Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

490 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
it more convenient for reference here. The scale
of the map is, approximately,
six miles to an inch.'
In Dr. Theodore Wolff's Geografia et Geologia
de Eciiador (1892), the region of Llanganati is still
referred to as the most unknown part of the whole
of Ecuador.]
A HIDDEN TREASURE OF THE INCAS, IN THE
MOUNTAINS OF LLANGANATI, ECUADOR ; AN
AUTHENTIC GUIDE TO ITS LOCALITY ;
ILLUS-
TRATED BY A MAP. THE MAP COPIED AND
THE GUIDE TRANSLATED BY RlCHARD SPRUCE
In the month of July 1857 I reached Banos,
where I learnt that the snowy points I had observed
from Puca-yacu, between Tunguragua and Coto-
paxi, were the summits of a group of mountains
called Llanganati, from which ran down to the
Pastasa the densely-wooded ridges I saw to north-
ward. I was further informed that these mountains
abounded in all sorts of metals, and that it was
universally believed the Incas had deposited an
immense quantity of gold in an artificial lake on
the flanks of one of the peaks at the time of the
Spanish Conquest. They spoke also of one Valverde,
a Spaniard, who from being poor had
suddenly become very rich, which was attributed to
his having married an Indian girl, whose father
showed him where the treasure was hidden, and
accompanied him on various occasions to bring
away portions of it ; and that Valverde returned to
Spain, and, when on his death-bed, bequeathed the
secret of his riches to the king. Many expeditions,
public and private, had been made to follow the