the people came from.

"From a place where the foot of a white man has never trod," he replied.
"If you were strong and well. I might take you to it, and might show
you wonders you little expect to behold, so fully do I trust; but the
time may come when, free of danger, I may gratify your curiosity."

I expected that he alluded to one of those ancient villages which I had
heard of as existing in the heart of the mountains, and never discovered
by the Spaniards; where the inhabitants had continued in the enjoyment
of liberty, and the laws and customs of their ancestors. I had often
wished to visit one of those remnants of antiquity, and I became doubly
eager to do so, on finding myself in the proximity of one of them; but
Manco assured me that it would be utterly impossible to conduct me there
for a long time to come.

We had now spent a week at the huts, and I was so far recovered as to be
able to mount a horse and move about on foot with the aid of a stick;
and as my father was very anxious to proceed on his journey, we agreed
to start the following day. On hearing that we were about to depart,
the other travellers wished to accompany us; but the Indians would not
hear of it, and, I observed, kept a stricter watch than usual over them.
Manco showed great unwillingness to part with us.

"Go as you desire it, my friends," he said. "You are at liberty to do
as you judge best; but for your own sake, as well as mine, I would have
had you remain. However, as go you must, I will send some of my people
to escort you on your way; and one of them shall follow you as your
servant till you return home. He will obey you in all things, but you
must not blame him if he is absent during a few hours at times from you.
You must pay him no wages, but you must not send him from you; and if
you are asked where you found him, say in a mountain village, and that
he wished to come with you to see the world."

The next morning our new attendant made his appearance. He was a small,
active-looking man, of a lightish rusty-red colour. His dress was much
as is usually worn at the present day, consisting of loose trousers of
coarse brown cloth, fastened round the waist by a girdle, and a woollen
shirt of a dark blue colour. His poncho, which served as his outer
garment, was of alpaca wool of the same hue as his shirt; and on his
head he wore a broad-brimmed hat, while his sandals were of untanned
leather, just covering his toes, and s