One of Senor Lomellini’s friends, a talkative old fellow who had spent a large part of his life in prospecting for mines in the department of Cuzco, said that he had seen ruins “finer than Choqquequirau” at a place called Huayna Picchu; but he had never been to Choqquequirau.  Those who knew him best shrugged their shoulders and did not seem to place much confidence in his word.  Too often he had been over-enthusiastic about mines which did not “pan out.”  Yet his report resembled that of Charles Wiener, a French explorer, who, about 1875, in the course of his wanderings in the Andes, visited Ollantaytambo.  While there he was told that there were fine ruins down the Urubamba Valley at a place called “Huaina-Picchu or Matcho-Picchu.”  He decided to go down the valley and look for these ruins.  According to his text he crossed the Pass of Panticalla, descended the Lucumayo River to the bridge of Choqquechacca, and visited the lower Urubamba, returning by the same route.  He published a detailed map of the valley.  To one of its peaks he gives the name “Huaynapicchu, ele. 1815 m.” and to another “Matchopicchu, ele. 1720 m.”  His interest in Inca ruins was very keen.  He devotes pages to Ollantaytambo.  He failed to reach Machu Picchu or to find any ruins of importance in the Urubamba or Vilcabamba valleys.  Could we hope to be any more successful?  Would the rumors that had reached us “pan out” as badly as those to which Wiener had listened so eagerly?  Since his day, to be sure, the Peruvian Government had actually finished a road which led past Machu Picchu.  On the other hand, a Harvard Anthropological Expedition, under the leadership of Dr. William C. Farrabee, had recently been over this road without reporting any ruins of importance.  They were looking for savages and not ruins.  Nevertheless, if Machu Picchu was “finer than Choqquequirau” why had no one pointed it out to them?

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Figure

Peruvian Expedition of 1915
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To most of our friends in Cuzco the idea that there could be anything finer than Choqquequirau seemed, absurd.  They regarded that “cradle of gold” as “the most remarkable archeological discovery of recent times.”  They assured us there was nothing half so good.  They even assumed that we were secretly planning to return thither to dig for buried treasure!  Denials were of no avail.  To a people whose ancestors made fortunes out of lucky “strikes,” and who themselves have been brought up on stories of enormous wealth still remaining to be discovered by some fortunate excavator, the question of tesoro—­treasure, wealth, riches—­is an ever-present source of conversation.  Even the prefect of Cuzco was quite unable to conceive of my doing anything for the love of discovery.  He was convinced that I should find great riches at Choqquequirau—­and that I was in receipt of a very large salary!  He refused to believe that the members of the Expedition received no more than their expenses.  He told me confidentially that Professor Foote would sell his collection of insects for at least $10,000!  Peruvians have not been accustomed to see any one do scientific work except as he was paid by the government or employed by a railroad or mining company.  We have frequently found our work misunderstood and regarded with suspicion, even by the Cuzco Historical Society.