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The Treasure of the Incas
When the Spaniards came to Peru they tried to find out where the treasures of the Inca's were hidden. They were cruel to the natives and made every attempt to find the treasure. Legend says that Incas leaving the area took the treasure and founded a secret city deep in the jungle. At the time of Henty's story Peru was in a state of confusion, and incessant civil war. His two heroes found adventure, but did they find treasure?
327 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1902
53 people are currently reading
320 people want to read
About the author
G.A. Henty
795 books371 followersGeorge Alfred Henty, better known as G.A. Henty, began his storytelling career with his own children. After dinner, he would spend and hour or two in telling them a story that would continue the next day. Some stories took weeks! A friend was present one day and watched the spell-bound reaction of his children suggesting Henty write down his stories so others could enjoy them. He did. Henty wrote approximately 144 books in addition to stories for magazines and was known as "The Prince of Story-Tellers" and "The Boy's Own Historian." One of Mr. Henty's secretaries reported that he would quickly pace back and forth in his study dictating stories as fast as the secretary could record them.
Henty's stories revolve around fictional boy heroes during fascinating periods of history. His heroes are diligent, intelligent, and dedicated to their country and cause in the face, at times, of great peril... Henty's heroes fight wars, sail the seas, discover land, conquer evil empires, prospect for gold, and a host of other exciting adventures. Along the way, they meet famous personages... In short, Henty's heroes live through tumultuous historic eras meeting leaders of that time. Understanding the culture of the time period becomes second nature as well as comparing/contrasting the society of various cultures.
Henty's stories revolve around fictional boy heroes during fascinating periods of history. His heroes are diligent, intelligent, and dedicated to their country and cause in the face, at times, of great peril... Henty's heroes fight wars, sail the seas, discover land, conquer evil empires, prospect for gold, and a host of other exciting adventures. Along the way, they meet famous personages... In short, Henty's heroes live through tumultuous historic eras meeting leaders of that time. Understanding the culture of the time period becomes second nature as well as comparing/contrasting the society of various cultures.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 7, 2020
4.5 stars & 5/10 hearts. Another of my favourite Henty books! This is crammed full of humour and excitement. I love Harry, and Dias. I love the relationship between Harry & Bertie, too. There’s some drinking, mentions of saints, & a mention of a boy undressing thoroughly to go on a reconnoitring mission. I deeply enjoyed the humour. Did I mention that already? Because it’s amazing. :D It was very hard to put down!
A Favourite Quote: “‘...it would really seem that the way in which Spain has gone to the dogs is a punishment for her cruelties in South America and the Islands. It may be said that from the very moment when the gold began to flow the descent of Spain commenced; in spite of the enormous wealth she acquired she fell gradually from her position as the greatest power in Europe. In 1525, after the battle of Pavia, Spain stood at the height of her power. Mexico was conquered by Cortez seven years before, Peru in 1531, and the wealth of those countries began to flow into Spain in enormous quantities, and yet her decline followed speedily. She was bearded by our bucaneers among the Islands and on the western coast; the Netherlands revolted, and after fierce fighting threw off her yoke; the battle of Ivry and the accession of Henry of Navarre all but destroyed her influence in France; the defeat of the Armada and the capture of Cadiz struck a fatal blow both to her power on the sea and to her commerce, and within a century of the conquest of Peru, Spain was already an enfeebled and decaying power.’”
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “‘I am afraid you are a Goth, Bert,’ Harry said, looking at him with an expression of pity. ‘Here you are in one of the most interesting cities of the world, a place that thousands and thousands of people would travel any distance to investigate, and in forty-eight hours you are tired of it. You have no romance in your nature, no respect for the past; you are a Goth and a Philistine.’
“‘I am afraid you are mixing up localities, Harry. I may be a Goth or a Philistine, but perhaps you are not aware that these peoples or tribes had no connection with each other. Your education in matters unconnected with the Royal Navy seems to have been even more deplorably neglected than my own.’”
*review to be updated*
A Favourite Quote: “‘...it would really seem that the way in which Spain has gone to the dogs is a punishment for her cruelties in South America and the Islands. It may be said that from the very moment when the gold began to flow the descent of Spain commenced; in spite of the enormous wealth she acquired she fell gradually from her position as the greatest power in Europe. In 1525, after the battle of Pavia, Spain stood at the height of her power. Mexico was conquered by Cortez seven years before, Peru in 1531, and the wealth of those countries began to flow into Spain in enormous quantities, and yet her decline followed speedily. She was bearded by our bucaneers among the Islands and on the western coast; the Netherlands revolted, and after fierce fighting threw off her yoke; the battle of Ivry and the accession of Henry of Navarre all but destroyed her influence in France; the defeat of the Armada and the capture of Cadiz struck a fatal blow both to her power on the sea and to her commerce, and within a century of the conquest of Peru, Spain was already an enfeebled and decaying power.’”
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “‘I am afraid you are a Goth, Bert,’ Harry said, looking at him with an expression of pity. ‘Here you are in one of the most interesting cities of the world, a place that thousands and thousands of people would travel any distance to investigate, and in forty-eight hours you are tired of it. You have no romance in your nature, no respect for the past; you are a Goth and a Philistine.’
“‘I am afraid you are mixing up localities, Harry. I may be a Goth or a Philistine, but perhaps you are not aware that these peoples or tribes had no connection with each other. Your education in matters unconnected with the Royal Navy seems to have been even more deplorably neglected than my own.’”
*review to be updated*
September 29, 2023
Spoilers ahead.
I've been working my way through the free Kindle Henty's from Amazon. This is like my fourth one and probably the best so far. These books are really dated and anachronistic. Even taking into account that, I would still only give it a 3.
Story time: Harry is a 1/2 pay naval lieutenant and he wants to marry Ms. Fortescue. But her dad is a retired prominent lawyer and doesn't want his daughter to marry a penniless guy. The deal is that Harry will give it 2 years to make it big. If he does, he'll come back and get her hand.
Harry's guardian or trustee of his funds, Mr. Barnett knows of this lost Inca treasure and he arranges for Harry and his younger brother Bertie to go and look for it. They arrive in Peru where there's anarchy as various generals are fighting each other for power. The natives (called Indians at that time) and uninvolved.
They manage to find a muleteer named Diaz whose life was saved by Barnett on a previous trip. Harry also saves his life in an incident which binds Diaz to them. Understand that this is a boy's book from the height of British prestige and the Brits can't do no wrong and everyone is respectful of them. Anyway, Diaz, his wife Maria and his nephew Jose agree to go with Harry to look for treasure.
They first look for treasure inland. This is based on ancient oral legend passed down. Supposedly the treasure was hidden from the Spaniards but Diaz agrees to lead Harry to it since he saved his life and he has no need of money and doesn't care that Harry takes it as long as it's not the Spanish. They find the valley but unfortunately the valley has been flooded by the ancients to hide it and there's no way for them to get it.
But we get to see wonderous sites, both natural and real archeological sites as they travel inland. They also have to deal with "savages" which are native Indians who lived outside of contemporary Peruvian society, rogue soldiers and brigands. This portion of the book was in itself interesting since it gives a fairly good picture of what traveling in Peru was like at the time, basically a travelog that included fighting. But they don't find any treasure and regroup. By the way, I don't think Machu Picchu had been rediscovered by the West yet otherwise Henty might have sent them there.
The first attempt inland took up almost a year but still have a few months left. So they decide to look for treasure at a hidden haunted castle near the sea, another legend. I'm not sure if this castle is an actual historical site. Anyway, they do find this castle which is well hidden among the rocks. It's very well built by the Chimu civilization which predated the Incas (the Chimu are the original owners of the treasure, so it's not really Inca gold). They find a bunch of skeletons there and theorize that they had been left behind to protect the treasure.
They go about it with a will digging into basements and side walls but find nothing except for silver sconces which they take. It's taken them months and a lot of work. Finally they decide to check out a window that looks out to the sea and think that maybe gold was sunk outside in the bay. So they swim out and quickly find the treasure which had been sunk in a shallow protected area. They recover 200 ingots worth of gold and sneak it back aboard a English ship going home. Diaz continues to decline a share saying it's cursed but Harry manages to convince him to take the silver as well as some money from his own trust fund since that is not cursed.
I don't recall the numbers in the book but I calculated the gold to be $11M in today's money. Harry deposits the gold in the Bank of England and shows Dad Fortescue the receipt and he has no more objections since double his own retirement fund and Harry gets married and everyone lives happily ever after.
Alright, I do have to state again the disclaimer that this was written a long time ago, like 100 years. No way today would this be politically correct where you go into some other country, hike all over that country, shoot and kill natives and brigands, dig and destroy archeologic sites and steal their gold. No wonder the Brits were so bloodthirsty rampaging all over the world. But I don't really blame the writing. After all, modern movies are the same where adventures just go and dig up treasure without regard to the law or the historical sites.
The merit of the writing: The writing was ok. It was very slow in some places and could have been speeded up a lot. I call it slow writing. For example, when they talk about building a fire, Henty will describe gathering twigs, building up a cone, lighting the match, blowing on the fire to encourage it and finally adding wood. It's like 3 pages of words when he could have simply said: they built a fire from twigs and firewood lying around. There is a lot of this and I would usually fast read it.
OK, so apart from all the negative aspects, it was a pretty fun treasure hunt story on easy mode and had a happy ending. To use a modern analogy. It's like playing a video game where your task is to travel to a foreign country, kill people and dig up treasure, except it's a book, which is all kids had 100 years ago for fun. On to the next Henty!
I've been working my way through the free Kindle Henty's from Amazon. This is like my fourth one and probably the best so far. These books are really dated and anachronistic. Even taking into account that, I would still only give it a 3.
Story time: Harry is a 1/2 pay naval lieutenant and he wants to marry Ms. Fortescue. But her dad is a retired prominent lawyer and doesn't want his daughter to marry a penniless guy. The deal is that Harry will give it 2 years to make it big. If he does, he'll come back and get her hand.
Harry's guardian or trustee of his funds, Mr. Barnett knows of this lost Inca treasure and he arranges for Harry and his younger brother Bertie to go and look for it. They arrive in Peru where there's anarchy as various generals are fighting each other for power. The natives (called Indians at that time) and uninvolved.
They manage to find a muleteer named Diaz whose life was saved by Barnett on a previous trip. Harry also saves his life in an incident which binds Diaz to them. Understand that this is a boy's book from the height of British prestige and the Brits can't do no wrong and everyone is respectful of them. Anyway, Diaz, his wife Maria and his nephew Jose agree to go with Harry to look for treasure.
They first look for treasure inland. This is based on ancient oral legend passed down. Supposedly the treasure was hidden from the Spaniards but Diaz agrees to lead Harry to it since he saved his life and he has no need of money and doesn't care that Harry takes it as long as it's not the Spanish. They find the valley but unfortunately the valley has been flooded by the ancients to hide it and there's no way for them to get it.
But we get to see wonderous sites, both natural and real archeological sites as they travel inland. They also have to deal with "savages" which are native Indians who lived outside of contemporary Peruvian society, rogue soldiers and brigands. This portion of the book was in itself interesting since it gives a fairly good picture of what traveling in Peru was like at the time, basically a travelog that included fighting. But they don't find any treasure and regroup. By the way, I don't think Machu Picchu had been rediscovered by the West yet otherwise Henty might have sent them there.
The first attempt inland took up almost a year but still have a few months left. So they decide to look for treasure at a hidden haunted castle near the sea, another legend. I'm not sure if this castle is an actual historical site. Anyway, they do find this castle which is well hidden among the rocks. It's very well built by the Chimu civilization which predated the Incas (the Chimu are the original owners of the treasure, so it's not really Inca gold). They find a bunch of skeletons there and theorize that they had been left behind to protect the treasure.
They go about it with a will digging into basements and side walls but find nothing except for silver sconces which they take. It's taken them months and a lot of work. Finally they decide to check out a window that looks out to the sea and think that maybe gold was sunk outside in the bay. So they swim out and quickly find the treasure which had been sunk in a shallow protected area. They recover 200 ingots worth of gold and sneak it back aboard a English ship going home. Diaz continues to decline a share saying it's cursed but Harry manages to convince him to take the silver as well as some money from his own trust fund since that is not cursed.
I don't recall the numbers in the book but I calculated the gold to be $11M in today's money. Harry deposits the gold in the Bank of England and shows Dad Fortescue the receipt and he has no more objections since double his own retirement fund and Harry gets married and everyone lives happily ever after.
Alright, I do have to state again the disclaimer that this was written a long time ago, like 100 years. No way today would this be politically correct where you go into some other country, hike all over that country, shoot and kill natives and brigands, dig and destroy archeologic sites and steal their gold. No wonder the Brits were so bloodthirsty rampaging all over the world. But I don't really blame the writing. After all, modern movies are the same where adventures just go and dig up treasure without regard to the law or the historical sites.
The merit of the writing: The writing was ok. It was very slow in some places and could have been speeded up a lot. I call it slow writing. For example, when they talk about building a fire, Henty will describe gathering twigs, building up a cone, lighting the match, blowing on the fire to encourage it and finally adding wood. It's like 3 pages of words when he could have simply said: they built a fire from twigs and firewood lying around. There is a lot of this and I would usually fast read it.
OK, so apart from all the negative aspects, it was a pretty fun treasure hunt story on easy mode and had a happy ending. To use a modern analogy. It's like playing a video game where your task is to travel to a foreign country, kill people and dig up treasure, except it's a book, which is all kids had 100 years ago for fun. On to the next Henty!
July 21, 2017
Wish i would have read this sooner
A great adventure of seeking lost treasure all for the sake of love. I love the characters in this book and the relationships between them ,so much honor in friendship and Care for one another,becoming a family that is willing to die for the other. Just because this book is a love story that is not the meat of it,battles with Indians and gangs of bandits(brigands) ,trickery and gun battles are all there. If u like classic action adventure this is a must read.
A great adventure of seeking lost treasure all for the sake of love. I love the characters in this book and the relationships between them ,so much honor in friendship and Care for one another,becoming a family that is willing to die for the other. Just because this book is a love story that is not the meat of it,battles with Indians and gangs of bandits(brigands) ,trickery and gun battles are all there. If u like classic action adventure this is a must read.
January 26, 2022
A fantastic adventure with marvelous characters and story. Mr. Henty should have been Knighted !!
There was not one word, paragraph nor chapter that I disliked. From the first page through the final, I enjoyed this novel and look forward with great anticipation at every adventurous writings of this author.
Most sincerely,
John Kuhl
There was not one word, paragraph nor chapter that I disliked. From the first page through the final, I enjoyed this novel and look forward with great anticipation at every adventurous writings of this author.
Most sincerely,
John Kuhl
May 30, 2012
Once again George Alfred writes a stunning adventure with every twist and turn perfectly timed, but still the best for last. Written in the days when the world was still a great mystery, even today this tale is as exciting and full of strange intrigue and revelation as it would have been upon release. Wondeful, totally believable characters and plot, obviously well researched (as if he had been there himself), and well within the 'true story' genre, this book is somewhere amoungst the roots of Indiana Jones. Great writing, great adventure, loved every sentence.
April 9, 2023
even taking into account how old this is, it is rubbish.
characters are flat, the plot is missing (i want to get rich to marry a girl, that's it).
the people from Peru are made out like dimwits.
in the end he ran out of steam so the last pages are: found the treasure, put it on a boat, cam home and married the girl.
dont waist your time, not even if you like reading classics.
characters are flat, the plot is missing (i want to get rich to marry a girl, that's it).
the people from Peru are made out like dimwits.
in the end he ran out of steam so the last pages are: found the treasure, put it on a boat, cam home and married the girl.
dont waist your time, not even if you like reading classics.
December 30, 2013
The writing was slow and the dialogue was almost subjective to one character for many pages. Henty certainly wasn't the greatest writer of all time. It was more fascinating that it was adventuresome, and I was able to finish it.
November 22, 2014
This book was interesting. I'm not usually a fan of G.A. Henty as I find his books boring a lot of times but this one was pretty good and kept me interested most of the time. Three stars for being interesting.
July 19, 2015
Random old book that gives away what happens in each chapter in the chapter heading. For example, the guys are looking for treasure and the next chapter is called "Disappointment" haha. Anyways, it's not really about the Incas, it's about English dudes taking old Incan treasure. Blah.
April 27, 2013
This is a classic. If you like the travel journals like the writings of H. Rider Haggard, you will love this book.
June 16, 2014
Another interesting Henty. For me, this one was a little slow.
Read
December 18, 2014Good book
February 18, 2019
well written. enjoyed the authors historic knowledge.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews