Note 14 — MEXICAN COPPER TOOLS.

Torquemada (Fray Juan de) Monarquia Indiana, Madrid, 1613, Vol. II., Book 13, Chapter 1. “The goldsmiths did not possess the tools necessary for hammering metals, but with one stone placed above another one, they make a flat cup or a plate.” (Pero con una piedra sobre otra hacian una taza llana y un plato.) Gomara, l. c. “They will cast a platter in a mould with eight corners, and every corner of several metals, that is to say, the one of gold, the other of silver, without any kind of solder. They will also cast a little caldron with loose handles hanging thereto, as we used to cast a bell. They will also cast in a mould a fish with one scale of silver on its back and another of gold; they will make a parrot of metal so that his tongue shall shake and his head move and his wings flutter; they will cast an ape in a mould so that both hands and feet will stir, and holding a spindle in his hand, seeming to spin, yea, and an apple in his hand, as if he would eat it. Our Spaniards were not a little amazed at the sight of these things, for our goldsmiths are not to be compared to theirs.” Bernal Diaz, Chapter 91. “I will first mention the sculptors and the gold and silversmiths, who were clever in working and smelting gold, and would have astonished the most celebrated of our Spanish goldsmiths; the number of these were very great and the most skilful lived at a place called Azcapotzalco, about four leagues from Mexico.” Petrus Martyr, Decade VI., Chapter 6. (A letter written to Pope Adrian VI.) “The chief noblemen’s houses (in Nicaragua) compass and inclose the King’s street on every side; in the middle site whereof one is erected, in which the goldsmiths dwell. Gold is there molten and forged (?) to be formed into divers jewels, and is formed into small plates or bars, to be stamped after the pleasure of its owners and at length is brought into the form and fashion they desire, and that neatly too.”