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Show 432 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. stood at the moment, there was an artificial, large-flowered Datura tree (Guanto ), formed of gold wire and gold plates, which spread its branches over the Inca's chair, impressed me deeply but painfully, for it seemed as if these illusive and baseless visions were cherished as consolations in present sufferings. I asked the lad-11 Since you and your parents believe so firmly in the existence of this garden, are not you sometimes tempted in your necessities to dig in search of treasures so close at hand?" The boy's answer was so simple, and expressed so fully the quiet resignation characteristic of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country, that I noted it in Spanish in my journal. 11 Such a desire (tal an toj o) does not come to us ; father says it would be sinful (que fuese pecado). If we had the golden branches, with all their golden fruits1 our white neighbors would hate and injure us. We have a small field and good wheat (buen trigo )." Few of my readers, I think, will blame me for recalling here the words of the young Astorpilco and his golden visions. 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 which prevailed, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, i. 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 11 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 Huana Capac, and who holds his court with the same magnificence, an annual tribute of £300,000 sterling, as the |
