To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

It has occurred to me that readers of the CRIMSON will be interested in the latest Peruvian Expedition, organized to search for the great Inca University. This institution has been lost to civilization for nearly five centuries; but vague references to it have occurred in the annals of early Spanish explorers. Notable among them was one Juan deCabrera, who tells in a somewhat Marcopolian style of this great Inca university.

"At Chita one informed me," he says in my rough-and-ready translation, "of a community of learned men hidden in the mountain fastnesses. Their abode, perched on one of the lofty peaks in the snow-clad Andes, is almost inaccessible to hostile philistines. There, amidst the glorious inspiration of rugged mountains and tropical valleys, they ply their brains in perfect isolation, their climate equable for work, their minds bent on the sole task of learning and teaching. Parents from all parts of the Empire, from Lake Titicaca on one hand to Gar-liccodor in the South, at great sacrifice and expense send their children to this fortress of wisdom. . . . It is said," he continues, (facetiously, no doubt) "that on their periodic visits at home these youthful prodigles are inconsolable, and spend their time bemoaning the length of their vacations, which keep them from their beloved halls of knowledge." His entertaining narrative goes on to describe in glowing terms their advanced ideas, their complete and efficient equipment, their artistic as well as scholarly development, and their system of administration, all of which, he declares, might serve as a model for the great institutions of what he calls the civilized world.

The expedition, inaugurated last July, has now made enough progress so that I can assure you an entertaining and perhaps and enlightening account as the work advances. I will return now to my narrative.

We arrived in Chita, Peru, our preliminary base, on September 13. Our company consisted of the following members: Senor Alvarotez, professor of Archaeology at Nueva Barcelona, our leader and supervisor, "guide, counsellor, and friend"; Don Calvo, as geologist, (Whose work in stratifying the cliffs of the Anacondian Peninsula has made him world-famous); Dr. Bonaparte (exchange professor from the Sorbonne) who serves as osteologist and physician; Leon Cavallo, our chief topographer; two assistant topographers; and myself, who am to act as historian and representative of the American government.

When we entered Chita, we were received with enthusiasm by the native peons; and their local administrative officer, stepping from a nearby boteca, offered us the freedom of the city, which we proceeded to take. The next day, owing to unfortunate indiscretions in diet, two of our members suffered from acute attacks of enteritis and gastritis; while a third, Dr. Bonaparte, had the misfortune to contract amoebic dysentery, which made him unable to proceed. It was decided, under the circumstances, to send the chief topographer and one of his assistants ahead to reconnoitre. Their only clues were a few vague directions given by the Spanlard cited above, and a suspicion that one of the side-expeditions made by the Bingham party in 1912 really touched on the ruined university, without following it up.

The advance guard's difficulties on the way, and the Crusonian adventures they experienced, I must omit from this letter. They have just rejoined us here at Chita, with careful maps of the route they took and the discoveries they made. It will now be a simple matter for the whole expedition, now in good health, to make its way up the Urubamba Valley.

I, neglected to mention that the advance party brought back from the university several pocket-fuls of curious metal disks and tiny images, much in the nature of watch-charms. Senor Alvarotez is at work on defining them, and I hope to have a definite report to give your readers in my next letter. Cordially yours.   J. BLAIR-DUNCAN

With the University of Nueva Barcelona Peruvian Expedition

Chita, Peru, October 12, 1921.