432 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 



stood at the moment, there was an artificial, large-flowered Datura 

 tree (Guanto), formed of gold wire and gold plates, which spread its 

 branches over the Inca's chair, impressed me deeply but painfully, 

 for it seemed as if these illusive and baseless visions were cherished 

 as consolations in present sufferings. I asked the lad " Since you 

 and your parents believe so firmly in the existence of this garden, 

 are not you sometimes tempted in your necessities to dig in search 

 of treasures so close at hand ?" The boy's answer was so simple, 

 and expressed so fully the quiet resignation characteristic of the 

 aboriginal inhabitants of the country, that I noted it in Spanish in 

 my journal. "Such a desire (tal antojo) does not come to us; 

 father says it would be sinful (que fuese pecado). If we had the 

 golden branches, with all their golden fruits, our white neighbors 

 would hate and injure us. We have a small field and good wheat 

 (buen trigo)." Few of my readers, I think, will blame me for 

 recalling here the words of the young Astorpilco and his golden 

 visions. 



The belief, so widely current among the natives, that to take pos- 

 session of buried treasures which belonged to the Incas would be 

 wrong, and would incur punishment and bring misfortune on the 

 entire race, is connected with another belief which prevailed, espe- 

 cially in the 16th and 17th centuries, i. e. the future restoration of 

 a kingdom of the Incas. Every suppressed nationality looks for- 

 ward to a day of change, and to a renewal of the old government. 

 The flight of Manco Inca, the brother of Atahuallpa, into the forests 

 of Vilcapampa on the declivity of the eastern Cordillera, and the 

 sojourn of Sayri Tupac and Inca Tupac Amaru in those wildernesses, 

 have left permanent recollections. It was believed that the de- 

 throned dynasty had settled between the rivers Apurimac and Beni, 

 or still farther to the east in Guiana. The myth of el Dorado and 

 the golden city of Manoa, travelling from the west to the east, in- 

 creased these dreams, and Raleigh's imagination was so inflamed by 

 them, that he founded an expedition on the hope of " conquering 

 * the imperial and golden city,' placing in it a garrison of three or 

 four thousand English, and levying from the ' Emperor of Guiana/ 

 a descendant of Huana Capac, and who holds his court with the 

 same magnificence, an annual tribute of 300,000 sterling, as the 



