NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
it more convenient for reference here. The scale 
of the map is, approximately, six miles to an inch. 
In Dr. Theodore Wolff's Geografia et Geologia 
de Ecuador (1892), the region of Llanganati is still 
referred to as the most unknown part of the whole 
of Ecuador.] 
A Hidden Treasure of the Incas, in the 
Mountains of Llanganati, Ecuador ; an 
authentic guide to its locality ; illus- 
TRATED BY A Map. The Map copied and 
THE Guide translated by Richard Spruce 
In the month of July 1857 I reached Banos, 
where I learnt that the snowy points I had observed 
from Puca-yacu, between Tunguragua and Coto- 
paxi, were the summits of a group of mountains 
called Llanganati, from which ran down to the 
Pastasa the densely-wooded ridges I saw to north- 
ward. I was further informed that these mountains 
abounded in all sorts of metals, and that it was 
universally believed the Incas had deposited an 
immense quantity of gold in an artificial lake on 
the flanks of one of the peaks at the time of the 
Spanish Conquest. They spoke also of one Val- 
verde, a Spaniard, who from being poor had 
suddenly become very rich, which was attributed to 
his having married an Indian girl, whose father 
showed him where the treasure was hidden, and 
accompanied him on various occasions to bring 
away portions of it ; and that Valverde returned to 
Spain, and, when on his death-bed, bequeathed the 
secret of his riches to the king. Many expeditions, 
public and private, had been made to follow the 
