Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-02-01
LIVED BEFORE THE INcAS.
Relics OF Early Man in Andes Region
Found by Bingham.

Among the passengers arriving
yesterday December 19) on the
United fruit steamship Santa Marta
from Panama was Prof Hiram Bing-
ham of Yale, who had been on an ex-
ploring expedition for six months in
Peru, searching for pre-Inca remains
in the region of the Andes. He was
accompanied by Prof. Herbert T. Gre
CORY and DR.. George f. Eaton. both al
SO of Yale. The expedition originally
had IL members and all but two have
now returned
Prof. Bingham. who looked as pale
as {. yellow fever immune. said that
the interior of southern Peru was be
ing desolated by g succession Of
plaques, including small pox and ty-
Plus fever, and that the government
vas taking no steps to check the raw
ages of the scourges. DR.. Eaton was ill
with camp fever and Prof. Gregory was
also incapicitated from work for sew
eral weeks. The entire party lost
weight during the trip.
Prof. Bingham brought back with
him 50 human skulls of pre- Inean pc
cases of curiously wrought bronze
/ anu pltNtS VI BpthCIN. anu II
Eaton collected so cases of bones to be
sent en- later and the fosslized skele-
ton of a prehistoric horse Prof Bing-
ham nearly lost his life on one oeeas-
ior When his mules stampeded and the
Indians forsook him. He was for two
days and nights roaming about OF the
slopes of the snoWclad mountain, Pal
col, with barely any food, and the
chance of being devoured by wild ami
mails If he lay down and went to sleep.
Il went up the mountain said Prof
Bingham, with guides and six mules.
These animals are all right OH the
plains in Peru, but they do net like
mountain climbing and kept slipping
about in the snow and making desper-
ate attempts to bolt. The higher up
in the mountains we went the more
fractions the mules became, until final
~ they broke the traces and got away.
The indian guides didn't like TO see the
mules stampede, and they didn't want
TO go any further They waited till
the fall of night, however. when they
stole away and left me alone.
I'm the morning I roamed about in
the hope of coming in contact with
some kind of human being, but not 4
man was in sight, nothing but wild
animals and screaming vultures. | went
along all day making observations of
the life of the mountain, but apparent
ly going further and further out of the
path of man and away from the
path which l had originally traversed.
Then 1 saw an Indian hoy, but he
ran away, frightened apparently by
,lyitn To II iYsa
thought it was about over with me,
met an Indian, who led me back to the
camp by taking a path leading down n
2000-foot slope, wnere l saw eight mag
nficent glaciers. | do not believe any
white man ever saw them before
This was Prof. Bingham's third ex-
petition to Peru and its object, he said.
was to intensity the work that had
been left incomplete. This time he
was able to devote considerable time to
the examination of the remains of the
$50 one-story stone dwellings,, temples
and city walls of the ancient city OF
the Peruvian tribesmen, known as MIA
Gnu Picchu, constructed of carved
white and brown stone. and $260e vas
expended in excavdtins parts Of the
ruins of the city which had become
covered with heavy underground.
At Machu Picchu were found the fos-
silzed bones of historic man. skulls
and skeletons worn down to dust and
hardly distinguishable from the gravel
in which they were found. Several
bronze tablets have now been found
there, and Prof. Bingham has brought
them back with him to see whether
the quality and shape of them and
the characters on them may lead to
more being learned about the original
inhabitants of this continent.
On The previous expeditions to Peru
Prof. Bingham received every assist
ance from President Leguia, who was
an old friend of him, and from every Of
ficiai of the Peruvian government with
whom the expedition had any inter
course. This time on their arrival at
Callao il was learned that the opposi-
ton party had elected President Bill
linghurst, Lima merchant and grand
son of an English settler. A decree
issued by the Peruvian government
that the explorers We're not to prolonS
their work after December l ana were
not to deface any of the ruins of the
city of Machu Pcchu was taken eX-
ceptiCn to by the members of the eX-
petition. as it was published in the To-
cal press and was likely to hinder the
work of research they had come all
that distance to carry out. But the OPP
position was SO continuous and so Sc
we're and uncalled for, Prof. Bingham
said. that it was improbable that the
scientific work they had begun would
be continued.
We had great difficulty this time,
the professor said, in getting our cas-
es of specimens out of the country and
were delayed seven weeks by the tedi-
ous objections of the Peruvian gov
ernment. At first the officials would
not allow us to take anything at all;
then they said that we could take half
Of what we had; then they permitted
rs to take what they did not want At
last they were persuaded to let us take
all the bones and fossils which we had
collected. but the decree of the govern
ment was as insulting as IT possibly
could be.
Juan f. Leguia, son of the former
president of Peru. returned with PROF,
Bingham to go to school in Virginia.