 lously frightened away and threatened by an angel. The blessed 

 King David died 1,036 years before the birth of Christ our Lord, 

 and with all the passage of time since his death, his tomb was still 

 standing, as St. Peter states in chapter H of the Acts of the Apostles, 

 "his sepulchre is with us unto this day" ; and St. Jerome says that it 

 lasted till the time of the Emperor Hadrian, who began reigning in 

 A.D. 1 17 ; at which time he says that through its great age, it collapsed, 



67. Zosimus says that in the days of the Emperor Honorius there 

 was discovered the body of the blessed Prophet Jeremiah, and at his 

 feet a child with a crown and shoes of gold, and robes of inestimable 

 value. And the tomb of Christ our Lord stood outside the city in 

 the plain beside Mount Calvary, as is stated by St. Paul in Hebrews, 

 chapter XHI, and the blessed Evangelists. So that it was a very 

 common practice among the Hebrews to have their tombs in the open 

 country and to bury their dead there with most of their valuables 

 and precious jewels, 



68. The same custom was observed by the Indians over all the 

 Indies, doubtless learned from the Hebrews from whom they are 

 descended ; both in New Spain and in the New Kingdom of Granada 

 they buried their dead with all their wealth of gold and precious 

 stones, and at the same time, by inspiration of the Devil, they buried, 

 along with the bodies of the chiefs, their most beloved wives, and 

 other persons, to keep them company, as is fully described by all 

 writers on the Indies, 



69. On the plains of Peru they built sumptuous guacas or tombs, 

 on which they centered all their happiness and their solicitude, plan- 

 ning to be buried in them with all their riches, etc., as is recounted 

 by the historians ; and at the present day one can see the ruins of 



