Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-04-04
TO EXPLORE INCA RUINS.
Expedition From Yale Going to Peru
This Summer With That Purpose.


A Yale scientific expedition, the
most ambitious Of it's kind which the
university has ever undertaken, will
sail for Peru this summer to do explo-
ration work among the Inca ruins in
the Peruvian plateaus.
The expedition will be in charge Of
DR.. Hiram Bingham, professor of La
tin American history, and curator in
the university museum and will in
clude a topographer, geologist and
number of assistants.
The party will explore a part of
Peru at present unknown to science.
A practically unknown mountain and
lake, and the tracing of the history of
these people are the main objects OF
the party.
President Leguia of Peru, has Offer
ed the Yale men all possible govern
ment assistance. The president says
he is himself very much interested in
the work. The base of operations will
be at Arequipa, in southern Peru,
where for some years Harvard uni
versity has maintained an astronomi-
cal observatory.
There never, says the Kansas City
Star, was need of a back to the soil'
movement in Peru under the govern
ment of the Incas, the hereditary rulers
of the country before the coming OF
Francisco Pizarro and his band Of
Spanish invaders in 1882, for most or
the inhabitants never got away from
the farm. Peru under the Tncas was
the greatest country Of South America,
and dominated a number Of surround
ing countries.
1t was a solid sort of prosperity that
these southern rulers enjoyed the fruits
of, too, for it was founded upon sue
cessful agriculture. The great major
ity of the people Of the country were
farmers, and were contented to be-.
The land was distributed to the vari-
Gus clans, who owned it in common,
and everyone not incapacitated by age
or illness was compelled to be pro-
ducer. Sir Thomas More probably had
never heard of Peru when he wrote mis-
Utopia" yet it is doubtful II there
was another country in the world
which came so near fulfilling the Eng
lish dreamer's conception OF an ideal
state. Peru under the Incas was a
combination of communism and a
gentle despotism. What scanty rec
ords have been handed down Of the days
before the Spanish conquest give pic
lures of a peaceful race OF people liV-
ing contented under the control of
rulers, who made no efforts to OPP
press their subjects, although their
power was absolute.
Maize, potatoes and cotton were
raised by the ancient Peruvians. The
name Incas was given their rulers, but
used in a more general sense refers
to the whole people. Peru was not al
together an ideal land for the farmer,
as originally designed by nature, but
these early day agriculturists had done
much to improve conditions. Great
aqueducts carried water to the arid
parts Of the country, where it was dis
tributed through a network of canals
and irrigating bitches.
1t was natural enough that a people
whose chief interests were in the soil
and the raising of crops should take
as their deity the sun, without whose
aid they could not prosper. The reign
ing Inca was believed to be the per-
sonification of the sun-god, and dis
obedience of his commands was sac
rilege. And the rulers themselves
seemed to have been impressed by the
duty they owed their people-they be-
lieved that they should be something
more than chief tax collectors and
spenders. Every Inca was the father
of his people, and it was not in the
Inca creed that a father should treat