Chap. XI. AZANGARO— HIDDEN TREASURE. 191 



between 12,800 and 13,000 feet above the sea. Between 

 March 28th and April 15th, the indications of the thermo- 

 metor at these places were as follows : — 



Mean temperature 62i" 



Mean minimum at niglit . . 37| 



Highest observed 58 



Lowest 37 



Range 21 



Azangaro is the capital of the province of the same name. 

 There is a tradition that, when the Indians were brinirins 

 gold and silver for the ransom of the Inca Atahualpa, they 

 received news of his murder by Pizarro, at Sicuani, and at the 

 same time orders came from Inca Manco, who was at Cuzco, 

 to remove the treasure to a greater distance ; and that they 

 buried it near this town. Asuan is " more," carun " distant ;" 

 hence Azangaro. It is generally believed that this treasm-e, 

 worth 7,000,000 dollars, as well as the fifteen mule-loads of 

 church-plate brought into the town by Diego Tupac Amaru 

 in 1781, are concealed somewhere, and that some of the 

 Indians know the place well, but will not divulge it. Hence 

 there have been numerous attempts to discover it, and one 

 sub-prefect made several excavations under the pavement in 

 the chm'ch, but without any success. On one occasion, not 

 long ago, an old Indian, who had been a servant in the house 

 where Diego Tupac Amaru lodged, told the sub-prefect that 

 in the centre of the sala, after digging down for about two 

 feet, a layer of gravel from the river would be reached ; a 

 little further down a layer of lime and piaster ; a little further 

 a layer of large stones ; and that beneath the stones would be 

 the treasure. The excavation was commenced, and great 

 was the excitement when all the different layers were found 

 exactly as the Indian had described them ; but there was no 

 treasure. It is not unlikely that the Indian only knew or 

 only told half the clue ; and that these layers were some 



