490 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



it more convenient for reference here. The scale 

 of the map is, approximately, six miles to an inch.' 



In Dr. Theodore Wolff's Geografia et Geologia 

 de Eciiador (1892), the region of Llanganati is still 

 referred to as the most unknown part of the whole 

 of Ecuador.] 



A HIDDEN TREASURE OF THE INCAS, IN THE 

 MOUNTAINS OF LLANGANATI, ECUADOR ; AN 



AUTHENTIC GUIDE TO ITS LOCALITY ; ILLUS- 

 TRATED BY A MAP. THE MAP COPIED AND 



THE GUIDE TRANSLATED BY RlCHARD SPRUCE 



In the month of July 1857 I reached Banos, 

 where I learnt that the snowy points I had observed 

 from Puca-yacu, between Tunguragua and Coto- 

 paxi, were the summits of a group of mountains 

 called Llanganati, from which ran down to the 

 Pastasa the densely-wooded ridges I saw to north- 

 ward. I was further informed that these mountains 

 abounded in all sorts of metals, and that it was 

 universally believed the Incas had deposited an 

 immense quantity of gold in an artificial lake on 

 the flanks of one of the peaks at the time of the 

 Spanish Conquest. They spoke also of one Val- 

 verde, a Spaniard, who from being poor had 

 suddenly become very rich, which was attributed to 

 his having married an Indian girl, whose father 

 showed him where the treasure was hidden, and 

 accompanied him on various occasions to bring 

 away portions of it ; and that Valverde returned to 

 Spain, and, when on his death-bed, bequeathed the 

 secret of his riches to the king. Many expeditions, 

 public and private, had been made to follow the 



