Along the Uncharted
Pampaconas BY
HIRAM BINGHAM, Ph.D.
Director of the Yale Peruvian Expedition
REPRINTED FROM HARPER'S MAGAZINE, AUGUST, 1914

Along the Uncharted Pampaconas

BY HIRAM BINGHAM, Ph.D.
Director of the Yale Peruvian Expedition

N the lower Urubamba
Valley, about a week's
journey north of Cuzco,
Peru, is a charming
sugar- estate, once
worked by the Jesuits
and now owned by a
delightful and highly cultivated gentle
man, Don Pedro Duque, who was born
in Colombia, but who came to Peru
many years ago. It was my good for
tune in July, 191 1, to meet his oldest
son, Don Alberto, in Cuzco, while we
were arranging for a trip to the Vil
cabamba country. As Don Alberto,
who was educated in the United States,
spoke not only English and Spanish, but
also Quichua, the language of the Incas
and of the majority of the residents of
the Peruvian highlands, and as he was
most courteously willing to aid us in
every possible way, we saw quite a
little of him, and eventually received
letters of introduction to several of his
friends in the Urubamba Valley, and in
particular a letter of commendation to
his father, the owner of the Santa Ana
sugar and cocoa estates.
It will be remembered that we were
at that time engaged in a search for
Vitcos, the last Inca capital. We were
also desirous of finding a place referred
to in the early Spanish chronicles as
Vilcabamba Viejo, or Old Vilcabamba.
Even in a country where we have
always received valuable government as
sistance and generous hospitality from
private individuals, our reception at
Santa Ana stands out as particularly
delightful, largely because Don Pedro
took such an interest in enabling us to
get all possible information about the
little-known region into which we pur
posed to penetrate.
Santa Ana is less than thirteen degrees
south of the equator, and the elevation
is barely three thousand feet above sea-
level; the heat in the middle of the day
is intense. Nevertheless, Don Pedro

was so energetic and enthusiastic that,
as a result of his efforts, a number of
well-informed residents were persuaded
to come up on the second floor of the
great plantation-house, with its magnifi
cent view over the cane-fields of the
lower Urubamba Valley, and tell us all
they knew about that almost totally un
explored Vilcabamba region between the
Urubamba and the Apurimac valleys.
It was not much that they had heard,
although they all agreed that if only
Lopez Torres were alive he could have
been of great service to us, for he had
prospected in those parts more than
any one else. It seems that in 1902 he
had reported that at a place called Con-
servidayoc, "somewhere over in the
montana," there was a forgotten Inca
city. This place appeared also to have
the name of Espiritu Pampa, and was
thought by some to be Vilcabamba
Viejo. They said it was near Pampa
conas; but that village was not on any
map. We could find no one who had
been there, but all assured us that it
was a terrible place to reach, and that
the savage Indians who lived near Con-
servidayoc would not let us come out
alive. We were not able to get much infor
mation with regard to the character of
the aforesaid Lopez Torres as a witness;
but Don Pedro assured us he had been
an energetic man who went about con
siderably in the montana looking for
rubber-trees. One day, by great good fortune, there
appeared at Santa Ana the teniente
gobernador, or administrative officer of
Lucma, Ebaristo Mogrevejo. Lucma
was on our way to Vilcabamba, near
Pampaconas, and Mogrevejo promptly
received orders from the sub-prefect at
Santa Ana to see to it that we were
given every facility for finding the an
cient ruins. He declined to risk his skin
in Conservidayoc, but still he carried
out these orders most faithfully.

Copyright, 1914, by Harper & Brothers.

Sketch Map of the Pampaconas and adjacent Regions

A few days later, in company with
Prof. H. W. Foote, the naturalist of the
expedition, I left the delightful hospital
ity and the charming conversation of
Santa Ana, went back a little way up
the Urubamba, and then turned south
to ascend the Vilcabamba.
This valley had once been visited by
the Italian - Peruvian explorer Antonio
Raimondi, to whom, more than to any
other one person, Peru owes a knowledge
of her own geography. But his notes
on the Vilcabamba Valley are not very
full. He was interested chiefly in mines
and minerals, and made no mention of
any ruins hereabouts. Accordingly, it
was with a feeling of considerable uncer
tainty that we proceeded on our quest.
Our first stop was at the sugar-planta
tion of Paltaybamba. The owner, Sr.
Jose S. Pancorbo, was away attending
to the affairs of a rubber estate, not
many days' journey off in the montana
of San Miguel; but his wife received
us most hospitably, and his majordomo
confirmed the information that way ofF
somewhere in the montana of Conservi-
dayoc, beyond Pampaconas, there lived
a Peruvian mestizo named Saavedra,
and that he would know all about the
ruins of Espiritu Pampa. They all said
that Saavedra lived an extremely retired
life, and that his place was a difficult
one to reach. But no one here had been

there, and accounts differed as to how
long it would take us to reach it.
Two days later we were in Lucma.
Our friend, Teniente Gobernador Mo
grevejo, showed us a number of ruins in
the vicinity, including the very impor
tant ones of Rosapata, which we were
able to prove later were those of Vitcos,
the last Inca capital. Meanwhile, Sr.
Pancorbo of Paltaybamba, on his way
back from his rubber-estates, took pains
to look us up and to beg us not to
attempt to find the ruins in the lower
jungles, explaining that the land there
was controlled by Saavedra, "a very
powerful man, having many Indians un
der his control, and living in grand
state with fifty servants, and not at all
desirous of visitors." Sr. Pancorbo and
his administrador both agreed that the
Indians were of the Campa tribe, very
wild and extremely savage, using poi
soned arrows, and most averse to
strangers. They admitted that they had
heard that there were ruins over there,
but they begged us not to go and look
for them. Our curiosity, however, was
now thoroughly aroused, and we believed
the danger to be exaggerated.
A day or so later we reached the town
of Vilcabamba, once called San Fran
cisco de la Victoria, and found it to be
a compact village of solidly built stone
huts, with heavy thatched roofs, at an

HARPER'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE

elevation of 11,700 feet above the sea.
The nights were unusually cold. The
village had the appearance of being de
serted. Most of the men were away
attending to little chacras, or farms, and
small herds of sheep, in the neighboring
valleys. Only at special festival times
and at the annual visit of the priest
has the village many inhabitants.
The church, an ancient structure with
a thatched roof that leaked, was built,
they told us, in the time of the Span
iards, at least three hundred years ago.
Its picturesque belfry stood slightly
apart. Its furnishings were meager and
its air of desolation extended over the
entire village.
In the sixteenth century, during the
viceroyalty of the celebrated Don Fran
cisco de Toledo, gold-mines were dis
covered in the adjacent mountains, and
the solidity of the stone houses was
probably due to that ancient industry.
We stayed with the gobernador, Man
uel Condore, who had received orders
from the sub-prefect to aid us in our
search. On the following day he sum
moned the oldest Indian living in the
vicinity, a picturesque old fellow named
Quispicusi. After it was explained to
him that this was a very solemn occa
sion, and that a governmental inquiry
was in progress, he endeavored to the
best of his ability to tell us about the
surrounding country. Other intelligent
Indians were summoned, but neither he
nor they, nor apparently any one else in
the village, had ever been to Conservi
dayoc, although they all agreed that it
was not more than four days' journey
away on foot in the montana, beyond
Pampaconas, and that they had heard
that there were ruins there.
Our supplies were getting low; there
was nothing to be bought in Vilca
bamba; and so, against the protesta
tions of the hospitable gobernador, we de
cided to leave the following day for
Conservidayoc, provided we could get
carriers, as all agreed it would be impos
sible to use mules after the first two
days. It seemed strange that here in the
village of Vilcabamba, only a few days'
from Conservidayoc, we could not find
any one who had ever been in the valley,
and it seemed stranger still that on

Raimondi's map there did not seem to
be any place where this valley could
exist. Apparently, Vilcabamba was as
far as Raimondi got in this direction,
and it appeared that he was the only
scientific explorer who had penetrated
this far. On his map, hitherto the only
one of the region, the watershed between
the Urubamba and the Apurimac is
shown as being at a point about six or
seven miles west from the village of Vil
cabamba. It is so shown on the map
of South Peru published by the Royal
Geographical Society in 1910. No one
could tell us of any Vilcabamba Viejo,
so we had to give that up. All our hopes
were now based on the report that at
the village of Pampaconas, about five
hours' journey on muleback from Vil
cabamba, there were people who had
been to Conservidayoc.
Pampaconas is mentioned in some of
the early Spanish chronicles as being an
important village in the time of the
Spanish conquest. It was here that a
meeting was held when the emissary
from the viceroy came to talk with one
of the sons of the unfortunate Inca
Manco, who was ruling all that his
father had saved of the grand empire of
their ancestors. But the name does not
occur on Raimondi's map, nor on those
given us by the Lima Geographical
Society. After the usual delays, caused in part
by difficulty of catching the mules which
had wandered far up into the mountain
pastures, we finally left Vilcabamba and
set out for that vague place Conservi
dayoc, which had been surrounded with
so much mystery and seemed to be in
a land of dangerous savages, albeit pos
sessing also an Inca town buried in the
jungles. Our first day's journey was to be to the
village of Pampaconas. Here and in
its vicinity, the gobernador told us he
could find guides and the half-dozen
carriers whom we needed for the trip.
As thd mountain Indians were reported
to be very averse to going, and par
ticularly averse to the sight of a man in
uniform, the two soldiers who were ac
companying us, by the orders of Prefect
Nunez in Cuzco, were instructed to stay
behind for a few hours, and not to reach
Pampaconas until just before dark. In

Our first Stopping-place— a Sugar Plantation of Paltaybamba

the mean time, our carriers were to be
engaged. It was said that if they saw
the brass buttons of a soldier coming
over the hills they would hide so effec
tively that it would be impossible to
secure anybody for the journey.
Leaving Vilcabamba, our path de
scended rapidly to the smooth, marshy
bottom of an old glaciated valley, in
which one of our mules had that morn
ing got thoroughly mired while nibbling
the succulent grasses that covered the
treacherous bog. Crossing the little
stream, we ascended the other side of
the valley and turned westward.
As we rode along there were pointed
out to us the vestiges of several ancient
mines. According to the chronicles, it
was the presence in these mountains of
rich gold-mines and their discovery in
1572 or thereabouts that led to the es
tablishment in this bleak, upland valley
of the town of San Francisco de la
Victoria, now called Vilcabamba. Rai-
mondi reported that at a little distance
from here he discovered mines of cobalt
and nickel, and also saw silver-bearing
copper ore, and even some lead sulphide.
The difficulties of transportation in this
region, however, are so great that it is
not likely any more mining will be done
here for some time to come, now that the
ancient gold-mines have been exhausted.
Vol. CXXIX.— No. 771.— 57

From the top of the pass we had a
superb view, back to the eastward, of
a long chain of snow-capped mountains.
We were greatly surprised at seeing
these, for they were not mentioned in
any way nor referred to on any map.
It was not until long afterward that we
realized that they lay mostly in a region
which actually did not exist on any map
because of an error in locating the great
river Apurimac. The old maps do not
leave room enough between the Apuri
mac and the Urubamba for this magnifi
cent glaciated area, probably one of the
largest in the world thus far undescribed.
In a portion of this region the Expedi
tion of 191 2 carried on topographic sur
veying; and it was expected that the
Expedition of 1914 would continue the
work under the auspices of Yale Uni
versity and the National Geographical
Society. To the west of us, as we stood on top
of the pass, there stretched a -great area
of high mountains and deep valleys,
unknown rivers, and splendid forest-
clad slopes. We supposed, from Rai
mondi's map, that from our elevation of
12,500 feet we were looking down into
the valley of the Apurimac; but as a
matter of fact we were looking into the
valley of the hitherto uncharted Pampa
conas, a river probably over one hundred

HARPER'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE

miles in length, which seems to empty
into the Urubamba some distance below
Rosalina. Somewhere far down in this
valley was Conservidayoc, with its sav
age Indians and its ancient ruins.
Our trail — it could hardly be called a
road — was so bad that it was only with
the greatest diffi
culty that we suc
ceeded in getting
our sure-footed
mules over it. We
frequently had to
dismount, as the
path led over a
long, steep rock
stairway; but at
last we got over
the worst of it.
We rounded a hill
and came in sight
of a little hut
perched on a
shoulder of the
mountain. In
front of it were
two or three wom
en, seated on mats
set out in the sun,
shelling corn. As
soon as they saw
the gobernador ap-
proach with
strangers they at
once began the
preparation of a
hearty meal, for it
was about eleven
o'clock, and they
did not need to be
told that the gobernador and his friends
had not had anything but a cup of coffee
since last evening.
Our hosts began by catching four or
five guinea - pigs which were running
squealing about the mud floor of the lit
tle hut, and before very long the savory
odor of roast guinea-pig, well basted,
whetted our appetites.
After lunch, we went on to the village
of Pampaconas, a settlement of small
huts scattered over gently sloping gla
ciated hillsides. It is at an elevation of
10,000 feet above the sea. Its score of
huts, built of stone and mud and
thatched with grass, are occupied by
sturdy Peruvian mountain Indians, who

The oldest Inhabitant of Vilcabamba

find it a good place in which to raise
sheep and potatoes. There was some
excitement in the village on account of
the fact that on the previous night a
jaguar had made his way up to the set
tlement from the montana jungles and
carried off one of the village ponies.
The gobernador
led us to the dwell
ing of a stocky,
well-built Indian
named Guzman,
who was selected
to be the head of
the party of car
riers that was to
take us down to
Conservidayoc.
Guzman, his wife,
and five or six
children lived in a
hut that seemed
no better nor
worse than any of
the others in Pam
paconas. It had
no windows; two
lofts; a damp
earth floor; three
or four rude niches
in lieu of shelves;
a fire in one corner
which frequently
filled the hut with
smoke; piles of
sheep -skins for
the visitors to sit
upon; three mon
grel dogs, a flea-
bitten cat, and a
dozen pigs which at frequent intervals
entered stealthily with muffled grunts,
only to be speedily driven out, squealing
loudly. During the course of the day, the
gobernador and the teniente had com
mandeered the services of half a dozen
sturdy Indians, one of whom had actu
ally been to Conservidayoc, and knew
the trail that Saavedra used when he
came out on his annual or biennial visits
to trade. Furthermore, Guzman had
seen the ruins! At last the somewhat
mythical Conservidayoc began to take
on aspects of reality.
Although it was August and supposed
to be the middle of the dry season, rain

ALONG THE UNCHARTED PAMPACONAS

began to pour early in the afternoon,
and continued without intermission dur
ing all of a very cold and dreary night.
After pitching our tent and spreading
our blankets, we went down to Guz
man's hut to oversee the butchering of
a sheep which had been killed prepara
tory to our journey into the lower val
ley. When we came back to the tent
various and sundry comfortable grunts
greeted our ears, and we found that in
our brief absence a large sow and six
fat young pigs had decided that this was
the driest place on the mountain-side,
and that our blankets made a particu
larly attractive bed. As the tent was of
the small mountain pattern, later used
on Mount Coropuna, the pigs had some
difficulty in getting out as fast as they
were urged to. They returned at inter
vals during the night. Their own shel
ter leaked.
Just as we were dropping off to sleep
our kind Indian friends insisted on sharing
their food with us, and sent up two plates
of "macaroni soup," a great delicacy
made out of the intestines of the sheep.
At daybreak we found ourselves in
most uncomfortable surroundings. Our
tent, which had not been wet before,
leaked badly during the night; the only
part of it that seemed thoroughly

waterproof being the floor. We were
lying in puddles of water. Everything
was soaking wet, and it was still rain
ing hard. As soon as Guzman heard
our voices he sent one of his children
with two more plates of hot soup, which
were most welcome, even though among
the vegetables we found this time the
jaws and teeth of the sheep that had
been killed the afternoon before.
We were anxious to make an early
start, but, partly owing to the rain and
partly owing to the necessity of pre
paring food for the ten days' journey
ahead of them, it was nearly noon be
fore enough carriers had put in an ap
pearance to justify us in starting.
In preparation for the journey, Guz
man's wife spent the morning grinding
frozen potatoes, by rocking one stone
on another, and roasting large quanti
ties of sweet Indian corn in a terra
cotta olla.
Toward noon most of the Indian
carriers arrived, and we were told that
it was possible to use the mules for one
day's journey to a place called San Fer
nando, some seven leagues hard jour
neying down the valley.
Leaving Guzman's hut, we climbed
the mountain-side back of the village to
reach a dangerous and precarious trail

Interviewing the Indians of Vilcabamba as to Traditions of the

HARPER'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE

on top of the ridge. We had to go most
of the way on foot. The recent rains
had not improved matters. Owing to
rain and fog, we could see but little of
the deep valley below us, into which we
soon began to descend by a very steep,
winding trail. From an altitude of
10,000 feet, we rapidly dropped down to
6,000 feet. The fog lifted and we found
ourselves near a small abandoned clear
ing, or chacra. Passing this, and fording
occasional little streams, we followed the
narrow path along the mountain - side
until we finally came to a little chacra
with two extremely primitive and very
small shanties, hardly deserving of the
term "hut." This place, we were in
formed, was San Fernando. The three
or four Indians living there were so
alarmed by our arrival that they disap
peared during the night. We found they
had made little clearings where they
could raise the corn and vegetables
which would not grow any nearer the
sheep pastures and potato-fields of Pam
paconas. It was only with the greatest
difficulty that we could find, and clear, a
place for our tent, so steep were all the
slopes, even in the chacras.
About half- past eight we felt an
earthquake, and the Indians rushed
out of their shanty, crying, "Temblor!"
There were a dozen vibrations, lasting
three or four seconds.
During the night it rained hard.
The next morning we .arranged the
loads so that each man should carry not
more than fifty pounds, one soldier was
sent back to Pampaconas with the
mules, and we started off on foot. Half
an hour's walk brought us to another
little clearing called Vista Alegre. It
deserved its name, for it certainly had a
charming view both up and down the
Pampaconas Valley. Near here the
river, which had hitherto been running
in a westerly direction, turned to the
northward. In the clearing at Vista
Alegre we saw the tallest corn-stalks
that either Professor Foote or myself
had ever observed. Some of them were
about eighteen feet in height. In the
midst of the little clearing rose a gigantic
tree, almost completely enveloped in the
embrace of a magnificent parasite.
Our path now followed the banks of
the Pampaconas River, and then turned

into the jungle, where it became more
and more difficult. Crawling over rocks,
under branches, along slippery little
precipices, on steps that had been cut in
earth and rock, over a trail that not
even a dog could follow, we made our
way painfully down the valley.
We could see little of the scenery on
account of the density of the jungle.
About three o'clock we reached another
little clearing named Pacaypata, where
there was a six -by -five shanty, and
where we managed to bank up a bit of
nearly level ground on which to pitch
our tent. So steep was most of the land
that it was apparently only with the
greatest difficulty that the Indians had
succeeded in finding a few gentle slopes
on little alluvial fans which it was worth
while to clear for the sake of plant
ing a small garden. In the clearing at
Pacaypata we noticed sugar-cane, sweet-
potatoes, bananas, green peppers, corn,
and grenadillas. A magnificent forest-
covered mountain rose opposite us across
the valley to a point which we estimat
ed to be about five thousand feet above
the river, or twelve thousand feet above
the sea.
We made an early start the next
morning, and found ourselves confronted
by several very steep descents and as
cents as we crossed the little tributaries
of the Pampaconas. As we advanced
deeper into the montana, the men found
it more and more tiresome to carry their
loads. About one o'clock Guzman told
us we must stop, as we were approaching
territory of los salvaie s (the savages), and
that we must now send a man ahead to
warn them that we were coming on a
friendly mission; otherwise, they might
attack us, or else, if afraid of the size
of our party, 1 run away and disappear
into the jungle. He said we should
never be able to find the ruins without
their help. The man who was selected
did not seem to relish his task.
It was a rather exciting half-hour
while we waited, wondering what atti
tude the savages would take toward us,
trying to picture to ourselves the poten
tate Saavedra, who had been painted
as sitting in the midst of savage luxury,
surrounded by fifty servants, and direct
ing his myrmidons either to fight or to
disappear into the jungle.

One of our Carriers crossing * typical Bridge over the Pampaconas

Suddenly we were startled by the
sound of rapid footsteps, and we in
stinctively held our guns a little tighter,
when there burst out of the woods into
the little clearing where we were seated
a pleasant-faced young Peruvian, quite
conventionally clad, who had come run
ning from his father Saavedra to give us
a most cordial welcome. It was quite
a relief to encounter this kind of welcome
instead of a shower of arrows, but we
still wondered what Saavedra must be
like. Gathering up our packs, we con
tinued on through the jungle, that got
continually higher and deeper, until
presently we saw sunlight ahead, and
came out on the edge of a sugar-cane
field! This was Conservidayoc! In ''a
few moments we were at Saavedra's
hut, welcomed very simply and modestly
by that worthy himself. A more pleas
ant and peaceable little man it was never
my good fortune to meet. We looked
for the fifty savages, but all we saw
was his good-natured wife, three or four
small children, and a wild-eyed savage
girl, evidently the maid-of-all-work.
Back of his hut was a thatched shelter
under which he had constructed a little
sugar-mill that could be worked by foot-
power. Near it were some large pots
which he used in the process of making

crude sugar, but which we recognized
were of Inca origin and had been con
structed probably several centuries ago.
He said he had found them in the jungle
not far away.
Before long an abundant meal of
boiled chicken, rice, and sweet yucca
was set before us, and we were given to
understand that we were not only most
welcome, but that everything would be
done to enable us to reach the ruins,
which, it seemed, were some distance
farther on down the valley, and at pres
ent separated from us by an almost
impassable trail.
The next day, while our carriers were
engaged in clearing this old trail, Profess
or Foote collected moths and butterflies,
including eight new species, and I in
spected Saavedra's little plantation. We
found he had more sugar-cane than he
could grind, plenty of sweet - potatoes
and yuccas, nice coffee-trees, and some
bananas. Here in the wilderness this
veritable Peruvian pioneer had estab
lished his primitive sugar -estate, and
had constructed two primitive hand-and-
foot-power sugar-mills of the hardwood
of the forest. He was not an Indian
potentate, but only a frontiersman and
sugar- planter, and also an ingenious
carpenter and mechanic. He told us he

A Halt near Pampaconas

had managed to send two of his children
to school to Cuzco.
It seemed strange that he should have
taken the trouble to make two sugar-
mills, one near the house, and the other
in the valley below; but when we re
membered that he had no pack animals,
and was obliged to bring the cane to the
mill on his own back and the back of his
son, except when he could get an Indian
to help him, we realized that it was
easier to put in time, while the cane was
growing, in constructing a mill near the
cane-field than to have to carry the cane
up the hill.
His heaviest burden was to get money
with which to pay his taxes, as the only
way in which he could get any cash was
by making a few pounds of crude brown
sugar, chancaca, and selling it, at ten
cents a pound, in the village of Vil
cabamba, three hard days' journey on
foot from his little plantation.
His was certainly a hard lot, but he
did not complain, although he said it
was very difficult to keep the trails open,
as the jungle grew so fast and the river
continually washed away his bridges.
His chief burden was the fact that, as a
result of a recent revolution with which
he had had nothing to do, it had
been decreed that all firearms should be

turned in to the government; and so he
had lost the one thing he needed to en
able him to get fresh meat other than the
occasional chickens which he could raise.
He said that near his house he had
found several bottle-shaped holes lined
with stones, with a flat stone placed on
top, evidently ancient graves. However,
he discovered nothing in them except a
yellowish clay, the bones having en
tirely disappeared. The stone over one
of the graves had been pierced, and the
hole covered with a thin sheet of beaten
silver. Apart from this, he had found
a few stone implements, two or three
small bronze axes, and the large jars
which he used in making sugar.
We had almost forgotten about the
savages when our carriers announced in
a flurry of excitement that there was one
in the offing. When at length he got
sufficient courage to come and speak to
us he proved to be a miserable specimen,
suffering from a very heavy cold. He
was by far the dirtiest, most wretched
savage that I have ever seen. He was
dressed simply in a long sleeveless gown,
coming nearly to his ankles, made of a
large square of coarsely woven cloth,
with a hole in the middle for the head
to pass through, and the sides stitched
up, leaving holes for the arms.

ALONG THE UNCHARTED PAMPACONAS

By evening two others had come in,
a young man and his sister. All of them
had colds. Saavedra told us that they
were Pichanguerras of the Campa tribe.
Saavedra and his son spoke a little of
their language, which sounded to our
unaccustomed ears like a succession of
low grunts, breathings, and gutturals,
pieced out by the sign language. The
long gowns worn by the men indicated
that they had at home one or more
wives. Before marrying they wear very
scanty attire.
The next day we continued on down
the valley, using the trail that had been
cut through the thicket by Saavedra's
son and our carriers. About noon we
emerged from the jungle onto a promon
tory, from which we had a fine view up
and down the valley, and particularly of
an alluvial fan, called Espiritu Pampa,
heavily wooded, containing two or three
small clearings, in which were the huts
of the savages.
On top of the promontory was a small
rectangular ruin of crude late Inca de
sign. From the promontory down to the
alluvial fan we followed the course of
an ancient stairway that appeared to be
nearly a third of a mile in length. It
was roughly built of uncut stones, and
about four or five feet in width.
We arrived at the clearing of the sav

ages at half-past two, just in time to
avoid a heavy thunder-shower. There
was nobody at home, and we hesitated
to enter a hut without invitation, but
the heavy downpour overcame our scru
ples, if not our nervousness.
After the shower had passed, we found
a good placebo pitch our tent not far from
the two little huts of the savages.
Not far from the Indians' huts and in
a part of the little plain which they had
cleared, we found the remains of eighteen
or twenty ancient dwellings. The ruins
consisted of roughly circular and oval
walls, fairly close together, arranged in
an irregular group. All the walls were
low, averaging from two and a half to
three feet in height, and the buildings
were from fifteen to twenty-one feet in
diameter. Some of them contained frag
ments of Inca pottery. They appeared
to be the low walls on which the arched
roofs of primitive huts had rested. ¦ We
were told that -there were better ruins
some distance off. While wandering in
the woods around the edge of the clear
ing we saw the ruins of a few other
houses. The little arable plain of Es
piritu Pampa, in this country of ter
ribly steep hills, must have been occu
pied, off and on, for many centuries.
After a brief rest, the Indians took us
over to the principal group of ruins

Campa Indians illustrating their Methods of Hunting

Ruins of an Inca House — Espiritu Pampa

situated on an old river terrace a little
distance up one of the tributaries of the
Pampaconas. Here, in dense, wet woods, we found
the remains of fifteen or twenty small
rectangular buildings somewhat resem
bling those of Choqquequirau. The lin
tels of the doors were made of three or
four narrow blocks of stone. In the
walls were a few niches. None of the
buildings were particularly well made.
In the vicinity was a fountain, resem
bling those on Titicaca Island described
by Squier and Bandelier.
In the huts of the savages, and also
in the vicinity of the ruins, there were
several fragments of Inca pottery, and
one or two whole pieces that the Indians
were using in their cooking. Equally
interesting were a few red Spanish
roofing-tiles of various sizes and one or
two round stones, apparently made by
Spanish hands, as though, at some time
in the distant past, this had been a
missionary settlement.
The characteristic architecture of the
principal group of ruins, however, left
no doubt in our minds that these build
ings had been constructed by the Incas.
This conclusion is borne out by the
shapes of the houses, the general ar
rangement of the group, the presence of
niches and projecting cylindrical stones

in the walls of the houses, and the gen
eral appearance of the walls. Most of
the houses appear at one time to have
been a story and a half in height, with
gable ends like those of Choqquequirau.
Two hundred yards away is another
group, called by the Indians Eromboni
Pampa. The principal building of this
group is 192 feet long, 24 feet wide;
with twelve doors, fairly equally spaced,
in front, and a similar number in the
rear of the building. The doors were
about three and a half feet wide; none
of the lintels were in place, although
some were on the ground near by. This
building had no niches and no cylinders,
so far as one could judge, although the
whole place was very much in ruins.
The walls appeared to have been covered
with mud. This place, with an altitude
of only 4000 feet, is lower in the jungles
of the Amazon than any Inca ruins hith
erto reported.
The next day we cleared away as
much as we could of the jungle so as to
get a few pictures, and to our surprise,
and apparently to that of the Indians,
discovered, only a few feet away from
the principal group of ruins, two houses
of superior construction, well fitted with
niches and perches. These houses stand
by themselves on a little artificial ter
race below the level of the other group.

ALONG THE UNCHARTED r*AMFACOMAbi

The Inca Titu Cusi may have lived
here.
In the last of the houses that we found
were small ventilators (or possibly holes
for rafters) in the side walls above the
niches. The fragments of pottery found
in these houses were characteristically
Inca, and included pieces of large water,
or chica, jars of the type known as the
aryballus. So dense is the jungle that one could
hardly see more than five or six feet in
any direction except along the trail, and
we sent the Indians to hunt all about
for more buildings. All they managed
to find was a group of three little foun
tains and a carefully built stone bridge
over a brook, on the path connecting the
two groups of ruins. More or less rain.
interfered considerably with the work of
clearing and taking photographs.
It was impossible, in the length of time
at our disposal, to continue the survey of
the river any distance below the ruins.
It was to see if the ruins of Espiritu
Pampa existed that we had ventured
into this region, and after locating them
and observing their Incaic character our
work was over. In the mean time we
had been so fortunate as to alter mate
rially the map of this portion of Peru.
Our carriers showed signs of restless
ness, and so we returned to Saavedra's
house at Conservidayoc that evening.
While we had been gone from Saave
dra's he had secured the services of
some of his Indian neighbors to help him
grind some sugar-cane, and part of the
evening was spent in boiling the juice
and making some excellent brown sugar,
which was allowed to cool in primitive
square molds cut in a huge log flattened
on two sides. Into some of the molds
Saavedra* s son sprinkled a few peanuts,
making a delightful mixture which we
greatly enjoyed on our return journey.
The next day proved to be the sixth
of consecutive rains; but although we
had been thoroughly drenched each day,
we all felt well repaid for our hard trip.
That night we came again to Pacaypata.
Another day of rain brought us to
San Fernando. Here we met our soldier,

who had returned with the mules, and
the next day. in the midst of torrential
tropical downpours, we worked our way
up the valley to Pampaconas. It is
doubtful whether a more cold, wet, and
bedraggled caravan ever arrived at Guz
man's hut.
A couple of weeks later, Messrs. Hen-
driksen and Tucker, of the topographic
section of the expedition, went down the
Pampaconas Valley as far as Espiritu
Pampa, and made a sketch map and a
number of astronomical observations so
as to fix the course of the river and the
location of the ruins.
It is interesting to note that the
Pampaconas River actually follows the
course laid down on the maps for the
Apurimac River, between latitude 130
and 130 10' S. and longitude 730 and 73°
30' W. As a matter of fact, the Apuri
mac is thirty miles farther to the south
than it is represented on the maps, and
the little river which is shown on Rai
mondi's map as rising near Vilcabamba
and flowing south into the Apurimac
actually turns to the north, becomes a
considerable stream about one hundred
miles in length, and probably empties
into the Urubamba somewhere below
Rosalina. Professor Bowman and Dr.
Erving, of the expedition, in their jour
ney down the rapids of the Urubamba,
later reported two large rivers, the Cori-
beni and the Sirialo, said to rise in the
Vilcabamba mountains. It is entirely
possible that the Sirialo is the local name
of the river known higher up as the Pam
paconas. Perhaps some day it will be our good
fortune to determine more accurately
the full course of all of these rivers. In
the mean time we must content ourselves
with the satisfaction of having put a
new river on the map and of having
located Inca ruins at a lower elevation
in the Amazon jungles than had been
hitherto supposed possible. If, as seems
likely, these ruins represent one of the
last royal residences in Peru, it was
doubly worth while to venture into the
imaginary terrors of Conservidayoc and
the Pampaconas Valley.

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