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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



the; yalk-nationai. geographic socie;ty 

 peruvian expedition by hiram 



BINGHAM 



Mr. Toastmaster, ladies and gentle- 

 men: I must confess that I feel rather 

 chilly, having recently come from the 

 tropics and finding myself so close to 

 both poles. In fact I am reminded of 

 an experience a friend of mine had in 

 the Northwest, where so many of our 

 most healthy American citizens are from 

 the land of Captain Amundsen. This 

 friend had the bad taste to try to take an 

 automobile trip, bumping over some of 

 the unmacadamized roads of the district 

 and losing some of his tools. He finally 

 ran into trouble and looked for a farmer 

 to help him out of it. He asked the 

 farmer if he could borrow a monkey- 

 wrench. The farmer looked very sad 

 and said, "I don't think so, my friend. 

 My father he got cattle ranch, and my 

 brother John, he got sheep ranch, but I 

 think it too damn cold here for monkey 

 ranch." 



Nevertheless, it is a great pleasure to 

 talk with members of the National Geo- 

 graphic Society about Peru, for one does 

 not have to explain, as my good friend 

 the Minister from Peru has to do some- 

 times, where Peru is. I went down on 

 the steamer with a healthy young Amer- 

 ican from Chicago, who was spending 

 some of his father's money in securing 

 an acquaintanceship with South America, 

 and he asked me confidentially a day or 

 two before we got to Lima, if I would 

 please tell him whether Lima was in 

 Peru or Peru was in Lima. 



THE EXPEDITION TO PERU 



When we got to Lima we received that 

 very cordial reception from the Peru- 

 vian government which I have always 

 received on going to Peru. We were 

 given every facility, and it is a pleasure 

 to take this occasion to thank the gov- 

 ernment of Peru, through the Minister, 

 for the many courtesies we received. In 

 fact those who know the character of 

 some of the mountain Indians will realize 

 that it would have been quite impossible 

 for us to have done our work had it not 

 been for the kind assistance the Peruvian 

 sfovernment extended to us on account 



of our connection with the National Geo- 

 graphic Society and Yale University. 



I do not hold it against the Minister 

 that when I got to the wharf in Callao 

 some one (I think it was a reporter from 

 a Lima paper) said to one of the officials 

 to whom I had been introduced, and who 

 was courteously passing all our baggage 

 without any examination or difficulty : 

 "Who are these people?" The customs 

 official said : "Oh, some of them are scien- 

 tific men." "And who are the rest?" 

 "Well, the rest are professors." 



In 1911 we began a topographical 

 cross-section of the Andes, which, owing 

 to the tremendous difficulties of the 

 undertaking and the magnitude of our 

 program, we were unable to complete. 



Owing to your generosity, we were 

 able this year to take an expert topo- 

 graphical engineer and a corps of as- 

 sistants, who did excellent work, and 

 whose work I hope you will all live to 

 be proud of. 



We also made a special study of the 

 osteology and geology of the Cuzco re- 

 gion, and came to the conclusion that the 

 human remains found there last year 

 were not nearly so old as had been at 

 first supposed. 



One of our principal geographical tasks 

 lay in the identification of several, cities 

 and towns described in 1911. In particu- 

 lar, there was that remarkable "White 

 City," a remarkable buried city, away 

 down in the jungles on the Urubamba 

 River, below Ollantaytambo, which place 

 was supposed by Squier and other stu- 

 dents of Peruvian archaeology to be one 

 of the frontier fortresses of the Incas. 

 Down below this place, and buried in 

 jungle, we found a city called Machu 

 Picchu. 



THE EIRST CAPITAE OE THE INCAS 



That is an awful name, but it is well 

 worth remembering. The city, built of 

 white granite, is on top of a ridge sur- 

 rounded by precipices from two to three 

 thousand feet high, above the Urubamba 

 River, at a distance of four or five days 

 journey from Cuzco, the well-known 

 Inca capital. Last year we Avere not able 

 to do more than make a reconnaissance 

 of this old city, but we realized that it 



