THE ARGENTINE FRONTIER 355 



also seen numbers of Quechuas apparently living in much 

 the same manner as their predecessors during the .height 

 of the Inca's glory. 



As frequently occurs in semiarid country, and as I have 

 stated before, birds were very abundant; but there was 

 little else to indicate the close proximity of other forms of 

 life unless one took into account the herds of goats clamber- 

 ing about on the steep ledges and seeming to delight in 

 bombarding with showers o small stones every one who 

 passed below; or the caravans of burros and llamas passing 

 on the main highway. A visit to the nebulous peaks of 

 the adjacent mountains, however, revealed a different story. 

 Patches of green dotted the isolated little depressions to 

 which the name "valleys" can hardly be given, and thin 

 pillars of smoke ascended from them straight into a cloud- 

 less sky. After long and patient looking a small, stone 

 hut set among rocks would invariably be discovered, and 

 sometimes we could even distinguish minute, moving forms 

 which we knew were Indians. There, tucked away among 

 the towering peaks they love so well, they were living a 

 life of peace and plenty, apparently safe from the gaze of 

 vulgar interlopers, and knowing or caring little about the 

 outer world. It was as if one tore a page from the history 

 of bygone centuries, or found himself suddenly transferred 

 into the midst of a contented, pastoral community as must 

 have existed in places unnumbered throughout the vast 

 Incan Empire before its despoliation by the gold-crazed 

 invaders. In this connection it might be well to go back 

 briefly into the history of the events that brought about 

 the present state of affairs. 



The boundaries of the Incan Empire had been gradually 

 extended until within five hundred years after the arrival 

 of Mamo Capac and Mama Occlo, supposed Children of 

 the Sun, it covered nearly one-third of the South American 

 continent. Near the middle of the sixteenth century, when 

 Pizarro and his insatiable band invaded the sacred pre- 

 cincts of Atahualpa's dominion, the star of the Inca seemed 



