of the royal household. As it did not enter into the circulating medium of the Empire, which had neither commerce nor money, the Incas, unconscious of its value, sought gold, not for gain, but out of loyalty to their rulers and unswerving devotion to their chief deity, the sun, to whose worship their gold was mainly consecrated.
Traditions of the Quichua and Aymara Indians and the oldest obtainable records, reaching back to the beginning of the sixteenth century, as well as recent explorations, all agree that the northwest provinces of Bolivia, especially the province of Larecaja, are rich in gold deposits; that, while the Incas secured considerable quantities of this metal from the province of Carabaya, Peru, the northwest provinces of Bolivia were the principal source from whence came the gold that excited the cupidity of the early Spaniards.
Long prior to the coming of the Spaniards the town of Ilabaya, in the province of Larecaja, was the seat of certain nobles or chiefs of the Empire, who were charged, among other things, with the duty of forwarding the quarterly gold contribution of that district to Chiquitos, Peru, where one of the receipt boxes of the Empire was located. The record shows that on the day of the full moon of each quarter, the expedition intrusted with this remittance from Ilabaya set out without fail for Chiquitos and was always received with demonstrations of joy in the several villages through which they passed. The amount of these quarterly contributions is unknown, but, as the gold was carried in twelve llama bladders, holding from 4 to 5 pounds each, the amount may be approximately determined. These bladders, called "rosques," are still used by the Indians in transporting gold.
The traces of their works and their rude mining tools of wood and stone yet remaining demonstrate that gold was gathered by the Incas almost exclusively from the deposits of the mountain streams or from shallow excavations made in the rugged acclivities of the cordilleras. Not understanding the virtues of quick-
