414 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



near you?" The young Peruvian's answer was so simple and 

 so expressive of the quiet resignation peculiar to the abori- 

 ginal inhabitants of the countiy, that I noted it down in 

 Spanish in my Journal. " Such a desire (tal antojo)" said 

 he, "never comes to us. My father says that it would be 

 sinful (que fuese pecado]. If we had the golden branches, 

 with all their golden fruits, our white neighbours would hate 

 us and injure us. We have a little field and good wheat 

 (buen trigo}" Few of my readers will I trust be displeased 

 that I have recalled here the words of young Astorpilca and 

 his golden dreams. 



An idea generally spread and firmly believed among the 

 natives is, that it would be criminal to dig up and take 

 possession of treasures which may have belonged to the 

 Incas, and that such a proceeding would bring misfortune upon 

 the whole Peruvian race. This idea is closely connected with 

 that of the restoration of the Inca dynasty, an event which 

 is still expected, and which in the sixteenth and seventeenth 

 centuries was looked forward to with especial confidence. 

 Oppressed nations always fondly hope for the day of their 

 emancipation, and for the re- establishment of their old forms 

 of government. The flight of Manco Inca, the brother of 

 Atahuallpa, who retreated into the forests of Vilcapampa, on 

 the declivity of the Eastern Cordillera; and the abode of 

 Sayri Tapac and Inca Tupac Amaru in those wildernesses, 

 are events which have left lasting recollections in the minds 

 of the people. It is believed that descendants of the de- 

 throned dynasty settled still further eastward in Guiana, 

 between the rivers Apurimac and Beni. These notions were 

 strengthened by the myth of el Dorado and the golden city of 

 Manoa, which popular credulity carried from the west and 

 propagated eastward. So greatly was the imagination of Sir 

 Walter Raleigh inflamed by these dreams, that he raised an 

 expedition in the hope of conquering "the imperial and 

 golden city." There he proposed to establish a garrison of 



