The Vivero Letter

Fallon said. 'Let's take one or two points in the letter. He said the de Viveros were of ancient lineage and had been hammered by the Moors so that the family fortunes were lost. He was a goddamn liar. His father was a goldsmith -- that's true enough -- but his grandfather was a peasant who came from a long line of peasants -- of nobodies. His father's name was Vivero, and it was Manuel himself who added on the aristocratic prefix and changed it to de Vivero. He did that in Mexico -- he would never have got away with it in Spain. By the time Murville visited the Mexican branch of the family the myth had really taken hold. That's why he wouldn't believe that a de Vivero had actually made the tray.' .

'So he was a liar on that point. Lots of people lie about themselves and their families. But how do you know he was lying about the gold? And why should he spin a yarn like that?'

'All the gold the Mayas ever had was imported,' said Fallon. 'It came from Mexico, from Panama and from the Caribbean islands. These people were neolithic, they weren't metal workers. Look at Vivero's description of their weapons-wooden swords with stone edges. He was right mere, but the stone would be obsidian.'

'But the Mayas had gold.' I objected. 'Look what they found when the cenote at Chichen Itza was dredged.' I'd read about that.

'So what did they find? A hell of a lot of gold objects -- all imported,' said Fallon. 'Chichen Itza was an important religious centre and the cenote was sacred. You find sacred wells all over the world in which offerings are made, and cenotes are particularly important in Yucatan because water is so precious. There were pilgrimages made to Chichen Itza over a period of hundreds of years.'

Harris said, 'You can't put up a public fountain in New York without people throwing money into it.'

'Exactly,' said Fallon in a pleased voice. 'There seems to be a primitive attraction to water in that sense. Three Coins in the Fountain -- and all that kind of thing. But the Mayas had no gold of their own.'

I was confused. 'Then why the hell should Vivero say they had?'

'Ah, that puzzled me at first, but Halstead and I discussed it and we've come up with a theory.'

'I'd be pleased to hear it,' I said sourly.

'Vivero found something -- there's no doubt about that. But what it was, we don't know. He was cryptic about it because no doubt, he didn't want to give the secret away to anyone who might read that letter. The one thing he was quite clear about was that he wanted to reserve the honour of discovery for his sons -- for the de Vivero family. So if he couldn't actually tell his sons this mysterious secret then he had to find some other way of attracting them -- and that was what they would confidently expect to find. Gold!'

I slumped in my chair dejectedly. 'And why would the Spaniards be expecting to find gold where mere wasn't any? You've got me going round in circles.'

'It's simple enough. The Spaniards came to Mexico looking for plunder -- and they found it. They raided the Aztecs and found gold in plenty in the temple treasuries and in Montezuma's palace. What they failed to realize was that it wasn't a continuing supply. They weren't deep-thinking men and it never occurred to them that this hoard of gold which they had looted from the Aztecs had been built up over centuries, a little year by year. They thought there must be a major source, a huge mine, perhaps. They gave it a name, They called it Eldorado -- and they never stopped looking for it. It didn't exist.

'Consider these Spanish soldiers. After they had looted the Aztecs Cortes divided the spoils. When he had received and swindled his captains, and the captains had put their sticky fingers into what was left, there was little enough for the common soldiers. A gold chain, perhaps -- or a wine cup. These men were soldiers, not settlers, and always on the other side of the hill was Eldorado. So they attacked the Mayas, thinking this was Eldorado and, after the Mayas, Pizarro attacked the Incas of Peru. They brought down whole civilizations because they weren't prepared to sweat and dig the gold from the ground themselves. It was there, right enough, but it certainly wasn't in Yucatan. The Mayas, like the Aztecs, certainly had plenty of gold, but not in such quantities that they could cover buildings or make rainwater gutters from the stuff. The nobles wore small pieces of gold jewellery and the temple priests used certain gold implements.'

Harris said, 'So all this talk about gold by Vivero was just a come-on to get his boys moving?'

'It seems so,' said Fallon. 'Oh, I daresay he did surprise the Mayas by melting gold and casting it. That was something they hadn't seen before. I'll show you a piece of genuine Mayan goldwork and you'll see what I mean.' He went to a safe, unlocked it, and returned with a small gold disk. This is a plate, probably used by a noble. You can see it's very nicely chased.'