At last we caught glimpses of the fields of sugarcane that have made Abancay famous throughout Peru. To one who has seen the broad canefields of Hawaii or the great plantations of Cuba and Porto Rico, the fame of this rather small district would be surprising. But after passing over the bleak highlands of Peru and experiencing the chill of the mountain climate, one feels more ready to appreciate that a warm, rich valley, eight thousand feet above the sea, where sugar can be easily raised, is a matter for profound congratulation.
A long descent down a very bad road brought us into a charming region. A mile from Abancay itself we were met by the sub-Prefect and a dozen sugar planters and caballeros who had taken the trouble to saddle their horses and come out to give us a fitting welcome. After an interchange of felicitations, we clattered gayly into town and were taken at once to the Prefecture. Here Hon. J. J. Nuñes, the genial Prefect, gave us a cordial reception and apologized for the fact that he had quite a large family and could not give us suitable sleeping quarters in the Prefecture. As it was, he placed the local club entirely at our disposal. We were only too glad to accept, for the club’s two pleasant rooms overlooked the little plaza and commanded a very pretty view of the ancient church and steep hills beyond.
Hardly had we had time to turn around in our new quarters before the Prefect came to make a formal call. He at once broached the subject of the ruins of Choqquequirau and begged us to visit them.
It seems that in Quichua, the language of the Incas, still spoken by a majority of the mountaineers of Peru, Choqquequirau means a “Cradle of Gold.” Attracted by this romantic name and by the lack of all positive knowledge concerning its last defenders, several attempts had been made during the past century to explore its ruins and to discover the treasure which it is supposed the Incas hid here instead of allowing it to fall into the hands of Pizarro with the ransom of Atahualpa. Owing to the very great difficulty of reaching the site of the ruins a tradition had grown up that the Incas built a great city that once contained over fifteen thousand inhabitants, high up on the mountain-side, six thousand feet above the river Apurimac. That the tradition had a basis of fact had been demonstrated occasionally by bold mountain-climbers who succeeded in reaching a part of the ruins.
We were told that the first man to reach there went and came alone. All he saw was a stone wall which he reached late in the afternoon, exhausted and without food. He slept in its shelter, left his gun as proof that he had been there, and came away early the next morning, anxious only to get home. A generation later a small party of adventurers succeeded in reaching the ruins with enough food to last them for two days. They excavated two or three holes in a vain effort to find buried treasure and returned with a tale of sufferings that kept any one from following their example for twenty years. They brought back reports of rocky “palaces, paved squares, temples, prisons, and baths,” all crumbling away beneath luxuriant tropical vegetation. Then a local magistrate, dreaming of untold riches, so ran the tale, endeavored to construct a path by which it might be possible to reach Choqquequirau and to maintain a transportation service of Indian carriers who could provide workmen with food while they were engaged in making a systematic effort to unearth the “Cradle of Gold.” This man had at his disposal the services of a company of soldiers and a large number of Indians, and it is said that he expended a large amount of time and money in his quest. He succeeded in reaching the top of the ridge 12,000 feet above the river and 6000 feet above Choqquequirau, but was unable to scale the precipices that surround the ruins, and all his labor came to nought. Others tried to utilize the path that he had made, but without success, until the present Prefect of the department of Apurimac, Honorable J. J. Nuñes, assumed office and became interested in the local traditions. Under his patronage, a company of treasure-seekers was formed and several thousand dollars subscribed.
The first difficulty that they encountered was the construction of a bridge over the frightful rapids of the Apurimac. All efforts failed. Not a Peruvian could be found willing to venture his life in the whirlpool rapids. Finally “Don Mariano,” an aged Chinese peddler, who had braved the terrors of the Peruvian mountains for thirty years, dared to swim the river with a string tied to his waist. Then after much patient effort he succeeded in securing six strands of telegraph wire from which he hung short lengths of fibre rope and wove a mat of reeds two feet wide to serve as a foot path for a frail suspension bridge. Once on the other side, the company was able to use a part of the trail made twenty years ago, but even with that aid it took three months of hard work to surmount the difficulties that lay between the river and Choqquequirau. Cheered on by the enthusiastic Prefect and his aide, Lieut. Caceres, an exceptionally bold officer, the task which had defied all comers for four hundred years was accomplished. A trail that could be used by Indian bearers was constructed through twelve miles of mountain forest, over torrents and precipices, and across ravines from the river to the ruins.
With these and similar stories we were regaled by one and another of the local antiquarians, including the president of the treasure company and our friend the Prefect.
We felt at first as though we could not possibly spare the week which would be necessary for a visit that would be worth while. Furthermore we were not on the lookout for new Inca ruins and had never heard of Choqquequirau. But the enthusiasm of the Prefect and his friends was too much for us. The Prefect held it out as an extra inducement that no foreigners had ever visited Choqquequirau, a statement that I later found to be incorrect. Finally he said that President Leguia of Peru, knowing that we were to pass this way, had requested the company to suspend operations until we had had a chance to see the ruins in their original condition. In short so urgent were the Prefect’s arguments, and so ready was he to make it easy for us, that we finally consented to go and see what his energy had uncovered.
That night he gave us an elaborate banquet to which he had invited fifteen of the local notables. After dinner we were shown the objects of interest that had been found at Choqquequirau, including several ancient shawl-pins and a few nondescript metallic articles. The most interesting was a heavy club fifteen inches long and rather more than two inches in diameter, square, with round corners, much like the wooden clubs with which the Hawaiians beat tapa. It has a yellowish tinge that gave rise to a story that it was pure gold. Unfortunately we had no means of analyzing it, but I presume it was made, like the ancient Inca axes, of copper hardened with tin.
The next afternoon, amidst a heterogeneous mess of canned provisions, saddles, rugs, and clothes, we packed, and received distinguished guests. Almost everyone who called told us that he was going to accompany us on the morrow, and we had visions of a general hegira from Abancay.