This saying about gold and riches might be considered the first American proverb, though it isn’t recorded in Bartlett’s or any other book of quotations. The expression surely is old enough, dating back to 1533 when Pizarro conquered Cuzco, the capital of the Inca empire, and stripped the Peruvian metropolis of gold and silver. One cavalryman’s spoils included a splendid golden image of the sun so beautifully crafted that it was not melted down into coins, as was the usual practice. But that same night, before the sun had set on another day, the cavalryman lost the fabulous golden image of the sun at cards or dice. His comrades coined the saying Juega el sol antes que amanezca: “He gambles (or plays) away the sun before sunrise,” which crossed the ocean from America on Pizarro’s gold-laden galleons to become a Spanish proverb.