In Inca Land one may pass from glaciers to tree ferns within a few hours.

The Last Four Incas 170 X. Searching for the Last Inca Capital 198 XI.

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.

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.

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.

Near our tent were some Inca ruins, probably the dwelling of a shepherd chief, or possibly the remains of a temple described by Cieza de Leon (1519-1560), whose remarkable accounts of what he saw and learned in Peru during the time of the Pizarros are very highly regarded.

About five o'clock in the afternoon, on a dry pampa, we found the ruins of one of the largest known Inca storehouses, Chichipampa, an interesting reminder of the days when benevolent despots ruled the Andes and, like the Pharaohs of old, provided against possible famine.

FIGURE Inca Storehouses at Chinchipampa, near Colta Colta has a few two-storied houses, with tiled roofs.

On the other hand, it may have been occupied until late Inca times by one of the coast tribes.

It is well known that in the early days before the Inca conquest of Peru, not so very long before the Spanish Conquest, there were marked differences between the tribes who inhabited the high plateau and those who lived along the shore of the Pacific.

Our second camp was near the village of Incahuasi, "the house of the Inca," at the northwestern corner of the basin.

Incahuasi was well named; there had been at one time an Inca house here, possibly a templelakes were once objects of worshipor rest-house, constructed in order to enable the chiefs and tax-gatherers to travel comfortably over the vast domains of the Incas.

To him, likewise, the chief priest at certain times offered a child of six years, with a prayer for the prosperity of the Inca, in such terms as these: "Oh, Lord, we offer thee this child, in order that thou wilt maintain us in comfort, and give us victory in war, and keep to our Lord, the Inca, his greatness and his state, and grant him wisdom that he may govern us righteously.

To him, likewise, the chief priest at certain times offered a child of six years, with a prayer for the prosperity of the Inca, in such terms as these: "Oh, Lord, we offer thee this child, in order that thou wilt maintain us in comfort, and give us victory in war, and keep to our Lord, the Inca, his greatness and his state, and grant him wisdom that he may govern us righteously.

Those writers who have called the Inca religion a "sun worship" have been led astray by superficial resemblances.

But in the Inquiry above quoted it is explained that the belief, in fact, was that the soul of the Inca went at death to the presence of the deity Viracocha, and its emblem, the actual body, carefully preserved, was paid divine honors in order that the soul might intercede with Viracocha for the fulfillment of the prayers.

We are compelled, therefore, by the best evidence now attainable, to adopt the conclusion that the Inca religion, in its purity, deserved the name of monotheism.

Here again Ayar Cachi appeared to them, and bestowed on Ayar Manco the scarlet fillet which became the perpetual insignia of the reigning Inca.

And when in after years I stood By INCA-PAH-CHO'S haunted water, Where long ago that hunter woo'd In early youth its island daughter, And traced the voiceless solitude

ATALI'BA, the inca of Peru, most dearly beloved by his subjects, on whom Pizarro makes war.

An old man says of the inca The virtues of our monarch alike secure to him the affection of his people and the benign regard of heaven.

'Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away;' and so the pieces paid for the ransom of the Inca of Peru or Richard the Lion-hearted, the material of the spurs of Agincourt, the rings of Cleopatra and Zenobia, the golden targets of Solomon, fashioned from the treasures of Ophir, may purchase soap and candles and mutton-chops for John Smith.

" [Peru.]Garcilasso de la Vega (Commentaries Reales, v. 10), the son of a Spanish conqueror by an Indian princess, born and bred in Peru, writes: "All the strange birds and beasts which the chiefs presented to the Inca were kept at court, both for grandeur and also to please the Indians who presented them.

The case of the Inca, Yupanqui, is very curious.

The Inca took care of it, and they say that he afterwards saw everything he wanted in it.'