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PDFQuispi Cusi testifying about Inca Ruins 268
Photograph by H. W. Foote
One of our Bearers crossing the Pampaconas River 268
Photograph by H. W. Foote
Saavedra and his Inca Pottery 288
Inca Gable at Espiritu Pampa 288
Inca Ruins in the Jungles of Espiritu Pampa 294
Photograph by H. W. Foote
Campa Men at Espiritu Pampa 302
Photograph by H. L. Tucker
Campa Women and Children at Espiritu Pampa 302
Photograph by H. L. Tucker
Puma Urco, near Paccaritampu 306
The Best Inca Wall at Maucallacta, near Paccaritampu 312
The Caves of Puma Urco, Near Paccaritampu 312
Flashlight View of Interior of Cave, Machu Picchu 320
Temple over Cave at Machu Picchu; suggested by the Author as the
Probable Site of Tampu-tocco 320
Detail of Principal Temple, Machu Picchu 324
Detail of Exterior of Temple of the Three Windows, Machu Picchu 324
The Masonry Wall with Three Windows, Machu Picchu 328
The Gorges, opening Wide Apart, reveal Uilcapampa’s Granite Citadel,
the Crown of Inca Land 338
Except as otherwise indicated the illustrations are from photographs by the author.
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Sketch Map of Southern Peru. ------
INCA LAND
CHAPTER I
Crossing the Desert
A kind friend in Bolivia once placed in my hands a copy of a most interesting book by the late E. George Squier, entitled “Peru. Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas.” In that volume is a marvelous picture of the Apurimac Valley. In the foreground is a delicate suspension bridge which commences at a tunnel in the face of a precipitous cliff and hangs in mid-air at great height above the swirling waters of the “great speaker.” In the distance, towering above a mass of stupendous mountains, is a magnificent snow-capped peak. The desire to see the Apurimac and experience the thrill of crossing that bridge decided me in favor of an overland journey to Lima.
As a result I went to Cuzco, the ancient capital of the mighty empire of the Incas, and was there urged by the Peruvian authorities to visit some newly re-discovered Inca ruins. As readers of “Across South America” will remember, these ruins were at Choqquequirau, an interesting place on top of a jungle-covered ridge several thousand feet above the roaring rapids of the great Apurimac. There was some doubt as to who had originally lived here. The prefect insisted that the ruins represented the residence of the Inca Manco and his sons, who had sought refuge from Pizarro and the Spanish conquerors of Peru in the Andes between the Apurimac and Urubamba rivers.
While Mr. Clarence L. Hay and I were on the slopes of Choqquequirau the clouds would occasionally break away and give us tantalizing glimpses of snow-covered mountains. There seemed to be an unknown region, “behind the Ranges,” which might contain great possibilities. Our guides could tell us nothing about it. Little was to be found in books. Perhaps Manco’s capital was hidden there. For months afterwards the fascination of the unknown drew my thoughts to Choqquequirau and beyond. In the words of Kipling’s “Explorer”:
