HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



239 



mod common among the Mexicans were emeralds, 

 amethyfts, cornelians, turquoifes, and fome others not 

 known in Europe. Emeralds were fo common, that no 

 lord or noble wanted them, and none of them died 

 without having one fixed to his lip, that it might ferve 

 him as they imagined inftead of a heart. An infinite 

 number of them were fent to the court of Spain in the 

 firft years after the conqueft. When Cortes returned 

 the firfl time to Spain, he brought along with him, 

 amongfl other ineftimable jewels, five emeralds, which, 

 as Gomara, who was then living, bears teftimony, were 

 valued at a hundred thoufand ducats, and for one of 

 them fome Genoefe merchants offered him forty thou- 

 fand, in order to fell it again to the grand fignior (x) ; 

 and alfo two emerald vafes, valued, as the celebrat- 

 ed P. Mariana (jy) fays, at three hundred thoufand 

 ducats, which vafes Cortes loft by the fhipwreck which 

 he fuffered in the unfortunate expedition of Charles V. 

 againft Algiers. At prefent no more fuch gems are 

 wrought, nor is even the place of the mines known where 

 they were formerly dug; but there are (till fome enormous 

 pieces of emerald remaining, namely a facred ftone in 

 the cathedral church of Angelopoli, and another in the 



parochial 



( x) With regard to Cortes's emeralds, the firft was made in form of a rofe, 

 the fecond like a horn, the third like a fifh, with eyes of gold : the fourth was 

 a little bell, with a fine pearl for a clapper, and upon the lip this infcription in 

 Spanifll, BenHito quien te crto, that is, Blejfed he, ivho created thee. The fifth, 

 which was the mod valuable, and for which the Genoefe merchants would 

 have given forty thoufand ducats, was a fmall cup with a foot of gold, and 

 four little chains alfo of gold, which united in a pearl in the form of a button. 

 The lip of the cup was girt with a ring of gold, on which was engraven this 

 Latin fentence, Inter natos mulierum non furrexit major. Thefe five emeralds, 

 wrought by the Mexicans at the order of Cortes, were prefented by him to 

 his fecond wife, the daughter of the Count of Aguilar; jewels, fays Gomara, 

 who faw them, better than any other woman whatfoever had in all Spain. 



(y) Mariana in the Summary, or Supplement of the Hiftory of Spain. 



