CHAPTER II—A TALE OF OLD
Of all the stories of ancient days in South America which Ferdinand de Avilar told them, none interested the boys so much as the tale of the city of Chan Chan. This city was the capital of the Great Chimu, ruler of a mighty empire that antedated the Incas.
“You see,” explained Ferdinand, early in their acquaintance, “my father always has been greatly interested in the ancient history of our land. He has in his library all the books containing the old legends and history, and naturally I have devoured them. At one time when I was younger, he financed an archaeological expedition that explored the ruins of Chan Chan.
“It is little known to the outside world, he says, that, great and mighty as they were, the Incas were not the first great civilized people of South America. Before they poured down from the Andes to conquer the Pacific coast, there dwelt here a powerful and highly civilized people called the Chimus.
“Inland from Salaverry, on the Peruvian coast, was the capital of the Great Chimu, the city of Chan Chan. It was one of the largest cities of the old world, perhaps the largest, who knows. It covered more than forty square miles of territory, and was larger than Babylon. Here the Chimus had great factories for the manufacture of textiles, pottery, etc. Their artificers in gold and silver were cunning and skilled.
“Vast wealth was theirs, vaster even than that of the Incas. There were great palaces and temples in Chan Chan that were repositories for the choicest, the most glittering works of art in gold and silver. They had a language that had attained a high degree of culture, a literature that included poetry and drama. Fragments of their writing have been found, and it resembled that of the ancient Egyptians.
“Then the conquering Incas, having brought the Andean people under their sway, came to the land of the Chimus. The Incas were the Romans of this land, the warriors and conquerors. But the Chimus, too, were warriors, and the struggle between these two great nations was long and bitter. At last the Chimu armies, however, were forced back to the protection of the great walls of Chan Chan.
“Long was the siege. Attack after attack was repelled. Finding they could not carry Chan Chan by storm, the Incas at length hit upon a device which had won them many a walled city. They cut off the water supply of Chan Chan. Lofty aqueducts had been built by the Chimu kings to bring water from the mountains more than a hundred miles away, and within the city this water was stored in a great reservoir larger than any ever built by the Romans.
“The Incas cut off this water supply. Gradually the vast population penned within the walls of Chan Chan absorbed all the water in the reservoir. The wells which had been digged within the city were insufficient. The Chimus were forced to surrender.
“But before the end, the Great Chimu foresaw the coming of defeat. He resolved to bury the Great Treasure of his dynasty. And this has never been found. Much of the tremendous wealth of the Incas was loot from the Chimus, but the Great Treasure escaped them.
“When the Spaniards came,” continued Ferdinand, “they learned the story of the Great Chimu and how he had hidden the Great Treasure. Into the ruined temples and palaces of Chan Chan and of other cities of the Chimu kingdom, they delved. Vast treasure thus was recovered, and sent to Spain. But the Great Treasure—no. This, says my father, has never been found.”
Seeing how eager the boys were to hear of these old tales, and nothing loth himself to talk about them, Ferdinand on another occasion repeated the legend of the “Enchanted City of the Caesars.”
“This story, so far as any public or semi-public record goes,” he said, “was first made known through the sworn statements of two Spaniards who arrived in Concepcion, Chile, in 1557. They declared that for seventeen years they had lived in the Enchanted City. But while these statements gave details of the origin and existence of the Enchanted City, they supplied no accurate data for its location. Now, however, I have reason to believe, another statement has come to light, made by another member of de Arguello’s little band, and giving more definite data. And it is this statement which my father possesses.
“But I can see how eager you are, how puzzled by what I have said, and I shall begin at the beginning. That will be better, perhaps.” And Ferdinand smiled at the three shining-eyed friends surrounding him.
“To begin, then,” he said, “it was in the days when Pedro de Valdivia was setting out from Peru to conquer this land of Chile, then a province of the overthrown Inca empire, that a galleon from Spain was wrecked on the coast of Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America. That is a wild and inhospitable coast, devoid of verdure, where not even game is to be found. They must either march forward or die.
“The captain of the band was Sebastian de Arguello. He had with him some 200 soldiers and sailors, thirty conquistadores or gentleman adventurers of Spain who sought fortune in Peru, three priests, and a score of women.
“They were a thousand miles from the nearest Spanish settlements in northern Chile, but there was nothing to do if they would survive except attempt to reach them.
“So the march began, through the great forests of arbor vitae and along those rugged, barren coasts. In those days, there were giants in the land. For that is Patagonia, and it is not so many years ago that the last of the giant Patagonians of ancient days passed away. They were real giants, six and a half feet tall, terrible fighters in guerrila warfare. Day and night they attacked from ambush, and dread, indeed, must have been the times when the Spaniards were forced to abandon the seacoast and attempt to thread the forest, for always the giants would be lying in wait.
“At length, however, the little band won its way through Patagonia, with numbers reduced from the fighting, and seven of the women dead from the unendurable hardships of the march. Yet they had but conquered one danger to encounter a greater. They are now on the borders of Auraucania.
“You do not know what that means. Ah, my friends, even today Auraucania is a land that is little known. For it is inhabited by the fiercest and most warlike of all the Indian peoples. The Incas found them so, and were never able to conquer them. The Spaniards, even with cannon, could do nothing against them. It is only within the last forty or fifty years that any white men have been permitted to enter their country.
“Against the wild dash of Auraucanians, de Arguello’s men, doughty though they were, could make no headway. A counsel was held. Rather than face decimation in an attempt to cut their way through Auraucania, the members of the band decided to skirt that savage land. Eastward, therefore, they struck toward the vast and towering wall of the Andes, with some hope of skirting Auraucania, and, if not that, then to settle where game and water abounded.
“Suddenly one day they came into a valley glimmering with lakes, a broad valley ringed round by mountains, with fields that were irrigated and under cultivation, laborers working in them, but no farm-house in sight. These laborers fled to the forest in fright at the approach of the Spaniards, but one was taken captive and brought to de Arguello to be questioned.
“To the starved and harried Spaniards, the prospect was fair, indeed. What a place in which to settle. Therefore, when the laborer was brought before de Arguello and the conquistadores, he was plied with questions as to the ownership of this land. Despite the fact that he was a laborer, the man had a proud bearing that arrested de Arguello’s attention. ‘Art thou not of the Inca blood?’ he asked. Folding his arms, the man replied, ‘I am.’
“As to what then transpired, the account does not state. For you must remember it was written by men who were not leaders among the Spaniards, but men-at-arms. They were not in the counsel. At length, however, the laborer was seen to depart and to make his way across the valley and disappear into the mountains. Camp was pitched by a spring on the edge of the forest, and late in the afternoon the laborer returned.
“De Arguello then gave orders that his return should be awaited, which he declared would not be until the following day, and set out with one of the priests and the laborer. All that night, the Spanish force lay under arms, not knowing what to expect.
“But shortly after sunrise the next day de Arguello returned alone. He called his force about him, and addressed them. ‘Men,’ said he, in effect, ‘within those towering mountains beyond this valley lies an enchanted city. It is all built of palaces of stone with roofs that shine like gold. Within those palaces is furniture of gold and silver. They are a very pleasant people who dwell there, Incas who have fled thither from Peru.
“Their city is ringed round with terrible mountains, abounding in gold and precious stones, unscalable by an enemy. The only approach is through a tunnel they have cut through the flank of a mountain. From these broad fields they draw their sustenance.
“This is the message they bid me bring to you: ‘If it be peace, ye can mix and mingle with us. There be women ye can have to wife. If it be war, we trust in our fastnesses.’ Men, what shall it be?
“With one voice, they shouted, ‘Peace!’
“That,” concluded Ferdinand, “is the tale of the Enchanted City of the Caesars, so-called because the Emperors of Spain were the modern Caesars by reason of the vastness of their empire.”
“And hasn’t it ever been sought for?” asked Bob. “Surely, the Spaniards in their eagerness for treasure would not have overlooked such a story as that told by the two men.”
“You are right,” said Ferdinand, nodding, “it was sought for. Expedition after expedition was sent out by the Viceroys of the Spanish provinces clear down to the War of Independence in the early nineteenth century, which freed South America from the yoke of Spain. But it was never found, and, although there are people who still believe it existed, it is generally supposed nowadays to be merely mythical.”
“And is it in search of this ‘Enchanted City’ that we are going?” asked Frank.
“I don’t know,” answered Ferdinand. “But I believe the ‘Enchanted City’ figures in the manuscript which my father has obtained, and it may be that we go to look for it.”