Peruvian Incas

Peruvian Incas used elemental mercury to wash gold-bearing gravel as early as 1557. The original extraction process, which took place over 20 to 30 days, underwent subsequent modification, leading to the ability to extract gold in a pan over a fire in less than 6 hours by the 1830s. With some modifications this process continues to be used to this day, especially in Central and South America, Africa, and the Philippines. 

For gold the Spaniards eradicated the ancient civilization of the Peruvian Incas Pizarro disavowed any mission to convert the heathens to Christianity, saying coldly and simply 1 have come to take from them their gold. For love of gold, settlers in the nineteenth-century New World met dusty deaths in the American West. In Auric Goldfinger, James Bond faces a mixture of Midas and Polymnestor, alive and well and hungry for the vaults of Fort Knox. 

Sacred vessels used in Solomon s Temple were of old as they had been in the Ark before it they comprised basins, spoons, candlesticks, lamps, snuffers and even flowers It is not difficult to believe that the description is substantially true for the building was closely paralleled, more than two millenia later by the Sun Temple of the Peruvian Incas (p. 135). 

In his Natural and Moral History of the Indies, Father Jose de Acosta said that the Incas labored long in the Peruvian mercury mines without knowing what quicksilver was, seeking only cinnabar, or vermilion, to use as war paint (59). The Spaniards discovered the mercury mines of Huancavelica in 1566-67. 

Peruvian pyrites is called stone of the Incas, because the ancient sovereigns of Peru attributed great virtues to it. Rings, amulets,... 

The coca shrub Erythroxylon coca) grows wild in Peru, specifically in the Andes Mountains, at elevations of 1,500 to 6,000 feet above sea level. The natives of South America have long chewed these leaves for their stimulant effects. Leaves of the coca shrub have even been foimd in pre-Inca Peruvian burial inns. Chewing the leaves brings about a definite sense of mental and physical well-being and the power to increase endurance. For chewing, the Indians smear the coca leaves with lime and roll them. The lime, Ca(OH)2, apparently releases the free alkaloid components it is remarkable that the Indians learned this subtlety long ago by some empirical means. The pure alkaloid responsible for the properties of the coca leaves is cocaine. 

I In the mid-fifteenth century, the Incas built Machu Pichu on top of a steep mountain, rising 760 meters above the valley floor. The ancient Peruvian city is surrounded by dozens of stepped agricultural terraces that prevent soil erosion. 

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