But no wild things had laired there.

The place was clean and swept and silent.

In each dwelling the roof was of beaten gold, and the square pillars were covered with gold plates, and where the dead sat was a wilderness of jewels....

I tell you, all the riches that Spain has drawn from all her Indies since the first conquistador set foot in them would not vie with the preciousness of a single one among those dead kings' houses." "And the kings ?" Raleigh interjected.
"They sat stiff in gold on their thrones, their bodies fashioned in the likeness of men.

But they had no faces only golden plates set with gems." "What fortune! What fortune! And what did you then ?" "We went mad." The seaman's voice was slow and melancholy.