Transcriber's Notes

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--Silently corrected palpable typos.
--Variations in hyphenation have been maintained.
--Assumed printer's errors have been corrected.

HINCHONA-PLANTS AT OOTACAMUND,
In August 1881 (from a Photograph). A flowering branch of Chinchona in the foreground.
FRONTISPIECE. Page 487

TRAVELS
IN
PERU AND INDIA.

WHILE SUPERINTENDING THE COLLECTION OF CHINCHONA
PLANTS AND SEEDS IN SOUTH AMERICA, AND
THEIR INTRODUCTION INTO INDIA.
By CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, F.S.A., F.R.G.S.,
CORR. MEM. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHILE;
AUTHOR OF 'CUZCO AND LIMA.'

WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

PREFACE.

The introduction of quinine-yielding Chinchona-trees into India, and the cultivation of the "Peruvian Bark" in our Eastern possessions, where that inestimable febrifuge is almost a necessary of life, has for some years engaged the attention of the Indian Government. In 1859 the author of the present work was intrusted, by the Secretary of State for India in Council, with the duty of superintending all the necessary arrangements for the collection of Chinchona-plants and seeds of the species esteemed in commerce, in South America, and for their introduction into India. This important measure has now been crowned with complete success, and it is the object of the following pages to relate the previous history of the Chinchona-plant; to describe the forests in South America where the most valuable species grow; to record the labours of those who were engaged in exploring them; and to give an account of all the proceedings connected with the cultivation of Chinchona-plants in India.

In the performance of this service it was a part of my duty to explore the forests of the Peruvian province of Caravaya, which has never yet been described by any English traveller; and the first part of the work is occupied by an account of the various species of Chinchona-plants and their previous history, a narrative of my travels in Peru, and a record of the labours of the agents whom I employed to collect plants and seeds of the various species of Chinchonæ in other parts of South America.

The traveller who ascends to the lofty plateau of the Cordilleras cannot fail to be deeply interested in the former history and melancholy fate of the Peruvian Indians; and some account of their condition under Spanish colonial rule, and of the insurrection of Tupac Amaru, the last of the Incas, will, I trust, not be unwelcome. I have devoted three chapters to these subjects, which will form a short digression on our way to the Chinchona forests. I am indebted to the late General Miller, and to Dr. Vigil, the learned Director of the National Library at Lima, for much new and very curious material throwing light on that period of Spanish colonial history which includes the great rebellion of the Peruvian Indians in 1780.

The second part of the work contains a narrative of my travels in India, a description of the sites selected for Chinchona-plantations, and an account of the progress of the experimental cultivation of those inestimable trees, from the arrival of the plants and seeds, early in 1861, to the latest dates.

In conducting the operations connected with the collection of Chinchona-plants and seeds in South America, I obtained the services of Mr. Spruce, Mr. Pritchett, Mr. Cross, and Mr. Weir; and it affords me great pleasure to have this opportunity of publicly recording their perseverance in facing many dangers and hardships, and in doing the work that was allotted to them so ably, and with such complete success.

To Mr. Richard Spruce, an eminent botanist who has for eight years been engaged in exploring the basin of the Amazons, from Para to the peaks of the Quitenian Andes, and from the falls of the Orinoco to the head-waters of the Huallaga, the largest share of credit, so far as the South American portion of the enterprise is concerned, undoubtedly belongs. I have endeavoured to do justice to his untiring energy and zeal, and to the important service which he has rendered to India.

But the collection of plants and seeds in South America, and their conveyance to the shores of India, would have been of little use if they had not been delivered into competent hands on arriving at their destination. To the scientific and practical knowledge, the unwearied zeal, and skilful management of Mr. McIvor, the Superintendent of the Government Gardens at Ootacamund, on the Neilgherry hills, is therefore due the successful introduction of Chinchona-plants into India. His care has now been fully rewarded, and the experiment has reached a point which places it beyond the possibility of ultimate failure.

I am indebted to Sir William Hooker, who has, from the first, taken a deep interest in this beneficial measure, for many acts of kindness, and for his readiness to give me valuable advice and assistance; while he has rendered most essential service in successfully raising a large number of Chinchona-plants at Kew. To Dr. Weddell my thanks are due for much information most promptly and kindly supplied; and to Mr. Howard for the important suggestions and information with which he has frequently favoured me, and which no scientific man in Europe is better able to give. It is a fortunate circumstance that his invaluable and superbly illustrated work on the Chinchona genus should have been published just at the time when the Chinchonæ are about to be planted out in India and Ceylon, for from no other source could the cultivators derive so large an amount of valuable information. Mr. Howard has likewise done good service by presenting the Indian Government with a fine healthy plant of Chinchona Uritusinga, a species which had not previously been introduced. I take this opportunity of expressing my thanks for much assistance from Dr. Seemann, the able Editor of the 'Bonplandia;' from Mr. Dalzell, the Conservator of Forests in the Bombay Presidency; from Dr. Forbes Watson, the Reporter on the vegetable products of India, at the India Office; from Mr. Veitch, of the Royal Exotic Nursery at Chelsea; and from many kind friends both in Peru and India. I am also indebted to Mr. Alexander Smith, son of Mr. John Smith, the Curator of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, for an interesting note on the principal plants employed by the natives of India on account of their real or supposed febrifugal virtues, which will be found in an Appendix.

The botanical name for the plants which yield Peruvian bark was given by Linnæus, in honour of the Countess of Chinchon, who was one of the first Europeans cured by this priceless febrifuge. The word has been generally, but most erroneously, spelt Cinchona; and, considering that such mis-spelling is no mark of respect to the lady whose memory it is intended to preserve, while it defeats the intention of Linnæus to do her honour, I have followed the good example of Mr. Howard and the Spanish botanists in adopting the correct way of spelling the word—Chinchona.[1] The Counts of Chinchon, the hereditary Alcaides of the Alcazar of Segovia, do not hold so obscure a place in history as to excuse the continuance of this mis-spelling of their name.

After much anxiety, extending over a period of three years; after all the hardships, dangers, and toils which a search in virgin tropical forests entails; and after more than one disappointment, it is a source of gratification and thankfulness that this great and important measure, fraught with blessings to the people of India, and with no less beneficial results to the whole civilized world, should have been finally attended with complete success, in spite of difficulties of no ordinary character. How complete this success has been, will be seen by a perusal of the two last chapters of the present work, and of Mr. McIvor's very interesting Report in the Appendix; it is sufficient here to say that it has exceeded our most sanguine expectations.

CONTENTS.

TRAVELS IN PERU.

TRAVELS IN INDIA.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

POSTSCRIPT.

Oct. 16, 1862.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE OF THE CHINCHONA PLANTS, FROM THE NEILGHERRY HILLS.

Number of Chinchona plants on the Neilgherry Hills on August 31st, 1862.

The total number of plants permanently placed out in the plantations, on August 31st, 1862, was 13,700, and, although only recently transplanted, they are in a very promising condition. The number placed out, at the same date, in the nurseries in the open air, and in the hardening-off frames, was 18,076, all in the finest possible state of health. The number of small plants under glass, including those used for the production of wood for propagation, was 40,792.

There are four plantations for Chinchona cultivation, either cleared and planted, or about to be cleared, at Neddiwuttum and Pycarrah; besides the loftier one at Dodabetta. At Neddiwuttum the "Denison Plantations" will contain about 210 acres of planted land, the "Markham Plantation" about 200 acres; and near Pycarrah about 250 acres are to be planted, of fine well-watered land, completely sheltered from the west winds, to be called the "Wood Plantation," after the Secretary of State for India: altogether about 660 acres, besides the Dodabetta site.

Plants are to be disposed of to private individuals who may be desirous of undertaking the cultivation, and 22,000 had already been ordered in the beginning of September.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE FROM DARJEELING.

Dr. Anderson, who is in charge of the Chinchona cultivation in Bengal, brought the plants to the Darjeeling Hills early in May 1862. He then had 84 plants of C. succirubra, 44 of C. micrantha, 48 of C. nitida, 2 of C. Peruviana, 5 of C. Calisaya, and 53 of C. Pahudiana. On July 26th these had been increased, by layers and cuttings, to 140 of C. succirubra, 53 of C. nitida, 43 of C. micrantha, 7 of C. Calisaya, and 3 of C. Peruviana. See page 512.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE FROM CEYLON.

On July 29th, 1862, Mr. Thwaites had raised 960 young plants of C. Condaminea from seeds. At the same date the plants of C. succirubra were thriving admirably, several being planted out in the hill garden, and a few at Peradenia. The other species were doing well, and Mr. Thwaites was propagating as fast as possible from cuttings. See page 509.

C. PAHUDIANA.—The Dutch Species.

The C. Pahudiana, which forms the bulk of the Java plantations, is now generally acknowledged to be worthless. A tree of this species has been chemically analyzed by Professors G. F. Mülder and F. A. W. Miquel, and, in consequence of the joint report of these gentlemen, the Dutch Government have determined to put an entire stop to its cultivation. See page 56. See letter from M. Hasskarl, dated May 23rd, 1862.

TRAVELS IN PERU.

CHAPTER I.

DISCOVERY OF PERUVIAN BARK.

The Countess of Chinchon—Introduction of the use of bark into Europe—M. La Condamine's first description of a Chinchona-tree—J. de Jussieu—Description of the Chinchona region—The different valuable species—The discovery of quinine.

The whole world, and especially all tropical countries where intermittent fevers prevail, have long been indebted to the mountainous forests of the Andes for that inestimable febrifuge which has now become indispensable, and the demand for which is rapidly increasing, while the supply decreases, throughout all civilized countries. There is probably no drug which is more valuable to man than the febrifugal alkaloid which is extracted from the chinchona-trees of South America; and few greater blessings could be conferred on the human race than the naturalization of these trees in India, and other congenial regions, so as to render the supply more certain, cheaper, and more abundant.

It will be the principal object of the following pages to relate the measures which have been adopted within the last two years to collect plants and seeds of these quinine-yielding chinchonæ, in the various regions of South America, where the most valuable species are found; and to give an account of their introduction into India, and of the hill districts in that country where it is considered most likely that they will thrive. But it is necessary that the reader should have a general knowledge of these precious trees, and of their history, before he accompanies the explorers who were sent in search of them over the cordilleras of the Andes, and into the vast untrodden forests.

It would be strange indeed, if, as is generally supposed, the Indian aborigines of South America were ignorant of the virtues of Peruvian bark; yet the absence of this sovereign remedy in the wallets of itinerant native doctors who have plied their trade from father to son, since the time of the Incas, certainly gives some countenance to this idea. It seems probable, nevertheless, that the Indians were aware of the virtues of Peruvian bark in the neighbourhood of Loxa, 230 miles south of Quito, where its use was first made known to Europeans: and the Indian name for the tree quina-quina, "bark of bark," indicates that it was believed to possess some special medicinal properties.[3] The Indians looked upon their conquerors with dislike and suspicion; it is improbable that they would be quick to impart knowledge of this nature to them; and the interval which elapsed between the discovery and settlement of the country and the first use of Peruvian bark by Europeans may thus easily be explained.[4] The conquest and subsequent civil wars in Peru cannot be said to have been finally concluded until the time of the viceroy Marquis of Cañete, in 1560; and J. de Jussieu reports that a Jesuit, who had a fever at Malacotas,[5] was cured by Peruvian bark in 1600. M. La Condamine also found a manuscript in the library of a convent at Loxa, in which it was stated that the Europeans of the province used the bark at about the same time. Thus an interval of only forty years intervened between the pacification of Peru and the discovery of its most valuable product.

It may be added, however, that though the Indians were aware of the febrifugal qualities of this bark, they attached little importance to them, and this may be another reason for the lapse of time which occurred before the knowledge was imparted to the Spaniards. Referring to this circumstance La Condamine says, "Nul n'est saint dans son pays." This indifference to, and in many cases even prejudice against the use of the Peruvian bark, amongst the Indians, is very remarkable. Poeppig, writing in 1830, says that in the Peruvian province of Huanuco the people, who are much subject to tertian agues, have a strong repugnance to its use. The Indian thinks that the cold north alone permits the use of fever-bark; he considers it as very heating, and therefore an unfit remedy in complaints which he believes to arise from inflammation of the blood.[6] Humboldt also notices this repugnance to using the bark amongst the natives; and Mr. Spruce makes the same observation with respect to the people of Ecuador and New Granada.[7] He says that they refer all diseases to the influence of either heat or cold; and, confounding cause and effect, they suppose all fevers to proceed from heat. They justly believe bark to be very heating, and hence their prejudice against its use in fevers, which they treat with frescos or cooling drinks. Even in Guayaquil the prejudice against quinine is so strong that, when a physician administers it, he is obliged to call it by another name.

In about 1630 Don Juan Lopez de Canizares, the Spanish Corregidor of Loxa, being ill with an intermittent fever, an Indian of Malacotas is said to have revealed to him the healing virtues of quinquina bark, and to have instructed him in the proper way to administer it, and thus his cure was effected.

In 1638 the wife of Luis Geronimo Fernandez de Cabrera Bobadilla y Mendoza, fourth Count of Chinchon, lay sick of an intermittent fever in the palace at Lima. Her famous cure induced Linnæus, long afterwards, to name the whole genus of quinine-yielding trees in her honour chinchona. The godmother of these priceless treasures of the vegetable kingdom has, therefore, some claim upon our attention.

This Countess of Chinchon was a daughter of the noble house of Osorio, whose founder was created Marquis of Astorga by Henry IV., King of Castille. The eighth marquis, who died at Astorga in 1613, had a daughter by his wife Dona Blanca Manrique y Aragon, named Ana,[8] born in 1576; and the ruins of the palace in the curious old town of Astorga, in which she passed her childhood, are still standing.[9] At the early age of sixteen she was married to Don Luis de Velasco, Marquis of Salinas, who was about to assume the important office of viceroy of Mexico. She probably accompanied her husband to Mexico, and afterwards to Lima, as he was viceroy of Peru from 1596 to 1604. In the latter year he resumed his former office in Mexico, and, on his return to Spain, he became President of the Council of the Indies from 1611 to 1617.[10] The lady Ana had thus been a great traveller, when, in the latter year, she found herself a widow. In 1621 she was married, in the city of Madrid, to her second husband the fourth Count of Chinchon, who was descended from a long line of proud and valiant Catalonian ancestors. One of his forefathers, Don Andres de Cabrera, who was created Marquis of Moya in 1480, married Beatriz de Bobadilla, so well known in history as the faithful attendant and confidential friend of Queen Isabella the Catholic. The Emperor Charles V., remembering the services and ancient dignity of the illustrious families of Cabrera and Bobadilla, created the second son of the Marquis of Moya, by Beatriz de Bobadilla, Count of his town of Chinchon, in the kingdom of Toledo, in 1517.[11] The third Count was one of the over-worked ministers of that most indefatigable of "red-tapists" Philip II.; and his son became the husband of the widow Ana, who accompanied him to Lima on his appointment as viceroy of Peru in 1629. Thus, for the second time, this lady entered the City of the Kings as Vice-Queen.

While the Countess Ana was suffering from fever in 1638, in her sixty-third year, the Corregidor of Loxa, Don Juan Lopez de Canizares, sent a parcel of powdered quinquina bark to her physician, Juan de Vega, who was also captain of the armoury, assuring him that it was a sovereign and never-failing remedy for "tertiana." It was administered to the Countess and effected a complete cure; and Mr. Howard is of opinion that the particular plant which had this honour, and which, therefore, yields the true and original Peruvian bark, is the Chahuarguera variety of the C. Condaminea.[12] This kind contains a large percentage of chinchonidine, an alkaloid, the great importance of which is only now just beginning to be recognised, so that it is to chinchonidine, and not to quinine, that the Countess's cure is due.[13]

The Count of Chinchon returned to Spain in 1640, and his Countess, bringing with her a quantity of the healing bark, was thus the first person to introduce this invaluable medicine into Europe.[14] Hence it was sometimes called Countess's bark, and Countess's powder. Her physician, Juan de Vega, sold it at Seville for one hundred reals the pound. In memory of this great service Linnæus named the genus which yields it Chinchona, and afterwards the lady Ana's name was still further immortalized in the great family of Chinchonaceæ, which, together with Chinchonæ, includes ipecacuanhas and coffees. By modern writers the first h has usually been dropped, and the word is now almost invariably, but most erroneously, spelt Cinchona.

After the cure of the Countess of Chinchon, the Jesuits were the great promoters of the introduction of bark into Europe. In 1639, as the last act of his viceroyalty, her husband did good service to the cause of geographical discovery, by causing the expedition under the Portuguese Texeira to proceed from Quito to the mouth of the Amazons, accompanied by the Jesuit Acuña, who wrote a most valuable account of the voyage.[15] From that time the missionaries of Acuña's fraternity continued to penetrate into the forests bordering on the upper waters of the Amazons, and to form settlements; and Humboldt mentions a tradition that these Jesuits accidentally discovered the bitterness of the bark, and tried an infusion of it in tertian ague. In 1670 the Jesuit missionaries sent parcels of the powdered bark to Rome, whence it was distributed to members of the fraternity throughout Europe by the Cardinal de Lugo, and used for the cure of agues with great success. Hence the name of "Jesuits' bark," and "Cardinal's bark;" and it was a ludicrous result of its patronage by the Jesuits that its use should have been for a long time opposed by Protestants and favoured by Roman Catholics. In 1679 Louis XIV. bought the secret of preparing quinquina from Sir Robert Talbor, an English doctor, for two thousand louis-d'ors, a large pension, and a title. From that time Peruvian bark seems to have been recognised as the most efficacious remedy for intermittent fevers. The second Lord Shaftesbury, who died in 1699, mentions in one of his letters—"Dr. Locke's and all our ingenious and able doctors' method of treating fevers with the Peruvian bark:" he declares his belief that it is "the most innocent and effectual of all medicines;" but he also alludes to "the bugbear the world makes of it, especially the tribe of inferior physicians."

There can be no doubt that a very strong prejudice was raised against it, which it took many years to conquer; and the controversies which arose on the subject between learned doctors were long and acrimonious. Dr. Colmenero, a professor of the University of Salamanca, wrote a work in which he declared that ninety sudden deaths had been caused by its use in Madrid alone.[16] Chiflet (Paris, 1653) and Plempius (Rome, 1656), two great enemies of novelty, prophesied the early death of quinquina, and its inevitable malediction by future ages; while the more enlightened Badius (Genoa, 1656) defended its use, and quoted more than twelve thousand cures by the aid of this remedy, performed by the best doctors of the hospitals in Italy. In 1692 Dr. Morton, one of the opponents of its use, was obliged to retract all he had said against quinquina; and it was then that it began to be generally admitted as a valuable medicine. It still, however, remained a subject of controversy, and as late as 1714 two Italian physicians, Ramazzini and Torti,[17] held opposite views on the subject. Ramazzini wrote against its use with much violence, while Torti maintained that, in proper doses, it would arrest remittent and intermittent fevers.[18]

Whilst the inestimable value of Peruvian bark was gradually forcing conviction on the most bigoted medical conservatives of Europe, and whilst the number and efficacy of cures effected by its means were bringing it into general use, and consequently increasing the demand, it was long before any knowledge was obtained of the tree from which it was taken. In 1726 La Fontaine, at the solicitation of the Duchess of Bouillon, who had been cured of a dangerous fever by taking Peruvian bark, composed a poem in two cantos to celebrate its virtues; but the exquisite beauty of the leaves, and the delicious fragrance of the flowers of the quinquina-tree, with allusions to which he might have adorned his poem, were still unknown in Europe.

The first description of the quinquina-tree is due to that memorable French expedition to South America, to which all branches of science owe so much. The members of this expedition, MM. De la Condamine, Godin, Bouguer, and the botanist Joseph de Jussieu, sailed from Rochelle on the 16th of May, 1735, to measure the arc of a degree near Quito, and thus determine the shape of the earth. After a residence at Quito, Jussieu set out for Loxa, to examine the quinquina-tree, in March, 1739, and in 1743 La Condamine visited Loxa, and stayed for some time at Malacotas, with a Spaniard whose chief source of income was the collection of bark. He obtained some young plants with the intention of taking them down the river Amazons to Cayenne, and thence transporting them to the Jardin des Plantes at Paris; but a wave washed over his little vessel near Para, at the mouth of the great river, and carried off the box in which he had preserved these plants for more than eight months. "Thus," he says, "I lost them after all the care I had taken during a voyage of more than twelve hundred leagues."[19] This was the first attempt to transport chinchona-plants from their native forests.

Condamine described the quinquina-tree of Loxa in the 'Mémoires de l'Académie;'[20] he was the first man of science who examined and described this important plant; and in 1742 Linnæus established the genus Chinchona, in honour of the Countess Ana of Chinchon. He, however, only knew of two species, that of Loxa, which was named C. officinalis, and the C. Caribæa, since degraded to the medicinally worthless genus of Exostemmas.

Joseph de Jussieu, whose name is associated with that of La Condamine in the first examination of the chinchona-trees of Loxa, continued his researches in South America after the departure of his associate. He penetrated on foot into the province of Canelos, the scene of Gonzalo Pizarro's wonderful achievements and terrible sufferings; he visited Lima with M. Godin; he travelled over Upper Peru as far as the forests of Santa Cruz de la Sierra; and he was the first botanist who examined and sent home specimens of the coca-plant, the beloved narcotic of the Peruvian Indian. After fifteen years of laborious work he was robbed of his large collection of plants by a servant at Buenos Ayres, who believed that the boxes contained money. This loss had a disastrous effect on poor Jussieu, who, in 1771, returned to France, deprived of reason, after an absence of thirty-four years. Dr. Weddell has named the shrubby variety of C. Calisaya in honour of this unfortunate botanist C. Josephiana.

For many years the quinquina-tree of Loxa, the C. officinalis of Linnæus, was the only species with which botanists were acquainted; and from 1640 to 1776 no other bark was met with in commerce than that which was exported from the Peruvian port of Payta, brought down from the forests in the neighbourhood of Loxa. The constant practice of improvidently felling the trees over so small an area for more than a century, without any cessation, inevitably led to their becoming very scarce, and threatened their eventual extinction. As early as 1735 Ulloa reported to the Spanish Government, that the habit of cutting down the trees in the forests of Loxa, and afterwards barking them, without taking the precaution of planting others in their places, would undoubtedly cause their complete extirpation. "Though the trees are numerous," he added, "yet they have an end;" and he suggested that the Corregidor of Loxa should be directed to appoint an overseer, whose duty it should be to examine the forests, and satisfy himself that a tree was planted in place of every one that was felled, on pain of a fine.[21] This wise rule was never enforced, and sixty years afterwards Humboldt reported that 25,000 trees were destroyed in one year.

The measures adopted by the Spanish Government towards the end of the last century, in sending botanical expeditions to explore the chinchona forests in other parts of their vast South American possessions, led to the discovery of additional valuable species, the introduction of their barks into commerce, and the reduction of the pressure on the Loxa forests, which were thus relieved from being the sole source whence Peruvian bark could be supplied to the world.

The region of chinchona-trees extends from 19° S. latitude, where Weddell found the C. Australis, to 10° N., following the almost semicircular curve of the cordillera of the Andes over 1740 miles of latitude. They flourish in a cool and equable temperature, on the slopes and in the valleys and ravines of the mountains, surrounded by the most majestic scenery, never descending below an elevation of 2500, and ascending as high as 9000 feet above the sea. Within these limits their usual companions are tree ferns, melastomaceæ, arborescent passion-flowers, and allied genera of chinchonaceous plants. Below them are the forests abounding in palms and bamboos, above their highest limits are a few lowly Alpine shrubs. But within this wide zone grow many species of chinchonæ, each within its own narrower belt as regards elevation above the sea, some yielding the inestimable bark, and others commercially worthless. And the species of chinchonæ, in their native forests, are not only divided from each other by zones as regards height above the sea, but also by parallels of latitude. In Bolivia and Caravaya, for instance, the valuable C. Calisaya abounds, but it is never found nearer the equator than 12° S. Between that parallel and 10° S. the forests are for the most part occupied by worthless species, while in Northern Peru the important grey barks of commerce are found. In each of these latitudinal regions the different species are again divided by belts of altitude. Yet this confinement within zones of latitude and altitude is not a constant rule; for several of the hardier and stronger species have a wider range; while the more sensitive, and these are usually the most precious kinds, are close prisoners within their allotted zones, and never pass more than a hundred yards beyond them. All the species are, of course, affected by local circumstances, which more or less modify the positions of their zones, as regards altitude.

Thus, to give a geographical summary of the chinchona region, beginning from the south, it commences in the Bolivian province of Cochabamba in 19° S., passes through the yungus of La Paz, Larecaja, Caupolican, and Munecas, into the Peruvian province of Caravaya; thence through the Peruvian forests, on the eastern slopes of the Andes, of Marcapata, Paucartambo, Santa Anna, Guanta, and Uchubamba, to Huanuco and Huamalies, where the grey bark is found. It then continues through Jaen, to the forests near Loxa and Cuenca, and on the western slopes of Chimborazo. It begins again in latitude 1° 51´ N. at Almaguer, passes through the province of Popayan, and along the slopes of the Andes of Quindiu, until it reaches its extreme northern limit on the wooded heights of Merida and Santa Martha.

Humboldt remarks that, beyond these limits, the Silla de Caraccas, and other mountains in the province of Cumana, possess a suitable altitude and climate for the growth of chinchona-trees, as well as some parts of Mexico, yet that they have never been found either in Cumana or Mexico; and he suggests that this may be accounted for by the breaks which take place in Venezuela on the one hand, and on the isthmus of Panama on the other, where tracts of country of low elevation intervene between the lofty mountains of Cumana and Mexico and the chinchona region of the main Andes. In these low districts the chinchona-trees may have encountered obstacles which prevented their propagation to the northward: otherwise we might expect to find them in the beautiful Mexican woods of Jalapa, whither the soil and climate, and their usual companions the tree ferns and melastomaceæ, would seem to invite them.[22]

Be this how it may, the chinchona-plant has never been found in any part of the world beyond the limits already described.

The chinchonas, when in good soil and under other favourable circumstances, become large forest trees; on higher elevations, and when crowded, and growing in rocky ground, they frequently run up to great heights without a branch; and at the upper limit of their zone they become mere shrubs. The leaves are of a great variety of shapes and sizes, but, in most of the finest species, they are lanceolate, with a shining surface of bright green, traversed by crimson veins, and petioles of the same colour. The flowers are very small, but hang in clustering panicles, like lilacs, generally of a deep roseate colour, paler near the stalk, dark crimson within the tube, with white curly hairs bordering the laciniæ of the corolla. The flowers of C. micrantha are entirely white. They send forth a delicious fragrance which scents the air in their vicinity.

The earliest botanists gave the name of Chinchona to a vast number of allied genera, which have since been separated, and grouped under other names.[23] There are three characteristics by which a true chinchona may invariably be known; the presence of curly hairs bordering the laciniæ of the corolla, the peculiar mode of dehiscence of the capsule from below upwards, and the little pits at the axils of the veins on the under sides of the leaves. These characters distinguish the chinchona from many trees which grow with it, and which might at first sight be taken for the same genus. The fact, established by the investigations of chemists, that none of these allied genera contain any of the medicinal alkaloids, has confirmed the propriety of their expulsion from the chinchona genus by botanists; and Dr. Weddell gives a list of seventy-three plants, once received as Chinchonæ, which are now more properly classed under allied genera, such as Cosmibuena, Cascarilla, Exostemma, Remijia, Ladenbergia, Lasionema, &c.[24]

Thus thinned out and reduced in numbers, the list of species of Chinchonæ has been established by Dr. Weddell at nineteen, and two doubtful;[25] but even the classification of this eminent authority, published in 1849, already requires much alteration and revision. For instance: Dr. Weddell gives no place to the "red-bark" species, the richest in alkaloids, and one of the most important, which, through the recent investigations of Mr. Spruce, will now probably be admitted by botanists as a distinct species, the C. succirubra (Pavon). A new grey bark now introduced into India as C. Peruviana (Howard), and the C. Pahudiana (Howard), a worthless kind, cultivated by the Dutch in Java, will also be received as additional species. It seems likely also that the C. Condaminea requires to be divided into two or three distinct species; while the C. Boliviana (Weddell) will sink into a mere variety of the C. Calisaya.

The commercially valuable species, however, comprise but a small proportion of the whole; and, as all these have now been introduced into India, they alone deserve our attention. They are as follows:—

These species yield five different kinds of medicinal barks, which are collected from five different regions in South America; and in the following chapter I propose to give a brief account of each of these regions, of their chinchona-trees, and of the investigations of botanists down to the time when measures were taken to introduce these inestimable plants into Java and India. Such an account will naturally divide itself into five sections:—

1. —The Loxa region, and its crown barks.
2. —The red-bark region, on the western slopes of Chimborazo.
3. —The New Granada region.
4. —The Huanuco region in Northern Peru, and its grey barks.
5. —The Calisaya region, in Bolivia and Southern Peru.

Before entering on this subject, however, it will be well to cast a hasty glance at the progress of those investigations which ended in the discovery of the febrifugal principle in Peruvian bark.

The roots, flowers, and capsules of the chinchona-trees have a bitter taste with tonic properties, but the upper bark is the only part which has any commercial value.[26] The bark of trees is composed of four layers—the epiderm, the periderm, the cellular layer, and the liber or fibrous layer, composed of hexagonal cells filled with resinous matter and woody tissue. In growing, the tree pushes out the bark, and, as the exterior part ceases to grow, it separates into layers, and forms the dead part or periderm; which in chinchonas is partially destroyed, and blended with the thallus of lichens. The bark is thus formed of the dead part, or periderm, and the living part, or derm. On young branches there is no dead part, the exterior layers remaining entire, while the inner layers have not had time to develop. In thick old branches, on the contrary, the periderm or dead part is considerable, while the fibrous layer of the derm is fully developed. In preparing the bark the periderm is removed by striking the trunk with a mallet, and the derm is then taken off by uniform incisions. The thin pieces from small branches are simply exposed to the sun's rays, and assume the form of hollow cylinders, or quills, called by the natives canuto bark. The solid trunk bark is called tabla or plancha, and is sewn up in coarse canvas and an outer envelope of fresh hide, forming the packages called serons.

The character of the transverse fracture affords an important criterion of the quality of the bark. Cellular tissue breaks with a short and smooth fracture, woody tissue with a fibrous fracture, as is the case with the calisaya bark. The best characteristics by which barks containing much quinine may be distinguished are the shortness of the fibres which cover the transverse fracture, and the facility with which they may be detached, instead of being flexible and adhering as in bad barks. Thus, when dry calisaya bark is handled, a quantity of little prickles run into the skin, and this forms one of its distinguishing marks.[27]

Until the present century Peruvian bark was used in its crude state, and numerous attempts were made at different times to discover the actual healing principle in the bark, before success was finally attained. The first trial which is worthy of attention was made in 1779 by the chemists Buguet and Cornette, who recognised the existence of an essential salt, a resinous and an earthy matter in quinquina bark. In 1790 Fourcroy discovered the existence of a colouring matter, afterwards called chinchona red, and a Swedish doctor named Westring, in 1800, believed that he had discovered the active principle in quinquina bark. In 1802 the French chemist Armand Seguin undertook the bark trade on a large scale, and found it necessary to study the means of discovering good barks, and distinguishing them from bad ones. He found that the best quinquina bark was precipitated by tannin, while the bad was not precipitated by that substance. In 1803 another chemist found a crystalline substance in the bark which he called "sel essentiel fébrifuge" but it was nothing more than the combination of lime with an acid which was named quinic acid. Reuss, a Russian chemist, in 1815, was the first to give a tolerable analysis of quinquina bark; and about the same time Dr. Duncan of Edinburgh suggested that a real substance existed as a febrifugal principle. Dr. Gomez, a surgeon in the Portuguese navy, in 1816, was the first to isolate this febrifugal principle hinted at by Dr. Duncan, and he called it chinchonine.[28]

But the final discovery of quinine is due to the French chemists Pelletier and Caventou, in 1820. They considered that a vegetable alkaloid, analogous to morphine and strychnine, existed in quinquina bark; and they afterwards discovered that the febrifugal principle was seated in two alkaloids, separate or together, in the different kinds of bark, called quinine and chinchonine, with the same virtues, which, however, were much more powerful in quinine. It was believed that in most barks chinchonine exists in the cellular layer, and quinine in the liber, or fibrous layer; but Mr. Howard has since shown that this view is quite incorrect.[29] In 1829 Pelletier discovered a third alkaloid, which he called aricine, of no use in medicine, and derived from a worthless species of chinchona, growing in most of the forests of Peru, called C. pubescens.[30]

The organic constituents of chinchona barks are—

These materials are in different proportions according to the barks. Grey bark chiefly contains chinchonine and tannin; Calisaya, or yellow bark, much quinine, and a little chinchonine; red bark holds quinine and chinchonine in nearly equal proportions; while the barks of New Granada chiefly contain chinchonidine and quinidine. The two latter alkaloids were definitively discovered in 1852 by M. Pasteur; although the Dutch chemist Heijningen had, in 1848, found what he called β quinine or quinidine. Chinchonidine is only second to quinine itself in importance as a febrifugal principle.

Quinine is a white substance, without smell, bitter, fusible, crystallized, with the property of left-handed rotatory polarization. The salts of quinine are soluble in water, alcohol, and ether. Of all the salts the bisulphate of quinine is preferred, because it constitutes a stable salt, easy to prepare, and containing a strong proportion of the alkaloid. It is very bitter and soluble, and crystallizes in long silky needles. It is prepared by adding sulphuric acid to the sulphate.[31]

Chinchonine differs from quinine in being less soluble in water, and being altogether insoluble in ether. It has the property of right-handed rotatory polarization.

Quinidine also has the property of right-handed rotatory polarization, and forms salts like those of quinine. It becomes green by successive additions of chlorine and ammonia.

Chinchonidine has not the property of turning green, and forms a sulphate almost exactly like sulphate of quinine.[32]

The discovery of these alkaloids in the quinquina[33] bark, by enabling chemists to extract the healing principle, has greatly increased the usefulness of the drug. In small doses they promote the appetite and assist digestion; and chinchonine is equal to quinine in mild cases of intermittent fever; but in severe cases the use of quinine is absolutely necessary. Thus these alkaloids not only possess tonic properties to which recourse may be had under a multitude of circumstances, but also have a febrifugal virtue which is unequalled, and which has rendered them almost a necessary of life in tropical countries, and in low marshy situations where agues prevail. Many a poor fellow's life was saved in the Walcheren expedition by the timely arrival of a Yankee trader with some chests of bark, after the supply had entirely failed in the camp.[34] Dr. Baikie, in his voyage up the Niger, attributed the return of his men alive to the habitual use of quinine; and the number of men whose lives it has saved in our naval service and in India will give a notion of the vast importance of a sufficient and cheap supply of the precious bark which yields it. India and other countries have been vainly searched for a substitute for quinine, and we may say with as much truth now as Laubert did in 1820—"This medicine, the most precious of all those known in the art of healing, is one of the greatest conquests made by man over the vegetable kingdom. The treasures which Peru yields, and which the Spaniards sought and dug out of the bowels of the earth, are not to be compared for utility with the bark of the quinquina-tree, which they for a long time ignored.[35]

CHAPTER II.

The valuable species of Chinchona-trees—their history, their discoverers, and their forests.

I.—THE LOXA REGION, AND ITS CROWN BARKS.

The region around Loxa, on the southern frontier of the modern republic of Ecuador, is the original home of the Chinchona, and nearly in the centre of its latitudinal range of growth. On the lofty grass-covered slopes of the Andes, around the little town of Loxa, and in the sheltered ravines and dense forests, those precious trees were found which first made known to the world the healing virtues of Peruvian bark. They were most plentifully met with in the forests of Uritusinga, Rumisitana, Cajanuma, Boqueron, Villonaco, and Monje, all within short distances of Loxa.

Linnæus had named these trees Chinchona officinalis; but when Humboldt and Bonpland examined them, the discovery of other species yielding medicinal bark had rendered the name inappropriate, and they very properly re-christened them, after the distinguished Frenchman who had originally described them, Chinchona Condaminea. Humboldt says that they grow on mica slate and gneiss, from 6000 to 8000 feet above the sea, with a mean temperature between 60° and 65° Fahr. In his time the tree was cut down in its first flowering season, or in the fourth or seventh of its age, according as it had sprung from a vigorous root-shoot, or from a seed. He describes the luxuriance of the vegetation to be such that the younger trees, only six inches in diameter, often attain from fifty-three to sixty-four English feet in height. "This beautiful tree," he continues, "which is adorned with leaves above five inches long and two broad, growing in dense forests, seems always to aspire to rise above its neighbours. As its upper branches wave to and fro in the wind, their red and shining foliage produces a strange and peculiar effect, recognisable from a great distance."[36] It varies much in the shape of the leaves, according to the altitude at which it grows, and bark-collectors themselves would be deceived if they did not know the tree by the glands, so long unobserved by botanists. The C. Condaminea described by Humboldt is the same as the C. Uritusinga of Pavon. It once yielded great quantities of thick trunk bark, but, owing to reckless felling through a course of years, it is now almost exterminated, and its bark is rarely met with in commerce. The distinguished botanist Don Francisco Caldas examined the chinchona forests of Loxa after Humboldt, between 1803 and 1809. He says that the famous quina-tree of Loxa grows in the forests of Uritusinga and Cajanuma, at a height of from 6200 to 8200 feet above the sea, in a temperature of 41° to 72° Fahr.; but that it is only found between the rivers Zamora and Cachiyacu.[37] He describes the tree as from thirty to forty-eight feet high, with three or more stems growing from the same root; the leaves as lanceolate, shining on both sides, with veins a rosy colour, a short and tender pubescence on the under side when young, and when past maturity a bright scarlet colour; the bark black when exposed to the sun and wind, a brownish colour when closed in by other trees, and always covered with lichens;[38] and the rock on which the trees grow, a micaceous schist.

Don Francisco José de Caldas, a native of New Granada, was one of the most eminent scientific men that South America has yet produced. He was associated with Mutis in the botanical expedition of New Granada; he explored the chinchona region as far as Loxa; and thus takes his place as one of those to whom we are indebted for throwing light on the nature of the trees yielding Peruvian bark. Caldas was born at Popayan in the year 1770; and, from early youth, devoted himself to the pursuits of science with untiring energy, especially studying botany, mathematics, meteorology, and physical geography. He constructed his own barometer and sextant, and, ignorant of the methods adopted in Europe, he discovered the way of ascertaining altitudes by a boiling-point thermometer. He has left many memoirs on botanical and other subjects behind him, and his style is always animated, clear, and interesting; but many of the productions of this remarkable man are still in manuscript,[39] and others are lost to us for ever. Above all, it is to be regretted that his botanical chart of the chinchona genus, which he promised in one of his memoirs, has never seen the light. After the declaration of independence Caldas was nominated by the Congress at Bogota to publish the works of his friend the botanist Mutis. When the brutal Spanish General Morillo entered Bogota in June 1816, he perpetrated a series of savage massacres, in which more than 600 of the most distinguished men in the country fell victims. Among them was Caldas, who was shot through the back on the 30th of October 1816.[40]

The Spanish botanists Ruiz and Pavon also examined the chinchona-trees of Loxa; and the latter described two species, C. Uritusinga, named from the mountain on which it was once most abundant, and C. Chahuarguera, so called from a fancied resemblance of the bark to a pair of breeches (huara in Quichua) made from the fibre of the American aloe (chahuar). To these the botanist Tafalla added the C. crispa. These three species are all included in Humboldt's C. Condaminea, which is readily known by the little pits, bordered with hairs, at the axils of the veins on the under side of the leaf. It would appear that at one period of growth these little pits or scrobicules are wanting, but when the plant is in full vigour they are markedly prominent. The C. Chahuarguera[41] is described by Pavon as growing from eighteen to twenty-four feet in height; although now the trees, which yield the Loxa bark of commerce, do not attain a height of more than four to nine feet. It is met with on the grassy open crests of mountain ridges, in light sandy soil interspersed with rocks, amongst shrubs and young plants. The barks of Loxa were called crown barks, because they were reserved for the exclusive use of the royal pharmacy at Madrid; and they originally sold at Panama for five and six dollars, and at Seville for twelve dollars the pound; but in later times they were much adulterated, and the price fell to one dollar the pound.

The C. Chahuarguera is the rusty crown bark of commerce,[42] and the C. crispa is the quina fina de Loxa or crespilla negra of the natives. A parcel of it has quite recently sold at a higher price than Calisaya quills. With this rusty crown bark are mixed larger quills particularly rich in the alkaloid called chinchonidine.[43] The C. Uritusinga grew to the height of a lofty forest tree, but it is now nearly exterminated. The leaves assume a red colour before they fall, acquiring the most beautiful tints, and the tree is one of the finest in those forests.[44] It is said that there is a great difference in the bark, according as it is grown on the sides of mountains most exposed to the morning or evening sun; and its position is believed to have a great influence on the quality of its alkaloids. The usual yield of the large quills is 3.5 to 3.6 per cent.[45]

The bark-collectors of Loxa are said to show some little forethought, a quality which is entirely wanting in most of their fraternity. To save the trees they occasionally cut off the whole of the bark, with the exception of one long strip, which gradually replaces its loss; and the second cutting is called cascarilla resecada. This practice was in use in the days of the botanist Ruiz, who protested against it, and declared that it was very injurious to the trees, many having been destroyed by it.[46] Later accounts, however, show that the bark-collectors of Loxa are as thoughtlessly destructive as those in other parts of South America. They often pull up the roots, while the annual burning of the slopes, and the continual cropping of the young shoots by cattle, assist the work of destruction.[47]

It is, therefore, well that the C. Chahuarguera and C. Uritusinga, the earliest known and among the most valuable of the chinchona-trees, should have been saved from extinction by timely introduction into India.

The annual export of Loxa bark, from the port of Payta, is from 800 to 1000 cwts.

II.—THE "RED-BARK" REGION, ON THE WESTERN SLOPES OF CHIMBORAZO.

The species yielding "red bark," the richest and most important of all the Chinchonæ, is found in the forests on the western slopes of Mount Chimborazo, along the banks of the rivers Chanchan, Chasuan, San Antonio, and their tributaries. So early as 1738 Condamine spoke of "red bark" (cascarilla colorada) as being of superior quality;[48] and Pavon sent home specimens of the "red bark of Huaranda," and named the species C. succirubra. Some of these are now in the British Museum; and in the collection of Ruiz and Pavon, in the botanical gardens at Madrid, I found capsules, flowers, and leaves marked "cascarilla colorada de los cerros de San Antonio." In 1857 Dr. Klotzsch, an eminent German botanist, read a paper at Berlin,[49] elaborately describing the "red bark" as a product of C. succirubra, from a very good specimen of Pavon's in the Berlin Museum. Mr. Howard has also received a specimen from Alausi, and he is inclined to the belief that there are several varieties of C. succirubra, and one or two allied species, as yet undescribed.[50] Much light was thrown upon the history of this valuable species by Mr. Spruce, when he penetrated into the forests to collect seeds and plants for transmission to India in 1860.

Though little was known of the tree until quite lately, there was never any doubt concerning the value of the bark. In 1779 a Spanish ship from Lima, bound to Cadiz, was captured off Lisbon by the 'Hussar' frigate, and her cargo consisted chiefly of "red bark," part of which was imported into England. In 1785 and 1786 Ruiz states that the collectors began to gather the bark of C. succirubra, and sell it at Guayaquil, and from that time it continued to be found in the European markets. It contains a larger proportion of alkaloids than any other kind, amounting to as much as from 3 to 4 per cent. of the substance of the bark, and of this a fair share is quinine. Fine samples yield 3.9 per cent., selling at 8s. 9d. per lb.; and the quill bark from the smaller branches 3.6 per cent.[51] Mr. Howard has recently procured 8.5 per cent. of alkaloids from a specimen of "red bark." A large supply of plants of this species is flourishing in India and Ceylon, and, from the richness of the species, the comparatively low elevation at which it thrives, and its hardy nature, it may be expected to become a cultivated plant of great value and importance.

In 1857 the export of bark from the port of Guayaquil, the place of shipment for the C. succirubra, amounted to 7006 quintals, valued at 23,353l.[52] In 1849-50 Dr. Weddell gives the amount at 1042 quintals.

III.—THE NEW-GRANADA REGION.

The importance of the chinchona-trees was fully established in the middle of the last century, and, Don Miguel de Santistevan, the director of the mint at Bogota, having addressed a memorial on the bark trade (estanco de cascarilla) to the Viceroy Marquis of Villar in 1753, the attention of the Spanish Government was seriously turned to the subject. When the Viceroy Don Pedro Mesia de la Cerda, Marquis de la Vega de Armijo, went out to Bogota in 1760,[53] he was accompanied by the botanist Don José Celestino Mutis, a native of Cadiz, who was appointed to conduct a botanical survey of New Granada, and especially to investigate the bark of the chinchona-trees.[54]

In 1772 Mutis found these trees in the neighbourhood of Bogota, and described four kinds in 1792, which he called C. lancifolia, C. cordifolia, C. oblongifolia, and C. ovalifolia, yielding four kinds of barks—anaranjada, amarilla, roja, and blanca, or orange-coloured, yellow, red, and white.[55] He declared the C. lancifolia to be excellent for intermittent fevers, in which he was right, and to be identical with the C. Condaminea of Loxa, in which he was wrong; the C. cordifolia he recommended for remittent fevers, and the other two for inflammatory diseases. In reality the two last are not chinchonas at all, but belong to the genus Ladenbergia, and contain no fever-dispelling alkaloids whatever; while the C. Cordifolia is so poor in alkaloids as to be practically worthless.

While Mutis, and his disciples Caldas and Zea, were prosecuting their researches in New Granada, an expedition under the botanists Ruiz and Pavon was sent to Peru; and an acrimonious paper war sprang up between the rivals, as to the respective merits of the barks of New Granada and Peru. Ruiz declared the New Granada kinds to be inferior to those of Peru, while Mutis contradicted him, and Zea[56] went so far as to maintain that the species found by Ruiz and Pavon in Peru were mere varieties of the four chinchonas of Mutis, growing near Bogota.[57]

The C. lancifolia of Mutis is dispersed in wild inaccessible forests, while the other three kinds grow in partly cultivated and inhabited regions, and their barks are therefore much more easy to collect. These worthless barks were, therefore, largely exported from Carthagena and Santa Martha, while the valuable C. lancifolia was neglected; and the consequence was that the barks of New Granada fell entirely into discredit for many years. In about 1849, however, Dr. Santa Maria of Bogota discovered the C. lancifolia afresh, producing the quina anaranjada, and it has recently been found in the whole cordillera from Bogota to Popayan, and largely exported between 1849 and 1855, when the supplies began to fail.

Dr. Karsten, a distinguished German botanist, has lately returned from a residence of some years in New Granada, where he thoroughly examined the region of C. lancifolia. His remarks on the production of alkaloids in chinchona barks are very important. He came to the conclusion that the content of alkaloids was not always the same in the same species of chinchona, and that the soil and relations of climate, on which the nourishment of the plant depends, exercise considerable influence. He also assumes, what is undoubtedly true, that the chinchonæ with the capsule opening from the base and crowned by the calyx, with a corolla of delicate texture and bearded edges, and generally unindented seed-lobes, give febrifugal barks; but his further position that the short oval or elliptic capsules are a sign of a regularly larger content of alkaloids, while long capsules show a small quantity or total absence of quinine and chinchonine, though doubtless correct so far as Dr. Karsten's personal observation extended, will not bear general application. The C. succirubra, the richest of all the barks in alkaloids, would certainly come under the latter head. Dr. Karsten's observations on the differences in the structure of the false and true barks are also exceedingly valuable.

The C. lancifolia of New Granada has been found to contain as much as 2½ per cent. of quinine and from 1 to 2 per cent. of chinchonine. The trees are found in forest-regions veiled in fog and rain, and often exposed to frost, where the temperature ranges from freezing-point to 77° Fahr., at heights of 7000 feet and upwards above the level of the sea. They attain a height of 80 feet and 5 feet in diameter, but the average size is 30 or 40 feet high and 3 feet in girth.[58] Seeds of this species, collected by Dr. Karsten, were sent to Java, and there are now several plants raised from these seeds in India.[59]

I find that between 1802 and 1807 the export of New Granada bark from the port of Carthagena was 3,340,000 lbs.; the largest quantity in one year being 48,330 lbs. in 1806. The first arrivals in Spain sold at 5 to 6 dollars a pound, but in 1808 they were worth next to nothing, owing to the damaged state in which the bark arrived.[60]

IV.—THE HUANUCO REGION IN NORTHERN PERU, AND ITS GREY BARKS.

The chinchona-trees, in the forests of the province of Huanuco, in Northern Peru, were discovered by Don Francisco Renquifo in 1776, on the mountain of San Cristoval de Cuchero or Cocheros; and Don Manuel Alcarraz brought the first sample of bark from Huanuco to Lima.

At almost the same time the Spanish government was organizing a botanical expedition to explore the chinchona forests of Peru; composed of the botanists Don José Pavon, Don Hipolito Ruiz, the Frenchman Dombey, and two artists named Brunete and Galvez. They embarked at Cadiz on November 4th, 1777, and reached Callao April 8th, 1778. Having made a large collection of plants in the neighbourhood of Lima, and despatched them to Spain,[61] they crossed the Andes, explored the forests of Tarma, and then proceeded to Huanuco. They traversed the valley of Chinchao, explored the hill of Cuchero or Cocheros, near Huanuco, and discovered seven species of chinchona-trees,[62] returning to Lima laden with the precious spoils of their expedition. They then sailed for Chile, and, after exploring the greater part of that province, they returned to Lima, and sent off their botanical collections in fifty-three boxes, which were all lost in the shipwreck of the 'San Pedro de Alcantara,' off the coast of Portugal, in 1786. M. Dombey returned to Europe at about the same time.

Ruiz and Pavon then returned to Huanuco, explored the courses of the rivers Pozuzu and Huancabamba, and eventually established themselves at the farm of Macora, near Huanuco, where they resided for two months with Don Francisco Pulgar and Don Juan Tafalla, who, by order of the king, had joined them as pupils and associates in their labours—the first as an artist, the second as a botanist. In August, 1785, a fire broke out in their house, which destroyed all their journals and collections; and they then undertook journeys through the forests of Muña, Pillao, and Chacahuasi, examining new species of chinchonæ.[63] On April 1st, 1788, taking leave of Pulgar and Tafalla, they sailed from Callao, and reached Cadiz in September, when they commenced the publication of their great work the 'Flora Peruviana.'[64]

Tafalla continued his researches in the province of Huanuco, and discovered the C. micrantha in 1797, in the cool and shady forests of Monzon and Chicoplaya. Pavon calls him "noster alumnus."

The expeditions and discoveries of the Spanish botanists induced the merchants of Lima to speculate in bark, and brought the grey barks of Huanuco into the European markets.[65] In 1785 Don Juan de Bezares, a Lima merchant, devoted 2000 dollars to the exploration of the forests of Huamalies. He penetrated along the banks of the Monzon to Chicoplaya, passing mountains thickly covered with chinchona-trees, and engaged people to collect bark. Thousands of arrobas were thus obtained of the bark of C. glandulifera; and having been appointed Governor of Huamalies by the Viceroy Don Teodoro de Croix in 1788, Bezares commenced the construction of a good road down the valley of the Monzon.[66] Up to 1826 the principal supplies of grey bark were derived from C. nitida, but since that time they are believed to have come chiefly from C. micrantha.

Science owes much to the labours of Spanish botanists: the Spanish nation has every reason to be proud of her sons who explored the forests of the Andes with such untiring energy and distinguished ability; and the names of Mutis, Ruiz, Pavon, and Tafalla occupy no unimportant place in the history of botanical research. Nor, in this respect, have the natives of South America been behindhand. Caldas and Zea were worthy successors of Mutis; Franco Davila[67] represents the botanical learning of Peru; while in more modern times the name of the South American Triana is not unworthy to stand side by side with those of the best botanists in Europe.

CHINCHONA MICRANTHA.
(From Howard's 'Nueva Quinologia de Pavon.') Page 32.

After the days of Ruiz and Pavon, our chief authority on the grey barks of Huanuco is Dr. Poeppig, now a professor in Leipsic, who travelled in Chile and Peru between the years 1827 and 1832.[68] He says that, as in New Granada, the grey barks of Huanuco soon fell into discredit in the European markets, owing to the adulterations of small speculators, and that after 1815 the trade almost entirely ceased.[69] In 1830 scarcely 1250 lbs. of bark found their way from Huanuco to Lima.

In the flourishing times of the Huanuco bark trade the cascarilleros, or bark-collectors, entered the forests in parties of ten or more, with supplies of food and tools. They penetrated for several days into the virgin forest until they came to the region of the chinchona-trees, when they built some rude huts and commenced their work. The cateador, or searcher, then climbed a high tree, and, with the aid of experience and sharp sight, soon discovered the manchas or clumps by their dark colour, and the peculiar reflection of the light from their leaves, easily observable even in the midst of these endless expanses of forest. The cateador, then, with never-erring instinct, conducted the party for hours through the tangled brushwood, to the chinchona clump, using the wood-knife at every step. From a single clump they often obtained a thousand pounds of bark, which was sent up to be dried beyond the limits of the forest. All depended on the success of this operation, for the bark easily becomes mouldy and loses its colour. The cascarilleros got two rials for every twenty-five pounds of green bark stripped, from the speculator, and, as they could easily strip three hundred pounds, they made two dollars a day. The bark cost the speculator about four dollars, and the price at Lima was sixteen to twenty dollars the arroba of twenty-five pounds.[70]

Dr. Poeppig makes some important remarks on the supposed danger of the total extirpation of the chinchona-trees by reckless felling. Condamine and Ulloa believed that this would be the case in the Loxa forests, and Poeppig thinks that their apprehensions were well founded, because there the trees are not felled, but left standing deprived of their bark, in which case they are attacked by rot with extraordinary rapidity in tropical forests, hosts of insects penetrate to the stem, and the healthy roots become infected. But it is only necessary to observe the precaution of hewing the stem as near as possible to the root, in order to be sure of its after-growth. After six years, near Cuchero, the young stems may already be felled again; but, at higher altitudes, where the most effective chinchonas are found, it requires twenty years.[71]

The C. micrantha abounds in the province of Huanuco, and the bark is known as Cascarilla provinciana. It yields 2.7 per cent. of chinchonine, and is much sought after for the Russian market.

The C. nitida is a lofty tree growing in the higher regions of Huanuco, and is known by the natives as quina cana legitima (genuine grey bark). It grows at a greater height than the former species, and yields 2.2 per cent. of chinchonine.

The C. Peruviana, so named by Mr. Howard, is the Cascarilla de pata de gallinazo of the natives. It grows in the forests at a lower elevation than C. nitida, and yields 3 per cent. of chinchonine and chinchonidine, consequently indicating a considerable amount of febrifugal power. Quinine has also been found in samples of grey bark.[72]

The name of grey bark refers to the striking effect of the overspreading thallus of various Graphideæ, forming groups, and indicating that the tree has grown in an open situation, exposed to rain and sunshine. A large supply of all the best kinds of grey bark is now growing in India.[73]

V.—THE CALISAYA REGION IN BOLIVIA AND SOUTHERN PERU.

The chinchona region of Bolivia and Southern Peru, although one of the most important, was the last to contribute supplies of bark to the European markets. The trees first became known through the investigations of the German botanist Thaddæus Haenke, and a Spanish naval officer named Rubin de Celis, who drew the attention of the inhabitants to the valuable forests on the eastern slopes of the Bolivian Andes in 1776, though the unfortunate French naturalist Joseph de Jussieu had previously explored some portions of those forests.[74] But it was not until 1820, when quinine was first discovered as the febrifugal principle of bark, that the Chinchona Calisaya[75] was recognised as containing more of that alkaloid than any other species.

After 1820 the demand for calisaya bark increased enormously; great numbers of cascarilleros, or bark-collectors, entered the forests, and in a short time scarcely a tree remained in the vicinity of the inhabited places; and the bark was exported in such quantities that the price fell very much.[76] It was not, however, until 1830 that the Bolivian Government interfered in the bark trade. It was then considered necessary by General Santa Cruz's administration to check the drain of this precious source of wealth by limiting the quantity of bark to be cut or exported; and in November, 1834, the Bolivian Congress decreed a law on the subject, which, however, never took effect. Finally, the cutting was prohibited for five years, but before the expiration of that period the decree was abrogated, and an export duty of twelve dollars to twenty dollars the quintal, or cwt., was imposed.

In 1844 the Bolivian Congress authorized the President, General Ballivian, to negotiate for the establishment of a national bank of bark, with the requisite capital, to export all the quinquina bark produced in the country. This Bolivian legislation on the chinchona bark, which is considered, with justice, the most important product of their country, is very curious, and sufficiently demonstrates the futility of attempting a system of protection and monopoly. Instead of taking measures to prevent the reckless destruction of the trees, to establish extensive nurseries for young plants, and thus ensure a constant and sufficient supply of bark, these Bolivians have meddled with the trade, attempted to regulate European prices by the most barbarous legislation, and allowed the forests to be denuded of chinchona-trees. In 1845 the bark monopoly was given to Messrs. Jorge Tesanos Pinto and Co., for five years, for the sum of 119,000 dollars, during which time not more than 4000 quintals of bark were to be exported annually. This company gave such iniquitously low prices to the cascarilleros for their bark, that a clamour was raised against it, and the President, General Belzu, put an end to its existence in March 1849.

Free trade, with a duty of twenty dollars the quintal, was then established during one year; but in 1850 exclusive privileges were again granted to Messrs. Aramayo Brothers and Co., who were to pay the Government 142,000 dollars a year for the right of exporting 7000 quintals of bark annually, to be purchased of the cascarilleros, the tabla or trunk bark at sixty dollars the quintal, and the canuto or quill bark at thirty to thirty-six dollars the quintal. The Pinto company had only paid eighteen to twenty-two dollars the quintal for tabla, and eight to ten dollars for canuto bark. The favourable conditions thus offered to cascarilleros induced so great a number of persons to undertake the business, that at the end of the first year more than 20,000 quintals of bark arrived at La Paz—that is to say, more than twice as much as the company had agreed for, and more than the Pinto company had exported in five years. The Government then issued a decree to prevent the smuggling of bark, and another that no bark should be cut except for the company: but these measures caused much discontent, and in 1851 the Congress voted that the Executive had exceeded its powers in making these arrangements with the Aramayo company, and declared them to be null and void. The Aramayo company purchased 14,000 quintals of the bark, and agreed to take the same quantity during the two following years, paying only a third of the price in ready money; but a new company, formed under the name of Pedro Blaye and Co., engaged to purchase all the bark that was for sale, both at La Paz and Cochabamba, for ready money. It was evident that one or the other of these companies must break, and finally that of Blaye fell. The Government then determined to export the bark which remained in store on its own account, paying the same price as had been agreed on by the company.

These two companies lasted for two years, during which time the Bolivian forests yielded 3,000,000 lbs. of bark. Such was the result of the high prices which followed the fall of the Pinto monopoly; but it was the rich contractors, and not the poor bark-collectors, who derived benefit from the change.[77]

In 1851 Government prohibited the cutting of bark entirely, from the 1st of January, 1852, to the 1st of January, 1854.[78] In 1858 a decree was issued to regulate the transition of the system of monopoly to that of free-trade in bark, which caused an improvement in the prices in European markets; and in November, 1859, Dr. Linares, then President of Bolivia, declared the right to cut bark in the forests to be free, and reduced the duty 25 per cent. on the current prices, to be fixed at the beginning of each year.[79] This is the law which now regulates the bark trade in Bolivia, and, after a course of short-sighted meddling legislation, extending over twenty years, in 1850 it still brought 142,000 dollars annually into the public treasury, being a fifteenth part of the whole revenue of the Republic.

For exportation the bark is wrapped in fresh bullock-hides, having been previously sewn up in thick cotton bags containing 155 lbs. each. These hide packages are called serons, a mule-load being 285 lbs., and the transport to the coast costing about ten dollars for each mule-load.

It is to the persevering energy and great talent of that distinguished French botanist Dr. Weddell that we owe our knowledge of the chinchona regions of Bolivia and Southern Peru, and especially of the inestimable quinine-yielding species which he identified as the C. Calisaya. Dr. Weddell accompanied the scientific expedition of the Count de Castelnau, which was sent out by Louis Philippe to South America, and, after crossing the vast empire of Brazil, entered Bolivia by the country of the Chiquitos in August, 1845. It was Dr. Weddell's chief object to examine the chinchona region of this country, and his first step was to proceed to Tarija, to ascertain the extreme southern limit of the chinchona-trees, which he discovered in 19° S. lat. He named the species C. Australis. Dr. Weddell then commenced a thorough exploration of the Bolivian chinchona forests, making his way over the most difficult country, from Cochabamba, through Ayopaya, Enquisivi, and the yungus[80] of La Paz; where the species of chinchonæ continued to multiply under his eye. In Enquisivi he first met with and studied the C. Calisaya, which he named and described, collecting much information respecting the trade, and the methods of collecting bark. In 1847 he entered the province of Capaulican, descending the river Tipuani, where he was attacked by fever, and ascending the Mapiri. At Apollobamba, the centre of the most ancient bark-collecting district, he found that the surrounding forests were quite cleared of chinchona-trees, and that it was necessary to seek for them at a distance of ten or twelve days' journey from any inhabited place. In June 1847 Dr. Weddell entered the Peruvian province of Caravaya, examined the chinchona forests of the valleys of Sandia (San Juan del Oro) and Tambopata, and concluded his investigations by a visit to the lovely ravine of Santa Anna, near Cuzco.

Dr. Weddell was accompanied in his visit to the valleys of Santa Anna by M. Delondre, a manufacturer of quinine at Havre, who, after contemplating the project of paying a personal visit to the chinchona forests for twenty years, had at length set out, landed at Islay in July, 1847, and proceeded by way of Arequipa to Cuzco. M. Delondre appears to have employed a contractor to supply him with bark, who failed in his engagements, and of whom the French quinine manufacturer bitterly complains as a second Dousterswivel.[81] MM. Weddell and Delondre finally left the chinchona forests in September, 1847, and set out for the coast of Peru. Dr. Weddell's valuable monograph on the chinchona genus, 'Histoire naturelle des Quinquinas,' the most important work that has yet appeared on the subject, was published at Paris in 1849.

In 1851 Dr. Weddell undertook a second voyage to South America, and in 1852 he entered the Bolivian chinchona region of Tipuani by way of Sorata. In descending the eastern slopes of the Andes he describes the vegetation as taking new forms at every mile of the descent. The undergrowth was formed of Melastomaceæ with violet-coloured flowers (Chætogastra), myrtles, Gaultherias, and Andromedas; lower down there were many superb species of Thibaudias; and, where the great forests succeed to the smaller growth of the more elevated region, the predominant trees were Escallonias, arborescent Eupatorias, Bocconias, and a fruit-bearing Papilionacea with a scarlet corolla. He encountered the first forest chinchona-trees at an elevation of 7138 feet, being the C. ovata var. α vulgaris. Descending still, he came to paccay-trees (Mimosa Inga) in flower, and met with the first plant of the shrubby variety of C. Calisaya, on an open grassy ridge or pajonal, at an elevation of 4800 feet.

Dr. Weddell descended the river Tipuani to Guanay, a mission of Lecos Indians, and ascended the Coroico in a canoe made of the wood of a species of Bombax. The forests bordering on the river Coroico abounded in many species of palms, chiefly Maximilianas and Iriarteas, the latter a singular kind with a trunk supported on long aërial roots. There were also many trees of C. micrantha on the banks of the Coroico, a species of chinchona, the peculiarity of which is its fondness for the bottoms of valleys and banks of rivers, while most of the others prefer elevated ridges or slopes of the mountains. With it were growing trees of the beautiful Cascarilla magnifolia, an allied genus with deliciously fragrant flowers.

The cascarilleros of Bolivia lead a hard and dangerous life. They only value the C. Calisaya, the other species being for them carhua-carhua, a name given to all the inferior kinds. Those who carry the bark on their shoulders from the interior of the forests receive fifteen dollars for every quintal, and they also have to carry all their provisions and covering for the night. If by any accident they are lost, or their provisions are destroyed, they die of hunger. Dr. Weddell, on one occasion, while ascending the Coroico, landed with the intention of passing the night on a beach well shaded by trees. Here he found the hut of a cascarillero, and near it a man stretched out on the ground in the agonies of death. He was nearly naked, and covered with myriads of insects, whose stings had hastened his end. His face was so swollen as to be wholly unrecognisable, and his limbs were in a frightful state. On the leaves which formed the roof of the hut were the remains of this unfortunate man's clothes, a straw hat and some rags, with a knife, and an earthen pot containing the remains of his last meal, a little maize, and two or three chuñus. Such is the end to which their hazardous occupation exposes the bark-collectors—death in the midst of the forests, far from all friends—a death without help, and without consolation.

Dr. Weddell returned to La Paz by ascending the Coroico, and the results of his second visit to the chinchona forests appeared in an entertaining book of travels.[82] To this able botanist and intrepid explorer science is indebted, to no small extent, for the present state of our knowledge of the chinchona genus.

The C. Calisaya species has been divided by Dr. Weddell into two varieties, namely, a vera and β Josephiana. The former, when growing under favourable circumstances, is a tall tree, often larger round than twice a man's girth, with its leafy head rising above all the other trees of the forest. The leaves are oblong or lanceolate-obovate, pitted in the axils of the veins, with a shining green surface, and reddish veins. The flowers, which hang in large panicles, are a rosy-white colour, with laciniæ rose-colour, and bordered by marginal white hairs. The capsule is smooth, and about twice as long as broad. This tree grows on declivities, and steep rugged places of the mountains, from 4900 to 5900 feet above the sea, in the forests of Enquisivi, Capaulican, Apollobamba, and Larecaja in Bolivia, and of Caravaya in Peru. The trunk may be known by the periderm of the bark, sometimes of a greyish-white, sometimes brown or blackish, being always marked by longitudinal ridges or cracks, a characteristic remarked of no other tree of these forests, excepting one or two of the same family. The taste is strongly bitter, which is apparent directly the tip of the tongue touches it, and, when the exterior receives a cut, a yellow gummy resinous matter exudes from it. The bark comes off with great ease, like peeling a mushroom, while, in the inferior kinds, and above all in the false chinchonas, it strips transversely, and with much greater difficulty. A good tree yields 150 to 175 pounds of dried bark.

The other variety of C. Calisaya, called ychu cascarilla, or cascarilla del pajonal, by the natives, was named Josephiana by Dr. Weddell after the unfortunate French botanist Joseph de Jussieu. It is a shrub, not attaining a greater height than six and a half to ten feet, and growing on open grassy slopes, at much higher elevations than the tree Calisaya. There is another tree variety with a somewhat darker leaf, which Dr. Weddell classed as a distinct species, and called C. Boliviana in 1849, but which he now considers to be a mere variety of C. Calisaya. The other good kinds in the forests of Bolivia and Caravaya are C. micrantha, and two varieties of C. ovata.

Dr. Weddell brought seeds of C. Calisaya to Paris, which were raised in the Jardin des Plantes in 1848, and others in the garden of the Horticultural Society in London, where one of the plants flowered.[83] Many of these plants were given away, and some of them were sent by the Dutch Government to Java.

Plants of C. Calisaya are now flourishing in India. The yield of quinine for the best kinds of calisaya bark is 3.8 per cent., that for the Josephiana variety 3.29.[84]

Arica and Islay are the ports for the shipment of calisaya bark; and in 1859 the quantity and value exported were:—

Jan. 1st to Nov. 30th, 1860, Arica $160,260 = £35,000 (about).
1860, Islay, 1077 quintals.

CHAPTER III.

Rapid destruction of chinchona-trees in South America—Importance of their introduction into other countries—M. Hasskarl's mission—Chinchona plantations in Java.

The collection of bark in the South American forests was conducted from the first with reckless extravagance; no attempt worthy the name has ever been made either with a view to the conservancy or cultivation of the chinchona-trees; and both the complete abandonment of the forests to the mercy of every speculator, as in Peru, Ecuador, and New Granada, and the barbarous meddling legislation of Bolivia, have led to equally destructive results. The bark-collector enters the forest and destroys the first clump of chinchona-trees he finds, without a thought of any measure to preserve the continuance of a supply of bark. Thus, in Apollobamba, where the trees once grew thickly round the village, no full-grown one is now to be found within eight or ten days' journey:[85] and so utterly improvident are the collectors that, in the forests of Cochabamba, they bark the tree without felling, and thus ensure its death; or, if they cut it down, they actually neglect to take off the bark on the side touching the ground, to save themselves the trouble of turning the trunk over.[86]

A century ago Condamine[87] raised a warning voice against the destruction that was going on in the forests of Loxa. Ulloa[88] advised the Government to check it by legislation; soon afterwards Humboldt reported that 25,000 chinchona-trees were destroyed every year, and Ruiz[89] protested against the custom of barking the trees, and leaving them to be destroyed by rot. But nothing was ever done in the way of conservancy, either by the Government, or by private speculators whose subsistence depended on a continued supply of bark. Dr. Weddell, alluding to this recklessness as regards C. Calisaya, observes that "the forests of Bolivia, rich as they are, cannot long resist the continued attacks to which they have been recently exposed. He who, in Europe, sees these enormous and ever-increasing masses of bark arrive, may perhaps believe that they will continue to do so; but he who sees the chinchona-trees in their native forests, and knows the real truth, is obliged to think otherwise."

There is, however, no danger of the actual extirpation of the trees unless the plan is adopted of leaving them standing, and stripped of their bark, as in the Loxa forests. Poeppig says that, in these cases, the trees in the tropical forests are attacked by rot with extraordinary rapidity; hosts of insects penetrate the stem to complete the work of destruction, and the healthy root becomes infected. Thus the valuable species called C. Uritusinga has really been almost exterminated.

But where the trees are felled it is only necessary to observe the precaution of hewing the stem as near as possible to the root, in order to be sure of its after-growth.[90] Under these circumstances, after six years the young trees are ready to be felled again in the milder regions, and after twenty years in cold and exposed localities. From the base of the stems, when not barked, a number of shoots spring out between bark and wood; and Dr. Karsten says that, though an interval of rest of twelve or fifteen years must be given to the forests where the chinchona-trees have thus been felled, this only promotes further investigation in the endless untrodden forests, while, in the mean time, the younger generation is growing up in those which have already been exhausted.[91]

The danger, therefore, is not in the actual annihilation of the chinchona-trees in South America, but lest, with the increasing demand, there should be long intervals of time during which the supply would cease, owing to the forests being exhausted, and requiring periods of rest. In many districts this is already the case. The bark which comes from Loxa is in the minutest quills, and in the forests of Caravaya, after an interval of rest of several years, the root-shoots had scarcely grown to a sufficient size to yield anything but quill bark. Then again the supplies of bark from South America are not nearly sufficient to meet the demand, and the price is kept so high as to place this inestimable remedy beyond the means of millions of natives of fever-visited regions. For these reasons the incalculable importance of introducing the chinchona-plant into other countries adapted for its growth, and thus escaping from entire dependence on the South American forests, has long occupied the attention of scientific men in Europe.

In 1839 Dr. Royle, in his 'Illustrations of Himalayan Botany,'[92] recommended the introduction of the chinchona-plants into India, pointing out the Neilgherry and Silhet hills as suitable sites for the experiment, and Lord William Bentinck took some interest in the project. M. Fée had previously recommended the introduction of these plants into the French colonies;[93] and in 1849 both Dr. Weddell[94] and M. Delondre[95] strongly urged the adoption of this measure. The former declared that posterity would bless those who should carry this idea into execution.[96]

The Dutch, who possess in the island of Java a range of forest-covered mountains admirably adapted for chinchona cultivation, were, however, the first to take active steps for its introduction into the Eastern Hemisphere; and their praiseworthy exertions deserve, what they lay claim to with justice, the approbation of the whole civilized world. The experiment in Java, however, has only been tried with a very limited number of valuable species of chinchonæ, and has met with very limited success, owing to the introduction of worthless kinds, and to mistakes in the cultivation, committed during the first few years.

For the last thirty years Dutch scientific men, among whom the name of the botanist Blume may be mentioned, had urged their Government to undertake the introduction of chinchona-plants into Java. But it was not until the year 1852 that M. Pahud, the Dutch Minister of the Colonies, was authorized to employ an agent to collect plants and seeds of valuable species in Peru, and to convey them to Java. He selected, for this important mission, M. Justus Charles Hasskarl, a botanist who had for some time superintended the gardens in Java, but who was a stranger to South America—ignorant of the country, the people, and the languages—unacquainted with the forests where the chinchona-trees are found, and who had never seen them growing in their natural state. He sailed for Peru in December, 1852, with orders not to confine himself to the Calisaya plant, but to collect plants and seeds of as many different species as possible. His original orders were to proceed from Guayaquil to the chinchona-forests of Loxa in the first instance; but he changed his plan, and, landing at Lima, crossed the cordilleras in May, 1853.

It would be difficult, in making a chance journey from the coast to the forests of the Eastern Andes, to hit upon a part where valuable species of chinchona-trees are not known to exist. There are such spaces—forest tracts—intervening between the more favoured regions, where only species of little value are found, such as C. pubescens, C. scrobiculata, &c.; and on one of these, between the region of grey barks in Huanuco and that of C. Calisaya in Caravaya, M. Hasskarl, through being unacquainted with the localities, was so unfortunate as to stumble. He crossed the Andes by the road from Lima to Tarma, and descended the eastern slopes into the montañas of Vitoc, Uchubamba, and Monobamba; returning thence by Xauxa into the loftier region of the Andes. Near Uchubamba he saw trees which he believed to be C. Calisaya; but that species is never found to the north of the province of Caravaya. He however collected a quantity of seeds of this imaginary C. Calisaya, and four packets of a species which he called C. ovata, with smaller quantities of C. pubescens and C. amygdalifolia.

The species called by M. Hasskarl C. ovata now forms the bulk of the chinchona-plantations in Java. He found it on dry sunny hills, without much shelter from the sun, in a very sandy micaceous soil, at an elevation of 5500 to 6000 feet above the sea. It is sometimes a mere shrub, but occasionally rises to fifteen or twenty-five feet, with elegant pink flowers and reddish fruit. The native name is cascarilla crespilla chica; and as the crespilla grande is the C. ovata of Weddell, it is probable that M. Hasskarl was thus led into the mistake of calling his new species C. ovata. The leaves are smooth above, with a felt-like pubescence on the under surface, and the hairy capsules are probably an indication of the worthlessness of the species.[97] In fact, no good kinds are found in this part of the country, and all the seeds sent home by M. Hasskarl were equally valueless. He collected specimens of C. lanceolata of Pavon, at a place called "Escalera de San Rafael," on the road between Uchubamba and Xauxa.[98]

From Xauxa M. Hasskarl went to Cuzco, and thence in September to Sandia in the province of Caravaya; but finding that the seeds of chinchona-trees are ripe in August, and that he had arrived too late, he returned to Lima, and finally took up his abode at Arequipa until the following year. In March, 1854, he again set out, crossed the Andes to Puno, and, after wandering over part of Bolivia, at length reached the little village of Sina in Caravaya, near the frontier between Peru and Bolivia, in April. He had assumed the feigned name of José Carlos Müller, and had printed it on his cards, one of which he presented to the governor of Sina, Don Juan de la Cruz Gironda, requesting him to procure a supply of chinchona-plants for him. Gironda refused, but introduced the stranger to a Bolivian named Clemente Henriquez, a clever and intelligent, but dishonest and unscrupulous man. Henriquez agreed to procure 400 plants of C. Calisaya for a certain sum, part of which was to be paid down, and the remainder on delivery of the plants. M. Hasskarl then went on to the village of Sandia, where he took up his abode, without entering the chinchona forests, and waited there until the plants should arrive. Meanwhile Henriquez employed an Indian to collect the stipulated number of plants, round a place called Ychu-corpa,[99] on the frontier of Bolivia; and when they were brought to him he went to Sandia, delivered them to M. Hasskarl, and received his money. An outcry was afterwards raised against Henriquez, by the people inhabiting villages bordering on the chinchona forests, who considered that their interests would be injured by the exportation of the plants: they declared they would cut his feet off if they caught him, and he has ever since been obliged to live at Pelechuco, in Bolivia.[100] This feeling has rendered any future operations of a like nature exceedingly difficult.

M. Hasskarl left Sandia with these plants in June, 1854, but they were not placed in Wardian cases at the port of Islay until August, and on the 27th of that month he finally left the coast of Peru in a sailing vessel, and shaped his course direct for Java.[101] He arrived at Batavia with twenty Wardian cases on December 13th, but all his plants have since died except two.[102] On his arrival M. Hasskarl was intrusted with the cultivation of chinchona-plants in Java, with the rank of Assistant-Resident, and was made a Knight of the Netherlands Lion, and Commander of the Order of the Oaken Crown.[103]

Besides the plants brought by M. Hasskarl, a plant of C. Calisaya, raised in Paris from seeds sent home by Dr. Weddell, had arrived in Java; as well as plants raised from seeds previously sent from Peru, and seeds of C. lancifolia sent by Dr. Karsten from New Granada, through the Governor of Curaçoa; and thus the experimental chinchona cultivation in Java was commenced.

Although through various circumstances the mission to South America was not very successful, yet M. Hasskarl deserves the greatest credit for the zeal and determination displayed by him in his journeys, during which he was surrounded by no ordinary amount of difficulties and dangers. He certainly proved himself to be a most indefatigable and courageous traveller.

M. Hasskarl, and his associate M. Teysmann, selected the site for the first chinchona plantation, at a place called Tjibodas, thirty miles south of Batavia, on the northern slope of the volcanic range which traverses Java from east to west, and 4400 feet above the sea. Ground was also prepared at Tjipannas, half a mile above Tjibodas, and 4700 feet above the sea. These sites were covered with rasamala-trees of immense size (Liquidambar Altingia,[104] Blume), which had to be felled. The superintendents, deceived by the sight of such large trees, imagined that the soil was deep and good, but in reality it was not more than six inches deep, and underneath there was a formation completely impenetrable to roots, called tjadas, composed of sand and small stones of trachytic origin, strongly cemented together by crater slime, the whole being as hard as rock. Not one of the huge rasamala-trees in reality pierced this tjadas with their roots, but ran along its surface horizontally for hundreds of feet. In these localities the chinchona-plants continued to languish during the year 1855, and in the end of that year the experiment presented a most hopeless appearance.

The causes of this failure are sufficiently evident. After the felling of the rasamala-trees, the young chinchona-plants were exposed to the full force of a burning sun, without any shade whatever, in an extraordinarily thin soil upon a rocky bank impenetrable to roots. The dead and rotted roots of the rasamala-trees were allowed to remain, developing fungi which attacked the chinchona-roots; and the sites themselves were in much too low and warm a climate. In consequence of the combined effects of these adverse influences, there were only 300 chinchona-plants in Java, in a sickly unpromising condition, after the lapse of the first eighteen months.

In December, 1855, Dr. Franz Junghuhn came to Java with 139 chinchona-plants, raised from seeds in Holland. They were delivered over to M. Hasskarl, and in six months seventy-six of them were dead. In June, 1856, M. Pahud, who had been Minister of the Colonies, and was then Governor-General of Netherlands India, relieved M. Hasskarl of his duties, and gave the entire charge of the chinchona experiment to Dr. Junghuhn, an experienced scientific botanist. Dr. J. E. de Vry, a chemist of some eminence, was also sent to Java, charged with the special duty of applying chemical tests to the barks of the chinchona-plants, to ascertain their intrinsic value.

When Dr. Junghuhn took charge the prospects of the experiment were very far from promising, and he has displayed an amount of intelligent perseverance, combined with much practical knowledge, which is deserving of all praise. He found the 139 chinchona-plants which he himself brought out reduced to sixty-three; the seeds of C. lancifolia represented by three sickly plants; the collection of plants of C. Calisaya brought by M. Hasskarl from Peru, also reduced to three; two plants of C. Calisaya raised from seeds sent home by Dr. Weddell; and the remainder, consisting of the worthless species collected by M. Hasskarl in Uchubamba, making a total of only 300 plants.

In 1856 a new system was introduced, money was lavishly expended, an efficient establishment was formed, and a great effort was commenced to secure the successful cultivation of the chinchona-plants. The superintendent receives 1350l. a year, the chemist 1100l. a year, and under them there are eight Dutch overseers; the total amount paid in salaries being 3256l. a year.[105] It was ordered that, until the cultivation is considered as quite successful, it should remain under the management of scientific men, but that finally it should be handed over to the ordinary direction of the chiefs of the provincial government, under the Director of Cultures; and a memorandum of instructions, consisting of eighteen articles, was drawn up for the guidance of Dr. Junghuhn and his subordinates.

Finding the chinchona-plants in so deplorable a condition, one of Dr. Junghuhn's first measures was to transplant them from Tjibodas to a more suitable site on the Malawar mountains, a very delicate and hazardous operation, which was, however, successfully performed: in 1857 plants both of C. Calisaya and of the worthless species blossomed, and in 1858 bore fruit. Dr. Junghuhn found that the latter could not be the C. ovata as named by M. Hasskarl; but he was himself equally mistaken in naming it C. Lucumæfolia, from a fancied resemblance to that species of Pavon.[106] The great mistake of the Dutch has been in propagating this worthless species, and spending vast sums of money on its cultivation, tempted by finding that its nature was hardy, and that it required less care than the delicate C. Calisaya.

In 1858 several of the plants sickened from the attacks of destructive insects (Bostrichus or Dermestes), not larger than the head of a pin, which pierced horizontally into the bark and wood of the stem and branches, where they laid their eggs and died. Dr. Junghuhn conjectures that they were imported from Peru; as they are not natives of the Java forests, and I found these boring insects in the wood of chinchona-trees in the forests of Caravaya. Twenty-nine trees were thus attacked in Java, and died.

Dr. Junghuhn established his new plantations on the slopes of the Malawar mountains, where he has found that the C. Calisaya is much more sensitive than his so-called C. Lucumæfolia; and that very slight differences in temperature, in elevation, in light, in shade, and in moisture, exercise a very evident influence on the former, while the latter remain quite unaffected by them. He considers that the best conditions for the growth of C. Calisaya on the Malawar mountains (between latitude 7° and 8° S.) are good loose forest soil and moderate shade, at an elevation from 5000 to 5700 feet above the sea. The C. Calisayas, when they receive light only on their crowns, and are surrounded by the dark wood, have a rapidly rising, slender, tall stem, devoid of side branches; whilst, when they stand on clear open spots, they grow much stronger in width and thickness, but are shorter, and have numerous side branches.

The following is Dr. Junghuhn's method of cultivation. Pots, made of bamboo-joints, are loosely filled with finely-sifted earth, composed of one-fourth part of black volcanic sand (felspar, hornblende, and magnet iron) mixed with brown forest soil. The pots are then placed in the interior of the forests, on beds of heaped-up earth laid out in the form of terraces, on the declivities of the mountains. A roof of dry grass, supported by stakes, and high enough to admit a side light, protects the pots from the falling rain-drops. These seed-beds are from 200 to 500 feet long, and extend in parallel lines between the trees, like the steps of an amphitheatre. Each pot receives only one seed, and the earth is kept constantly moist by watering twice daily with the squeeze of a sponge.[107]

The pots remain standing on the seed-beds until the plants are about half a foot high, which takes about eight months; and during this time they are turned every five or eight days, in order to prevent the crooked growth of the plants, which always turn to the side where most light falls on the beds. For the purpose of planting out, a few principal broad roads are made along the mountain ridge through the wood, united at intervals by cross footpaths, twenty-five feet asunder. At the side of these footpaths, and twenty-five feet from each other, wide trenches are dug, and filled up with cleansed earth, so as to make slightly raised mounds, with gutters to carry off the rain-water. The young plants are placed in the loose earth on these mounds, and four strong stakes, driven into the ground round them, are fastened together four or five feet above their heads. This protects them from falling boughs, drip, and wild animals, for some years. Thus thousands of paths have been cut in the forests, and planted with chinchona-trees, which are growing well. There are now nine nurseries in Java—Tjibodas on Mount Gêdé; Tjiniruan on the south-west slope, and Tjiborum on the southern slope of Mount Malawar; Genting; Reong Gunung; Kawah Tjirvidei in the Kendeng mountains; one on Mount Patna; and two others.

Dr. Junghuhn, in adopting the above method of cultivation, and in altering M. Hasskarl's arrangements, has run into an opposite extreme. His system of planting the young chinchonas in the forests under dense shade[108] is most erroneous; and the way in which the seeds are treated quite accounts for the small number which germinate.

On the 31st of December, 1860, the number of chinchona-plants in Java was as follows:—

Besides 700,264 seeds in stock, or sown. The extreme height attained by the tallest C. Calisaya was, at the same date, fifteen feet, and by the worthless species twenty-eight feet. One of the trees of C. lancifolia had also attained a height of fifteen feet.

Dr. de Vry, the eminent chemist who is associated with Dr. Junghuhn, and who had for two years previously occupied himself with the study of the chinchona alkaloids, has been actively engaged in careful investigations of the chinchona barks in Java. With regard to the C. Calisaya his results have been very satisfactory. From the trunk-bark of a plant of this species, six years old, he obtained, in August, 1860, 5 per cent. of alkaloids; and from that of the branches, 2½ per cent. But the specimens of C. Calisaya bark from Java, which have been sent to the Exhibition of 1862, have a very different appearance, and are much thinner than those from South America. This circumstance leads to the inference that the present system of cultivation in Java is erroneous. With the species introduced by M. Hasskarl, Dr. de Vry was not so successful. The leaves, flowers, fruit, and bark of this species were sent to Mr. Howard by Dr. Junghuhn; and it was found that the names of C. ovata, given it by M. Hasskarl, and of C. Lucumæfolia by Dr. Junghuhn, were equally erroneous. It was clear that it was one of the numerous worthless species, not previously described, and Mr. Howard, in the seventh number of his work, has named it C. Pahudiana,[110] after M. Charles F. Pahud, who, as Minister of the Colonies, sent M. Hasskarl to South America in 1852, and who, being appointed Governor-General of Netherlands India in 1855,[111] did so much to ensure the success of the chinchona experiment in Java. Up to 1860 Dr. de Vry had only obtained 0.4 per cent. of alkaloids from the bark of C. Pahudiana, and Mr. Howard's examination coincides with the analysis of Dr. de Vry in pronouncing it an inferior sort. In 1861, however, he obtained 3 per cent. of alkaloids from the bark of the roots of a C. Pahudiana plant eight years old, and 1¼ per cent. from the trunk-bark. From a tree aged two years and three months he only got 0.09 per cent. from the trunk-bark, and 1.9 per cent. from the root-bark, of which he states the greater part to be quinine; while in the trunk-bark there was not a trace of that alkaloid. This result leads Dr. de Vry to conjecture that the quinine, once formed in the roots, is employed in the growth of the plant, and that, when it attains its full growth, the trunk-bark will also be rich in quinine. If this should not be the case, he hopes that the roots of the young plants may be used profitably for the manufacture of quinine. It is to be feared that the quinine in the trunk-bark will not increase with age, for, while in the younger tree there was 1.9 per cent. of alkaloids in the roots, chiefly quinine, and 0.09 in the trunk-bark, in the older one there was 3 per cent. in the roots, of which 1.8 was quinine, and 1¼ per cent. in the trunk-bark, in which there was only the minutest trace of quinine. Thus, while the quantity of quinine decreased or remained stationary in the roots, the trunk-bark was still destitute of that precious alkaloid.

It is possible that Dr. de Vry, in his earnest desire to discover quinine in a species upon which so much labour and anxiety, and such vast sums of money, had been expended, may have been deceived by appearances. Both from the form of the capsules, the absence of quinine in the upper bark, and the locality whence it was procured, there is every reason to fear that the C. Pahudiana is a worthless kind; and the bark of this species, which has been sent to the Exhibition of 1862, is so evidently valueless that no dealer would buy it. In all valuable species there is a good percentage of alkaloids in the upper bark, and a very much smaller proportion, which, too, is amorphous and of little commercial value, in the bark of the roots. This law of nature, the existence of which is proved by all experience, would have to be reversed in order to enable the Dutch to extract large supplies of quinine from the roots of a species, such as C. Pahudiana, which contains none in the upper bark.

It is much to be regretted that the scientific men in Java, instead of exerting all their skill and talent in the work of cultivating C. Calisaya and C. lancifolia, of the value of which there is no doubt, should have filled the forests of Java with a kind which from the first was known to be of very doubtful value, was unknown in commerce, and the cultivation of which will, it is to be feared, only end in loss and disappointment.

The valuable species were found to be much more tender, and more sensitive to external unfavourable influences, than the C. Pahudiana; the latter was therefore propagated rapidly, and unwisely allowed to outstrip the other kinds in the race, and the consequence has been that it has gained an immense preponderance. Thus, so far as valuable species of chinchona-plants are concerned, the Dutch experiment in Java has been attended by a very small measure of success. After three years the Dutch gardeners only had forty plants of valuable species in Java, and after six years they had only increased their stock to seven thousand plants. It will presently be seen that far greater results were attained in India within eighteen months of the first introduction of the chinchona-plants.

Yet, so great are the difficulties of this most important undertaking, that, in spite of the comparative failure in Java, the highest praise and admiration are due both to M. Hasskarl and to his successors. They have devoted great ability, no ordinary amount of scientific knowledge, and untiring perseverance to this good work; and, now that they have received plants of other really valuable species from India, there is a prospect that the chinchona cultivation in Java may eventually attain such a measure of success as will entitle Dr. Junghuhn and Dr. de Vry to the gratitude of their countrymen.[114]

CHAPTER IV.

INTRODUCTION OF CHINCHONA-PLANTS INTO INDIA.

PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS.

The distribution of valuable products of the vegetable kingdom amongst the nations of the earth—their introduction from countries where they are indigenous into distant lands with suitable soils and climates—is one of the greatest benefits that civilization has conferred upon mankind. Such measures ensure immediate material increase of comfort and profit, while their effects are more durable than the proudest monuments of engineering skill. With all their shortcomings, the Spaniards can point to vast plains covered with wheat and barley, to valleys waving with sugar-cane, and to hill-slopes enriched by vineyards and coffee-plantations, as the fruits of their conquest of South America. On the other hand, India owes to America the aloes which line the roads in Mysore, the delicious anonas, the arnotto-tree, the sumach, the capsicums so extensively used in native curries, the pimento, the papaw, the cassava which now forms the staple food of the people of Travancore, the potato, tobacco, Indian corn, pine-apples, American cotton, and lastly the chinchona: while the slopes of the Himalayas are enriched by tea-plantations, and the hills of Southern India are covered with rows of coffee-trees.

It is by thus adding to the sources of Indian wealth that England will best discharge the immense responsibility she has incurred by the conquest of India, so far as the material interests of that vast empire are concerned. Thus too will she leave behind her by far the most durable monument of the benefits conferred by her rule. The canals and other works of the Moguls were in ruins before the English occupied the country; but the melons which the Emperor Baber, the founder of the Mogul dynasty, introduced into India, and which caused him to shed tears while thinking of his far-off mountain-home, still flourish round Delhi and Agra. Centuries after the Ganges canal has become a ruin, and the great Vehar reservoir a dry valley, the people of India will probably have cause to bless the healing effects of the fever-dispelling chinchona-trees, which will still be found on their southern mountains.

The introduction of the chinchona-plant into India was surrounded by difficulties from which all other undertakings of a similar nature have been free. When tea was introduced into the Himalayan districts, it had been a cultivated plant in China for many ages, and experienced Chinese cultivators came with it. But the chinchona had never been cultivated; since the discovery of its value in 1638 it had remained a wild forest tree; all information concerning it was solely derived from the observations of European travellers who had penetrated into the virgin forests; and the only guidance for cultivators in India is to be found in the reports of these travellers, and in the experience slowly acquired by careful and intelligent trials.[115] Great as these difficulties were, they were probably exceeded by the perils and risks of every description which must be encountered in collecting plants and seeds in South America, and conveying them in safety to India.

But the vast importance of the introduction of these plants into our Indian empire, and the inestimable benefits which would thus be conferred on the millions who inhabit the fever-haunted plains and jungles, were commensurate with the difficulties of the undertaking. The subject had occupied the attention of the Indian Government from time to time, ever since Dr. Royle in 1839 advocated the introduction of quinine-yielding trees into India, in his work on Himalayan Botany; but it was not until twenty years afterwards, in 1859, that any adequate steps were taken to effect this most desirable end, and to bring an antidote within the reach of the fever-stricken people of India, while adding a new source of wealth to the resources of that great dependency.

The proposal to introduce the chinchona-plants into India was first made officially in a despatch from the Governor-General, dated March 27th, 1852. It was referred to the late Dr. Royle, the reporter on Indian products to the East India Company, who drew up an able memorandum on the subject, dated June, 1852:—"To the Indian Government," he said, "the home supply of a drug which already costs 7000l. a year would be advantageous in an economical point of view, and invaluable as affording means of employing a drug which is indispensable in the treatment of Indian fevers. I have no hesitation in saying that, after the Chinese teas, no more important plant could be introduced into India." The only result of this application from India was that the Foreign Office was requested to obtain a supply of plants and seeds from the consuls in South America, and instructions to that effect were sent out to them in October, 1852. In the autumn of 1853 Mr. Mark wrote from Bogota that some delay would be necessary, and nothing more was heard from that quarter; Mr. Sullivan, the consul-general in Peru, replied that it would be impossible to accomplish a successful result, through the jealousy of the people; but Mr. Cope, the excellent and venerable consul-general at Quito, made a more satisfactory and substantial answer, in the shape of a box of chinchona plants and seeds from Cuenca and Loxa. They, however, did not long survive the voyage to England. Seeds of C. Calisaya, procured through Mr. Pentland, were sent to the botanical gardens at Calcutta, but did not germinate; and in 1853 six plants of the same valuable species, contributed by the Horticultural Societies of Edinburgh and London, raised from seeds sent home by Dr. Weddell from Bolivia, were taken out to Calcutta by Mr. Fortune. They arrived in good order, but all died through gross carelessness in their removal to Darjeeling. In May, 1853, Dr. Royle drew up a second long and valuable report upon the subject, and the question was then allowed to drop for some years.

It is a curious coincidence that at the very time when Dr. Royle was writing this report I was actually exploring some of the chinchona forests of Peru. But the object of my travels was of an antiquarian and ethnological character, and I was in ignorance of the desire of the Indian Government to procure supplies of those plants, which I then only admired for their beauty.

In March, 1856, Dr. Royle made a final attempt to induce the East India Company to take efficient steps to procure supplies of chinchona plants and seeds from South America; and proposed to employ Dr. Jamieson, the able Professor of Botany in the University of Quito, for this purpose. The lamented death of that eminent botanist Dr. Royle, to whom India owes so much, again put an end to all discussion of the subject for some time; but in 1859 energetic measures were set on foot, which at length effected the desired object fully and completely. Dr. Royle is well known as the author of works on Himalayan botany, on the cotton cultivation and on the fibres of India, and of a 'Materia Medica' containing a valuable article on the chinchona genus, which he caused to be printed separately for circulation in India. For several years he took the warmest interest in the proposed measures for the introduction of chinchona-plants into India, and used every influence at his command to effect this most important object. But he was not destined to see the final achievement of a design which he seems to have had so much at heart.

In 1859 my services were accepted to superintend the collection of chinchona plants and seeds in South America, and their introduction into India; and I was authorised by Lord Stanley, then Secretary of State for India, to make such arrangements as should best ensure the complete success of an enterprise, the results of which were expected to add materially to the resources of our Indian Empire. The urgent necessity of this measure had become more apparent since Dr. Royle's time. Then the Government of India expended 7000l. a year upon quinine; but in 1857 the expenditure had risen to 12,000l., and continued to increase during the following years.[116]

I at once determined to take measures for obtaining plants and seeds of all the valuable species of chinchonæ described in a former chapter; to arrange so that, if possible, they should be collected simultaneously in the different regions separated by many hundreds of miles from each other; and that, warned by the fatal error of the Dutch in Java, no species should be introduced into India which did not possess bark of well-established commercial value. In one of his reports Dr. Royle had most truly said that "the greater the number of species obtained, as well as the greater the extent of country over which the seeds are collected, the greater is the probability of finding soils and climates in India for their successful culture." It was thus necessary to employ competent persons to collect in New Granada, Ecuador, the Huanuco forests of Northern Peru, and Caravaya or Bolivia at the same time. I considered that it was essential that the proceedings should be completed during the first year if possible, in order to give as short a time as was practicable for the awakening of that narrow-minded jealousy in the people of the South American Republics, which I was well aware would sooner or later be aroused. It was also my duty to get the work done economically, and there could be no doubt that the employment of several agents for a few months would cost less than the mission of a single traveller, who would have to make his way over thousands of miles, for three or four years. Time also was an object with regard to the establishment of plantations in India.

The Secretary of State for India sanctioned all the details of my plan, with the exception of the expedition to New Granada,[117] and the provision of a steamer to convey the plants direct across the Pacific to India. But it was no easy matter to find agents possessed of the necessary qualifications for the work. A personal acquaintance with the chinchona forests, a knowledge of the country, of the people, and of the languages, were essential, as well as of the particular species of chinchona-trees growing in each region; and, as the service was to be performed without delay, no time could be spared for acquiring any of these qualifications.

For the chinchona forests in Ecuador I was so fortunate as to secure the services of Mr. Spruce, an excellent botanist and most intrepid explorer, who had been engaged for several years in the examination of the wilds of South America, and who was actually on the spot. Of his qualifications there could be no doubt, but I could scarcely have ventured to hope that the service which he undertook to perform would have been done so completely and so thoroughly, and would have been crowned with such undoubted success. It is perhaps invidious to make distinctions, where all have worked so zealously; but it is due to Mr. Spruce to say that by far the largest share of credit is due to him, and that his name must take the most prominent place in connection with the introduction of these precious plants into India. The region assigned to him was the most important, as it yielded the "red-bark" tree (C. succirubra), containing a larger percentage of febrifugal alkaloids than any other species; and I felt more sanguine of success in this quarter than in any other, because the country of the "red bark" was more accessible than any of the others, the forests being on the western slopes of the Andes, navigable rivers flowing through them to the Pacific Ocean, and there being, therefore, no necessity of conveying the plants over the snowy wilds of the cordilleras. I also requested Mr. Spruce to make an arrangement for procuring seeds of the valuable species from the forests of Loxa.

For the forests of the Peruvian province of Huanuco I procured the services of Mr. Pritchett, a gentleman who had passed some years in South America, and who was well acquainted with that particular region. He was to collect plants and seeds of the species yielding grey bark.

I myself undertook to explore the forests either of Caravaya or Bolivia, and to collect the C. Calisaya and other important species of that more distant region. This part of the enterprise was surrounded by peculiar difficulties, arising from the jealousy of the people, habitual with the Bolivians, and recently excited in the minds of the Peruvians of Caravaya by the proceedings of M. Hasskarl, the Dutch agent; while the forests are far more inaccessible, and the journey to the coast is longer and more formidable.

It was the opinion of Sir William Hooker, who gave me the advantage of his valuable advice, that a good practical working gardener should accompany both Mr. Spruce and myself, and he considered this an imperative requirement, in order that they might attend to the packing of the plants in the forests, their establishment in Wardian cases, and have charge of them during the voyage to India. I appointed Mr. Cross, at his recommendation, to act under the orders of Mr. Spruce; and Mr. Weir, who was recommended to me by Mr. Veitch, accompanied me to the chinchona forests of Caravaya.

In employing several agents in districts widely removed from each other, my chief object was to effect the introduction of as many valuable species as possible; but I also reflected on the extreme difficulty of the undertaking, and the overwhelming chances against success which confronted a single-handed attempt. In such wild unfrequented regions all is uncertainty. Along the dizzy paths of the Andes a single false step may dash the fairest hopes, disappoint the most careful calculations. Add to these dangers the probability of obstacles raised by the natives, and it will at once be seen that three independent expeditions materially increased the chances of ultimate success.

By the end of 1859 I had completed all the preliminary arrangements; and there was at length a prospect of securing the successful introduction into India of a plant the inestimable value of which had been felt, and the importance of its cultivation discussed, for twenty years. On December 17th, 1859, we sailed from England, and, crossing the isthmus of Panama, arrived in Lima, the capital of Peru, on January 26th, 1860. Thirty Wardian cases for the plants had been sent out round Cape Horn, and I forwarded fifteen to Guayaquil for Mr. Spruce's collection, and fifteen to the port of Islay in Southern Peru, to await my return from the chinchona forests. After a month's residence in Lima we embarked on board one of the mail-steamers for the southward, and on the 2nd of March, 1860, we landed at Islay, which is more conveniently situated than any other port for a journey to the chinchona forests of Southern Peru or Bolivia.

CHAPTER V.

ISLAY AND AREQUIPA.

The port of Islay is the commercial outlet of the departments of Arequipa, Cuzco, and Puno, in Southern Peru; and thus a small town, dating from about 1830,[118] has risen up on the rocky barren coast, surrounded by a sandy desert, and shut in from the interior by a range of sterile mountains. The coast consists of inaccessible cliffs, perforated with deep caves by the incessant surge of the ocean, with several rocky islets off the shore. The anchorage[119] is formed by a slight indentation of the coast, and the landing is effected at a small iron jetty clamped to the rocks, under which the swell breaks and chafes with a ceaseless roar. A very steep path leads up the cliff to a custom-house, forming one side of the little plaza, which is constantly filled with droves of mules from the interior. A single street leading up from the plaza, with a few lanes off it, forms the town of Islay; and a brief statement of the trade of this port will give an idea of the importance of the country to which it forms an outlet.

The principal articles of export are alpaca and sheep's wool, vicuña wool, copper, bark, and specie; the total value in 1859 being 336,842l.,[120] and the value of the imports, consisting chiefly of European goods, is about equal to that of the exports.

The country round Islay is as dreary and arid a waste as the eye could rest on; yet from July to October, when there is the greatest amount of moisture on the coast, the otherwise barren mountains, which rise up abruptly from the desert, at a distance of about three miles from the sea, are green and carpeted with flowers, while the plain nearer Islay is also dotted over with vegetation. This maritime range is called the "Lomas." In consequence of the unusual quantity of rain which fell in the early part of 1860, the Lomas had broken out in renewed freshness in March. The country, close to Islay, was covered with a scattered growth of Compositæ, wild tobacco, Nympha, Oxalis, Salvia, an Umbellifer with a large white flower, Verbena, Heliotrope, a purple Solanum, an Amaranth, and other flowers. It is broken up into abrupt ravines; and, near the foot of the mountains, some of them contain deposits of soil washed down by little streams which flow during the wet season, sufficient to sustain small groves of fig and olive trees, the abodes of numerous flocks of doves. Such is the case in the ravines called Catarindo, Yutu, and Matarani, from the latter of which the water is led in pipes to supply the town of Islay. The guardian of this water-supply is an Irishman, generally known as Juan de la Pila (John of the fountain), an active obliging man, who also follows the trades of carpenter, cooper, and blacksmith; and to whom we were indebted for much valuable assistance in procuring soil for the Wardian cases, and in giving us the use of his yard.

The soil in the richest parts of these ravines, which had been washed down from the higher slopes of the Lomas, is several feet deep, and appeared sufficiently good to be used for the Wardian cases, in the event of its being found impossible to obtain soil from any more promising locality; and the great number of wild flowers which were growing in it convinced me that it could not contain anything very pernicious.[121]

The formation consists of granite, with veins of very pure quartz; but the plains are covered with large patches of fine dust, consisting chiefly of silica, containing potash and mica, with small quantities of the débris of the rocks associated with the soil, which Admiral FitzRoy suggests may have been the ashes ejected, at some remote period, from the volcano of Arequipa. Near the sea-shore, and about half a mile south-east of Islay, there is a very curious result of the constant action of the weaves, in two immense cavities hollowed out of the rock, called the Tinajones (jars). They are circular holes about thirty yards across, and of great depth, separated from the sea by a wall of cliffs not more than four yards wide, the lower part of which is undermined, and forms a passage by which the waves rush into the great tinajon, or bowl, with a mighty roar; and, dashing themselves against the rocky sides, throw back clouds of white spray. The only vegetation near the coast consists of lowly little Mesembryanthema, scattered about at long intervals, and an occasional stonecrop (Sedum).

During our stay at Islay we enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. Wilthew, H.B.M. Consul, and his wife, to whom we were indebted for much thoughtful kindness. The rest of the inhabitants consist of Peruvian officials, agents of commercial houses in Arequipa, and a few shopkeepers and artisans, besides the muleteers and other birds of passage, and the porters and boatmen of mixed Indian and negro extraction. The supplies for the market come almost entirely from the rich valley of Tambo, some leagues down the coast.

On March 6th, our mules and horses having arrived, we started for Arequipa in the morning, a distance of ninety miles, and, crossing the country near Islay, entered a gorge in the mountains, which winds up to the great desert above, at the commencement of which there is a grove of dusty olive-trees. This dismal ravine, with arid scarped mountains rising up on either side, here and there a tall gaunt cactus, and everywhere a dense cloud of white dust, leads up to a little post-house built of canes, called the "Tambo de Guerreros," eighteen miles from Islay.

Guerreros is at the head of the gorge leading down to Islay; and, from a rising ground a little beyond the tambo,[122] the great desert of Arequipa opens upon the view, bounded by a range of mountains which are crowned by the snowy peak of the volcano. At this point there is a wooden cross which marks the grave of a poor soldier belonging to the fugitive army of Salaverry, in 1836, who, worn out with fatigue and thirst, had here sunk down to die, and had been lightly covered over with sand. The flesh was in perfect preservation. We then entered the great desert of Arequipa, extending to the horizon on the right and left, and ending in front at the foot of the rocky range of mountains separating the sandy waste from the fertile campiña of Arequipa. The desert consists of hard ground, without a blade of vegetation, affording good riding; but it is covered at short intervals with mounds of the finest white sand, from twenty to thirty feet high, all in the shape of a half-moon, with their horns pointing north-west, and thus denoting the prevailing wind. They are called Medanos. These Medanos shift their positions, and the breeze, whirling the sand in eddies on their summits, often causes a singing noise in the early dawn. Frequently they form athwart the road, which has to deviate in a half-circle, and rejoin the old track on the other side; but they all resemble each other exactly, and afford no landmark to the lost or benighted traveller.

In the centre of the desert is the post-house or tambo of La Joya, twenty miles from Guerreros, kept by an Englishman, whose homely name of Jimmy Eyres has been converted into the more grandiloquent and euphonious Spanish one of Don Santiago Casimiro de los Ayres. Water and fodder for the beasts are brought from a great distance, and their price is of course proportionately high; but, considering its position in the midst of a desert and many leagues from all supplies, the little tambo, consisting of several rooms of deal planking roughly knocked together, was very comfortable.

Starting at four on a bright starlight morning, the perfect stillness and the wild grandeur of the boundless desert were very impressive, while there was a delicious freshness in the cool air. As the sun rose behind the mighty cordilleras which bounded the view, the whiteness of their snowy peaks became quite dazzling. Immediately in front was the perfect cone of the volcano of Arequipa; to the right the glorious peaks of Charcani and Chuquibamba; to the left the remarkable range of Pichupichu. It is probable that in no part of the world is so sublime a view of mountain peaks to be found as is presented at early dawn from this desert. But its sublimity is similar to that which is witnessed in a sunrise at sea; it fills the mind with an idea of vastness and grandeur, while it wants all the details which usually accompany and form no small part of the enjoyment derived from ordinary mountain scenery. Yet here, while gazing on those magnificent peaks, with no middle distance and no foreground, save the flat sea-like wilderness, we felt that any addition would have marred the simple glories of this unparalleled view. The desert is between 4000 and 5000 feet above the sea, and the cordillera peaks are, some more, some a little less, than 20,000 feet in height; so that, within a distance of under forty miles, we beheld mountains rising upwards of 16,000 feet from the point on which we stood: of no other mountains in the world could such a view be obtained. In this land of the Incas Nature has done her work on a truly gigantic scale.

The desert, from Guerreros to the entrance to the gorge leading through the rocky hills which divide it from the plain of Arequipa, is upwards of forty miles across, while its length from the transverse valley of Tambo to that of Vitor must be about sixty. During the greater part of the day we were threading our way through arid mountain gorges, and up and down zigzag rocky paths strewn with the bones and carcasses of mules, under a scorching sun. A little pale purple Nemophila, a small Crucifer, and the weird Cacti, the appropriate inhabitants of the desert, are the only plants of this cheerless region; and a few obscene gallinazos, floating lazily in the upper air, with their keen-piercing eyes watching for some luckless mule to sink under its burden, were the sole representatives of animal life.

AREQUIPA.
Page 75.

At length our eyes were gladdened by the sight of the green vale of Tiavaya, in the campiña of Arequipa. The rows of tall willows, the bright green fields of lucerne, and white farm-houses, were a blessed relief after the monotonous glare of barren rocks and sand; but it was not until late at night, and after a ride of more than fifty miles, that we reached our hospitable lodging in the city of Arequipa.

Arequipa, the second city in Peru, is built on the banks of the rapid river Chile, and at the foot of the great volcano, called Misti, which rises up in a perfect cone to the height of 17,934 feet, its upper half covered with snow. Arequipa itself is 7427 feet above the sea, so that the mountains ascend in one unbroken sweep upwards of 10,500 feet. The climate, during my stay from March 11th to March 22nd, was as follows:—

The town is built of a white stone of volcanic origin, being a trachytic tuffa containing pumice and lava, dug out of quarries at the foot of the volcano. The houses are usually of one story, built solidly and substantially, with vaulted stone ceilings, the better to resist the shocks of the frequent earthquakes. Like almost all Spanish American cities, the streets are straight and at right angles to each other, with an azequia flowing down the centre. Wheeled vehicles of any description are unknown, and the traffic consists of horses, droves of mules, donkeys laden with lucerne, and flocks of llamas. The principal streets all lead to the great square, which forms a busy and most interesting scene in the morning, the time for marketing. It is then filled with gaily-dressed Indian women, some sitting under shades, with their goods spread out on the ground before them, and others, in constant movement, threading their way amongst the sellers. Their dresses are of baize, manufactured at Halifax,[123] of the gayest colours—consisting of a skirt and mantle of the two most brilliant colours they can find, red and blue, green and crimson, or purple and orange. The effect of these bright-coloured groups, in constant motion, as they move about buying fruit or vegetables, potatoes, earth-nuts, medicinal drugs, corn, articles of dress, and other necessaries, is very pleasing. The background is formed by the handsome new cathedral of whitest stone, behind which the noble volcano, and the peaks of Charcani (18,558 feet above the sea) dazzle the eyes by the brilliancy of their snowy covering.

The campiña of Arequipa, which surrounds the city, is about five miles broad from the foot of the cordillera to the arid range of hills which separates it from the wilderness of the coast; and about ten or twelve miles long, being bounded at each end by a sandy desert. It is watered by the river Chile,[124] coming from a chasm in the cordillera, on the north-west side of the volcano, and by the streams called Posterio and Savandia, which flow from the Pichu-pichu mountains to the eastward of the volcano. These several streams unite on leaving the campiña, and finally fall into the river of Quilca. The campiña contains, besides the city of Arequipa, a number of small villages, and numerous farm-houses. In March the view from the hills above the city is most beautiful. The brilliant green of the campiña, with its fields of maize and alfalfa, its rows of tall willows, and orchards of fruit-trees, is dotted with houses and villages, while it forms an emerald setting to the white city. Looking from the other side of Arequipa, the view, though not so beautiful, is more imposing: the snow-capped volcano rearing its majestic head above the stunted towers of the town. There is a great deal of maize grown in the valley, and guano is extensively used as manure; but the wealth of the campiña is chiefly derived from its mules, which monopolize the carrying-trade from the coast to Arequipa, and from Arequipa to the interior. A quantity of lucerne or alfalfa is raised for their sustenance, and the arrieros or muleteers are a wealthy class of men, generally possessing a chacra or farm of their own, besides considerable sums in ready money. They are, as a rule, good-looking, well-grown men, with fresh complexions, and little mixed blood, which is also made evident by the comparatively fair complexions of their wives and daughters.

AREQUIPA CATHEDRAL.
From a Photograph. Page 76.

The families of the upper classes of Arequipa usually own estates in the neighbouring warm valleys of the coast, such as Vitor, Tambo, Siguas, Majes, and Camana, where the rich vineyards yield them a profitable return by the sale of aguardiente. Their houses in the city are built round a patio or courtyard, on which the principal rooms open. Their sons are frequently the leaders of the turbulent Cholos in revolt, and follow the professions of abogados, lawyers or politicians, traders, and haciendados or farmers, while the more ambitious adopt a military life, the carrera de armas. The ladies are considered the most beautiful and intelligent in Peru, and, at Lima, the most attractive women are usually Arequipeñas. Perhaps the majority have never moved beyond the campiña, and adjacent warm valleys, and many have never seen the sea. Yet they are sprightly and agreeable in society, full of intelligent curiosity, and almost invariably excellent musicians. They frequently sing the plaintive despedidas, and other sonnets of their native poet Melgar, whose love for a fair townswoman was unrequited, and whose melancholy fate has surrounded his name with a halo of romance. He was barbarously shot, after having been taken prisoner by the Spaniards, at the battle of Umachiri in 1815, the first attempt which the Peruvians made for their independence.

During the winter months the wealthier families remove to villages in the campiña, either to Tingo, Tiavaya, or Savandia, taking furniture with them. At the commencement of the season droves of mules leave the city laden with beds, chairs, and tables, to render the country houses habitable. Here the Arequipeños enjoy the delights of the country and of bathing in large swimming-baths faced with masonry, and planted round with rows of tall willows. The rides in the country which surrounds these villages are exceedingly pretty. The trees consist chiefly of tall willows and of the Schinus molle with its bunches of red berries, while bushes of fragrant white Daturas and of the beautiful Bignonia fulva fill the hedges, and the streams are bordered by masses of Nasturtiums. The fields either bear crops of vivid green alfalfa, or tall Indian corn, six to eight feet high, over which the Tropæolum canariensis creeps in golden masses, and at whose feet the bright blue lupins, and a Solanum with rich purple flowers, grow as weeds. From many points of view the rapid waters of the river Chile complete the picture, while far away the snowy peaks of Chuquibamba, Charcani, and the volcano glisten in the beams of the sun. Above Arequipa the river flows through the valley of Chilinos, the steep sides of which are lined with andeneria, or terraced maize-gardens, with here and there a picturesque group of the stone huts of the Indians, often completely hidden by the dark green leaves and golden flowers of the gourds which cover them. The courtyards of the houses are frequently ornamented with a beautiful passion-flower, which creeps over the trellised verandahs, and is covered with flowers. It is a species of Tacsonia, called by the natives tumbo. The flower has a very long tube, and is of a deep rich rose-colour: and a delicious fresco, or sherbet, is made of the egg-shaped fruit.

In addition to the baths of pure spring-water at Tingo and Savandia, the medicinal baths of Yura are a great resort during the winter months. Yura is thirty miles to the north-west, and is situated, like Arequipa, just under the range of the cordilleras. The road leads over very broken ground, where the rugged spurs from the Andes project out into the desert. In March the weary arid wilderness was enlivened by wild flowers, bushes of yellow and purple Solanums, bright orange Compositæ, and, in one place, a carpet of little purple dwarf iris. The baths are in a green ravine, with tall willow-trees and maize-fields, watered by a little rivulet. In this narrow glen, bounded on one side by sandstone mountains, which here form the base of the volcano, and on the other by a ridge of trachyte, there are two places where thermal waters bubble out of the rocks, one being ferruginous and the other sulphurous. At the sulphurous baths there are some solid stone buildings, intended as lodgings for the bathers, with heavy arcades, and long vaulted rooms with no windows, and without furniture, for, as at Tingo and Savandia, all visitors bring their beds, tables, chairs, crockery, and cooking utensils with them. In the bath-room there are four square basins, faced with stone, of different temperatures, and called the Vejeto (87° Fahr.), the Desague (88°), the Sepultura (89°), and the Tigre (90°). They are said to cure dysentery, rheumatism, and cutaneous diseases. The rivulet flows down the glen and joins the river of Yura near a village called Calera, where most of the soap is manufactured which is consumed in Arequipa. Great quantities of carbonate of soda are collected from the sandstone rock, which gives employment to the people of the village. The land is divided into topos (5000 square yards), each valued at a thousand dollars, and every six weeks a harvest of salitre (carbonate of soda) is reaped. From Calera there is a fine view of the green valley of Yura, and of a grand range of porphyritic mountains.

The population of the campiña and town of Arequipa is reckoned at about 50,000.[125] The place was first colonized by the Inca Mayta, who established a body of mitimaes or colonists there, from the village of Cavanilla, near Puno, and ordained that they should remain and settle there. Hence the name "Ari quepay," "Yes! remain:" or more probably it is derived from the words "Aric quepa," "Behind the sharp peak." These mitimaes were the ancestors of the present Indians, or Cholos as they are called, and were established in villages in the campiña, occupied in the cultivation of maize; but the city is purely Spanish, and was founded by Pizarro in 1540, at which time the stone-quarries first began to be worked.

The Cholos or Indians of Arequipa have long been notorious for their turbulence, and for the eagerness with which they join any attempt at revolution, apparently from mere love of excitement. They are addicted to the use of chicha—a fermented liquor made from Indian corn—to such an extent that it is said that nearly all the maize which is raised in the campiña is used in brewing this liquor; under the influence of which the Cholos have established the fame of Arequipa as the grand focus of Peruvian revolutions. But this habit of drinking to excess has rendered the Cholos, though capable of fighting desperately behind walls, quite worthless as soldiers in a campaign; and their habit of body becomes so bad that a slight wound is frequently fatal.

Though the received idea in Europe, that Peru is constantly in a state of civil war, is erroneous in fact, as well as unjust,[126] yet it is true that the period of tranquillity which had lasted from 1844 to 1854 was broken in the latter year by the successful revolution of General Castilla—the result of the discontent caused by the dishonest financial measures and the embezzlements of his predecessor; and two years afterwards the Cholos of Arequipa commenced a rebellion against Castilla. A brief account of the siege of that city, which followed, will give a good idea of the endurance and fighting qualities of the Cholos.

In October 1856 two young men of good family, named Gamio and Masias, collected a handful of Cholos, and sent a message to the Prefect Canseco, telling him that he must either evacuate the city with his troops, or lay down his arms. The prefect marched out, and left Arequipa in the hands of the insurgents, who proclaimed the exiled General Vivanco President of Peru, and appointed Don José Antonio Berenguel prefect of the town; and most of the soldiers who had marched out with Canseco returned on the following day to join the rebels. Vivanco was an exile in Chile, but, on receiving the news, he started for Islay by the English mail steamer, and reached Arequipa in December; while General San Roman, who had been sent from Lima to propose terms of accommodation with the rebels, was dismissed, and retired into the interior to collect forces for the support of Castilla's government.

While the Cholos of Arequipa were maturing their rebellion, a fortunate event placed the Peruvian navy at the disposal of Vivanco. Their largest frigate, the 'Apurimac,' was lying off Arica, and, while her captain, a rough old Chilian seaman named Salcedo, was on shore, the crew, led by Lizardo Montero, one of her lieutenants, a young man and native of Piura, mutinied, declared for Vivanco, and steamed away, leaving Salcedo storming on the beach. The 'Apurimac' went at once to Islay, where Montero captured the port, and where he was joined by two smaller steamers, the 'Loa' and 'Tumbez.'

Vivanco, meanwhile, had proclaimed himself "Regenerator" of Peru, and offered his services as a lawgiver and restorer of prosperity to his country, which were not accepted or appreciated, as none of the other great towns followed the example of Arequipa. Leaving a ministry consisting of young inexperienced lawyers, who had nothing to lose and all to gain, in charge of affairs at Arequipa, he embarked on board the 'Apurimac,' in the end of December, 1856, and sailed for Callao, but did not venture to disembark. He then went on board the 'Loa,' leaving the 'Apurimac' to watch Callao, and proceeded to Truxillo; while the 'Apurimac' went down to the Chincha Islands, and began shipping off the guano to any one who would buy it, thus leaving the port of Callao open.

General Castilla is an old Indian, possessed of great military talent and extraordinary energy and intrepidity; while Vivanco is a native of Lima, of pure Spanish descent, indolent, dilatory, and without personal courage; but eloquent and persuasive, and possessed of qualities which have surrounded him with numerous warm partisans and personal friends. Between such men the issue could not be doubtful.

The veteran Castilla, as soon as the 'Apurimac' had sailed for the Chincha Islands, formed the daring plan of attacking his enemy in the north; and, in spite of the Navy, which had declared against him, he bought an old steamer, the 'Santiago,' belonging to the English Steam Navigation Company, and boldly steamed away in search of the Regenerator. On hearing of his approach, Vivanco was seized with a panic, and, evacuating the places he had occupied, retreated to his ships. He now thought that, in the absence of Castilla, he might succeed in an attempt on the capital, and, collecting all his vessels, he retraced his steps southward, and arrived in Callao bay on April 22nd, 1857. A night attack was then made on the fort, but, after some hard street fighting, Vivanco's party were obliged to retire to their ships; and, his expedition having proved a complete failure, the Regenerator returned to Islay, and proceeded at once to Arequipa.

While Vivanco was absent in the north, General San Roman had collected a considerable force in the interior, with which he marched towards Arequipa. The warlike Cholos came out to meet him, and a skirmish followed, which they call the battle of Yumina. It consisted of a considerable waste of powder, the two parties firing at each other, at very long ranges, across a ravine; and in the afternoon the Cholos returned in triumph to Arequipa. Having missed Vivanco in the north, old Don Ramon Castilla steamed away to Arica in the same old 'Santiago,' safely passing the rebellious fleet at Islay, collected a force at Tacna, and, marching by land, arrived in the campiña of Arequipa in the end of July; soon afterwards establishing his head-quarters at the village of Sachaca, some miles below the city, on the banks of the river Chile. A detachment occupied Tiavaya, to cut off Vivanco's communication with Islay.

The people of Arequipa were now hard at work to place the city in a proper state of defence; barricades were erected in the most important streets, and day and night the Cholos were under arms. But, supplies having now entirely ceased from the custom-house at Islay, Vivanco found himself in great difficulties; for people, having little faith in the success of his revolution, were unwilling to advance money in exchange for his vales or promissory notes, even at a discount of fifty per cent. The needy Regenerator then resorted to more violent methods of raising money, and, breaking open several of the principal shops, began to sell their contents to the highest bidder.

Castilla made constant sham attacks upon the town, which kept the inhabitants in a continual state of alarm; but all his supplies were derived from Arica, by way of Tacna, as the port of Islay remained in the hands of Vivanco's party. This was his weak point; and when the 'Apurimac' arrived off Arica, and her commander Montero, after a sharp street fight, got possession of that port in February, 1858, Castilla found himself in a position of great difficulty. His supplies were entirely cut off, and it became necessary for him to assault Arequipa at all hazards. Accordingly he moved from his quarters at Sachaca and Tiavaya, marched round the south side of the city, and early in the morning of March 5th, 1858, commenced an attack on the eastern suburbs. His troops first stormed the church of San Antonio, and then advanced to the attack of San Pedro, which had also been occupied by the besieged. Here the Cholos held their ground for four hours, from eight to twelve A.M., in spite of the desperate attacks of Castilla's best troops, and the well-directed fire of his artillery. At length, overpowered by numbers, they were forced to retire, disputing every inch of the ground. They rallied at the convent of Santa Rosa, and obstinately defended the position for several hours, until night closed in upon the combatants. Next morning, being the 7th of March, some further resistance was made, but the troops of Castilla finally stormed the barricades, and drove everything before them. Vivanco escaped in the disguise of a friar to Islay, and thence to Chile, while his officers looked after themselves, leaving the gallant defenders of Arequipa to their fate. Tacna and Arica at once returned to their allegiance, and the 'Apurimac' was given up to Castilla's ministers at Lima by the mutinous Montero.

The Cholos of Arequipa thus defended their position, with great bravery and resolution, against Castilla's disciplined army for upwards of eight months; and during the assault, which lasted for two days, their desperate valour was as remarkable as their extraordinary endurance, for, such was the negligence of Vivanco and his officers, that they were kept without refreshment or even water during the many hours in which they sustained a deadly and unequal struggle against Castilla's troops. It should also be recorded to their credit, that, although the town was on several occasions entirely in their hands, there was no instance of any act of pillage or excess being committed by them; and, when all authority was withdrawn, they showed no disposition to take advantage of their power, but displayed a regard for order which would not be found among the lower orders of most other countries during periods of great excitement.

There is a very striking difference, however, between the Cholos of Arequipa and the Inca Indians of the interior, who appear in the streets with their llamas laden with silky vicuña-wool: the former a turbulent, excitable race, who will fight desperately behind walls, but who are without stamina and quite unable to endure fatigue; the latter a patient, long-suffering people, capable of extraordinary endurance, and, as soldiers, in the habit of marching distances which appear incredible to those whose experience is confined to the movements of European troops. There is an evident mixture of Spanish blood in the people who inhabit Arequipa and its campiña, while the Indians of the interior are for the most part of pure descent.

The road over the cordilleras to Cuzco and Puno leaves Arequipa by the southern suburb, and, after a few miles, ascends a rocky ridge to the more elevated valley of Chihuata or Cangallo (9676 feet above the sea[127]), at the foot of the southern spur of the volcano. A wretched stone hut with a mud floor is here the only shelter for the traveller. At one end a fire of sticks, where an old hag acted as cook, filled the interior with smoke, and at the other each wayfarer, as he arrived, made a shakedown of blankets and ponchos, sipped his chocolate, and, after a short conversation, composed himself for the night. The fire gradually smouldered and went out, and the old woman, with a brood of children, made a heap at the further corner.

At early dawn of the 23rd of March we were all in motion, and our companion of the previous night, a Spaniard with a large tropa of mules laden with aguardiente, was busily preparing for a start. As the sun rose, the dazzling white of the snowy peaks of Pichu-pichu and the volcano, with fleecy clouds above their summits, gave a glorious effect. The rest of the sky was blue, gradually clouding over as the morning advanced; and the valley was covered with alfalfa-fields of the richest green, with the pretty little village of Cachimarca perched on a rounded hill to the southward. The flowering shrubs by the roadside are the same as in the campiña of Arequipa, except that a small yellow Calceolaria is more abundant. The morning air was fresh and bracing as we mounted our mules and faced the long zigzag path up the "alto de los huesos," the southern spur of the volcano, so called from the bones of thousands of mules which are met at every turn. This ascent conducts the traveller from the temperate valley of Cangallo to the bleak and chilling plains of the upper cordillera.

A CHOLO OF AREQUIPA.
From a Photograph. See page 80.

CHAPTER VI.

JOURNEY ACROSS THE CORDILLERA TO PUNO.

In the region of the cordillera of the Andes, in Northern and Central Peru, the country is broken up into deep warm valleys and profound ravines, separated by lofty precipitous ridges and snowy peaks, which combine to form some of the most magnificent scenery in the world. Vast flocks of sheep and alpacas find pasture on the upland slopes, while abundance of wheat is grown lower down. Indian corn generally flourishes at a still lower elevation, though it is grown as high as 13,000 feet on the islands of lake Titicaca, and sugar-cane is cultivated in the deep valleys. This is the nature of the country between Ayacucho and Cuzco, and in the valley of Vilcamayu, which extends from the foot of the Vilcañota range until it subsides into the vast tropical plains to the north and east of Cuzco.

But the southern part of the interior of Peru, and the northern portion of Bolivia, present a very different character. From the Vilcañota mountains the Andes separate into two distinct chains, namely, the cordillera or coast-range, and the Eastern Andes, which include the loftiest peaks in South America, Illimani and Sorata, or Illampu. The region between these two ranges contains the great lake of Titicaca, and consists of elevated plains intersected by rivers flowing into the lake, at a height never less than 12,000 feet above the sea. The magnificent scenery of Northern and Central Peru is wanting in this southern part of the country, which composes the department of Puno, and is usually called the Collao. It, however, possesses features of its own which are at once striking and imposing, while the land which is drained by the lake of Titicaca was the cradle of the civilization of the Incas.

The journey up the "Alto de los huesos" is very fatiguing, and the change from the pleasant exhilarating air of Chihuata, to the chilling icy blasts which constantly sweep over the upper region of the cordillera, was severely felt. As the afternoon advanced a drizzling mist came on, and added to the cheerless desolation of the plains it was necessary to traverse before reaching the post-house of Apo. Occasionally a drove of llamas, with their Indian driver, loomed for a moment through the mist, and at nightfall we arrived at the post-house of Apo (14,350 feet), tired, drenched, and cold.

The rainy season of the cordilleras commences in November, and continues until the end of March, and during most of that time the discomfort of travelling is so great, and the rivers so swollen, that a journey is seldom undertaken by an ordinary traveller. In March, however, the rain does not fall continuously or in any quantity. The early morning is generally clear, but in the afternoon mists, rain, or snow begin to fall, and continue until far into the night. From April until October is the dry season, and in May, June, July, and August a cloud is scarcely ever seen in the sky.

The post-houses in the desolate mountains between Arequipa and Puno are all of the same character. They consist of a range of low stone buildings surrounding a courtyard on three sides, and consisting of five or six rooms with mud floors, a rough table, and a platform of stone and mud at one end, which is intended for a bed-place. The roof is badly tiled or thatched, and the doors are so roughly fitted that it is impossible to close them. Both man and beast are subject to a most distressing illness, caused by the rarefaction of the air at these great altitudes, which is called sorochi by the Peruvians. I had suffered from a sharp attack of illness at Arequipa, so that I was probably predisposed to a visitation from sorochi, which I certainly endured to its fullest extent. Before arriving at Apo, a violent pressure on the head, accompanied by acute pain, and aches in the back of the neck, caused great discomfort, and these symptoms increased in intensity during the night at the Apo post-house, so that at three A.M., when we recommenced our journey, I was unable to mount my mule without assistance.

A ride of seven hours across grassy plains covered with herbage, with patches of snow here and there, and ranges of hills with fine masses of rocks, forming a setting to the distant peaks of the cordillera, brought us to the post-house of Pati. During this ride we had to ford the river, which flows past Arequipa as the Chile, more than a dozen times. The only living creatures are the lecca-leccas, a bird which frequents the numerous streams, and the graceful flocks of vicuñas. The lecca-lecca is a large plover, with red legs, white head, grey body, white under the breast and tail, and wings and tail broadly edged with black. It incessantly utters a wild shrill scream. The vicuñas, a species of llama with the habits of an antelope, are very beautiful and graceful creatures. They have rich fawn-coloured coats, with patches of white across the shoulders and inside the legs, and long slender necks. They are constantly met with in the most desolate parts of the cordillera, browsing on the tender shoots of the tufts of ychu, or galloping along with their noses close to the ground, as if they were scenting out the best pasture.

At Pati a range of abrupt porphyritic cliffs rises from the plain, up which a rough zigzag pass leads to the "Pampa de Confital,"[128] the loftiest part of the road over this pass of the cordillera. A storm of hail began to fall, which turned into snow as we reached the pampa, and a ride of many hours over a succession of wild desolate plains, in an incessant snow-storm, brought us to the "alto de Toledo," the highest part of the road, and 15,590 feet above the level of the sea.[129] Some glorious snowy peaks appeared through the gloom at sunset, and after several weary hours in the darkness we at length arrived at the post-house of Cuevillas.

In the neighbourhood of Cuevillas there are large sheep-farms, one called Toroya, near the "alto de Toledo," and another called Tincopalca farther on. The sheep, at this enormous height, lamb in March and July, and, of the March lambs, usually about fifty per cent. survive. Beyond Cuevillas there are two large Alpine lakes, whence a river flows down into Titicaca, and we thus passed the watershed between the Pacific and the great lake. The scenery is grand and desolate, reminding me, in some respects, of the interior of Cornwallis Island in the Arctic regions. The road passes between the two lakes, and we reached the post-house of La Compuerta as the afternoon rain commenced. The hills are covered with tufts of coarse grass (Stipa ychu), of which the llamas eat the upper blades, while the sheep browse on the tender shoots underneath; and with two kinds of shrubby plants, one a thorny composita called ccanlli, and the other called tola or ccapo, which is a resinous Baccharis,[130] and is used for fuel.[131]

The gorge in which the La Compuerta post-house is situated is the only outlet for the waters of the lake. Mountains of great height rise up on either side, clothed, at this season, with herbage of the richest green, while ridges of scarped cliffs of dark porphyritic rock crop out at intervals. The river dashes noisily over huge boulders, and near its left bank are the rough stone buildings of the post-house. Great quantities of ducks, gulls, coots, godwits, and sandpipers frequent the shores of the lake. The postmaster supplied alfalfa for the mules, and a chupé consisting of potatoes and salt mutton for the travellers, at exorbitant prices; the mules were freed from their cargoes, which were placed within the porch, ready lashed up in their redecillas or hide nets; and we were soon rolled up in blankets and ponchos, while the snow continued to fall unceasingly through the early part of the night. When we got up next morning the thermometer was at 31° Fahr. indoors.

Starting at dawn, we descended the gorge, passing two ruined mining establishments, San Ramon and Santa Lucia, into green plains with large flocks of sheep scattered over them.

In these uninhabited wilds it is an event to meet a traveller, and his appearance is the signal for a succession of questions and answers. We here passed a cavallero, in whose dress and general appearance we saw a reflection of our own, excepting the comforters. He wore a large poncho of bright colours, reaching nearly to his heels; a broad-brimmed felt hat with a blue cotton handkerchief passed over it, and tied in a knot under his chin; an immense woollen comforter passed round his throat and face, until nothing appeared but his eyes; a pair of woollen gaiters, bright green, with black stripes; and huge spurs. He was an officer on his way to Arequipa, and complained of the severity of the weather and the heaviness of the roads. After a short conversation the traveller passed on, followed by his cargo-mules, and soon became a speck in the distance.

In the afternoon we came to the first signs of cultivation, since leaving the valley of Cangallo, in the neighbourhood of the great sheep-farm of Taya-taya—patches of quinoa, barley, and potatoes, with the huts of Indians scattered amongst them; and, crossing a rocky ridge, we came in sight of a vast swampy plain, with the little town of Vilque, at the foot of a fine rocky height, in the far distance, which we reached at sunset. The long rows of thatched brown huts dripping with rain, and the muddy streets, looked melancholy. But at the time of the great fair, in June, Vilque presents a very different appearance. The plains, for several miles beyond this little town, were so swampy as to be rendered almost impassable. It was with the greatest difficulty that we made our way across them, constantly wading and splashing through water, and in some places sinking so deep in the adhesive mud, that it was not without desperate exertions that the mules could extricate themselves. At length we came to a rocky ridge which bounded the vast pampa of Vilque, and continued our journey over rather drier ground.

Since leaving La Compuerta we had been continually descending; the vicuñas had disappeared, as they confine themselves to the loftiest and wildest parts of the cordillera; but, in the lower region between Vilque and Puno, the feeling of desolation and solitude is dissipated by the numbers of birds which enliven the country, and by the increased quantity and variety of wild flowers.

The lecca-leccas or plovers were very numerous, screaming shrilly as they flew in circles, or ran along the ground. In the clefts of the rocks there were many birds, like creepers, called haccacllo by the Indians, and pito in Spanish—beaks curved downwards, black on the top of the head, white underneath, red at the back of the neck, speckled wings, white breast, and a black line from the beak to the back of the neck. We also saw many small green paroquets, bright yellow finches called silgaritos, a kind of partridge called yutu, and, above all, the glorious coraquenque or alcamari, the royal bird of the Incas, whose black and white wing-feathers surmounted the imperial llautu or fringe of the sovereigns of Peru. The alcamari is a large and noble-looking bird of prey, with a scarlet head, black body, and long wing-feathers of spotless white. Wherever the plains are intersected by ridges of rocky cliffs, which is frequently the case, there are swarms of large rodents, called biscaches, which sat on their hind legs, and looked about inquisitively as we rode past.

Riding over several wide grassy plains, and passing the village of Tiquillaca, we arrived at the banks of the river Tortorani, which was so swollen as to be quite impassable. By following its course for about half a mile, we came to a place where the whole volume of water precipitates itself down a sheer declivity of 250 feet, and forms a magnificent cascade. A league below the falls we found a bridge, and, at sunset, we came in sight of the great lake of Titicaca, with the snowy range beyond. A steep zigzag descent leads down to the city of Puno, which is close to the shores of the lake, and hemmed in by an amphitheatre of argentiferous mountains.

Puno, the capital of the department, owes its origin and former prosperity to the rich veins of silver-ore in the surrounding country. It is approached, from the north, by a stone archway built over the road by General Deustua, who was prefect in 1850; and the streets slope by a gradual descent towards the lake. The houses are built of small-sized brown adobes, with roofs of thatch or red tiles, and courtyards very neatly paved with round pebbles and llama's knuckle-bones in patterns. There are scarcely any with more than a ground-floor, and the rooms open on to the court; but, though at this elevation, 12,874 feet above the sea, it is extremely cold at night, stoves are unknown; and the unusual luxury of a fireplace, which exists in one house, is merely a luxury to the eye, for it is never lighted. The streets are clean and well paved, and the stone church in the Plaza, dating from 1757, has an elaborately carved front and two towers. In another plaza is the college, a large building with an upper story, also built by General Deustua; and both these public squares have bronze fountains erected by the Government of General Echenique, the late President, besides drinking fountains in the corners of several of the streets. The water is excellent.