PLATEAU OF CAXAMAECA. 295 



The belief, so widely current among the natives, that to 

 take possession 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 

 winch prevailed, especially in the 1 6th and 17th centuries, 

 . e. the future restoration of a kingdom of the Incas. 

 Every suppressed nationality looks forward 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 dethroned 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, increased 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 Huayna Capac, and who holds his court with 

 the same magnificence, an annual tribute of 300,000 

 sterling, as the price of his promised restoration to the 

 throne in Cuzco and Caxamarca." Wherever the Peruvian 

 Quichua language has extended, some traces of such expec- 

 tations of the return of the Inca's sovereignty continue ( 17 ) to 

 exist in the minds of many among those of the natives who are 

 possessed of some knowledge of the history of their country. 



