Photograph by Hiram Bingham 

 INDIAN BOYS, WITH VERY ELABORATE PONCHOS, VISITING CUZCO 



Cuzco is the Mecca of all the Indians in southern Peru, and one of the most interesting 

 sights in its streets are the visitors, whose district may be told by the cut of their garments 

 and the patterns they affect. Here are shown three visitors from a distant province, who 

 were very shy and only with the greatest difficulty could be persuaded to pose for their pic- 

 ture. Had it not been for the good nature of the porter, or cargador, who stands at the left, 

 we could never have persuaded them to face the camera. 



graphic Society were told in the Febru- 

 ary, 191 5, number of this Magazine.* 

 But of the food or the flora and fauna 

 of those remarkable builders, who con- 

 structed splendid granite palaces and re- 

 markable agricultural terraces in this 

 long-hidden corner of the Andes, we 

 were able to give very little information. 



OUR PEANS FOR OUR LAST EXPEDITION 



Accordingly, the Expedition of 191 5 

 had for its chief object the securing of 

 as much information as possible about 

 the former inhabitants of Machu Picchu 

 and the territory immediately surround- 

 ing the city. 



Thanks to the cooperation of the Bu- 

 reau of Plant Industry of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, we 

 were able to investigate the original food 

 plants of this vicinity and learn what 

 medicinal plants were known and prized. 



* See "The Story of Machu Picchu," with 

 60 illustrations, in the National Geographic 

 Magazine, February, 1915. 



We also secured the services of a com- 

 petent naturalist to tell us with what 

 birds and animals the people of Machu 

 Picchu were familiar. Furthermore, we 

 succeeded in locating several ancient 

 roads leading toward Machu Picchu 

 (pages 446 and 447), and while following 

 them out discovered several new groups 

 of ruins, evidently representing outlying 

 fortresses and fortified stations used for 

 the defense of the capital and for the 

 convenience of travelers on the highways. 

 Finally, by process of elimination, we 

 were able to prove that Machu Picchu 

 was the capital of a considerable area of 

 country that was once densely populated. 

 In the course of our work we crossed 

 a number of hitherto-unexplored areas, 

 collected large numbers of botanical and 

 zoological specimens, mapped a new river 

 system, and took measurements of nearly 

 all of the savage inhabitants of the newly 

 visited valley, besides many of the semi- 

 civilized folk of the older valleys. 



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