MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
and hence was carried about on a litter covered with gold 
and precious stones (Plate 100). 
At the death of each Inca ruler, his whole palace, with 
all its contents, was left intact, an entire new equipment 
being provided for his successor. Thus there accumulated 
a stock of treasure of well-nigh inestimable value. The 
last of the Incas, Atahualpa, in his effort to ransom him- 
self from his Spanish captors, collected in a few days a 
Fic. 112. Peruvian concept of the God of the Air. After Squier 
mass of gold objects amounting to between fifteen and 
twenty million dollars. The total loot gained from the 
conquest of Peru must have been vastly more than this. 
The Spanish monarch is said to have received, as his 
“royal fifth,” fifty million dollars. If these figures are 
correct the sum total of the plunder gained by Pizarro and 
his handful of Spaniards must have equaled a quarter of a 
billion dollars in actual bullion. Whatever the amount, it 
was enormous, and its dumping all at once on Europe, 
until then rather poor in the precious metals, was un- 
doubtedly in part responsible for the disturbances of all 
kinds which occurred there for a long time afterwards. 
[ 348 ] 
