tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6578019452595492656.post-74190556764968580772008-05-06T19:30:00.000-07:002008-05-06T20:11:30.623-07:002008-05-06T20:11:30.623-07:00About November, 1880, Nicolás de Piérola , Paul Boyton, George Kiefer, and a few aides-decamp stood next to the derailed engine, La Favor that had brought them from Lima to the seaside at Ancon. They tried to get the train back on the tracks, but were not successful. Someone was sent back to Ancon to telegraph Lima, and request an extra engine. (Boyton, 1892)<br /><br />The party waited all day for help to arrive. They could see the ocean from where they stood, and a Chilean cruiser passed by about a mile offshore, little knowing that the Dictator and some of his officers were within shelling distance. At this point on the rail line, the train tracks ran past the Necropolis of Ancon, an ancient burial ground long associated with the fishing village in the same locality. Bones and burial remains lay scattered on the sands.<br /><br />Piérola, Boyton, and the accompanying officers stood out among the sand hills in the midst of the graves, talking about the war with Chile. The soldiers entertained themselves, sticking bones up in the hard sand and rolling skulls into them in a gruesome version of ten pins. Don Nicolás ignored them, but continued his discussions. (Boyton, 1892)<br /><br />George Kiefer strolled out on the side of the track and climbed the bank to the north. As far as he could see northward, the ground was white with skulls. He recalled seeing specimens of Peruvian antiquities in the Louvre and at the British Museum, and now what he saw fascinated him...bones mingled with pieces of cloth, pottery, wickerwork, netting, weed rope and wood. Everywhere he saw evidence of extensive excavations. He and other members of the party picked up a few relics, including mummified hands and arms and the mummy of a child. (Ledger, 1889)<br /><br />Resources:<br />Boyton, Paul. 1892. The story of Paul Boyton: voyages on all the great rivers of the world, paddling over twenty-five thousand miles in a rubber dress. Milwaukee: Riverside. 358 pp.<br /><br />The Ledger (Warren, PA) 5/31/1889, p. 5, Vol. 40 #49. Bones of the Inca: Mr. George Kiefer’s find in the graves of an extinct race.Linda Jacobshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06096510066972205118noreply@blogger.com0