Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

HIDDEN TREASURE 517
complete absence of detail in Guzman's map, which
contains nothing that might not have been derived
from observations made from the heights north of
o
the river, and from information given by wandering
Indians.
It is also to be noted that only four sleeping-places
are mentioned in the " Guide," so that the whole
journey occupied five days. The last of the four
sleeping-places is before reaching the spot where
the path turns back round the Margasitas Mountain,
so that the whole distance from this
'
"
lake made by hand must be less
place
than
to the
twenty
miles, a distance which would take us to the nearer
slopes of the great Topo Mountain. In this part of
the route the marks given in the " Guide " are so
and so well-defined that it cannot be difficult
many
to follow them, especially as the path indicated
seems to be mostly above the forest-region.
For the various reasons now adduced,
I am con-
vinced that the " Route " of Valverde is a genuine
and thoroughly trustworthy document, and that by
closely following the directions therein given, it may
still be possible for an explorer of means and energy,
with the assistance of the local authorities, to solve
the interesting problem of the Treasure of the Incas.
The total distance of the route, all its
following
sinuosities, cannot exceed ninety or a hundred miles
at most, fully three-fourths of which must be quite
easy to follow, while the remainder is very clearly
described. Two weeks would therefore suffice for
the whole expedition.
I have written this in the hope that some one who
speaks Spanish fluently, has had some experience