Hiram Bingham and the Dream of Gold by Daniel Cohen

Author:Daniel Cohen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781590773512
Publisher: M. Evans & Company

CHAPTER 7

Off the Map

Hiram Bingham returned from South America fired with enthusiasm for exploration. He wanted to find the lost gold of the Incas. He wanted to find the lost cities of the Incas. He wanted to explore the little-known portions of the Andes. He wanted to do something great, something that would make the world take notice of him.

During the summer of 1910 Bingham was in New Haven. He had written a book about his South American adventures and was reading the proofs and dreaming of getting back there somehow. He was asked to review another book on South America, this one written by Professor Adolph Bandelier. In a footnote he found a reference to Nevado Coropuna (Mount Coropuna), which according to the professor was the highest mountain in South America.

“I knew the thrill of that great and hazardous sport [mountain climbing]. My sensations when I read Bandelier’s footnote are difficult to describe....” Bingham had never heard of Coropuna before. He couldn’t find the mountain on any of the standard maps, but he finally did manage to locate it on detailed maps made by an explorer named Antonio Riamondi. It was located due south of Choqquequirau and the hidden lands “behind the ranges” that he had been told about. Somewhere back in that remote and unknown region may have been the location of Manco II’s capital.

Sitting in the quiet and comfort of Connecticut that summer, Hiram Bingham began to dream. His dream was to lead an expedition across the wildest part of Peru, to look for the lost city, the gold, and anything else he might find, and then climb Coropuna in the bargain. Bingham had no specific idea as to how this particular dream was to be financed. There were limits, even to the Tiffany fortune.

In the winter Bingham went to a class dinner at the Yale Club in New York. Since his travels had gained him a certain amount of fame, he was asked to deliver a speech. “Naturally I spoke of what was on my mind.” What was on his mind were his plans and dreams to penetrate the lands “behind the ranges.” He spoke so enthusiastically and eloquently that afterward his classmates rushed up to congratulate him. Some of the younger Yale men wanted to go along on the expedition as assistants; the older and wealthier ones offered to pay part of the expenses. Bingham was surprised, overwhelmed, and absolutely delighted.

And so in this rather haphazard fashion the Yale Peruvian expedition was formed. The expedition consisted of Professor Isaiah Bowman, geologist-geographer; Professor Harry Foote, naturalist; Dr. William G. Erving, surgeon; Karl Hendrickson, topographer; H. L. Tucker, engineer; and Paul B. Lanius, assistant. Naturally Hiram Bingham III was head of the expedition. The little band left New York in June of 1911 and arrived in Lima, Peru, late in the month.

Bingham wasn’t quite sure where to start looking. In Lima he was shown the chronicle written by Father Calanacha, who had collected reports from missionaries who had lived in the lands under the control of the great rebel Inca, Manco II.

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