if he might be allowed to follow this craft, of which he said he understood something, and thus earn the bread he ate.  I answered, yes, for I knew that it irked his proud nature to be dependent on me, and gave him gold and silver with a little room having a furnace in it where he could labour.  The first thing he made was an object about two inches across, round and with a groove at the back of it, on the front of which he fashioned an image of the sun having a human face and rays of light projecting all about.  I asked him what was its purpose, whereon he took the piece and thrust it into the lobe of his ear where the gristle had been stretched in the fashion that I have described, which it fitted exactly.  Then he told me that in his country all the nobles wore such ornaments and that those who did so were called “ear-men” to distinguish them from the common people.  Also he told me many other things too long to set out, which made me desire more than ever to see this empire with my eyes, for an empire and no less he declared it to be.

Afterwards Kari made many such ornaments which I sold for brooches with a pin set at the back of them.  Also he shaped other things, for his skill as a goldsmith was wonderful, such as cups and platters of strange design and rich ornamentation which commanded a great price.  But on every one of them, in the centre or some other part of the embossment, appeared this image of the sun.  I asked him why.  He answered because the sun was his god and his people were Sun-worshippers.  I reminded him that he had said that a certain Pachacamac whose image he wore about his neck was his god.  To this he replied: 

“Yes, Pachacamac is the god above gods, the Creator, the Spirit of the World, but the Sun is his visible house and raiment that all may see and worship,” a saying that I thought had truth in it, seeing that all Nature is the raiment of God.

I tried to instruct him in our faith, but although he listened patiently and I think understood, he would not become a Christian, making it very plain to me that he thought that a man should live and die in the religion in which he was born and that from what he saw in London he did not hold that Christians were any better than those who worshipped the sun and the great spirit, Pachacamac.  So I abandoned this attempt, although there was danger to him while he remained a heathen.  Indeed twice or thrice the priests made inquiry concerning his faith, being curious as to all that had to do with him.  However, I silenced them by pretending that I was instructing him as well as I was able and that as yet he did not know enough English to hearken to their holy expositions.  Also when they became persistent I made gifts to the monasteries to which they belonged, or if they were parish priests, then to their cures or churches.

Still I was troubled about this matter, for some of these priests were very fierce and intolerant, and I was sure that in time they would push the business further.