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                          TRAVELS

                            IN

                       PERU AND INDIA.

[Illustration: 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.


                           LONDON:
                 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

                            1862.

            _The right of Translation is reserved._


    LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
                       AND CHARING CROSS.




PREFACE.

[Illustration]

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.

[Illustration]

                          TRAVELS IN PERU.

[Illustration]

    PREFACE                                                  PAGE V


                             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                                            1


                              CHAPTER II.

    THE VALUABLE SPECIES OF CHINCHONA-TREES--THEIR HISTORY, THEIR
                      DISCOVERERS, AND THEIR FORESTS.

      I. The Loxa region and its _crown barks_                     21

     II. The "_red-bark_" region, on the western <DW72>s of
         Chimborazo                                                26

    III. The New Granada region                                    27

     IV. The Huanuco region in Northern Peru, and its
         "_grey barks_"                                            30

      V. The _Calisaya_ region in Bolivia and Southern Peru        35


                               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                         44


                               CHAPTER IV.

              INTRODUCTION OF CHINCHONA-PLANTS INTO INDIA.

    Preliminary arrangements                                       60


                               CHAPTER V.

    Islay and Arequipa                                             69


                               CHAPTER VI.

    Journey across the Cordillera to Puno                          88


                               CHAPTER VII.

                              LAKE TITICACA.

    The Aymara Indians--Their antiquities--Tiahuanaco--Coati--Sillustani
    --Copacabana                                                  108


                               CHAPTER VIII.

                          THE PERUVIAN INDIANS.

    Their condition under Spanish colonial rule                   117


                               CHAPTER IX.

    Narrative of the insurrection of José Gabriel Tupac Amaru, the last
    of the Incas                                                  134


                               CHAPTER X.

    Diego Tupac Amaru--Fate of the Inca's family--Insurrection of
    Pumacagua                                                     158


                               CHAPTER XI.

    Journey from Puno to Crucero, the capital of Caravaya         180


                               CHAPTER XII.

                        THE PROVINCE OF CARAVAYA.

    A short historical and geographical description               199


                               CHAPTER XIII.

    Caravaya--The valley of Sandia                                216


                               CHAPTER XIV.

    Coca cultivation                                              232

                               CHAPTER XV.

                                CARAVAYA.

    Chinchona forests of Tambopata                                240


                               CHAPTER XVI.

    General remarks on the chinchona-plants of Caravaya           267


                               CHAPTER XVII.

      JOURNEY FROM THE FORESTS OF TAMBOPATA TO THE PORT OF ISLAY.

    Establishment of the plants in Wardian cases                  275


                               CHAPTER XVIII.

              PRESENT CONDITION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF PERU.

    Population--Civil wars--Government--Constitution--General Castilla
    and his ministers--Dr. Vigil--Mariano Paz Soldan--Valleys on the
    coast--Cotton, wool, and specie--The Amazons--Guano--Finances
    --Literature--Future prospects                                288


                                CHAPTER XIX.

    Mr. Spruce's expedition to procure plants and seeds of the
    "red bark," or _C. succirubra_--Mr. Pritchett in the Huanuco region,
    and the "grey barks"--Mr. Cross's proceedings at Loxa,
    and collection of seeds of _C. Condaminea_                    313


                                CHAPTER XX.

    CONVEYANCE OF CHINCHONA-PLANTS AND SEEDS FROM SOUTH AMERICA TO
                                  INDIA.

    Transmission of dried specimens--Voyages of plants in Wardian cases
    --Arrival of plants and seeds in India--Depôt at Kew--Treatment of
    plants in Wardian cases--Effects of introduction of chinchona-plants
    into India on trade in South America--Neilgherry hills        331

[Illustration]

                              TRAVELS IN INDIA.

[Illustration]

                                 CHAPTER XXI.

                                   MALABAR.

    Calicut--Houses and gardens--Population of Malabar--Namburi Brahmins
    --Nairs--Tiars--Slaves--Moplahs--Assessment of rice-fields,
    of gardens, of dry crops--Other taxes--Voyage up the Beypoor river
    --The Conolly teak plantations--Wundoor--Backwood cultivation
    --Sholacul--Sispara ghaut--Blackwood--Scenery--Sispara--View of the
    Nellemboor valley--Avalanche--Arrival at Ootacamund           341


                                 CHAPTER XXII.

                               NEILGHERRY HILLS.

    Extent--Formation--Soil--Climate--Flora--Hill tribes--Todars
    --Antiquities--Badagas--Koters--Kurumbers--Irulas--English
    stations--Kotergherry--Ootacamund--Coonoor--Jakatalla--Government
    gardens at Ootacamund and Kalhutty--Mr. McIvor--Coffee cultivation
    --Rules for sale of waste lands--Forest conservancy           358


                                 CHAPTER XXIII.

      SELECTION OF SITES FOR CHINCHONA-PLANTATIONS ON THE NEILGHERRY
                                    HILLS.

    The Dodabetta site--The Neddiwuttum site                      379


                                 CHAPTER XXIV.

                         JOURNEY TO THE PULNEY HILLS.

    Coonoor ghaut--Coimbatore--Pulladom--Cotton cultivation--Dharapurum
    --A marriage procession--Dindigul--Ryotwarry tenure--Pulney hills
    --Kodakarnal--Extent of the Pulneys--Formation--Soil--Climate
    --Inhabitants--Flora--Suitability for chinchona cultivation--Forest
    conservancy--Anamallay hills                                  390


                                 CHAPTER XXV.

                           MADURA AND TRICHINOPOLY.

    Arrive at Madura--Peopling of India--The Dravidian race--Brahmin
    colonists in Southern India--Foundation of Madura--Pandyan dynasty
    --Tamil literature--Aghastya--Naik dynasty--The Madura pagoda--The
    Sangattar--The Choultry--Tirumalla Naik's palace--Caste prejudices
    --Trichinopoly--Coleroon anicut--Rice cultivation--The palmyra
    palm--Caroor--Return to the Neilgherries--Shervaroy hills
    --Courtallum                                                  408


                                 CHAPTER XXVI.

                               MYSORE AND COORG.

    Seegoor ghaut--Sandal-wood--Mysore--Seringapatam--Hoonsoor--The
    tannery--Fraserpett--Mercara--The fort--The Rajahs of Coorg--The
    Coorgs--Origin of the river Cauvery--Coorg--Climate--Coffee
    cultivation--Sites for chinchona-plantations--Caryota Urens
    --Virarajendrapett--Cardamom cultivation--Kumari--Poon, blackwood,
    and teak--Pepper cultivation in Malabar--Cannanore--Nuggur and Baba
    Bodeen hills--The Beebee of Cannanore--Compta--Sedashighur--Arrive
    at Bombay                                                     432


                                 CHAPTER XXVII.

                     THE MAHABALESHWUR HILLS AND THE DECCAN.

    Journey from Bombay to Malcolm-penth--The Mahabaleshwur hills--The
    village and its temples--Elevation of the hills--Formation--Soil
    --Climate--Vegetation--Sites for chinchona-plantations--Paunchgunny
    --Waee--Its temples--The babool-tree--Shirwul--The village system
    --Village officials--Barra-balloota--Cultivators--Festivals--Crops
    and harvests--Poona--The Bhore ghaut--Return to Bombay        458


                                 CHAPTER XXVIII.

    Cultivation of the chinchona-plants in the Neilgherry hills, under
    the superintendence of Mr. McIvor                             483


                                 CHAPTER XXIX.

                             CHINCHONA CULTIVATION.

    Ceylon--Sikkim--Bhotan--Khassya hills--Pegu--Jamaica--Conclusion
                                                                  509


                                 APPENDIX A.

    General Miller and the Foreign Officers who served in the Patriot
    Armies of Chile and Peru, between 1817 and 1830               521


                                 APPENDIX B.

    Botanical descriptions of the genus Chinchona, and of the species
    of Chinchonæ now growing in India and Ceylon                  530


                                 APPENDIX C.

    Notes on the principal plants employed in India on account of their
    real or supposed febrifuge virtues: by Alexander Smith, Esq.  546


                                 APPENDIX D.

    Report, by Mr. McIvor, on the cultivation of Chinchona-plants in
    Southern India                                                566


                                 APPENDIX E.

    Note on the export-trade in Peruvian bark from the South American
    ports, and on the import-trade into England                   571




                            LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


                                                                PAGE

  Chinchona-plants at Ootacamund                      _Frontispiece_.

  Chinchona Micrantha                                    _to face_ 32

  Arequipa                                                    "    75

  Arequipa Cathedral                                          "    76

  A Cholo of Arequipa                                              87

  Balsa on Lake Titicaca                                          107

  The Towers of Sillustani                             _to face_  111

  Genealogical Table of the Family of the Incas of Peru       "   134

  The Sondor-huasi, at Azangaro                               "   193

  Chinchona Nitida Trees                                      "   323

  Chinchona Chahuarguera                                      "   329

  Canoe on the Beypoor river                                      520

  Capsules and parts of the flower of Chinchona Chahuarguera--magnified
  and natural size                                                532

  Capsule and parts of the flower of Chinchona Succirubra         534

  Parts of the flower and fruit of Chinchona Micrantha            539

         *       *       *       *       *

  Map to illustrate Mr. Spruce's journeys to the forests on the
  Western <DW72>s of Chimborazo                          _to face_ 313

  Map of part of Peru, to illustrate Mr. C. Markham's journey to
  the Chinchona forests of Caravaya                     _at the end._




                              POSTSCRIPT.

                             OCT. 16, 1862.

[Illustration]

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

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

  Species.                                    Number.

  _C. Succirubra_                              30,150

  _C. Calisaya_                                 1,050

  _C. Condaminea_ (var. _Uritusinga_)              41

  _C. Condaminea_ (var. _Chahuarguera_)        20,030

  _C. Condaminea_ (var. _Crispa_)                 236

  _C. lancifolia_                                   1

  _C. nitida_                                   8,500

  _C. micrantha_                                7,400

  _C. Peruviana_                                2,295

  Species without name                          2,440

  _C. Pahudiana_                                  425
                                             ________
                   Total                       72,568[2]

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
<DW72>s 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 <DW72>s 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 <DW72>s of
Chimborazo. It begins again in latitude 1° 51´ N. at Almaguer, passes
through the province of Popayan, and along the <DW72>s 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:--

                    _C. succirubra_   (Pavon)       yielding _Red bark._
                   {_C. Chahuarguera_ (Pavon)  }
  _C. Condaminea._ {_C. crispa_       (Tafalla)}        "  _Crown bark._
                   {_C. Uritusinga_   (Pavon)  }
                   {_C. lancifolia_   (Mutis)       " _Carthagena bark._
                    _C. nitida_       (Ruiz & Pavon)}
                    _C. micrantha_    (Ruiz & Pavon)}   "   _Grey bark._
                    _C. Peruviana_    (Howard)      }
                    _C. Calisaya_     (Weddell)         " _Yellow bark._

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:--

    I.--The Loxa region, and its _crown barks_.
   II.--The _red-bark_ region, on the western <DW72>s of Chimborazo.
  III.--The New Granada region.
   IV.--The Huanuco region in Northern Peru, and its _grey barks_.
    V.--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--

  Quina.              |     Kinovic acid.
  Chinchonia.         |     Chinchona red.
  Aricina.            |     A yellow colouring matter.
  Quinidia.           |     A green fatty matter.
  Chinchonidia.       |     Starch.
  Quinic acid.        |     Gum.
  Tannic acid.        |     Lignin.

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
<DW72>s 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 <DW72>s, 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 <DW72>s OF CHIMBORAZO.

The species yielding "red bark," the richest and most important of
all the Chinchonæ, is found in the forests on the western <DW72>s 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 8_s._ 9_d._ 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
23,353_l._[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-, 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
2-1/2 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.

[Illustration: 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 <DW72>s 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 <DW72>s 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- 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 <DW72>s 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 <DW72>s, 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:--

  From Arica      1926 quintals, worth £17,334
   "   Islay      1365    "        "    12,383
                  ----                  ------
                  3291                  29,717
                  ----                  ------

  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 <DW72>s 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 <DW72> 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 1350_l._ a year, the chemist 1100_l._ a year,
and under them there are eight Dutch overseers; the total amount paid
in salaries being 3256_l._ 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 <DW72>s 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 <DW72>, and Tjiborum on the
southern <DW72> 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:--

  _C. Calisaya_                       7,316 plants, and 1030 cuttings.
  _C. lancifolia_                        80   "      "    28     "
  Species procured by M. Hasskarl   939,809   "      "    18     "
                                   --------
  Total                             947,205 plants.[109]

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, 2-1/2
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 1-1/4 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 1-1/4 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.

  ----------------+--------------+-------------+-------------+----------
                  |   1857.[9]   |  December,  |  December,  |
                  | At Tjibodas. |  1859.[112] |  1860.[113] |  1861.
                  +--------------+-------------+-------------+----------
  _C. Calisaya_   |     37       |    3,201    |     7,316   |    ?
                  |              |             |             |
  _C. lancifolia_ |      3       |       45    |        80   |    ?
                  |              |             |             |
  _C. Pahudiana_  |     60       |   96,838    |   939,809   | Millions.
  ----------------+--------------+-------------+-------------+----------

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-<DW72>s 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 <DW72>s 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
7000_l._ 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 7000_l._ a year upon
quinine; but in 1857 the expenditure had risen to 12,000_l._, 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 <DW72>s 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
336,842_l._,[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 <DW72>s 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 <DW64>
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.

[Illustration: 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:--

  Mean temperature        64-1/3
  Mean minimum at night   60-1/2
  Highest observed        67
  Lowest                  58
  Range                    9

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-<DW52> 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.

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: 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 <DW72>s,
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- 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
<DW72> 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.

Puno is surrounded by heights covered with patches of potatoes,
barley, and quinoa (_Chenopodium quinoa_), the huts of Indians being
interspersed amongst them; and immediately over the town there is
an isolated rocky ridge of carboniferous limestone perforated by
several natural caverns, called the Huassa-pata. The shores of the
lake are a few hundred yards from the town, and at the little port
there are always a number of balsas, made of large bundles of reeds
tied together, with a reed sail.[132] The view to seaward is, however,
confined by the peninsula of Capachica, and two islands at the mouth of
the bay of Puno. A canal to enable balsas to come up nearer the town
was made by the Spanish Intendente Gonzalez Montoya in the beginning of
the present century.[133]

The flora of a country which, though within the tropics, is at an
elevation of nearly thirteen thousand feet above the sea, must
necessarily be meagre, and the few plants are lowly and inconspicuous.
I noticed the following in the immediate vicinity of Puno. The
only tree was one of stunted growth, with a pretty pink and white
flower, and dark-green leaves, almost white underneath, called "oliva
silvestre" by the Spaniards, and _ccolli_ in Quichua (_Buddlea
coriacea_); and of these there were not more than a dozen, sheltered
behind walls. By far the greater number of plants are _Compositæ_: of
these I observed three species of _Tagetes_--one with a small yellow
flower; another very sweet, called by the Indians _huaccatay_ and
_chicchipa_, and used to flavour their chupes; and a large shrubby
marygold, called _sunchu_;[134] also the common sow-thistle, a
_Hieracium_, and the _tola_ and _ccanlli_ before mentioned, used for
fuel. I found two Verbenas and a Solanum, all with purple flowers;
a clover, a creeping cucurbitaceous plant, two Cacti, a large dock,
three Geraniums, all with pink flowers; three Crucifers, very small
herbs, one with a white flower, one with a yellow flower, and the third
the common shepherd's-purse; a Gilium with a minute white flower, a
small legume with tomentose leaves, a pretty little creeping Adoxa,
a Statice, a wild Chenopodium, a Veronica, a minute Stellaria, a
Rhinanthus, a mallow, a plantago, and three species of wild Oxalis, two
very minute with white flowers, and one with a yellow flower. There
were also two ferns, one a very beautiful Gymnogramma with silvery
fronds; nine grasses, the most abundant of which was the coarse _Stipa
ychu_; and a few mosses. On the shores of lake Titicaca I saw rushes
in great quantities, a Mimulus, a Ranunculus, a Rumex, and three
grasses. These plants, though lowly and unpretending, are in sufficient
abundance to cover the country with verdure and pretty wild flowers,
and brighten those parts which are not cultivated. The cultivation
consists of quinoa, cañahua (both _Chenopodia_), barley, potatos, ocas
(_Oxalis tuberosa_), and wheat in very small quantities, which does not
ripen.

Close to Puno, on the south, are the famous silver-bearing mountains
of Cancharani and Laycaycota, to which Puno owes her existence: and to
the discovery and working of the Laycaycota mine in the middle of the
seventeenth century a very curious history is attached; which is always
talked of by the people of Puno as one of the principal events in the
annals of their city.

In about 1660 an exceedingly rich vein of silver had been discovered
on the hill of Laycaycota, by one José de Salcedo, which was called
the "Veta de la Candelaria." One account says that the secret of its
existence was revealed to Salcedo by an Indian girl. José de Salcedo,
and his brother Gaspar, continued to work this vein, and several others
which were opened on the Cancharani and Laycaycota hills; enormous
quantities of silver were extracted; and the fame of his enormous
wealth, and its source, attracted crowds of unruly people to the spot,
from the various towns of Peru.[135] Salcedo is said to have been
generous and open-handed in finding employment for applicants, but,
from some unexplained cause, tumults took place at the mines in 1665,
which, from first to last, are said to have caused 450 violent deaths.
The governor of the district, Don Angelo de Peredo, seems to have taken
part against the Salcedos, who retired to the village of Juliaca,
with a body of armed followers, in November, 1665. In March, 1666,
they attacked the governor's people who had possession of the mines;
Salcedo neglected repeated orders to come to Lima; and was accused of
having threatened to extort a general pardon from the Viceroy, at the
head of a thousand men. Salcedo himself, however, appears to have been
absent at Cuzco when the attack was made on the mines. These tumults,
accompanied by much bloodshed, continued until 1669, when the Viceroy
Count of Lemos came to Puno in person, and settled the question by
sending José and Gaspar de Salcedo to Lima, where José was tried,
condemned, and executed. Gaspar was detained a prisoner in Callao
castle.

It was the general impression at the time, and is so still at Puno,
that jealousy and envy of their riches occasioned the persecution of
these men; for not only were the charges against them most frivolous,
but the Count of Santistevan, the predecessor of the Count of Lemos,
had caused the Bishop of Arequipa to publish a general pardon of all
offences in 1666. The accusations against José Salcedo were that he
went about with armed men, took a seat next to the corregidor at
a bull-fight in Cuzco, and neglected to obey the order to come to
Lima.[136]

A petition was afterwards sent to Spain, representing that the Salcedos
were the victims of injustice, and not guilty of disloyalty; that the
Viceroy's proceedings were irregular; and that the heirs of the Count
of Lemos were bound to make reparation for the evils caused to these
deserving men. The petition also prayed that the President of the
Council of the Indies might not be allowed to decide the case, because
he was related to the Count of Lemos.[137] This petition seems to have
received favourable consideration; for I find that the son of José de
Salcedo was afterwards created Marquis de la Villa Rica de Puno, and
that he took a leading part in subsequent mining operations.

The most remarkable part of this story is that on the day of Salcedo's
death the mine became full of water, and the Viceroy was thus
disappointed in his expectation of succeeding to the wealth of which
he had deprived his victim. This curious coincidence made a great
impression on the Indians, which is not yet effaced; and they still
point out a small lake or pond that is said to cover the once rich vein
or "Veta de la Candelaria."

Salcedo's son, the Marquis of Villa Rica, attempted to reach his
father's source of wealth by cutting a horizontal adit or _socabon_ in
the side of the hill looking on lake Titicaca; and he is said to have
penetrated nearly 700 yards, and within sixty yards of his father's
perpendicular shaft; but his funds failed him, and he died mad. In
spite, however, of the filling up of the "Candelaria," great numbers
of other shafts were sunk, and much silver was extracted, both by the
Marquis, and by other speculators. A report, dated 1718, mentions as
many as forty-six shafts on the hills near Puno, which were then being
worked.[138] In 1740 a native company attempted to finish the _socabon_
which had been commenced by the Marquis, but their workmen were unable
to cut through the masses of porphyry, and, after vast expense, it was
abandoned a second time.

From 1775 to 1824 the mines near Puno yielded ores worth 1,786,000
marcs of silver, at seven to nine dollars the marc; the richest year
being 1802, when the yield was 52,000 marcs; but since 1816 it has been
steadily decreasing, and in 1824, the year after the expulsion of the
Spaniards, it had sunk very low. In 1826 the _manto_ mine, to which
the socabon leads, which was excavated by the Marquis of Villa Rica,
was granted to General O'Brien, a gallant and enthusiastic old Irish
hero of South American independence, who resumed the work, but without
any success. Mr. Begg, an enterprising English merchant, undertook the
completion of the _socabon_ in 1830. He imported expensive machinery
from England, employed an intelligent engineer named Patterson, and
continued to work the _manto_ mine until 1839. He built himself a house
furnished with every English comfort, and lived in very good style; but
the speculation was a failure, and he left the country a poor man in
1840, and died in Chile. After the departure of Mr. Begg, some Peruvian
speculators continued to work at the same mine, but without any energy;
and, at the time of M. de Castelnau's visit in 1845, only thirty
workmen were employed.[139] When Lieut. Gibbon, U.S.N., passed through
Puno in 1851, the _manto_ was still being worked, but at the time of my
visit it had been entirely abandoned since 1858.

It is one of the great evils arising from the political condition of
Peru since the independence that there is a complete want of confidence
in each other amongst the moneyed classes, and an absence, to a great
extent, of the spirit of enterprise; so that any combination on a
large scale for mining, or other purposes of a similar nature, is
almost impossible. Peru is still a very young country, and there is
reason to hope that this state of things will not continue; but now a
feeling of suspicion, added to a want of energy, prevents the formation
of native companies. Thus the _manto_ is abandoned, and the numerous
mines which once covered the hills of Cancharani and Laycaycota, and
actually created the city of Puno, which nestles at their feet, are
not worked. At present there is only one small mine at work, high up
on the hill of Cancharani, called the Cachi Vieja. Its proprietor, Don
Manuel Ferrandis, is an upright, intelligent, and most kind-hearted old
gentleman, who has had much experience in mining operations; and on the
29th of March he took me to visit the abandoned _manto_, and his own
works at Cachi Vieja.

About two miles south of Puno is the establishment built by Mr.
Begg, at the foot of the Laycaycota mountain, and facing the lake.
The buildings stand round a long courtyard, containing four trees of
the _oliva silvestre_, probably, as the only trees in the country,
once carefully tended by the former English residents. There is a
steam-engine which turns a large stone wheel, twelve feet in diameter,
for grinding the ores; and the quicksilver was separated by the heat of
fires of llama-dung and _tola_,[140] the only fuel to be had. In the
house there were papered rooms, fire-grates, and English conveniences,
now all in ruins, and the rooms used as stables for donkeys. At a short
distance from Mr. Begg's ruined house, and a little higher up the
mountain, is the entrance to the famous "_Socabon de Vera Cruz_" of the
_manto_ mine, commenced by the Marquis of Villa Rica, and finished by
Mr. Begg. The "_socabon_" penetrates into the mountain, in a generally
south-west direction, for a distance of a mile and a quarter; the first
900 yards having a depth of some feet of water, which is dammed up
at a little distance outside the entrance. This part of the gallery
is navigated by an iron canoe about a foot and a half wide; but the
canal is so narrow that the canoe frequently grates on both sides at
once against the rocks. The roof of the excavation, too, is very low,
and several times we actually had to crouch down in the bottom of the
canoe, to avoid knocking our heads. Thus we penetrated into the bowels
of the earth by this subterranean navigation, with an Indian holding
a burning torch in the bows. From the entrance, for about 300 yards,
the excavation traverses a mass of grey porphyry. In the 900 yards of
navigation there are six locks; and when the water terminates, the
gallery continues for a hundred yards, where there is an iron tramway
laid down. The metal was dragged down to the head of navigation in
cars, by two old mules, one of which had not seen daylight for fifteen
years when they ceased to work the mine. At the point where the tramway
comes to an end, the gallery still continues for 1200 yards; but this
part is very narrow and tortuous, and the metal was carried down to
the cars on the backs of Indians. The rock at the extreme end of the
excavation is a very hard green porphyry, with quartz and veins of
silver ore.

The Cachi Vieja works are high up on the Laycaycota hill, and not far
from the famous "Veta de la Candelaria." The mouth of the shaft is in a
building opening on a courtyard, where women were sorting the ores in
small heaps. The most abundant ore is called _brosa_, containing forty
marcs of silver in the cajon of fifty quintals (cwts.); other ores are
called _rosicler_, _pavonado_, and _polvarilla_. The _rosicler_, or
ruby silver, is a most beautiful rose- mineral, containing a
considerable quantity of silver.[141]

Besides Cachi Vieja in the immediate vicinity of Puno, there are some
very productive silver-mines at San Antonio de Esquilache, twenty miles
south-west of that town, which have been worked since 1847 by Don
Manuel Costas, one of the most influential citizens of Puno, and my
host during my stay in that city.

Wool and silver are the great staple products of the department of
Puno; the whole value of exported articles being about 1,200,000
dollars.[142] The population is rather under 300,000 souls; that of
the town of Puno 9000.[143] Upwards of 1,500,000 dollars come into the
department yearly, either in payments for wool, or in salaries for
officials, without counting the expenditure for the troops; and it is
calculated that more than half this sum eventually finds its way into
the hands of the Indians, who bury it. Thus, in considering the mineral
wealth of Peru, the enormous quantities of coined money, and vases or
other articles made of the precious metals, which have been buried
by the Indians, must be taken into consideration; for this practice
has been going on since the time of the Incas. Now that the currency
consists almost entirely of the debased half-dollars of Bolivia, if
a Spanish dollar or any other good coin is accidently received by an
Indian, it is immediately buried.

The principal people in Puno, during my visit, were General San Roman,
in command of the army of the South, an old man with the face and head
of a pure Indian, and plenty of white hair brushed off his forehead,
who has been mixed up in all the wars since 1822, and from whom I
received much information respecting the Indian rebellion of Tupac
Amaru in 1780, and of Pumacagua in 1815; Señor Garces, the Prefect; Don
Juan Francisco Oviedo; Don Manuel Costas; and Don Manuel Ferrandis,
the proprietor of the mine on the Laycaycota hill. Every evening there
was a party assembled at the house of the latter to drink coffee,
and talk over the news of the day. On these occasions, amongst other
topics of conversation, the possibility of forming a company for the
navigation of lake Titicaca was frequently discussed. Costas had first
been struck by the immense good that steam navigation on the lake would
bring to the department of Puno in 1840, and in 1846 he purchased a
small steamer called the 'Titicaca,' and had her sent out in pieces.
He sold her to the Government, on condition that they would defray the
expense of sending her up to the lake; but this was never done. It is
considered that any steamers which may hereafter be ordered for this
purpose should be about forty tons, drawing four and a half feet, with
paddles (as a screw would inevitably foul amongst the rushes), and
accommodation for passengers on deck. They would take all the products
of the Bolivian forests, bark, timber, chocolate, coca, fruit, and
arnotto, to Puno; European manufactured goods, sugar of Abancay, and
aguardiente of the coast, from Puno to Bolivia; provisions and traffic
of all kinds amongst the Indians of the shores; and copper of Coracora
to Puno. Timber in vast quantities might be felled in the forests of
Caravaya, and floated down the rivers of Azangaro and Ramiz during the
rainy season, which, with the coal on the island of Soto, would furnish
supplies of fuel. Markets and easy means of communication having been
formed, the trade would rapidly increase on all sides. The face of
the country would be entirely changed; the people, finding new wants,
would become more civilised; and Puno, instead of a city with empty
silent streets, and half a dozen balsas at its anchorage, would be a
flourishing and busy port.[144] These bright prospects, however, will
require time, and a total change in the political condition of Peru,
for their realization in a somewhat distant future.

It is also a very important question whether larches, firs, and
birch-trees might not be naturalized in the more sheltered ravines
of these lofty treeless regions; where large plantations might be
formed for the supply of timber and fuel. The Indians are now entirely
dependent, for the framework of their roofs, on the crooked poles of
the _queñua_ tree (_Polylepis tomentella_); and for fuel on llama's
dung and the _tola_ shrubs (_Baccharis_). The winters, from May to
September, are not nearly so cold as in Scotland, though very dry;
and, during the summer or rainy season, though it is cold, there is
plenty of moisture. The introduction of these plantations would change
the whole face of the country, and the introducer would confer an
inestimable blessing on the inhabitants.

I remained for some time at Puno, in order to collect information,
and come to a determination respecting the best course to pursue in
the performance of the service on which I was employed. The supply of
the bark of _Chinchona Calisaya_ trees is now entirely procured from
the forests of Munecas, Apollobamba, Yuracares, Larecaja, Inquisivi,
Ayopaya, and the _yungus_ of La Paz in Bolivia; but I found that the
difficulties in the way of making a collection of plants and seeds in
these districts would be very great, and it afterwards turned out that
these difficulties would have been insurmountable. As a considerable
part of the revenue of Bolivia is derived from the bark trade, which is
not the case in Peru, the Bolivians are exceedingly jealous of their
monopoly; and the nature of my mission was already suspected. Moreover
there was an imminent prospect of a war between Peru and Bolivia; a
large army was massed in three divisions--at Puno under General San
Roman, at Vilque under Beltran, and at Lampa under Frisancho; and, as
soon as hostilities commenced, it would have been next to impossible
for a private person to preserve his mules from seizure. This war
did not actually take place, but Linares, the President of Bolivia,
issued a decree on May 14th prohibiting all traffic, or the passage
of travellers, from one country to the other;[145] a decree which was
strictly enforced, and which would have rendered it impracticable at
that time to have conveyed myself and companion, with laden mules, from
Bolivia to the coast, without long delays and detentions. One of the
pretexts for this threatened war is perhaps the most extraordinary
that has ever been alleged in modern times; namely, that the Bolivian
Government persisted in coining and deluging Peru with debased
half-dollars. A strange way of settling a financial difficulty!

While these objections weighed against an attempt to collect plants
in the forests of Bolivia, I found that, with regard to the chinchona
forests of the Peruvian province of Caravaya, on the frontier of Peru
and Bolivia, the facilities for such an enterprise would be much
greater. I had reason to believe, though I afterwards found myself in
error, that, as there was no bark trade in Peru of any importance,[146]
no jealousy would be felt at the nature of my mission. Any hostile
proceedings on the Bolivian frontier would not materially affect the
route between the Caravaya forests and the coast; and, above all,
Caravaya is much nearer and more accessible, as regards an available
seaport, than any part of the chinchona forests of Bolivia. This latter
point was of the very greatest importance, because success depended
chiefly on the rapidity with which the plants could be conveyed
across the frozen plains of the cordilleras. I knew from Dr. Weddell
that, though the bark trade from Caravaya has now ceased, and bark
from that district is of no market value, owing to a foolish habit
of adulteration amongst speculators in former times, yet that young
plants, and trees bearing fruit, of the _Chinchona Calisaya_, and other
valuable species, were abundant in the forests of that province, as far
north as the valley of Sandia.

I, therefore, after much anxious consideration, determined to proceed
direct from Puno to the forests of Caravaya.

During my stay at Puno I had opportunities of examining some
interesting ruins, and of collecting information respecting the Indian
population of Peru, especially with regard to the great insurrections
of Tupac Amaru and Pumacagua in 1780 and 1815. Much of this information
is quite new; and I, therefore, trust that a description of ancient
ruins near Puno, and an account of some of the most stirring events
connected with the Indians since the Spanish conquest, may prove of
sufficient general interest to justify a halt on the road to the
chinchona forests, and a brief digression from the principal subject of
the present work.

[Illustration: BALSA ON LAKE TITICACA. See page 95]




CHAPTER VII.

LAKE TITICACA.

The Aymara Indians--Their
antiquities--Tiahuanaco--Coati--Sillustani--Copacabana.


THE region which is drained by rivers flowing from the maritime
cordillera and the eastern range of the Andes into lake Titicaca
consists of elevated plateaux, seldom less than 13,000 feet above the
sea, which were originally inhabited by the Aymara race of Indians,
a people differing in some respects from the Indians of Cuzco and
further north, and whose civilization dates from a period far anterior
to that of the Incas. Their language is different from the Quichua of
the Incas, though evidently a sister tongue, and it is still spoken
by the Aymara Indians from Puno to the central parts of Bolivia,
including all the shores of lake Titicaca. I did not, however, observe
much difference between the Indians of Puno, who speak Aymara, and the
Quichua Indians of Cuzco. The men are, perhaps, somewhat stouter; but
they are the same race in all essential points.

The lake of Titicaca, the great feature in the region inhabited by the
Aymara Indians, is about eighty miles long by forty broad; being by
far the largest lake in South America. It is divided into two parts by
the peninsula of Copacabana; the southern division, called the lake of
Huaqui, being eight leagues long by seven, and united to the greater
lake by the strait of Tiquina. A number of rivers, which are swollen
and of considerable volume during the rainy season, flow into the lake.
The largest of these is the Ramiz, which is formed by the junction of
the two rivers of Pucara and Azangaro, and enters the lake at its
north-west corner. The Suchiz, formed by the rivers of Cavanilla and
Lampa, also flows into the lake on its north side, as well as the Yllpa
and Ylave; while on the eastern side are the rivers Huarina, Escoma,
and Achacache, all flowing from a low lateral chain, parallel with
the great eastern Andes, whose gigantic peaks of Illimani and Sorata
form the principal feature of the views from all parts of the lake.
Much of the water thus flowing in is drained off by the great river
Desaguadero, which flows out of the south-west corner, and disappears
in the swampy lake of Aullagas, in the south of Bolivia; and perhaps a
greater quantity is taken up by evaporation; for the volume of water
which flows in during the rainy season, when the sun travels north,
is drunk up again when the tutelar deity of the lake returns, between
April and September.[147] Indeed it is evident that the waters are
steadily receding, under the combined influence of evaporation and of
the sediment brought down by the rivers. Lake Titicaca is very deep in
some places, the deepest part being on the Bolivian side; but in others
it is so shoal that there is only just room to force the balsas through
the rushes. The winds blow from the eastward all the year round,
sometimes in strong gales, so as to raise a very heavy sea, during
the day-time; but at night they are occasionally westerly. Along the
western shore there are acres of tall rushes, and the east winds blow
all the dead rushes to the western side, mixing with the living beds,
and forming a dense tangled mass. The lake abounds in fish of very
peculiar forms, and in aquatic birds.

The principal islands of the lake are those of Titicaca and Coati, near
the peninsula of Copacabana; that of Campanario in the east, opposite
the town of Escoma, and nine miles from the shore; Soto, also in the
northern part, which is said to contain coal;[148] and Esteves, in the
bay of Puno, where the patriot prisoners were confined by the Spaniards
during the war of independence; besides a small archipelago in the lake
of Huaqui.

A very ancient civilization existed on the shores of lake Titicaca long
before the appearance of the first Inca of Peru; the principal remains
of which are to be found at Tiahuanaco,[149] near the southern shore of
the lake of Huaqui. An extensive tract is here covered by huge blocks
of carved stone. It was with much regret that I was obliged, by my
duty, to give up my intention of visiting these interesting remains.
M. de Castelnau mentions two colossal statues of a man and a woman,
crowned with a kind of turban; a colossal head and a lizard carved on
blocks of stone; a great conical artificial hill; and a monolithic
doorway, the upper part of which is covered with very curious
sculpture. In the centre there is a figure, probably representing
the Sun, and on each side a number of figures all turned towards it,
with wings, and sceptres in their hands: those on one side with their
heads crowned, and those on the other with heads of griffins, and the
bodies adorned with garlands of human heads.[150] All who have visited
these ruins consider them to be of a distinct character from those
of Cuzco, and other works of the Incas. The stones are more richly
carved, and many of them have been united by means of a metal poured
into transverse grooves. M. de Castelnau considers that the chief
characteristic of Aymara ruins is the minute detail in the carving on
the stones, while that of the Incas consists in the grand simplicity of
the masonry.[151]

[Illustration: THE TOWERS OF SILLUSTANI. Page 111.]

On the islands of Titicaca and Coati there are also extensive ruins,
the remains of temples and convents of virgins dedicated to the worship
of the Sun and Moon; and Dr. Weddell mentions that there is a kind of
phlox on these islands (_Cantua buxifolia_), its very elegant long
scarlet flower being called by the Aymara Indians the "flower of the
Incas."[152]

Although I was unable to visit either the ruins at Tiahuanaco or those
on the islands, I found time to examine ruins of the same character on
the shores of the lake of Umayu near Vilque, where the great cemetery
of the chiefs of the Aymara tribes of the Collao appears to have been.
These ruins are at a place called Sillustani, on the north side of the
lake of Umayu, where a high rocky table-land juts out so as to form a
peninsula, which is literally covered with places of sepulture. Four
of them are towers of finely-cut masonry, equal to that of Cuzco, with
the sides of the stones dovetailing into each other. On climbing up
the steep rocky path which leads to the table-land, the first on the
right-hand side is perched on the very edge of the northern precipice.
Half of it is destroyed, the other half is of well-cut stones, with
a broad rounded cornice near the summit, and a vaulted roof, part of
which remains entire. In the interior, near the foundation, there
is a vaulted chamber entered by a small aperture, and full of human
bones. The rest of the tower was filled up with small stones and earth,
leaving a narrow shaft which ascended from the chamber to the summit,
down which the bodies may have been lowered into the chamber.

On the left there is another smaller tower of exactly similar
construction. Further on, and near the verge of the southern precipice,
there are two other towers close together. One is thirty-six feet high,
and built of the same well-cut masonry, with a cornice and vaulted
roof, and a great lizard carved in relief on one of the stones near
the base, which measures six feet by three.[153] The other tower was
apparently exactly similar, but it is now in a very ruinous state.

Besides these more remarkable edifices, the table-land is covered
with other towers of rough unhewn stone and earth, and there are the
remains of two square edifices built of cyclopean stones. The fallen
parts of the towers were covered with masses of bright yellow compositæ
called _suncho_, and a purple solanum; and they were frequented by the
creepers called _haccacllo_, little green paroquets, a small quail
called _pucupucu_, and the little ground-dove _cullca_; numbers of
_biscache_ rabbits burrowed in the ruins, while two or three lordly
_coraquenques_ soared in circles over the table-land. After carefully
examining the old towers of Sillustani, I passed the night in a very
small hut, close to the lake of Umayu, the waters of which were smooth
as glass, an island in the centre, and blue ranges of mountains capped
with snow in the distance. To get into the hut it was necessary to go
on hands and knees, the doorway being only three feet high, with a hide
door stretched on a wooden frame. The hut was built of rough stones and
thatched with barley-straw; but inside there was a hospitable welcome
and good cheer: the old Indian who dwelt there, and his young daughter,
providing excellent boiled potatoes, cream-cheese, and fresh milk.

The ruins of Tiahuanaco, and on the islands in the lake, and the
towers of Sillustani, are the principal remains of ancient Aymara
civilization. Nothing is known respecting the people who raised these
imperishable monuments, except that, in the middle of the eleventh
century, a man and woman, declaring themselves to be children of the
Sun, are said to have first appeared on the shores of the great lake,
and, marching north, to have founded the empire of the Incas. The
circumstance that Manco Ccapac, the first Inca of Peru, originally
appeared in the country of the Aymaras, has led to the belief that
he was himself a chief of that nation; but I am more inclined to the
opinion that he was one of a band of adventurers who had been brought
from Asia, or her vast archipelago of islands, by the westerly winds
of the South Pacific, and the southerly breezes of the coast, to the
port of Arica; that he thence made his way to the banks of the great
lake, where he became indoctrinated in the religion of the people; and
that, for some reason, he continued his wanderings, until he finally
collected a sufficiently numerous following to found an independent
state at Cuzco. It seems certain, from emblems found carved upon the
ruins, and from tradition, that the worship of the Sun and Moon was
established amongst the Aymaras for ages before the conquest of their
country by the Incas of Cuzco.

It was not for several generations after the foundation of the empire
of the Incas, that their conquests were extended over the Aymara nation
of the Collao; and it was not until about the middle of the eleventh
century that the country on the shores of lake Titicaca became part of
the great empire whose centre and capital was at Cuzco. From that time
the islands of Titicaca and Coata, and the peninsula of Copacabana,
became the most sacred and venerated spots within the dominions of the
Incas; as the localities where their great progenitor Manco Ccapac was
believed to have made his first appearance.

Copacabana means "the place of a precious stone," _copa_ being a
precious stone, and _cavana_ a place where anything is seen.[154] A
rock called Titicaca gave its name to the island and lake: _titi_ being
Aymara for a cat, and _caca_ a rock, for on this rock a cat is said
to have sat with fire shooting from its eyes.[155] In Quichua _titi_
means lead. On this rock, which is at the west end of the island of
Titicaca,[156] there was an altar where the Aymaras adored the Sun, and
near it there were three idols joined in one, called _Apu Ynti_ (the
Chief Sun), _Churip Ynti_ (the Son's Sun), and _Yntip Huauqui_ (Brother
of the Sun). The Inca Tupac Yupanqui (A.D. 1439-75) founded a palace
and a village about half a league from the rock, and established a
convent of virgins there.[157]

The island of Coata, a league to the eastward of Titicaca, was
dedicated to the Moon, the name being derived from Coyata, the
accusative of Coya, a queen; the Moon ranking as wife to the Sun. The
ruins of the _Accla huasi_, or convent of virgins, on Coata island, are
120 feet long, the interior being divided into numerous cells, with
rows of niches in the walls. They are now overshadowed by queñua-trees,
whose dark foliage adds to the sombre melancholy of these silent
memorials of the past. On both the islands there were, in the time
of the Incas, large establishments of Virgins of the Sun, who were
divided into three grades, according to their beauty. The most lovely
were called _Guayruro_; the next _Yurac Aclla_, or white maidens; and
the plain ones _Paco Aclla_, or beast maidens. Each grade was governed
by a _Mamacona_ or nurse, and an _Apu-panaca_ or governor lived near
the convent, who guarded it, and supplied its inmates with provisions.
The occupations of the virgins were weaving, embroidery, and brewing
sacrificial _chicha_, to be poured out on the altar of the deity.[158]

After the conquest, the Spanish Viceroys handed over the province of
Chucuito, and the islands in the lake, to the Dominican friars, who
succeeded in introducing far grosser and more degrading superstitions
amongst the Indians than they had ever practised on the islands of
Titicaca and Coata; and in establishing, on the adjacent peninsula
of Copacabana, a shrine, the pretended sanctity of which attracted
devotees and rich presents from all parts of Spanish America.

Its origin appears to have been as follows:--A member of the family of
the Incas, named Francisco Titu Yupanqui, not having money enough to
buy an image of the Virgin for his church, painted a very bad picture,
and the cura, Antonio de Almeida, either to please the Indian, or
because there were few images or pictures in the country, allowed it
to be placed near the altar. But the next cura, Antonio de Montoro,
seeing that it caused more laughter than devotion, ordered it to be
put in a corner of the sacristy. The poor artist then went to Potosi
to learn to paint, and, after much labour, he succeeded in completing
a picture which, the moment it was placed in the church at Copacabana,
began to work miracles. It was set up in 1583, and the Inca painter
died in 1608. The first thing the picture did was to banish all devils
out of the province, and to cure many Indians of their diseases; and
its fame became so great that in 1588 the Count of Villar, viceroy of
Peru, solemnly delivered it to the care of the Augustine friars by a
royal edict. Between 1589 and 1652 it is said to have performed 186
miracles. One Alonzo de Escote, for favours received, saved up money
for the purpose of giving the Virgin a lamp, and at length he presented
the richest then to be found in the Spanish colonies, twenty feet long,
with sockets for as many candles as there are days in the year, all of
solid silver. Even as late as 1845, when Dr. Weddell saw the church, it
was very richly gilt.

"Other images," says Father Calancha, "in Europe and Asia perform
miracles in their own towns or provinces, but this picture of
Copacabana performs them all over the new world, and in parts of
Europe!"[159]

Thus the Spanish conquerors supplied the Aymara Indians of the shores
of lake Titicaca with an object of devotion in the shape of this old
picture; which was to replace their former simple worship of the Sun
and Moon on the sacred islands of the lake. It will be interesting
to examine briefly the way the Spaniards treated the people they
subjected, in other respects, and to glance at the kind of government
which they substituted for the mild rule of the Incas.

The forefathers of the present Aymara Indians established a
civilization of which we have no record save the silent evidence of
those cyclopean ruins which have just been described. Subsequently, for
nearly four centuries, from the middle of the twelfth to the sixteenth,
they formed a part of the empire of the Incas, and their land was then
called Collasuyu. During this period the Incas followed their constant
policy of superseding the language of the conquered land by their own
more polished Quichua; and they so far succeeded that the Aymara, which
once extended and was spoken all over the Collao, as far as the pass
of Ayaviri, on the road to Cuzco, has been entirely superseded in all
parts north of Puno by the Quichua, and is now only spoken between Puno
and La Paz, and farther south. Nevertheless the people enjoyed a long
period of tranquillity and prosperity during the happy rule of the
Incas, and the population continued to increase. With the introduction
of Spanish rule a blight fell upon them: and we shall now see how the
beneficent laws of the sovereigns of Castile were administered by their
unworthy servants.




CHAPTER VIII.

THE PERUVIAN INDIANS:

Their condition under Spanish colonial rule.


IN reviewing the deplorable results of Spanish domination in South
America, it may at once be conceded that the legislation which
originated from the councils of the kings of Castile was always, except
in matters connected with religion, remarkable for beneficence and
liberality in all that concerned the natives; and that, in the words
of Mr. Helps, "those humane and benevolent laws, which emanated from
time to time from the Home Government, rendered the sway of the Spanish
monarchs over the conquered nations as remarkable for mildness as any,
perhaps, that has ever been recorded in the pages of history."[160] It
may also be allowed that the Viceroys of Peru were generally earnest
and zealous statesmen, who conscientiously strove to enforce the
regulations which they from time to time received from the council of
the Indies.

But it was almost as impossible for the viceroys to exercise efficient
personal supervision over the government of so enormous a country,
while residing at Lima, as it would have been if they had remained at
the council-table in Seville; and their subordinates were, as a body,
untrustworthy, extortionate, rapacious, and often remorselessly cruel.
Thus the benign laws of the Spanish kings became a dead letter in
South America, and the natives groaned, for three centuries, under a
yoke which crashed them to the earth, and converted vast tracts of once
thickly populated country into uninhabited deserts.

Yet the humane intentions of the Spanish government, and the labours
of the Peruvian viceroys, were not wholly without results; and it is
partly due to them that a system of worse than African slavery was not
established in Peru, and that the native race has not long ago become
entirely extinct.

At the time of the Spanish conquest Pizarro was empowered, in 1529,
to grant "_encomiendas_," or estates, to his fellow-conquerors, the
inhabitants of which were bound to pay tribute to the holders of the
grants; and in 1536 these _encomiendas_ were extended to two lives.
The consequent exactions and cruelties were so intolerable that the
good Las Casas, and other friends of the Indians, at length induced
the Emperor Charles V. to enact the code so well known as the "New
Laws," in 1542; by which the _encomiendas_ were to pass immediately to
the Crown after the death of the actual holders; all officers under
government were prohibited from holding them; all men who had been
mixed up in the civil wars of the Pizarros and Almagros were to be
deprived at once; a fixed sum was to be settled as tribute to be paid
by the Indians; and all forced personal labour was absolutely forbidden.

The promulgation of these beneficent laws excited a howl of furious
execration from the conquerors,--the wolves who were thus to be dragged
away, when their fangs were actually fixed in the flesh of their
victims. Gonzalo Pizarro rose in rebellion in Peru, and defeated and
killed Blasco Nuñez de Vela, the viceroy who had arrived to enforce
these "New Laws;" while the more politic Belalcazar, at Popayan,
though professing obedience, contrived to evade the execution of his
orders, after a fashion which gave rise to the well-known saying--"_se
obedece, pero no se cumple_"--"he obeys, but does not fulfil." Their
unpopularity was so great that it was considered unsafe to persist
in the attempt to enforce them, and they were revoked in 1545. The
President Gasca re-distributed the "_encomiendas_" in 1550, and they
were granted for three lives in 1629. Gasca, who showed more regard for
his own safety and convenience than for the public service, arranged
that his settlement of the _encomiendas_ should not be promulgated
until he had sailed for Spain, and he suspended the law prohibiting the
forced personal service of the Indians. The latter enactment, however,
was boldly promulgated by the Judges of the Royal Audience in 1552, and
was, as might have been expected, immediately followed by a ferment
amongst the conquerors and a formidable rebellion. Finally the Marquis
of Cañete arrived in Peru, as viceroy, in 1554; and, by a mixture of
severity and prudent conciliation, trod out the last sparks of revolt
amongst the Spaniards.

In 1568 the viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo established the system
under which the native population of Peru was professedly ruled for
the two succeeding centuries. Toledo was a bigot, without pity, and
inexorably cruel. Justice or humanity had no weight with him if they
stood in the way of any policy which he deemed to be advisable, as
was shown in the judicial murder of the young Inca Tupac Amaru. But
he was a faithful servant of his sovereign, and resolutely determined
to enforce the edicts of the Council of the Indies; a statesman of
considerable ability and untiring industry. He was so prolific in
legislation that, on the subject of coca-cultivation alone, he issued
seventy ordinances; and future viceroys referred to his rules and
enactments as to a received and authoritative text-book. The viceroy
Marquis of Montes Claros, in 1615, declared that "all future rulers of
Peru were but disciples of Francisco de Toledo, that great master of
statesmanship."

By his _Libro de Tasas_, or Book of Rules, Toledo fixed the tribute to
be paid by the Indians, exempting all men under the age of eighteen,
or over that of fifty. The Indians were governed by native chiefs of
their own people, whose duty it was to collect the tribute, and pay it
in to the Spanish corregidor or governor of the province, as well as
to exercise subordinate magisterial functions. These chiefs, called
_Curacas_ in the time of the Incas, were ordered by Toledo to be named
_Caciques_, a word brought from the West Indian islands;[161] and under
them there were two other native officials--the _Pichca-pachacas_,
placed over 500 Indians, and the _Pachacas_ over 100. These offices
were inherited from father to son, and their possessors enjoyed several
privileges, such as the exemption from arrest, except for grave
offences, and they received a fixed salary. The native Caciques were
often men of considerable wealth; some of them were members of the
royal family of the Incas; they were free from the payment of tribute
and from personal service; and thus occupied positions of importance
amongst their countrymen.[162] They wore the same dress which
distinguished the nobles of the Inca's court, consisting of a tunic
called _uncu_, a rich mantle or cloak of black velvet called _yacolla_,
intended as mourning for the fall of their ancient rulers; and those of
the family of the Incas added a sort of coronet, whence a red fringe
of alpaca-wool descended as an emblem of nobility. This head-dress
was called _mascapaycha_. They had pictures of the Incas in their
houses, and encouraged the periodical festivals in memory of their
beloved sovereigns, when plays were enacted, and mournful music was
produced from the national instruments, drums, trumpets, clarions, and
_pututus_, or sea shells.[163] All these customs were left unchanged by
Toledo, and the system so far resembles that which now prevails in the
Dutch colony of Java.[164]

But, in addition to the tribute, the amount of which as established
by Toledo was not excessive, and which was rendered still less
objectionable to the Indians from being collected by their native
chiefs, there was the _mita_ or forced labour in mines, manufactories,
and farms,[165] which became the instrument of fearful oppression
and cruelty. Toledo enacted that a seventh part of the adult male
population of every village should be subject to the _mita_, and
ordered that the Caciques should send these _mitayos_, as they were
called, to the public squares of the nearest Spanish towns, where they
might be hired by those who required their services; and laws were
enacted to regulate the distance they might be taken from their homes,
and their payment.[166] It appears, however, that this seventh part
of the working men who were told off for forced labour was exclusive
of those employed in the mines, so that, even in theory, the _mita_
condemned a large fraction of the population to slavery.[167]

There was a class of Indians, numbering about 40,000 souls in the time
of Toledo (1570), called _Yanaconas_, who were scattered over Peru, and
forced to work on the lands of Spaniards, or as domestic servants.
They may have been descendants of captives in war, or of persons who
had been condemned to slavery in the time of the Incas, and thus
became the property of the conquerors; but in 1601 an enactment was
promulgated to ameliorate their condition, and fix the terms of their
service.[168]

In matters connected with religion the Spanish legislators allowed of
no temporizing policy. All signs of idolatry must disappear, and with
the new religion came additional exactions, in the shape of fees for
masses, burials, and christenings. Toledo enacted many laws for the
suppression of the old religion of the Incas: any Indian who married
an idolatrous woman was to receive one hundred stripes, "because that
is the punishment which they dislike most;" the people were prohibited
from using surnames taken from the names of birds, beasts, serpents,
or rivers, which was their ancient custom; and no Indian who had been
punished for idolatry, joining in infidel rites, or dancing the dance
called _arihua_, could be appointed to hold any public office.[169]

On the whole, however, the legislation of the Spanish kings, and the
reports of the viceroys of Peru, display an earnest desire to protect
the Indians from tyranny, and to render their condition tolerable.
In 1615 the Marquis of Montes Claros impressed on his successor the
importance of obliging all classes of Spaniards to treat the Indians
well, and of chastising oppression with rigour. In 1681 the Count
of Castellar states that one of the points most dwelt upon in the
instructions given to the viceroys, and in repeated royal enactments,
was the humane treatment of the Indians; and he declares that he
always sought to enforce these orders from the day that he landed in
Peru; and words to the same effect are to be found in the reports of
most of the other viceroys.[170]

But side by side with these evidences of the good intentions of the
Government, is the testimony of the viceroys that their efforts to
comply with these beneficent orders, and enforce these humane laws,
were fruitless, and rendered of no effect by the unworthiness of their
subordinates; and almost all complain of the rapid depopulation of the
country. In 1620 the Prince of Esquilache reported that "the arm of the
viceroy was not powerful against the negligence and maladministration
of the corregidors;" in 1681 the Count of Castellar said that he had
to correct and punish the excesses both of the corregidors and the
curas; in 1697 the Duke of La Palata speaks of the depopulation of the
villages and towns, caused by the forcible detention of the Indians to
work at the mines, in cloth and cotton workshops, and in farms; and
another viceroy attributes the rapid depopulation of the country to the
same causes, and also to drink, and urges a closer supervision of the
conduct of the corregidors and curas.

I have, in a former work, given a brief account of the treatment of
the Indians, and of the way in which the laws intended for their
defence were evaded; from the evidence of the brothers Ulloa, who were
commissioned to make a special and secret report on the subject to the
King of Spain in 1740.[171] I have since collected abundant testimony
to the same effect, printed and in manuscript, both at Madrid and in
Peru; but I have only space for a few brief notes, which must serve to
illustrate this part of the subject.

The mines of Potosi were supplied with labourers from the nearest
provinces, by enforcing a _mita_ of a seventh of the adult male
population. In 1573 this _mita_ consisted of 11,199 Indians, in
1620 of 4249, and in 1678 of 1674,[172] a decrease which marks the
rapid depopulation of the country; and, at the latter date, when
the authorities at Potosi failed to receive a sufficient number of
labourers by the ordinary _mita_, they kidnapped people in their homes,
and on the roads, and carried them off to forced labour in the mines.
The law was that the _mitayos_ should be paid for coming and going, and
that they should not be forced to work at night; but these laws were
habitually set at nought, and Potosi became an exhausting drain to the
surrounding country.[173]

The mines of Huancavelica, which supplied the quicksilver necessary
for extracting the silver of Potosi from its ores,[174] also desolated
the ten adjoining provinces. In 1645 the _mita_ or seventh part of the
adult male population amounted to 620, and in 1678 to only 354 Indians.
The _mita_ was a service which was abhorred and dreaded by the people,
and mothers maimed the arms and legs of their children to deliver them
from this slavery. Don Juan de Padilla relates that, in 1657, when he
was at Santa Lucia, in the province of Lucanas, he saw the women of
the village go out to assist each other in sowing their fields, and,
at the end of their labour, they returned hand in hand, singing a most
melancholy song, and lamenting the cruel fate of their husbands and
brothers, who were slaving in the mines of Huancavelica, while they
were obliged to work in the fields like men. They declared that when
a man was once taken for the _mita_ his wife seldom or never saw him
again, unless she went herself to the place of his torments.[175]

The oppression of the owners of _obrajes_ or manufactories of coarse
woollen and cotton cloths, in enforcing the _mitas_, was as crushing
as that of the miners. These people employed men, called _guatacos_,
to hunt the Indians, and drive them into the _obrajes_. If they could
not find the particular men for whom they were in search, they took
their children, wives, and nearest neighbours, robbed them of all they
possessed, and frequently violated the women and young girls.[176] The
masters, in the _obrajes_, then forced their victims to get deeply in
debt to them, and thus obtained an excuse for keeping them in perpetual
slavery. In many _obrajes_ there were Indians who had not been outside
the walls for forty years and upwards. The law was that the natives
should be free from tribute and personal service until they attained
the age of eighteen; but it was the general practice to drag children
from their homes at the ages of six or eight, force them to work hard
at twisting woollen and cotton threads, and flog them cruelly.[177]

Thus the work of depopulation went on until, in 1622, many
_encomiendas_ which originally contained a thousand adult male Indians,
and yielded eight thousand dollars of tribute, were reduced to a
hundred; yet these unfortunate survivors were forced to continue the
payment of the original tribute, or to render personal service instead.
There was an _encomienda_ in Huanuco where the Indians had paid more
than one hundred thousand dollars over and above what was legally due,
during fifty years.[178]

It may well be asked of what use were the humane and beneficent laws
enacted by the kings of Spain if this was the way in which they were
universally evaded by corregidors, curas, and Spanish settlers of all
ranks? The caciques sorrowfully watched the gradual extinction of their
people, perhaps secretly hoped for an opportunity of revenge, but were
without power to prevent the cruel oppression which they deplored,
though they did not neglect, from time to time, to protest against the
lawless exactions and cruelties of the Spaniards.[179]

But the Indians did not endure their fate without occasional attempts
at resistance. On one occasion the people on the western shore of lake
Titicaca rose against the _mita_ of Potosi, and retreated amongst
the beds of rushes on the shores of the lake, which, in some places,
are nine leagues long and one broad. In the midst of these rushes
there was an island, whence secret lanes were cut through the tangled
mass, which the fugitives navigated in their balsas. Secure in their
retreat, they continued to make inroads on the Spanish towns near the
lake, until at last, in 1632, the viceroy Count of Chinchon ordered
his nephew, Don Rodrigo de Castro, to chastise them. Five of their
leaders were captured and hung at Zepita, and their heads were stuck
on the bridge over the Desaguadero. This only exasperated the Indians,
who elected a brave and enterprising leader named Pedro Laime, and,
suddenly attacking the bridge over the Desaguadero, they carried off
the heads of their former chiefs. The Spaniards marched along the shore
and waded to some islets, while the Indians hovered round them in
their balsas, and prevented them from advancing further. At length the
Spanish troops were embarked in twenty balsas, and came in sight of the
hostile squadron commanded by Laime. The Indians went in and out of
the lanes of rushes only known to themselves, baffled their oppressors,
and cut off several of the Spanish balsas. A party of cavalry advancing
into the swampy ground was suddenly surrounded and cut to pieces, the
Indians only losing three men.[180]

Thus the fugitive Indians retained their liberty for many years in
these inaccessible fastnesses of lake Titicaca, and the Augustine friar
Calancha confesses that "the rebellion was caused by the injustice and
tyranny of the Spaniards, who forced the Indians to work without pay,
and seized on their goods."

This was not a solitary instance of rebellion, though, on the whole,
the Indians endured their cruel fate with meekness and long suffering.
Yet they are not a mean-spirited people, and at length they showed
their oppressors that it was possible to press the yoke down too hard
even for their powers of endurance.

The tribute, the _mita_, the exactions of the curas, and the
_alcabala_, or excise duties,[181] were all patiently borne;
but another method of extortion, the "_repartimiento_," or
"_reparto_,"[182] at length exhausted the patience of the over-tasked
Indians. The _reparto_ was a system, ostensibly for distributing
European goods to the Indians, which was converted into a means of
wholesale robbery by the Spanish corregidors, and finally led to a
general rebellion. An Indian chieftain thus describes the _reparto_
system:--"Abandoning their souls for their avarice, the corregidors
have the assurance to distribute (_repartir_) by force, and against
all reason, baize and cloths worth two rials for one dollar, and in
the same proportion with knives, needles, dice, pins, cards, trumpets,
rings, and pewter mirrors, which are all quite useless to the Indians;
besides velvets and silks, which the poor people cannot use; for they
are obliged to dress in the coarsest clothes, to sleep on beds of
rags, and feed on roots; while the corregidors and their dependants
commit the most unjust extortions and outrages. They even exceed the
legal quantity of _repartos_ assigned to their respective provinces;
for example, that of Tinta was ordered to be 112,500 dollars, and the
corregidor made it 500,000 dollars, as was proved by his books and
papers."[183] General del Valle, who commanded the troops employed to
put down Tupac Amaru's rebellion, complained that the avarice of the
corregidors, in recovering their claims on the Indians for _repartos_,
was such that they refused him the aid of their people in pacifying the
country. Their obstinacy and avarice, he declared, had reached to such
a point that, if they were informed that the rebels had reached the
very suburbs of their towns, they would rather see the defeat of the
king's troops than send away a single Indian who might owe them a yard
of cloth.[184]

This unblushing dishonesty and extortion, which was winked at by the
Royal Audience at Lima, the highest court of judicial appeal, drove
the Indian population to a state of desperation, which only required a
spark to set it in a blaze. The humane laws, and the elaborate system
of legislation for the Indians, had, after 200 years of hopeless
inefficiency, ended in this. The careful enactments to limit the amount
of tribute, to prevent the Indians from suffering by forced personal
service, the laws of ecclesiastical councils to protect them from the
exactions of the curas, the benevolent intentions evinced in declaring
all Indians to be minors in the eye of the law, the "_residencias_,"
or arrangements for examining the conduct of every official at the
close of his term of office; all these provisions, which have justly
called forth the praise of Mr. Helps, Mr. Merivale,[185] and other
modern writers, had become dead letters, absolutely and hopelessly,
towards the end of the last century. The laws remained the same,
but they were habitually set aside by those whose duty it was to
administer them. The tribute fixed for villages when they contained a
thousand men was continued the same when the population had decreased
to a hundred;[186] the _mita_ was enforced so mercilessly that whole
districts were left without a single adult male inhabitant;[187] the
curas extorted exorbitant fees from their victims, in spite of the
law;[188] and the judges, who were sent to take the "_residencias_,"
received bribes to overlook all offences, and usually handed over the
complaints which were submitted to them to the officials who were
complained of in exchange for a sum of money, the price of their
silence.[189] These evils were long borne patiently; but when the
shameless enormities of the _Repartos_ were superadded, the poor
remnant of the descendants of the subjects of the Incas at length rose
as one man against their oppressors.

There were not wanting, amongst the Spaniards in Peru, as well as
amongst the native Caciques, many good and humane men who raised their
voices against the lawless cruelty of the majority of the officials,
and earnestly warned the Government of the inevitable consequences.
Don Ventura Santalices, the Governor of La Paz, devoted his time and
fortune to the cause of the oppressed Indians, and was appointed to
a seat in the Council of the Indies, but he was poisoned on his
arrival in Spain: the energetic remonstrances of Blas Tupac Amaru, a
descendant of the Incas, caused him also to be summoned to Spain, where
he obtained promises of many concessions, but he was assassinated at
sea, during the return voyage: and the names of other bold and fearless
defenders of the Indians deserve to be recorded, such as Don Manuel
Arroyo, Don Ignacio Castro, Don Agustin de Gurruchategui, Bishop of
Cuzco, and Don Francisco Campos, Bishop of La Paz.

But their remonstrances bore no fruit, and, in 1780, the Corregidor of
Chayanta having exacted three _repartos_ in one year, an Indian chief,
named Tomas Catari, set the example of revolt; thousands flocked to
his standard, and to those of his brothers Damaso and Nicolas; in a
few months the whole of Upper Peru (the modern Bolivia) was in revolt,
and an army of Indians under Julian Apasa, a baker of Hayohayo near
Sicasica, besieged La Paz.[190] At the same time there was an uneasy
feeling at Cuzco and throughout Peru, and whispers of a conspiracy
amongst the Indians. Don Pedro Sahuaraura, the Cacique of Oropesa, near
Cuzco, reported that one Ildefonso del Castillo had solicited him to
join the conspiracy; suspicion was thrown on several other influential
Indians; and in June 1780 this Castillo, Bernardo Tambohuacto, the
Cacique of Pissac, and six others, were put to death at Cuzco.[191] In
the following November the Cacique José Gabriel Condorcanqui, better
known as Tupac Amaru, raised the standard of revolt, and the last
desperate struggle for liberty was commenced by the descendant of the
Incas.[192]

"It would be difficult," says Dean Funes, "to find in the history of
revolutions one more justifiable and less fortunate than that of
Tupac Amaru. America had, in those days, become the theatre of the
most wide-spread tyranny; but the Indians of Peru were those on whose
necks the yoke weighed heaviest. _Mitas_ and _repartos_ were, in Peru,
the deadly plagues of Spanish invention, which devoured the human
race."[193]

I am enabled to give a more correct and circumstantial account of the
great rising of the Peruvian Indians in the end of the last century
than has yet appeared in Europe; although, as this interesting subject
is a digression from the main purpose of the present work, I shall be
obliged to compress my narrative within the narrow limits of one or
two chapters.[194] In this brief sketch of the state of the Peruvian
Indians under Spanish rule, I have endeavoured to establish the fact
that Tupac Amaru's rebellion was justified because the oppression
of his people had become intolerable, and because all law was set
at defiance by the Spanish officials. He protested, not against the
tyranny of the laws, but against the infringement of laws, and the
oppressive acts done in spite of the laws, by those whose duty it was
to administer them.

In writing on this subject one is apt to be carried away by indignation
against the Spanish rulers in South America; yet, if we look round at
the systems of colonization pursued by other European nations, it will
be found difficult to say who has a right to cast the first stone.
The Spanish colonies, however, cannot properly be compared with those
modern English settlements, to which thousands of the labouring classes
have emigrated, and either annihilated the natives, or fenced them off
by a system of reserves and isolation. No European labouring class was
introduced into South America; the Indians still continued to be the
cultivators, the shepherds, and the artizans; and the Spaniards were
merely the dominant race. This state of things is more allied to the
conditions which now exist in British India or Dutch Java, and there is
thus no analogy between the South American settlements and any British
colony in the proper acceptation of the word.

Yet to Spain the credit is due, in spite of numerous shortcomings,
and notwithstanding the oppression of her subordinates, of having
endeavoured to establish the wisest, the most humane, and the only
successful system of treating natives of an inferior race. It is
certain that such a race must either continue to form the mass of the
population, amalgamate with their conquerors, or be annihilated. The
two former of these three alternatives were adopted in Peru, partly
from natural causes, but partly also owing to the incessant exertions
of the earlier Spanish viceroys, and of the "Defenders of the Indians;"
and this result was achieved in spite of the oppression and cruelty of
their subordinates. The Indians have continued to form the labouring
class of Peru; amalgamation has taken place, to a very large extent,
with Europeans; and the native race has thus been preserved from
extinction.[195] In the English colonies, on the other hand, owing
to the influx of settlers of the labouring class, the aborigines
have either been exterminated, or, through a system of isolation,
are rapidly and inevitably advancing on the melancholy road to final
annihilation.

But it was the intention of the Spanish system to do more for the
aboriginal race than merely to preserve it from extinction. By
adopting a system of tutelage, as regarded the Indians, the Spanish
Government endeavoured to defend them, in legal matters, from the
superior intelligence of a more civilized race; and Mr. Helps points
out that it is hardly possible to carry legislation further, in favour
of any people, than by considering them as minors in the eye of the
law, in order to protect them from being imposed upon in their dealings
with their conquerors.[196] The opposite plan, which has been adopted
in some of the English colonies, of making native tribes equal to
Europeans in the eye of the law, is a mere mockery, and cannot by any
possibility exist in reality.[197]

It may then be readily allowed that the intentions of the Spanish
Government towards the Indians were humane and just; that their
legislation was invariably marked by tenderness and concern for the
subject race; and that their policy, had it been carried into effect,
was far more wise and generous than that by which modern nations
have generally been influenced in dealing with the aborigines of
their colonies. But I think I have clearly shown that, through the
unworthiness of their subordinates, this policy was only very partially
enforced; that the cruelty and oppression of the colonial officials at
length became insufferable; and that no cause could be more just than
that in which Tupac Amaru, the last of the Incas, at length drew his
sword.




CHAPTER IX.

NARRATIVE OF THE INSURRECTION OF JOSÉ GABRIEL TUPAC AMARU, THE LAST OF
THE INCAS.


THE basin of lake Titicaca is bounded on the north by the mountains
of Vilcañota, which unite the maritime cordillera with the Eastern
Andes, and the river of Vilcamayu rises in these mountains, and flows
north through a fertile and well-peopled valley, which is covered with
fields of Indian corn. The road from Puno to Cuzco, after crossing the
Vilcañota range by the pass of Santa Rosa, descends the valley of the
Vilcamayu, passing through the towns of Marangani, Sicuani, Cacha,
Tinta, Checacupe, Quiquijana, and Urcos; and then leaves the river
near Oropesa, and ascends a valley for three leagues to the city of
Cuzco. On either side of the ravine of Vilcamayu are lofty table-lands,
which only yield potatoes and quinoa; the wild hills are covered with
coarse grass, often weighed down with snow; and in several places
there are large Alpine lakes. Uninviting as this bleak region appears,
it still contains several Indian villages, ruled in 1780 by native
caciques, who were subject to the corregidor of Tinta, in the valley.
The principal villages under the jurisdiction of Tinta in this cold and
lofty district are Sangarara, Lanqui, Pampamarca, Surimani, Yanaoca,
and Tungasuca--the latter of which was the home of Tupac Amaru. It is a
small village, with a few patches of potatoes and quinoa round it, near
the banks of a wild-looking lake, with rocky mountains rising abruptly
from the water.

[Illustration: FAMILY OF THE INCAS OF PERU.
Arms of the Incas, granted by Charles V., A.D. 1544.
_Tierce in fess: on a chief azure, a Sun with glory or: on a fess vert,
an eagle displayed between a rainbow and two serpents proper: and on a
base gules, a castle proper._   _To face page 134._]

José Gabriel Condorcanqui or Tupac Amaru,[198] the son of the Cacique
Miguel Tupac Amaru by his wife Rosa Noguera, was born at Tinta in
the year 1742, and baptized at Tungasuca, the birthplace of his
father.[199] He claimed to be the representative of the family of the
Incas, as fifth in lineal descent from Tupac Amaru, the son of the Inca
Manco, who was judicially murdered by the Viceroy Toledo in 1571.

The young José received the first rudiments of his education from two
neighbouring clergymen, Antonio Lopez, Cura of Pampamarca, a native
of Panama, and a man of considerable talent; and Carlos Rodriguez,
Cura of Yanaoca, a native of Guayaquil. At a very early age, however,
he was sent to the Jesuit college of San Borja at Cuzco, which had
been established for the education of young Indian chiefs. He is said
to have been particularly noticed by the professors for his close
application, capacity, and excellent disposition; and his scholastic
acquirements were not inconsiderable. He spoke Spanish with fluent
accuracy, and his vernacular Quichua with peculiar grace.[200]

Before he was twenty he succeeded his father as Cacique of Tungasuca,
Pampamarca, and Surimani, three villages situated on the cold and lofty
region which overhangs the valley of the Vilcamayu; and in 1760 he was
married to Micaela Bastidas, a beautiful Indian girl of Abancay.[201]

In person José Tupac Amaru was five feet eight inches in height,
well-proportioned, sinewy, and firmly knit. He had a handsome Indian
face, a slightly aquiline nose, full black eyes, and altogether
a countenance intelligent, benign, and expressive. His address,
remarkable for gentlemanlike ease, was dignified and courteous towards
superiors and equals; but in his intercourse with the aborigines,
by whom he was profoundly venerated, there was a sedateness not
inconsistent with his legally-admitted claims (de jure) to the diadem
of the Incas. In mind he was enterprising, cool, and persevering.
He lived in a style becoming his rank, and, when residing at Cuzco,
usually wore a black velvet coat and small-clothes in the fashion of
the day, a waistcoat of gold tissue, embroidered linen, a Spanish
beaver dress hat, silk stockings, and gold knee and shoe-buckles, and
he allowed his glossy black hair to flow in ringlets which extended
down nearly to his waist.[202] The chief source of his income arose
from thirty-five _piaras_ or troops of mules, each _piara_ consisting
of ten, which were regularly employed or hired out in the transport of
merchandise, home-made stuffs, sugar, and quicksilver to Potosi and
other parts.[203] He had travelled over a considerable portion of
Peru, and had two or three times resided in Lima; and in his journeys
he was always attended by a small retinue of Indians, and sometimes
accompanied by a chaplain.

In about 1770 Tupac Amaru went to Lima to establish his claim to the
Marquisate of Oropesa, which had been granted to his family by Philip
II. After some delay his claim was acknowledged by the Royal Audience,
and, in a judgment pronounced by the Fiscal Don Serafin Leytan y Mola,
he was declared to be the heir to the marquisate, as fifth in lineal
descent from the Inca Tupac Amaru; but it would appear that this
judgment was withheld from official publication. It was said that the
fiscal paid the successful suitor so many honours, and said so many
complimentary things concerning his nobility and royal descent, that he
grew proud;[204] and it certainly appears that he adopted a style of
living in his mountain home at Tungasuca, after his return from Lima,
which he had not previously assumed.[205] It is remarkable that, in
1618, the Viceroy Prince of Esquilache wrote a despatch on the claims
to jurisdiction of the members of the Inca family, who were heirs to
the marquisate of Oropesa. He represented that very great inconvenience
might arise from any descendant of the Incas, particularly of the
family of Oropesa, so closely representing the direct line, holding any
jurisdiction in Peru. The estates of the marquisate were the richest
and best in Peru, and situated near Cuzco, where the memory of the
Incas was most cherished. Many descendants of the Incas, he added,
were then living, subject to no tribute and no personal service, and
very rich and powerful; and he recommended that all claimants to the
marquisate should be obliged to live in Spain, and that an equivalent
should be paid them for their estates.[206] This advice was not adopted
by the Council of the Indies.

The young Inca at this time dropped his surname of Condorcanqui,
and assumed that of Tupac Amaru Inca. He governed his villages of
Tungasuca, Surinani, and Pampamarca exceedingly well, and was highly
esteemed by the corregidor of the province, Don Pedro Muñoz de Arjona,
and his successors, who admired his punctual attention to his duty, and
therefore distinguished him above all the other caciques. He habitually
cultivated the acquaintance of the Spanish curas and officials, and
never let pass an opportunity of representing to them, in impassioned
language, the deplorable condition of the Indians.[207] He assisted the
distressed, paid tribute for the poor, and sustained whole families
which had been reduced to ruin.[208] He cherished the traditions
of his people, and such customs as were not inconsistent with his
profession of Christianity; and he especially delighted in the dramatic
representations which recalled the glorious memories of the past. One
of his most intimate friends was Dr. Antonio Valdez, Cura of Sicuani,
a perfect master of the Quichua language, and author of a play called
'Ollantay,' founded on ancient tradition, which was frequently acted
before Tupac Amaru at Tungasuca.[209]

The oppression of the Indians by means of the _mitas_ and _repartos_
excited the indignation of the Inca Tupac Amaru; but he exerted
himself for years, and exhausted every means of obtaining redress,
before he was finally driven to take up arms in their defence. Moved
by his earnest and incessant appeals, and his piteous account of the
sufferings of his people, the Bishops of Cuzco and La Paz forwarded
them to the king through Don Ventura Santalices; and Blas Tupac Amaru,
the Inca's uncle, also undertook a voyage to Spain; but death put
an end to the humane missions both of the Spaniard and the Indian.
Nevertheless, Tupac Amaru persevered in remitting renewed petitions;
while the corregidors not only eluded compliance with the royal
decrees, but also increased the burdens of the Indians. At length his
patience came to an end, and he resolved to make an appeal to arms, not
to throw off the yoke of Spain, but to obtain some guarantee for the
due observance of the laws, and their just administration. His views
were certainly confined to these ends when he first drew his sword,
although afterwards, when his moderate demands were only answered by
cruel taunts and brutal menaces, he saw that independence or death were
the only alternatives.

The most merciless oppressor of the Indians of Peru was Don Antonio
Aliaga, Corregidor of Tinta, and therefore Tupac Amaru's immediate
superior; and the Inca determined to commence his revolt by punishing
this great culprit. The Inca's old tutor, Dr. Carlos Rodriguez, Cura
of Yanaoca, in celebration of his name-day, gave a dinner to the
corregidor of Tinta, and the Inca Tupac Amaru, on the 4th of November,
1780. The Inca, on pretence that some person had arrived at his house
from Cuzco, withdrew from the banquet early, and placing himself in
ambush on the road, with some attendants, made the corregidor prisoner
on his return, taking him to Tungasuca,[211] and placing him in close
confinement. Tupac then wrote a letter marked _reservadissima_, which
he obliged Aliaga to sign, ordering his cashier at Tinta to remit the
public money in the provincial treasury to the Inca, assigning as
a reason that it was necessary to set out forthwith to the port of
Aranta,[212] threatened by a descent from English cruisers. The Inca
thus received 22,000 dollars, some gold ingots, seventy-five muskets,
baggage-horses, and mules. Recruits were also ordered to be embodied,
and sent to Tungasuca.

Having thus drawn together a considerable force, he sent for his old
master, Dr. Antonio Lopez, the Cura of Pampamarca,[213] and ordered him
to make known to the corregidor that he must die, and to administer
to him the consolations of religion. A scaffold was then erected in
the plaza of Tungasuca, around which the retainers of the Inca were
ranged in three ranks, the first armed with muskets, the second with
pikes, and the rear rank with treble-loaded slings. Aliaga was then led
out and publicly executed on November 10th. Tupac Amaru at the same
time addressed the astonished multitude, in Quichua, as to his present
conduct and ulterior views. Mounted on a fiery charger, attired in the
princely costume of his ancestors, with a banner bearing the figure of
an Inca encircled by embroidered chains of gold and silver, and two
armorial serpents,[214] he exhorted his followers to lend an attentive
ear to the legitimate descendant of their ancient sovereigns, promising
to abolish the _mitas_ and _repartos_, and to punish the extortionate
corregidors.

The whole multitude, with one accord, vowed implicit obedience to
his orders, and he at once began to form the Indians into companies,
and to nominate officers. Next day he marched to Quiquijana, in the
valley of the Vilcamayu, the capital of the province of Quispicanchi,
which he entered at daybreak on the 12th, but the corregidor had fled.
After hearing mass Tupac returned towards Tungasuca, destroying the
_obraje_ of Parapuquio on his way, where he found large quantities
of woollen clothes, which were distributed amongst his followers. He
also demolished the _obraje_ of Pumacancha, where he found property
valued at 200,000 dollars, consisting of 18,000 yards of woollen cloths
(_bayeta_), 60,000 of cotton cloths (_tocuyo_), some fire-arms, and two
pieces of artillery, belonging to the Corregidor of Quispicanchi.[215]
These _obrajes_ were odious to the Indians, their owners having
enforced the _mita_ far beyond the limits assigned by the law, and
perpetrated great cruelties on the women and children of the _mitayos_.
The Inca had now mustered 6000 troops, 300 armed with muskets, and the
rest with pikes, clubs, and slings. Nearly the whole population of the
provinces of Tinta, Quispicanchi, Cotabambas, Calca, and Chumbivilicas
rose in his favour, with the exception of a few whites.

The news of Tupac Amaru's revolt was brought to Cuzco on the 12th, by
Cabrera, the Corregidor of Quispicanchi, who had so narrowly escaped
capture. It created the greatest alarm, as the city was only garrisoned
by two regiments. The college of the expelled Jesuits was turned into a
kind of citadel, into which private and public property was taken for
security; the white part of the population was enrolled; requisitions
for troops were sent to the neighbouring provinces; and an express was
despatched to Lima, imploring speedy succour.

Next day 450 men, under the command of Don Tiburcio de Landa, Governor
of Paurcartambo, marched out of Cuzco, accompanied by the Cacique
of Oropesa, Juan Sahuaraura, with 700 Indians of his _ayllu_, or
tribe. Landa was ordered to wait for reinforcements at a place called
Huayra-pata; but the Corregidor Don Fernando Cabrera, who accompanied
him, enraged at the loss of property which he had sustained, induced
him to advance to the village of Sangarara, within five leagues of
Tinta, which he reached on the 17th. At dawn on the following morning
it began to snow, and, finding himself surrounded by a superior force
of hostile Indians, Landa retreated into the church. Tupac Amaru
then wrote to him, offering terms, which were refused; and he again
wrote to the cura, who was also in the church, urging him to retire
with the women and children. The Spanish troops, however, prevented
them from coming out, a scuffle ensued, the stock of powder ignited,
and the roof and one of the walls were blown out. The Spaniards
then made a dash forward, and fought bravely until they were nearly
all killed.[216] Only twenty-eight wounded remained, who were cured
and set at liberty by order of the Inca. Landa,[217] his lieutenant
Escajadillo, Cabrera, and the Cacique Sahuaraura[218] were amongst the
slain.

The news of the disaster at Sangarara reached Cuzco on the 19th, and
produced indescribable confusion. The Cabildo immediately began to
collect arms, make powder, repair six old field-pieces, and on the
20th Don Juan Nicolas de Lobaton y Zavala, Marquis of Rocafuerte,
arrived from Urubamba with reinforcements. Every citizen came forward
to serve, and a corps of volunteers was formed under Don Faustino
Alvarez de Foronda, Count of Vallehermoso. The Bishop ordered all the
clergy to assemble, formed them into four companies, and gave the
command to the Dean, Dr. Manuel de Mendieta. More troops soon came
in from Calca, under Don Pablo Astete, and from other parts, and by
the end of November there were 3000 men in arms at Cuzco. Anxious to
pacify the Indians, the Cabildo then issued a proclamation abolishing
the _repartos_, and the _alcabala_, or excise on provisions, and
declaring that the Indians should never again be forced to work in the
_obrajes_, if they remained faithful. Defensive works were thrown up in
the city and suburbs, and religious processions paraded the streets.

At this moment Tupac Amaru might probably have entered Cuzco without
opposition; but unfortunately, relying on the justice of his cause, he
beguiled himself into the belief that he could accomplish by argument
and negotiation what could only be obtained by the sword. He threw
up embankments and entrenched himself in an encampment near Tinta,
throwing out videttes to within three leagues of Cuzco; and on the
27th he issued an edict from his head-quarters at Tungasuca, setting
forth the causes of his revolt. In this document he recapitulated the
grievances which his people suffered, declared the tyranny of the
Spanish officials to be impious and cruel, and called upon the Indians
to rally round his standard.

Early in December 1780 Tupac Amaru crossed the Vilcañota range, by the
pass of Santa Rosa, and, entering the Collao, advanced by Pucara to
Lampa. At every village he addressed the people from the church-steps,
saying that he came to abolish abuses and punish the corregidors; and
that he was "the liberator of the kingdom, the restorer of privileges,
and the common father of those who groan under the yoke of _repartos_."
Nothing was heard amongst the Indians but acclamations for their Inca
and Redeemer.[219] On the 13th of December he entered the town of
Azangaro, where he destroyed the houses of the Cacique Chuquihuanca,
who had refused to join the insurrection. A private letter, dated
January 1781,[220] says that he rode into Azangaro on a white horse,
with splendidly-embroidered trappings, and that two fair men, like
Englishmen, of commanding aspect, were on his right and left. He was
armed with a gun, sword, and pistols, and was dressed in blue velvet,
richly embroidered with gold, with a three-cornered hat, and an _uncu_,
in the shape of a bishop's rochet, over all, with a gold chain round
his neck, to which a large golden sun was attached. Having received
repeated letters from his wife, reporting the threatening assembly of
troops at Cuzco, he retraced his steps, by Asillo and Orurillo, to the
valley of the Vilcamayu, obliging the curas of the villages through
which he passed to receive him in their churches under a canopy, and to
chant the _Te Deum_.

On the 28th the heights of Picchu, overhanging Cuzco on the west,
were covered with his army. His cousin Diego Tupac Amaru was detached
to the eastward with 6000 men, to occupy the provinces of Calca and
Paucartambo. Another detachment under Antonio Castelo, one of the
Inca's most trusted followers, marched along the direct road to Cuzco,
but was defeated two leagues from the city at a place called Saylla,
and finally effected a junction with the main body on the heights of
Picchu.

Before attempting to force his way into Cuzco, the Inca addressed
a letter to the cabildo, and another to the bishop, on the 3rd of
January, 1781. To the cabildo he said that, as the heir of the Incas,
the ancient kings of the realm, he was stimulated to endeavour by all
possible means to put an end to abuses, and to see men appointed to
govern the Indians who would respect the laws of the King of Spain.
The punishment of the Corregidor of Tinta was, he declared, absolutely
necessary as an example to others: and he announced the object of his
rebellion to be the entire abolition of _repartos_; the appointment of
an _alcalde mayor_, or judge of the Indian nation, in every province;
and the establishment of an _audiencia_ or court of appeal at Cuzco,
within reach of the Indians. "This," he concluded, "is at present
the extent of my wishes, leaving to the King of Spain his former
dominion." To the bishop he said that he had come forward, on behalf
of the whole nation, to put an end to the robberies and outrages of
the corregidors; and he promised to respect the priests, all church
property, and all women and inoffensive unarmed people.[221]

But the garrison of Cuzco had, in the mean while, been reinforced by
Pumacagua, the Cacique of Chinchero, and by 200 mulatto soldiers from
Lima under Don Gabriel de Aviles, who arrived by forced marches on
January 1st. The cabildo, therefore, refused to entertain any proposals
from the Inca. The Spaniards came out to attack him under Don Pablo
Astete, and the Caciques of Chinchero and Anta, Pumacagua and Rosas.
There was a long skirmish in the broken ground, which was brought to
a conclusion by the evening snow; but on the 8th a sanguinary battle
was fought in the suburbs and on the heights, which lasted two days,
and during which a Dominican friar, named Ramon de Salazar, concealed
behind a rock, did effective service with his musket, and contributed
to throw the Indians into confusion. The Inca finally retreated to
Tinta, to re-organize his forces.

His cousin Diego Tupac Amaru was also unsuccessful to the eastward.
His division was detached from the main army at Checacupe, where
he crossed some mountainous country, and again descended into the
valley of the Vilcamayu, following the course of the river until he
encountered the forces under the command of the Marquis of Rocafuerte,
consisting of the levies of Pumacagua, Cacique of Chinchero, and those
of the Caciques of Maras and Huayllabamba. An engagement took place at
Huaran, on the banks of the river, near Calca, when Diego was defeated,
many of his Indians being drowned in the river; and he again suffered
defeat at Yucay on December 23rd. The Indian chief then left the valley
of the Vilcamayu, crossed a range of mountains, and laid siege to
the town of Paucartambo, on the banks of the rapid river of the same
name, while his videttes hovered over the heights above the Vilcamayu
valley, threatening the towns of Calca, Pissac, and Taray. Don José
Antonio Vivar was sent to occupy the bridge at Urubamba, and watch
the movements of the Indians. Paucartambo, and a strong fort built on
a rocky height on the opposite side of the river, were desperately
defended by the Spaniards under Don Lorenzo Lechuga, who had fortified
and garrisoned the place. Astete was sent across the bridge at
Urubamba, with 400 men, to relieve it; they had several encounters with
the Indians on the march, and on reaching the besieged town they found
that Lechuga had expended all his ammunition; but the besieging force,
under Diego Tupac Amaru, fell back towards Tinta, on the approach of
Astete, on the 18th of January, 1781. Having re-organized his army at
Tinta, the Inca, accompanied by his cousin Diego, made another attack
upon Paucartambo on the 11th of February; but, after several fruitless
assaults, the Indian army finally retreated to Tinta on the 14th.[222]

Tupac Amaru had now assembled a force of 60,000 men in and around
Tinta; but they were wholly undisciplined, and only a few hundreds
were armed with muskets. All the caciques in Peru, with the exception
of sixteen,[223] had, however, declared in favour of the Inca; and the
whole Indian and mestizo population, except the _ayllus_ or tribes of
the sixteen Hispanicized caciques, longed earnestly for the success of
this truly national insurrection. After the retreat from Paucartambo
in February, the Inca occupied himself in strengthening his position
round Tinta, and in visiting the distant provinces of Chuquibamba and
Cotabambas, while one Isidro Mamani, an Indian of ferocious character,
born at Pomata, on the banks of lake Titicaca, Pedro Vargas, and Andres
Ingaricona, held the open country in the Collao.

The whole of the interior of Central and Upper Peru was in revolt, and
the viceroys of Peru and Buenos Ayres, Don Augustin de Jauregui and Don
Juan José de Vertiz, were thoroughly alarmed. The former despatched
Don José Antonio Areche, as "visitador," with extraordinary judicial
powers, and a force commanded by Don José del Valle as Mariscal del
Campo, to Cuzco; while the latter named Don Ignacio Flores, then
Governor of Moxos, as commandante-general, to put down the rebellion in
Upper Peru.

Areche, accompanied by General José del Valle, and Don Benito de la
Matta Linares, a judge of the Royal Audience at Lima, arrived at Cuzco
on February 23rd, 1781, where an army of 15,000 men was collected,
consisting of the tribes of the recreant caciques, <DW64>s and mulattos
from the coast, and a small force of Spaniards.

Early in March General del Valle prepared to commence the campaign.
But, before his army marched out of Cuzco, the visitador Areche
received a letter from Tupac Amaru, in which he represented the
earnest endeavours he had made to obtain justice for his people; the
habitual violation of the law by the Spanish officials; the cruel and
intolerable oppression caused by the _repartimentos_ and the _mita_;
and the absolute necessity of some reform in the administration. He
concluded by proposing a negotiation by which these ends might be
attained without bloodshed. This despatch is very ably written, and
is a monument of the noble and enlightened views of this great but
most unfortunate patriot.[224] The answer of the visitador Areche was
a brutal menace, better suited to a follower of Zengis Khan than to a
Christian judge. He refused all negotiation, vowed the most horrible
vengeance, and concluded by saying that, if the Inca surrendered at
once, the cruelty of the mode of his execution would be lessened. The
Spanish General del Valle protested against the brutality of this
reply.[225]

Tupac Amaru now prepared to resist to the utmost, as it became
evident to him that complete independence or death were the only
two alternatives which were left by the barbarous policy of the
bloodthirsty visitador; but his edicts were still marked by humanity
and good sense. It does not appear that he ever actually proclaimed
himself a sovereign independent of Spain; yet the draft of an edict was
found amongst his papers, in which he styles himself "Don José I., by
the grace of God, Inca, King of Peru, Quito, Chile, Buenos Ayres, and
the continents of the South Sea, Lord of the River of the Amazons, with
dominion over the Grand Paytiti." The document is headed by a portrait
of Tupac Amaru, crowned, with Spanish trophies at his feet. It states
that the King of Castille had usurped the crown and dominions of Peru,
imposing innumerable taxes, tributes, duties, excises, monopolies,
tithes, fifths; appointing officers who sold justice, and treating
the people like beasts of burden. For these causes, and by reason of
the cries which have risen up to Heaven, in the name of Almighty God,
it is ordered that no man shall henceforward pay money to any Spanish
officer, excepting the tithes to priests; but that tribute shall be
paid to the Inca, and an oath of allegiance to him be taken in every
town and village. The document is without date.[226]

On March 12th, 1781, the army under General del Valle marched out
of Cuzco. A detachment of 2000 men was sent against the insurgents,
commanded by the Caciques Parvina and Bermudez,[227] in the province
of Cotabambas, who were both killed in a desperate action. Tupac Amaru
used to call these brave chiefs his right and left arms. Meanwhile the
main body of the royalist army advanced slowly along the mountains to
the westward of the valley of the Vilcamayu, suffering much from the
snow-storms, the want of food and fuel, and the shameful neglect of
all commissariat arrangements by Areche. On the 18th the Inca sent
a message to the Spanish General, saying that the morrow, being the
festival of San José, would be an appropriate day for settling their
differences; and that he should prepare his troops for a movement of
which, in compliment to the name-day of both himself and Del Valle, he
deemed it courteous to apprise his adversary. In consequence of this
message the Spaniard kept his men under arms all night, but no attack
took place, and in the morning the Inca's army was found to be gone.
Tupac had intended a stratagem, and had retired into an unfrequented
ravine: on the 21st a snow-storm favoured his design, and his plan
would have succeeded, had not a traitor, named Zunuario de Castro,
given Valle notice of his movements. The Spaniards changed their
position, and the Inca passed the night in vainly searching for it.

General del Valle was upwards of seventy years of age, and, unable
longer to endure the excessive cold of the mountains, he descended
into the valley of the Vilcamayu, and captured Quiquijana, hanging
the Cacique Luis Poma Inca, who defended it. On the 6th of April
the Spanish army advanced up the valley, meeting with considerable
opposition, and reached Checacupe early in the day. Near this village
the Inca had taken up a position, defended by a ditch and parapet
stretching across the valley, and manned by 20,000 men, but he had
neglected to provide any defence for his flanks. A Spanish division
stole unperceived to the back of the position, while the main body
assaulted it in front; and after an heroic defence the Indians,
attacked both in front and rear, fell back to another entrenched
position at Combapata, a league from Tinta, where the village was
surrounded by a mud wall, covered at the top with thorny bushes. The
Spaniards, following up their success, played upon the village with
their field-pieces for several hours, then carried the position at the
point of the bayonet, and made a bloody entry into Tinta.

Tupac Amaru, with his wife and three sons, fled to Lanqui, a village
about twenty miles to the westward, on the shores of a wild Alpine
lake. Here he intended to have rallied his disordered troops, but he
was betrayed by one of his own officers, named Ventura Landaeta, who,
assisted by the cura of the place, basely delivered the illustrious
Inca and his family into the hands of the Spaniards. On the same day
General del Valle hung sixty-seven Indian prisoners at Tinta, whose
heads he stuck on poles by the road-side.[228] Diego Tupac Amaru, his
nephew Andres Mendagure, and Mariano, the second son of the Inca,
fortunately escaped.

On the 8th of April Francisco, the aged uncle of the Inca,[229] was
also seized, and the prisoners were marched bareheaded into Cuzco, the
visitador Areche coming out as far as Urcos to meet them. They were
all separated from each other, and told that they would not meet again
until the day of execution.

The chief prisoners were the Inca Tupac Amaru, his wife, his two sons
Hipolito and Fernando, his uncle Francisco, his brother-in-law Antonio
Bastidas, his maternal cousin Patricio Noguera, his cousin Cecilia
Tupac Amaru with her husband Pedro Mendagure, a number of captains in
the Inca's army and other officials, and Aliaga's executioner named
Antonio Oblitas,[230] a <DW64> slave.

It is necessary to record the diabolical cruelties of the visitador
Areche, and his assistant Matta Linares, in order to complete the
narrative of the ill-fated Inca's life, and to show into whose hands
the fate of the Peruvian Indians was placed by the Spanish viceroy,
and of what devilish atrocities they were capable. On the 15th of May,
1781, the visitador Areche pronounced a lengthy sentence, in which he
declared that it was necessary to hasten its execution, in order to
convince the Indians that it was not impossible to put a man of such
elevated rank to death, merely because he was the heir of the Incas
of Peru. He then accused the Inca of rebellion, of destroying the
_obrajes_, of abolishing the _mita_, and of causing pictures to be
painted of himself dressed in the imperial insignia of the _uncu_ or
mantle, and _mascapaicha_ or head-dress; and others representing the
triumph of his arms at Sangarara. He condemned his victim to behold
the execution of his wife, his son, his uncle, his brother-in-law
Antonio Bastidas, and of his captains; to have his tongue cut out,
and afterwards to have his limbs secured to the girths of four horses
dragging different ways, and thus to be torn in pieces. His body to
be burnt on the heights of Picchu, his head to be stuck on a pole
at Tinta, one arm at Tungasuca, the other in Caravaya, a leg in
Chumbivilicas, and another in Lampa. His houses to be demolished,
their sites strewn with salt, all his goods to be confiscated, all his
relations declared infamous, all documents relating to his descent to
be burnt by the hangman, all dresses used by the Incas or caciques
to be prohibited, all pictures of the Incas to be seized and burnt,
the representation of Quichua dramas to be forbidden, all the musical
instruments of the Indians to be destroyed, all signs of mourning
for the Incas to be forbidden, all Indians to give up their national
costumes, and dress henceforth in the Spanish fashion, and the use of
the Quichua language to be prohibited.

In the annals of barbarism there is probably not to be found a document
equalling this in savage wickedness and imbecile absurdity: and this
was written by a Spanish judge only eighty years ago.[231]

This hideous cruelty was literally carried into effect, in all its
revolting details. On Friday the 18th of May, 1781, after the great
square had been surrounded by Spanish and <DW64> troops, ten persons
came forth from the church of the Jesuits. One of these was the Inca
Tupac Amaru, who had, in the early morning, been visited in prison by
Areche, and urged to betray all the accomplices in his rebellion.[232]
"You and I," he replied, "are the only conspirators: you for having
oppressed the country with exactions which were unendurable, and I for
having wished to free the people from such tyranny."[233] The Inca's
companions in misfortune were his wife Micaela, his sons Hipolito and
Fernando, his brother-in-law Antonio Bastidas, his uncle Francisco
Tupac Amaru, Tomasa Condemaita the Cacica of Acos, José Verdejo and
Andres Castelo, captains in the Inca's army, and the executioner
Oblitas.

Verdejo, Castelo, Oblitas, and Bastidas were hung at once. The rest
were heavily chained, tied up in the bags which are used for carrying
the maté or Paraguay tea, and dragged backwards into the centre of the
square by horses. Francisco and Hipolito Tupac Amaru, the one an old
man verging on fourscore years, the other a youth of twenty, then had
their tongues cut out, and, with Tomasa Condemaita, were garrotted by
an iron screw, the first that had been seen in Cuzco. Micaela, the
wife of the Inca, was then placed on the same scaffold, her tongue was
cut out, and the screw was placed round her neck in presence of her
husband; but she suffered cruelly, because her neck was so small that
the screw failed to strangle her. The executioners then placed a lasso
round her neck, and pulled different ways, at the same time kicking her
in the stomach and bosom until they succeeded in killing her. The Inca
was then taken into the centre of the square, his chains were taken
off, and his tongue was cut out. He was then thrown on the ground;
lassos, secured to the girths of four horses, were fastened to his
wrists and ankles, and the horses were made to drag different ways, "a
spectacle never before seen at Cuzco." As the unfortunate Inca's body
was thus raised into the air, his youngest son Fernando, a child of ten
years, who had been forced to witness this horrible massacre of his
relations, uttered a heartrending shriek, the knell of which continued
to ring in the ears of those who heard it to their dying day.[234] The
horses did not pull at the same time, and the body remained suspended
like a spider for many minutes, until at last the brutal miscreant
Areche, who was looking on from a window in the College of the Jesuits,
caused the head to be cut off.[235] The child Fernando was then passed
under the scaffold, and sentenced to be banished for life to one of the
penal settlements in Africa.

Many of the Spanish citizens were present, but not an Indian was to be
seen. They afterwards declared that, while the horses were torturing
the Inca, a great wind arose, with torrents of rain, and that even
the elements felt the death of the Inca, whom the inhuman and impious
Spaniards were torturing with such cruelty.[236]

The heads, bodies, and limbs of the victims were sent to the different
towns of Peru, and to the villages round Cuzco,[237] in order to
strike terror into the hearts of the Indians; but this proceeding of
course had the opposite effect, and goaded them to fury. By the humane
exertions of the Inca the war had hitherto been carried on without
unnecessary bloodshed, and he had always protected unarmed persons and
women; but, after the perpetration of these barbarities in Cuzco, it
became a war of extermination, and during the following year not less
than 80,000 people fell victims to the vengeance of the Indian and
Spanish troops.

In the revolting cruelty of Areche may be traced the abject terror of
a dastardly and craven mind; and to this cowardice may also be imputed
the concessions which were afterwards wrung from him.[238] Tupac Amaru
did not die in vain; for, after the suppression of his revolt, the
_repartos_ were abolished, and the _mitas_ were much modified.

Thus fell the last of the Incas. He was a man of whom his nation might
well be proud, and will bear comparison with the greatest monarchs
of his race. Having enjoyed the best education which Spanish policy
at that time permitted to the people of the colonies, he brought a
cultivated mind, a clear understanding, untiring industry, and devoted
zeal for the welfare of his countrymen to his important duties as a
wealthy and influential cacique. When he afterwards undertook the
office of defender of the oppressed Indians he displayed an amount
of patient perseverance, combined with great ability in the advocacy
of their cause, which excited the admiration of the Bishop of Cuzco
and others of the more enlightened Spaniards. Finally, after he had
unwillingly become convinced that all remonstrance was useless, he,
in his appeal to arms, combined promptitude of action with great
moderation in his demands; his edicts were remarkable for their good
sense and humanity; and had his efforts been met by the Spaniards in
a corresponding spirit, the viceroy of the King of Castille might at
length have succeeded in enforcing the practical observance of the
humane laws of his master.

But this was not to be. Instead of a calm and enlightened statesman,
and Spain had many such, the viceroy placed full powers in the hands of
a wretch whose conduct was a mixture of cowardice, atrocious cruelty,
and incapacity. Fortune decided in favour of the Spaniards, and the
Inca fell into the power of a man whose vile nature was excited to
acts of unequalled barbarity by the terror which his position and his
incompetence had caused him. I have felt obliged to relate the shocking
circumstances of the death of Tupac Amaru in justice to the Indians;
for who can be surprised if afterwards they frequently refused to give
quarter to any of the hated race of _Chapetones_, as they called the
Spaniards? and no atrocity was ever perpetrated by them which can be
compared to the execution of the Inca and his family, committed by the
deliberate sentence of a Spanish judge.[239]




CHAPTER X.

DIEGO TUPAC AMARU--FATE OF THE INCA'S FAMILY--INSURRECTION OF PUMACAGUA.


WHILE the events occurred in the valley of Vilcamayu which ended in the
capture of the Inca Tupac Amaru and his family, the whole of the Collao
was in a state of insurrection, and all Spaniards had to escape for
their lives to Puno, La Paz, or Arequipa.

Don Joaquim Antonio de Orellana,[240] Governor of Puno, made a
most gallant defence of that town, with a force consisting of 180
musketeers, 647 pikemen, 44 artillerymen with 4 guns, and 254 cavalry.
He retreated behind his entrenchments when the Inca advanced as far
as Lampa, in December 1780; but in February 1781, in spite of the
heavy rains, he marched to Lampa, where he flogged an Indian until
he confessed that his rebel countrymen were on an adjacent mountain
called Catacora. Orellana found the rebel army drawn up in an almost
inaccessible position, with colours flying; and, while seeking for a
place where his troops might ascend, they suffered from a storm of
hail and snow. The Spaniards were divided into two assaulting parties,
but the showers of stones which the Indians hurled from their slings
obliged them to retreat, and Orellana himself was wounded in the jaw.

He found it prudent to fall back towards Puno, and, on the 16th,
encamped on the banks of the river of Juliaca, near a place called
Mananchili. The Indian army followed the Spaniards and offered them
battle--the chiefs sending a message to Orellana to tell him that they
acknowledged no king but their Inca Tupac Amaru. They formed their
forces in a semicircle--the right being led by the Cacique Andres
Ingaricona, the left by Mamani, and the centre by a chief of Caravaya
named Alejandro Calisaya. The battle began at four P.M., and, after
a sharp fight, Mamani's division fled to the adjacent heights, and
Ingaricona was also routed. The Indians left 370 killed on the field;
among whom there were many women who came to fight by the sides of
their husbands and brothers, armed with bones sharpened at one end.
Notwithstanding this success, Orellana made a rapid retreat to his
entrenched position at Puno, collected provisions, and sent messengers
to Arequipa for reinforcements.[241]

On the 18th of March the Indian army came in sight, extending for
three miles along the heights round Puno, with colours flying and a
great noise of drums and clarions, entirely surrounding the town,
except on the side of the lake. It was commanded by the Caciques Andres
Ingaricona and Pedro Vargas. The dismal news of the capture of Tupac
Amaru reached the besieging Indians on April 12th, when they retreated,
followed by a Spanish force under Nicolas de Mendiosala of Chucuito.
He overtook them posted on a hill called Condorcuyo, to the left of
the road to Cuzco, when a furious struggle commenced; but the Indians
fought most gallantly, and defeated Mendiosala, who retreated in
disorder. This success encouraged the rebels as much as it disheartened
the Spaniards, and Chucuito and the other towns on the western
banks of the lake of Titicaca fell into their hands. They committed
indiscriminate slaughter in revenge for the cruel death of the Inca,
and only a few Spaniards escaped to Puno. The governor Orellana sent
balsas to rescue some fugitives who were concealed in the rushes on the
shores of the lake, he himself being confined to his house[242] by a
wound in his foot. Meanwhile the Indians of Azangaro, by capturing the
town and peninsula of Capachica, completed the conquest of the province
of Chucuito, and the rebel chiefs prepared for a second siege of Puno.

Diego Cristoval Tupac Amaru the Inca's cousin, with his nephew Andres
Mendagure, Mariano the young son of the Inca, and Miguel Bastidas a
nephew of the Inca's wife, escaped when the rest of their family were
betrayed and captured at Lanqui. They now joined the rebel army in the
Collao, Diego took the command, and on the 9th of May he invested Puno
on all sides, and commenced the second siege.

The Indians were formed in a semicircle on the sides of the surrounding
hills; while Orellana had deepened his entrenchments, and occupied a
very strong position on the Huassa-pata hill, above Puno: he also built
two forts, one called Santa Barbara, where the triumphal arch now is,
and the other called Horca-pata, on the descent from the heights of
Cacharani. The corners of the plaza and of the streets were barricaded.
On the 10th there were skirmishes all day, and on the 11th the Indians
carried the forts of Santa Barbara and Horca-pata by assault, and
penetrated into the streets, but failed in their attack on the rocky
height of the Huassa-pata.[243] On the 12th the besiegers suddenly
retreated, at the approach of the army advancing from Cuzco.

General del Valle, after defeating the Indians at Combapata, continued
his march up the valley of the Vilcamayu, crossed the pass of Ayaviri,
and, entering the Collao, advanced towards Puno, where he arrived in
the middle of May. But the Indians of his army were disgusted at the
excessive rigour with which the rebels were treated; they deserted in
great numbers,[244] and assisted the troops of Diego Tupac Amaru in
harassing the Spaniards, and cutting of all supplies. The army of del
Valle had been shamefully neglected by the visitador Areche, who was
too busy in torturing his prisoners to attend to the commissariat.
The troops were wretchedly clad, unpaid, without medical stores,
or biscuit, or fresh meat. Under these circumstances the General
reluctantly determined to retreat to Cuzco, taking with him the
garrison and inhabitants of Puno, which place was evacuated by Orellana
on the 26th of May. The army which had left Cuzco in March 15,000
strong was now reduced, by desertions and sickness, to 1443 men, with
which force General del Valle commenced the retreat, closely followed
and constantly harassed by the Indians. He reached Cuzco on the 4th
of July, when a paper war ensued between him and Areche, the latter
blaming him for evacuating Puno, while the General retorted that Areche
had shamefully neglected the wants of his army, and failed to make any
attempt to subdue the country round Cuzco.[245]

The Viceroy seems to have taken the part of the General in this
controversy; and the foul vulture Areche, with his companion Matta
Linares, was recalled. He reached Lima on August 23rd, 1781, and
embarked for Spain with the poor little Fernando, son of Tupac Amaru,
who was sentenced to imprisonment for life.

The Indians still remained in arms round Cuzco, especially in the
heights above Urubamba and Calca, and at Lauramarca and Ocungate. Those
near Calca fortified themselves in a place called Chayña-ccasa, against
whom the General sent a force of 400 men under Don José de Barela,
and the Indians were defeated with great slaughter; while Don Joaquim
Balcarcel kept the insurgents in check, who continued to threaten
Paucartambo.

After the retreat of General del Valle from Puno, Diego Tupac Amaru
established his head-quarters at the town of Azangaro, while Andres
Mendagure and Miguel Bastidas overran the provinces on the eastern
shore of lake Titicaca, captured the town of Sorata, and placed
themselves in communication with the insurgent forces in Upper Peru.
It is said that fifteen mule-loads of treasure, consisting of spoils
from the provinces of Omasuyos and Larecaja, were brought into Azangaro
at this time and buried. Diego Tupac Amaru occupied a house near
the plaza, where he gave audience in a long sala; and he went from
this house to the church every night, wrapped in a large cloak. This
story made people believe that he was concealing treasure, and many a
fruitless search has since been made for it.[246]

The hopes of the Indians were now beginning to wane. Diego, though a
man of considerable talent, was not possessed of the same influence
over the people as his unfortunate cousin; and the Spanish officials
were rapidly receiving reinforcements from Buenos Ayres, while the
slaughter of the Indians had been prodigious. In August, 1781, Diego
issued a decree, ordering that all women, children, and priests,
should be respected during the war;[247] and on the 18th of October he
promulgated a manifesto setting forth the numerous violations of law
habitually committed by the corregidors, the exactions of the curas,
and the extortionate duties imposed by the aduaneros.[248] This is a
very able and telling document, and, together with the more detailed
writings of the unfortunate Inca, forms a most complete vindication of
this memorable insurrection.[249]

On September 12th, 1781, the viceroy of Peru, Don Augustin de Jauregui,
had issued a proclamation offering pardon, on submission, to Diego
Tupac Amaru and all his followers.[250] It would swell this short
narrative to an undue length if I attempted to give any account of the
events in Upper Peru during this period;[251] but the final suppression
of the revolt in that part of the country by the Spanish commanders
Flores, Reseguin, and Segurola, induced Diego Tupac Amaru to accept the
Viceroy's offer of pardon, give up the cause, and place himself in the
power of a faithless enemy. Dr. Antonio Valdez, cura of Sicuani, the
friend of the Inca, and author of the Quichua play of 'Ollantay,' was
sent to Azangaro by the Spanish authorities to persuade Diego to adopt
this course. They held their conferences on the subject while walking
up and down on the banks of the river; and there is a tradition that
Pedro Vilca Apasa, one of Diego's bravest officers, overheard one of
these conversations, and remonstrated violently against the madness of
trusting to the word of a Spaniard. But the advice of Valdez prevailed,
Diego sent young Miguel Bastidas to open a negotiation with the Spanish
Colonel Reseguin in November; and on December 11th he gave himself up
to Don Ramon de Arias, commandant of the column of Arequipa. At the
same time Mariano Tupac Amaru, the son of the Inca, Andres Mendagure,
and Miguel Bastidas, surrendered to Don Sebastian de Segurola at La
Paz. Bastidas was sent to Buenos Ayres.

Diego Tupac Amaru received his pardon at Sicuani, from General del
Valle in the name of the viceroy, on January 26th, 1782; and on the
same day the Bishop of Cuzco[252] solemnly absolved him in the church.
But Vilca Apasa, Alejandro Calisaya, and other chiefs of Diego's army,
refused to submit, and continued in arms in the provinces of Caravaya
and Azangaro. General del Valle marched against them in March 1782, and
took most of them prisoners. Vilca Apasa was captured in his native
village of Tapa-tapa, eighteen miles east of Azangaro, where his
descendants still live. He was torn to pieces by horses in the plaza of
Azangaro, and his limbs were stuck on poles by the road-side.[253] An
old lady told me that she could remember seeing one of his arms on a
pole near her father's house. Calisaya, and many others, were hung. The
Spanish General had the cruelty to force Diego Tupac Amaru to accompany
him, and to witness the execution of his old friends. Del Valle then
marched over the cordilleras of Lauramarca and Ausangate, where the
Indians had been in rebellion, taking Diego with him in a sort of
triumph, and returned to Cuzco in August. The old general was taken ill
soon afterwards, and died at Cuzco on the 4th of September, leaving the
command of the troops to Don Gabriel de Aviles.

Diego Tupac Amaru was permitted to retire to Tungasuca; and young
Mariano Tupac Amaru, with his cousin Andres Mendegure, lived at
Sicuani. But it would appear that the Spanish authorities had no
intention of keeping their faith with these unfortunate Indians, and
it was soon seen that the distrust of Vilca Apasa was but too well
founded. The Spaniards were only waiting for an excuse before they
completed the extirpation of the whole family of the Incas. This was
soon found in a rebellion of the Indians of Marcapata and Lauramarca,
who, on the approach of a force under the Corregidor Necochea in
January 1783, retired to the lofty and almost impenetrable heights
of Hapo and Ampatuni. In February their leader, Santos Huayhua, was
captured with his family, and torn to pieces by horses.[254]

Thus the desired excuse for treachery and faithlessness was furnished.
All the surviving members of the family of the Inca Tupac Amaru were
arrested, by order of the viceroy of Peru.[255] The accusations against
them were frivolous, and, so far as appears in the sentences, without
a shadow of proof to support them. Diego was accused of calling the
Indians his sons, of living in a way unbefitting a pardoned rebel, and
of performing funeral rites for his cousin the Inca; young Mariano
Tupac Amaru of rescuing his lady-love on September 9th, who had been
forced to become a novice in the monastery of Santa Catalina in Cuzco;
Andres Mendagure of conducting himself in a suspicious way; Manuela
Castro, the mother of Diego, of keeping up disaffection amongst the
Indians; and Lorenzo and Simon Condori, the brothers-in-law of Diego,
of assisting the rebels in Marcapata. The rest of the family were
accused of being relations.

Diego was imprisoned with his kindred on the 15th of April, 1783,
by Don Raymundo Necochea, Corregidor of Quispicanchi;[256] while
Mariano Tupac Amaru and Andres Mendagure were sent to Lima, put on
board a ship, butchered at sea, and their bodies thrown overboard.
The vulture Matta Linares, who was still an Oidor of the Audienica at
Lima, scented carrion from afar, and arrived at Cuzco on April 20th,
with the same extraordinary judicial powers as had previously been
given by the viceroy to Areche. On the 17th of July he sentenced Diego
Tupac Amaru to be dragged at the tail of a mule, with a rope round his
neck, to the place of execution in the plaza of Cuzco, there to be
hung and quartered, his body and limbs to be distributed amongst the
towns of Tungasuca, Lauramarca, Paucartambo, and Calca, his goods to be
confiscated, and his houses destroyed; his mother, Marcela Castro, to
be hung and quartered, and her body to be burnt in the plaza; Lorenzo
and Simon Condori to be hung; and Manuela Titu Condori, the wife of
Diego, to be banished for life.[257] These sentences were executed
on the 19th of July 1783; and Matta Linares obliged the good cura of
Sicuani, Dr. Valdez, by whose persuasion, as the ancient friend of the
Inca Tupac Amaru, Diego had been induced to accept the treacherous
pardon, to witness the executions.[258] Matta Linares is still
remembered in Cuzco for his barbarous, immoral, and sneaking conduct.
He died in Spain in about 1818, having been one of the first among the
unworthy Spaniards who declared in favour of Joseph Buonaparte.

At about the time of Diego's execution, the last spark of insurrection
was trampled out in Huarochiri, a province in the Andes near Lima.
The Indians of the villages near Caramporna had risen under one Felipe
Velasco Tupac Inca Yupanqui, who declared that the Inca was not dead,
but that he was alive and crowned in the "Gran Paytiti."[259] Don
Felipe Carrera, who had been appointed Corregidor of Parinacochas, was
sent to Huarochiri, and by a rapid march succeeded in capturing the
chief. Towards evening, however, he was surrounded by a large body of
Indians armed with slings and poles, in a narrow and dangerous part
of the road. He retreated to an eminence with his prisoner, where he
defended himself until dark against the storm of stones, and then
escaped to Lima. After daily fights with the Indians the rebellion was
put down in June, 1783. Felipe Velasco, and his lieutenant Ciriaco
Flores, were hung in the great square of Lima on July 7th, 1783.[260]

Having, after two years and a half, succeeded in quelling the
insurrection, it remained for the viceroy to extirpate all the
innocent members of the family of the Incas, and all who were
connected with them by marriage. Ninety members of the family were
sent to Lima in chains, among whom were Bartolomé Tupac Amaru, the
venerable great-uncle of the Inca; Marcela Pallocahua, the mother of
the Inca's wife Micaela Bastidas; and Manuela Condori, the wife of
Diego. Soon after his arrival at Lima Bartolomé Tupac Amaru died at
the extraordinary age of 125. A life of temperance had given this aged
prince the strength to endure months of solitary confinement at Cuzco,
to sustain blows from muskets and staves in the plaza, to undergo a
cruel journey on foot and in chains of 400 miles, but the horrors of
the Lima prison at length killed him. The unhappy survivors were
shipped off at Callao, in two ships, the 'Peruana' and the 'San Pedro,'
and thrown into cells in Cadiz for three years, when Charles III.
caused them to be distributed, apart from each other, in prisons in
the interior of Spain, until their sufferings were relieved by death.
Once during the voyage they were allowed by the brutal captain of the
transport 'Peruana,' named José Cordova, to wash their tattered clothes
at Rio; but their fetters were never removed, and, though the captain
gave his word of honour to a Frenchman who mended his damaged rudder,
that he would take them off, he unblushingly perjured himself; and the
horrors which were suffered by these innocent persons, many of them
aged women and young children, were never relaxed until they arrived at
Cadiz.[261]

Fernando, the youngest child of the Inca, "whose shrill cry smote every
heart with electric sympathy"[262] when he beheld the cruel tortures
of his parents, was taken to Spain by the visitador Areche in 1781.
He was then only ten years of age. In 1783 one Don Luis Ocampo, a
citizen of Cuzco, went to Spain, and heard that young Fernando was a
close prisoner in the castle of San Sebastian at Cadiz. Through the
aid of an Irish gentleman, who was intimately acquainted with the
town major, Ocampo applied for a pass to visit him, but was refused.
He, nevertheless, made his way into the fort, and, looking round at
the iron gratings of the cells, at length caught sight of a youth
whose countenance bespoke his origin. He addressed him in Quichua,
and found that he was speaking to Fernando Tupac Amaru. While talking
to him Ocampo received a blow from the butt end of the musket of a
Swiss sentry, whom, however, he induced to permit him to continue the
conversation. It appeared that the government allowed Fernando six
rials a day, but that the soldiers of the guard cheated him of half.
Ocampo gave him two or three dollars a week during his stay in Cadiz;
and this is the last we know, for a certainty, of the last surviving
child of the unfortunate Inca.[263]

The fate of these poor Indians, the remaining descendants of those
Incas of Peru whose remarkable civilization, and great power and
wealth, became a proverb during the sixteenth century, will not
fail to be interesting to those who have become acquainted, through
the pages of Robertson, Prescott, or Helps, with the history of the
Spanish conquest of Peru. The sufferings and death of Tupac Amaru and
his family form a very sad story, yet they did not suffer and die in
vain: and it must be recorded of them that, unlike other dispossessed
families, they sacrificed themselves, not for their own selfish ends,
but in the hope of serving their people. They did not die in vain,
for in their fall they shook the colonial power of Spain to its
foundation. Not only was the system of _repartos_ at once abolished,
and the _mitas_ considerably modified, but in 1795 the hated office of
corregidors was replaced by that of intendentes, and from the cruel
death of the last of the Incas may be dated the rise of that feeling
which ended in the expulsion of the Spaniards from Peru.

The rebellion which broke out in Cuzco, thirty-four years after the
death of Tupac Amaru, is historically important, not on account of
the patriotism of its leaders, for they were almost all men of small
weight and selfish ends, but because the great body of the Indians rose
as one man at the first signal, in the hope of freeing their country
from a foreign yoke. In 1809 the people of Upper Peru had formed an
independent government, which they called an "Institucion de Gobierno,"
and the viceroy sent General Goyeneche against them with 5000 men from
Cuzco. The rebels, ill-provided with arms, were defeated at Huaqui,
near lake Titicaca, and slaughtered without mercy;[264] but General
Pezuela, who succeeded Goyeneche in the command, had to face a patriot
army from Buenos Ayres under Belgrano, which kept him fully employed.
Then it was that the opportunity was seized of commencing a rebellion
at Cuzco; and this enemy in the rear of the royal army placed Pezuela
in a most critical position.

The leader of the rebellion was Mateo Garcia Pumacagua, Cacique of
Chinchero near Cuzco, then a very old men. In January 1781, when Tupac
Amaru occupied the heights of Picchu above Cuzco, he had marched from
Chinchero with Indians to join him, but, hearing that a large Spanish
army was advancing from Lima, he changed his mind, and took part
against his countrymen with such zeal, that the viceroy created him
a brigadier in the Spanish service. On August 3rd, 1814, this Indian
Cacique Pumacagua, with the three brothers Vicente, Mariano, and José
Angulo, Don Gabriel Bejar, Hurtado de Mendoza, Astete, Pinelo, Prado,
and others, raised the cry of independence in Cuzco; and so unanimous
was the feeling against Spanish rule, that the whole population of
that city joined heart and soul in the insurrection.[265] The brothers
Angulo were men of low birth, and vulgar both in their language and
their persons;[266] but Astete and Prado were gentlemen of good family
and position. It is possible that they made use of Pumacagua, as an
Indian cacique, that his countrymen might more readily be induced to
join their cause.

Having occupied Cuzco, the insurgents divided their forces into three
divisions, which separated in different directions, to excite the
other provinces to revolt. Mariano Angulo, Bejar, and Mendoza, who
was nicknamed Santafecino, marched to Guamanga, assaulted the house
in which several Spaniards had taken refuge, and hung two officers
in the plaza. Colonel Vicente Gonzalez was sent against them from
Lima, and attacked the insurgents, who had been joined by a body of
Morochuco Indians, near Guanta, in September. The rebels were defeated,
and several Morochuco Indians were shot at Guamanga, but the country
continued in a disordered state until Santafecino was finally routed at
Matara in April 1815.

Pinelo, and the cura of Munecas in Upper Peru, entered Puno without
resistance with another division on August 29th, advanced to La Paz,
and took it by assault after a siege of two days, on September 24th.

The main division, led by Pumacagua in person, and Vicente Angulo,
marched on Arequipa.

The position of the royalist army under Pezuela, with the Buenos Ayrean
army of independence in front, and this formidable insurrection in the
rear, was most critical: for the Indians, believing that the rule of
their Incas was to be restored, and that Pumacagua would succeed where
Tupac Amaru had failed, were flocking in thousands to the standard of
the old cacique. Pezuela organized a division of his army, 1200 strong,
commanded by General Don Juan Ramirez, who marched from Oruro in
October, and fell upon the rebels, numbering 4000 men, 500 armed with
muskets, and the rest with slings, who were encamped on the heights
above La Paz. The rebels retired in good order to Puno, and Ramirez
entered La Paz, and, having extorted 63,000 dollars from the citizens,
continued his march to Puno, which he occupied on November 23rd, and
pressed on towards Arequipa on the 26th.[267]

In the mean while Pumacagua and Angulo had been joined by many caciques
with their _ayllus_ or tribes, and he organized his army at Cavanilla,
giving the rank of generals and colonels to the Indian chiefs.[268]
From Cavanilla the rebel forces marched along the road from Puno to
Arequipa, descended the "alto de los huesos," and encountered the
Spanish troops under Brigadier Picoaga in the plain of Cangallo.
Picoaga was defeated and taken prisoner, and the Indians entered
Arequipa in triumph, where the greatest enthusiasm prevailed for the
cause of independence. Picoaga and Moscoso, the Intendente of Arequipa,
were shot by order of the Angulos, who, early in December, issued a
proclamation, declaring that Peru was free; that there had been a
revolution in Lima; and that the viceroy Don José de Abascal was in
prison. These falsehoods were intended to excite the Spanish Americans
to revolt; but, indeed, they required no such stimulus, for the people
of all races and classes were burning to throw off the yoke of Spain.

It was at this time that Melgar, the enthusiastic young poet of
Arequipa, joined the national army, and became secretary to Vicente
Angulo.

On the approach of Ramirez, Pumacagua evacuated Arequipa, and manœuvred
for some days on the lofty plains between Apo and the post-house of
Pati. Ramirez steadily advanced, and came in sight of the Indian army
at a little hut called Chillihua, near the head of the "alto de los
huesos;" but Pumacagua, avoiding a battle, retreated hastily into the
interior, and Ramirez entered Arequipa without opposition on December
9th. His first act was to shoot Don José Astete, and other patriots who
had compromised themselves during the time that Pumacagua was in the
city.

The enthusiasm of the Indians was so great that, notwithstanding the
affair at Chillihua, which one authority describes as a retreat,[269]
and another as a disastrous defeat,[270] they again flocked to the
standard of the old cacique at Pucara, where he soon had another
undisciplined half-armed force around him, numbering 40,000 men.
Ramirez organized a force at Arequipa of 1200 men armed with muskets,
and fifty dragoons; and, commencing his march on February 11th, 1815,
he encamped round the town of Lampa on March 1st. On that day he
received a letter from Vicente Angulo, protesting against the war
being carried on in a savage and relentless spirit, representing that,
when a whole people rises in arms, the insurgents ought to be granted
belligerent rights; and urging the duty of concluding the war by
negotiation, and not by bloodshed. "It is not fear," Angulo continues,
"that induces me to write thus, but a feeling of humanity."[271]
Ramirez answered that he would accept nothing but unconditional
surrender. On March 4th he advanced to Ayaviri, on the Vilcañota range,
which separates the Collao from the valley of the Vilcamayu. Here
he received a letter from Pumacagua. The cacique asked the Spanish
general for whom he was fighting, seeing that Ferdinand VII. had been
sold to the French, and that no man knew where he had been taken to; he
declared that there was now no other king but the caprice of Europeans,
and that, therefore, he desired to establish a national Government; and
he told him that he was ready to meet the Spanish army on the field of
battle.[272] Ramirez replied that a general of the king's army would
not waste words with vile and insolent rebels, and that his bayonets
would soon make them alter their tone.[273]

From the 6th to the 10th of March both armies marched in parallel
lines, separated by the rivers Umachiri and Ayaviri. On the 10th
Pumacagua drew up his army behind the river Cupi, which was much
swollen by the rains. He had 30,000 men, of whom 800 only were armed
with muskets, and forty field-pieces, said to have been cast at Cuzco
by an Englishman named George ----,[274] some of them of very large
calibre, with which he annoyed the Spaniards during the night before
the battle. Ramirez had only 1300 men; but they were all disciplined
and well-armed soldiers. He crossed the river Cupi, near Umachiri,
in spite of opposition; charged and dispersed the Indians, killing a
thousand men, and captured all their cannon. The rout was complete, and
the chiefs of the patriot army sought safety in flight.[275]

The poet Mariano Melgar was taken prisoner, and immediately shot on
the field of battle. The fate of this young man was very melancholy:
an unrequited passion led him to join the desperate cause of the
insurgents, and he is now chiefly remembered by his melancholy
love-songs and _despedidas_.[276]

Ramirez, immediately after the battle of Umachiri, marched to Cuzco,
where he arrived on the 25th; but he detached a portion of his troops
in pursuit of the Indians, who were again defeated close to the town
of Azangaro. The Spaniards cut off the ears of all their prisoners,
flogged them cruelly, and sent them to tell their comrades that they
would be treated in the same way unless they instantly laid down their
arms. The Indians fled over the hills, followed by the Spaniards, who
again defeated them on a hill near Asillo, six leagues to the north.
Amongst the prisoners at Asillo were the mutilated Indians who had been
sent to terrify the rest, still bravely fighting against their tyrants.
Of such heroism is the usually meek and docile Indian capable.[277]

After the battle of Umachiri, Pumacagua had escaped to the heights of
Marangani; but he was betrayed by an Indian whom he had sent down to
buy some food, and brought a prisoner into Sicuani. After a sort of
confession had been extorted from him, he was hung, not even with a
respectable halter, but with a lasso, being seventy-seven years of age.
José, Mariano, and Vicente Angulo, Gabriel Bejar, and many others were
shot at Cuzco by Ramirez, who, in the following June, again united his
forces with those of General Pezuela, in Upper Peru. Thus ended the
last great rising of the Indians under one of their own chiefs, after a
campaign which lasted ten months.

Ten years after the death of Pumacagua every Spanish soldier had
been driven out of the country. Peru was independent, and the Indians
received equal rights with citizens of Spanish descent in the new
Republic, at least so far, and only so far, as the law could give them.
The _mita_ or forced labour was entirely abolished in 1825; but the
tribute or capitation-tax continued to be exacted until 1854 in Peru,
and is still the principal source of revenue in Bolivia, the Upper
Peru of Spanish times. It is not, however, quite exact to suppose that
this tribute was a capitation-tax; it was practically at least a rent
or tax on the produce of the land, and more resembled the land-tax
of India. The tribute was levied on every male between the ages of
eighteen and fifty; but, in point of fact, nearly every individual
between those ages cultivated his own piece of land, or shared the
produce of a larger piece with several others. Latterly the tribute
paid by each Indian generally amounted to five dollars a year; but,
in some villages, the Indians paid double that amount, the exact rule
being handed down by tradition, and known to the caciques. Those who
paid most enjoyed a more dignified position. The department of Puno
yielded 300,000 dollars; that of Cuzco, 400,000. The entire abolition
of the tribute by General Castilla in 1854 is a portion of that mad
and reckless system of finance by which the revenue of Peru is made
to depend almost exclusively on the yield of guano from the Chincha
Islands.

In Bolivia the tribute is still paid by men between the ages of
eighteen and fifty: the amount being six to ten dollars a year for
proprietors of land, and five dollars for strangers. The revenue from
this source amounted, in 1850, to 4,595,000 dollars.

But though the _mita_, the _reparto_, and the tribute have all been
abolished by law in Peru, the deplorable civil wars, and the system of
keeping up a large standing army, which is not only unnecessary, but
most mischievous, have entailed much oppression on the Indians in the
shape of impressment for the army. Villages are frequently surrounded
by a party of soldiers, and all the able-bodied men that can be caught
are driven away to serve in the ranks. This deplorable waste of human
life is rapidly reducing the already scanty population; and the system
is more oppressive and cruel because it is done in defiance of the
law, by the military presidents and generals who have hitherto been
able to set the laws enacted by civilians at defiance, when it suits
their purpose.[278] Yet on the whole the condition of the Indians is
immeasurably more endurable under the Republic than it was when they
groaned under the _mitas_ of the Spanish corregidors.

The history of these Peruvian Indians has been a very melancholy one.
The early accounts which the Spanish chroniclers gave of the great
empire of the Incas represented the Indians as a people ruled by laws
and usages which provided for almost every action of their lives;
neither a thief nor a vicious man was known amongst them; and they
lived in happiness and contentment, but under a most rigid system of
tutelage and subjection. Then came the Spanish conquerors, and, after
a quarter of a century of bloodshed and rapine, the people found
themselves bowed down by a grievous yoke. While the most beneficent
laws were enacted by the Council of the Indies, their humane provisions
continued to be either entirely evaded, or converted into pretexts
for additional modes of oppression. From upwards of thirty millions
the population was reduced to three millions within the space of
two centuries; and all that can be said of the much-lauded colonial
legislation of Spain is that it prevented the Indians from being
actually exterminated; and that, when Peru gained her independence,
there were a few million survivors, scattered in villages at wide
intervals over a region once thickly peopled by their ancestors. The
Council-room at Seville was, like another place, thickly paved with
good intentions.

I was thrown a great deal amongst the Indians, and at one time I had
the most excellent opportunities of judging of their character, and
I was certainly most favourably impressed. They now have many vices
engendered by centuries of oppression and evil example, from which
their ancestors were probably free: they are fond of chicha and
aguardiente, and are very suspicious; but I found that this latter
feeling disappears when the occasion for it is found not to exist. They
have had but too good reason for their suspicion generally. On the
other hand, they are intelligent, patient, obedient, loving amongst
each other, and particularly kind to animals. Crimes of any magnitude
are hardly ever heard of amongst them; and I am sure that there is
no safer region in the world for the traveller, than the plateaux
of the Peruvian cordilleras. That the Indians are not cowardly or
mean-spirited when once roused was proved in the battles which they
fought under the banner of Tupac Amaru in 1781; and a people who could
produce men capable of such heroic constancy as was displayed by the
mutilated heroes of Asillo should not lightly be accused of want of
courage. When well led they make excellent soldiers.

Although there is so large a proportion of _mestizos_, or half-castes,
in Peru, it is very remarkable how isolated the Indians still remain.
They have their separate language, and traditions, and feelings, apart
from their neighbours of Spanish origin; and it is even said that
there are secret modes of intercourse, and even secret designs amongst
them, the knowledge of which is guarded with jealous care. In 1841,
when General Gamarra was at Pucara, on his way to invade Bolivia, it
was reported that certain influential Indians, from all parts of the
country, were about to assemble in the hills near Azangaro, for the
discussion of some grave business; and that they were in the habit
of assembling in the same way, though in different localities, every
five years. The object of these assemblies was unknown--it may have
been merely to converse over their ancient traditions--but it was
feared, at the time, that it was for some far deeper and more momentous
purpose. It is believed that similar meetings have since taken place
near Chayanta[279] in Bolivia, near Quito, and in other parts, but the
strictest secrecy is preserved by the Indians themselves. The abolition
of the tribute has probably had the effect of separating the Indians
still more from the white and mixed races, for they used to have
constant intercourse connected with the payments to the authorities,
which brought them into the towns, while now they live apart in their
solitary huts in the mountain fastnesses, or in distant villages.

It may be that this unhappy people, descendants of the once mighty
race which, in the glorious days of the Incas, conquered and civilised
half a continent, is marching slowly down the gloomy and dark road to
extinction; "the fading remains of a society sinking amidst storms,
overthrown and shattered by overwhelming catastrophes."[280] But I
trust that this may not be so, and that a fate less sad is still
reserved for the long-suffering gentle children of the Sun.




CHAPTER XI.

JOURNEY FROM PUNO TO CRUCERO, THE CAPITAL OF CARAVAYA.


ON April 7th we left Puno on the road to the chinchona forests
of Caravaya. There are three modes of travelling in Peru: one by
purchasing all the required mules and employing servants; the second,
by hiring an _arriero_, or muleteer, who supplies the mules at so much
for the journey; and the third, by using the wretched animals which
are provided at the post-houses, and changing them at each stage, but
this can only be done on the main roads. The latter way, though the
least comfortable, is by far the most economical, and I therefore
determined to adopt it, yet I should probably have hesitated had I
known the trouble it would entail. I bought a fine mule for a hundred
dollars, with the gentle _paso llano_, the easiest pace imaginable, for
myself, and sent to the post-house at Puno for beasts for Mr. Weir, the
gardener who accompanied me, and for the baggage. Four vicious-looking
brutes accordingly made their appearance, and we started; but no sooner
had we reached the plain at the top of the zigzag path leading out of
Puno to the north, than they all ran away in different directions,
kicking violently. After hours of this kind of annoyance I at last got
one of the brutes into a corner of a stone-fenced field, but, just
as I was about to catch him, he gave a kick, jumped over the wall,
and went off again. It ended in our having to drag the mules by their
lassos until our arms were nearly torn out of the sockets; and thus we
ignominiously entered the village of Paucar-colla late in the evening,
a distance of only twelve miles from Puno. As for the scenery, or the
nature of the country, between Puno and Paucar-colla, I can remember
nothing but vicious mules with their hind legs kicking up in the air.

Paucar-colla is built on an eminence, surrounded by broad grassy
plains, which <DW72> down to the shores of the lake of Titicaca. It
consists of a few streets of mud-built, red-tiled huts, ranged round
a large plaza, with a church in a dilapidated state, also of mud. At
this place I saw the last of the Aymara Indians, or at least of their
women, who can always be distinguished by their dress, which differs
from that worn by the Inca or Quichua Indians. The Aymara women wear
an _uncu_, or garment brought together over each shoulder, and secured
in the mode of the classic Greeks, with two _topus_, or large pins,
generally in the shape of spoons. The head-dress is a curiously-shaped,
four-cornered red cap, the sides curving outwards and stiff, with black
flaps suspended from it, sometimes hanging down, and at others thrown
up over the top. The Quichua dress, used by the women from here as far
as Cuzco, is quite different: they have a full woollen skirt, reaching
down half-way between the knee and ankle; a bright- _lliclla_,
or mantle, over the shoulders, secured across the bosom by a single
_topu_; and as a head-dress the broad-brimmed black velvet _montero_,
with red and blue ribbons.

I left Paucar-colla early next morning, and passed by several fields of
_quinoa_ (Chenopodium quinoa), the harvest of which was just beginning.
The stalks are cut and tied up in heaps, and then the grain is beaten
out with sticks. It is used by the Indians in their universal dish,
the _chupe_, and in various other ways; but it is an insipid and not
very nutritious grain. Just beyond the village there is a stream called
the Illpa, which, in the dry season, scarcely wets the mules' hoofs;
but at this time of year it was swollen into a broad river, and it
was necessary to cross it on reed balsas, with the luggage, while the
mules swam. A very large troop of mules, laden with aguardiente, was
passing over at the same time--a long and tedious business. There are
many streams crossing these roads, which are swollen during the rainy
season, and very serious delays are thus caused for want of a few
bridges. From the Illpa to Caracoto there is a broad plain extending
to the shores of the lake, with the town or village of Hatun-colla on
one of the last spurs of the cordillera to the west.[281] This wide
expanse, in the rainy season, is swampy and half submerged. It was
covered with flocks and herds, with huts and out-buildings scattered
over it, and surrounded by mud walls. Here and there we passed pretty
little cow-girls and shepherdesses, now dressed in the Quichua, not
the Aymara, costume. Some of these little maidens, as they stood by
the wayside spinning wool, had such pretty faces, with the rosy colour
showing through their soft, brown skins, and their figures were so
graceful and dignified, that they strongly reminded me of the pictures
of young Inca princesses in the churches of Santa Anna, and of the
Jesuits, at Cuzco:--

  "La vi tan fermosa
  Que apenas creyera
  Que fuese vaquera
  De la Finojosa."

Potatoes, quinoa, and barley were cultivated in the skirts of the hills
bordering on the plain.

The village of Caracoto is at the extreme end of a long rocky spur,
running out across the plain; a street of neat mud huts, with a plaza
and dilapidated church. At the post-house a child had died, which was
set out on a table with candles burning before it, and the friends of
the postmaster were holding a wake, singing, fiddling, and drinking.
Between Caracoto and the next village of Juliaca there is another
swampy plain: most of the road was under water, and we encountered a
heavy hail-storm. The lights and shades on the cordilleras and nearer
hills, the heavy black masses of cloud in one part of the heavens, and
the sun's rays breaking through in the other, were very fine. Juliaca
is a small town built under a spur of the mountains, with a handsome
stone church. It was Easter-Sunday, and I was invited to meet all the
principal families at dinner at the house of the cura. Several Indian
alcaldes were in attendance; consequential old fellows in full dress,
consisting of broad-brimmed black felt hats, sober- ponchos,
and black breeches very open at the knees, no stockings, and _usutas_
or sandals of llama-hide. The distinctive mark of the alcaldes, of
which they are very proud, is their staff of office, with silver or
brass head and ferule, and rings round it according to the number of
years the owner has held office. The Indians here wear the hair in
numbers of very fine plaits reaching half-way down their backs. An
Indian always accompanied the post-mules from one village to another,
in order to take back the return-mules; and at Juliaca, while I was
quietly enjoying the cura's hospitality, the Indians took my own mule
back to Caracoto, as well as the post-mules. Next morning, therefore,
I sent for it, and received an answer that the postmaster knew nothing
about it. I was eventually obliged, after seeing the gardener and
luggage on their way to Lampa, to go back to Caracoto, where the
postmaster was drunk and insolent; and at length I found it, with a
troop of others, on the great plain beyond Caracoto. Several Indians
took much trouble for me in catching my mule; and it was late in the
afternoon before I got back to Juliaca, and was ready to set out on my
journey to Lampa. I mention this incident in order to show the trouble
and inconvenience of acting as one's own muleteer, although such a
mode of travelling is certainly four or five times as cheap as hiring
an arriero; and I may add that the travelling by post-mules caused me
incessant annoyance and trouble. Whenever they saw a chance the vicious
brutes always ran off the road in different directions, bumped their
cargo against rocks, and tried to roll, keeping us constantly employed
in galloping after them, and greatly increasing the fatigues of the
journeys. On several occasions, too, an animal was provided which was
so weak or tired that it sank under its cargo before it had gone a
league, and obliged me to return to the post-house for another. The
adjustment and lashing of the cargos, like everything else, requires
considerable knack and skill, which is only acquired by experience; the
Indians were as ignorant in such matters as we were; and during the
first three or four journeys our troubles were increased by the cargos
constantly slipping on one side, when the mules always seized the
opportunity of rushing off the road and kicking furiously.

A few miles north of Juliaca there is a large river, formed by the
junction of those of Lampa and Cavanilla, the latter being the same
which rises in the lake on the road between Arequipa and Puno, and
flows by the post-house of La Compuerta. We crossed it in a reed
balsa while the mules swam. Beyond the river is the great plain of
Chañucahua, which was covered with large pools of water, at this
season frequented by ducks and sandpipers. Close under the mountains,
which bound it on every side, were a few sheep-farms, one of them
the property of Don Manuel Costas of Puno, and the sheep roamed at
will over many leagues of pasture-land. At the northern extremity of
the plain the road ascends and descends a range of steep hills, and,
turning a rocky spur, I came in sight of the town of Lampa. It was just
sunset; the tall church-tower rising over the town, and a stone bridge
spanning the river, were clearly defined by the crimson glow in the
western sky, while the lofty peaked mountains forming the background
were capped by masses of black threatening clouds. At that moment a
tremendous thunder-storm, with flashes of forked lightning and torrents
of rain, burst over the town.

Lampa is the capital of a province in the department of Puno, and I
was hospitably received by the Sub-prefect, Don Manuel Barrio-nuevo,
who occupied a good house in the plaza. A portion of the army of the
South was quartered in the town; and the General came every evening to
have tea with the Sub-prefect and his lady, a handsome Arequipeña. On
these occasions the party consisted of General Frisancho and several
officers, and ladies who came attended by their little Indian maids,
carrying shawls, and squatting on the floor in comers during the visit.
After tea and conversation the company generally sang some of the
_despedidas_ and love-songs of their national poet Melgar, in parts;
and one young lady sang the plaintive _yaravis_ of the Indians in
Quichua.

The church of Lampa is a large building of stone, dating from 1685,
with a dome of yellow, green, and blue glazed tiles, of which I was
informed there was formerly a manufactory in Lampa. The tower is
isolated, and about twenty yards from the church, apparently of a
different date. Rows of Indian girls, in their gay- dresses,
were sitting in the plaza before their little heaps of chuñus, ocas,
potatoes, and other provisions, amongst which, at the season of
Easter, there are always great quantities of herbs gathered on the
mountains, possessing supposed medicinal virtues. Among these a fern,
called _racci-racci_, is used as an emetic; _churccu-churccu_, a small
wild oxalis, is taken as a cure for colds; _chichira_, the root of
a small crucifer, for rheumatism; _llacua-llacua_, a composita, for
curing wounds; _quissu_, a nettle, used as a purgative; _cata-cata_,
a valerian, as an antispasmodic; _tami-tami_, the root of a gentian,
as a febrifuge; _quachanca_, a euphorbia, the powdered root of which
is taken as a purgative; _hama-hama_, the root of a valerian, said
to be an excellent specific against epilepsy;[282] and many others,
the native names of which, with their uses, were given me, but I was
unacquainted with their botanical names. Generally when the name of a
plant is repeated twice in Quichua it denotes the possession of some
medicinal property.

On the morning of our departure from Lampa the ground was covered
with snow, which was slowly melting under the sun's rays. Immediately
after leaving the town the path winds up a steep mountain range
called Chacun-chaca, the sides of the precipitous <DW72>s being well
clothed with _queñua_-trees (_Polylepis tomentella_, Wedd.), which are
gnarled and stunted, with dark-green leaves, and the bark of the trunk
peeling like that of a yew. Their sombre foliage contrasted with the
light-green tufts of _stipa_, and the patches of snow. The pass was
long and dangerous, with little torrents pouring down every rut; and on
its summit was the usual _pacheta_, or cairn, which the Indians erect
on every conspicuous point. The path descends on the other side into a
long narrow plain, with the hacienda of Chacun-chaca on the opposite
side. The buildings are surrounded by queñua-trees, and in their rear
two remarkable peaked hills rise up abruptly, clothed with the same
trees, with ridges of rock cropping out at intervals. Their sides were
dotted with cattle, tended by pretty little cow-girls, armed with
slings, and some of them playing the _pincullu_, or Indian flute. The
plain was covered with long grass, in a saturated and spongy state, and
groves of queñua-trees grew thickly in the gullies of the mountains on
either side. After a ride of several leagues over the plain, latterly
along the banks of the river Pucara, I turned a point of the road, and
suddenly came in sight of the almost perpendicular mountain, closely
resembling the northern end of the rock of Gibraltar, which rises
abruptly from the plain, with the little town of Pucara nestling at
its feet. The precipice is composed of a reddish sandstone, upwards of
twelve hundred feet above the plain, the crevices and summit clothed
with long grass and shrubby queñuas. Birds were whirling in circles at
a great height above the rock, which, in the Spanish times, was famous
for a fine breed of falcons, which were carefully guarded and regularly
supplied with meat. They tell a story at Pucara that one of these birds
was sent to the King of Spain, and that it returned of its own accord,
being known by the collar.

Pucara means a fortress in Quichua; and here Francisco Hernandez Giron,
the rebel who led an insurrection to oppose the abolition of personal
service amongst the Indians, was finally defeated in 1554. The town is
a little larger than Juliaca, with a handsome church in the same style,
and a fountain in the plaza. I dined and passed the evening with the
aged cura, Dr. José Faustino Dava, who is famous for his knowledge of
the Quichua language, in its purest and most classical form. The fame
of Dr. Dava's learning, in all questions connected with the antiquities
of the Incas and the Quichua language, had reached me in England, and I
was glad to obtain his valuable assistance in looking over a dictionary
of the rich and expressive language of the Incas, on which I had been
working for some time.

Owing to the diminution of the aboriginal population in Peru, and the
constantly increasing corruption of the ancient language, through
the substitution of Spanish for Quichua words, the introduction of
Spanish modes of expression, and the loss of all purity of style,
that language, once so important, which was used by a polished court
and civilized people, which was spoken through the extent of a vast
empire, and the use of which was spread by careful legislation, is
now disappearing. Before long it will be a thing that is past, or
perhaps fade away entirely from the memory of living generations. With
it will disappear the richest form of all the great American group of
languages, no small loss to the student of ethnology. With it will be
lost all the traditions which yet remain of the old glory of the Incas,
all the elegies, love-songs, and poems which stamp the character of a
once powerful, but always gentle and amiable race.

Unlike the English in India, the half-Spanish races of Peru have paid
little attention to the history and languages of the aborigines, within
the present century; and, if left to them, all traces of the language
of the Incas, and of the songs and traditions which remain in it,
would, in the course of another century, almost entirely disappear. A
few honourable exceptions must, however, be recorded. The late Mariano
Rivero paid much attention to the antiquities of his country, and the
results of his labours have been published at Vienna.[283] The curas
of some of the parishes in the interior, also, especially Dr. Dava of
Pucara, Dr. Rosas of Chinchero, and the Cura of Oropesa, near Cuzco,
are excellent Quichua scholars, but they are very old men, and their
knowledge will die with them.

Dr. Dava had a large collection of the finches, and other birds of the
loftier parts of the Andes, hanging in wicker cages along the wall of
his house. Amongst them were a little dove called _urpi_; the bright
yellow little songster called _silgarito_ in Spanish, and _cchaiña_ in
Quichua; the _tuya_, another larger warbler; the _chocclla-poccochi_
or nightingale of Peru; and a little finch with glossy black plumage,
pink on the back, and whitish-grey under the wings. He also had some
small green paroquets, with long tails and bluish wings, which make
their nests under the eaves of roofs, at a height of fourteen thousand
feet above the sea. At Pucara some of the inhabitants have small
manufactories for making glazed earthenware basins, pots, plates, and
cups,[284] which find an extensive market in the villages and towns of
the department of Puno, and which will probably long hold their own
against the same kind of coarse wares from Europe or the United States.

From Puno to Pucara I had travelled along the main-road to Cuzco; but,
at the latter place, I branched off to the eastward, to pass through
the province of Azangaro to that of Caravaya. The main-road continues
in a northerly direction, crosses the snowy range of Vilcañota near
Ayaviri, and descends the valley of the Vilcamayu to Cuzco. At Pucara I
left post-houses and post-mules behind me, for they only exist on the
main-roads between Arequipa, Puno, Cuzco, and Lima; henceforth I had to
depend on being able to induce private persons to let out their mules
or ponies to me.

About 500 yards from the town of Pucara is the river of the same name,
which flows past Ayaviri in the mountains of Vilcañota. It was very
full, and eighty yards across. The mules swam, and we had to cross in a
rickety balsa made of two bundles of reeds, which had to go backwards
and forwards five times before all the gear and baggage was on the
eastern side. After riding over a plain which became gradually narrower
as the mountains closed in, I began the ascent of a rocky _cuesta_,
with a torrent dashing down over huge boulders into the plain. There
was a splendid view of the distant rock of Pucara, with the snowy
peaks of the Vilcañota range behind. A league further on there was an
alpine lake, with a fine peaked cliff rising up from the water's edge.
There were many ducks and widgeons, and large coots were quietly busy,
swimming about and building their nests on little reed islands; also
jet-black ibises, with dark rusty red heads and long curved bills.
After a ride of several leagues over a grassy country covered with
flocks of sheep, I reached the summit of a range of hills, and got a
distant view of the town of Azangaro, in a plain with several isolated
steep grassy mountains rising from it, and the snowy Andes of Caravaya
in the background. After a very wearisome descent I reached the plain,
and, riding into Azangaro, was most hospitably and kindly received by
Don Luis Quiñones, one of the principal inhabitants.

The region which I had traversed between Puno and Azangaro is all of
the same character--a series of grassy plains of great elevation,
covered with flocks and herds, and watered by numerous rivers flowing
into lake Titicaca, which are traversed by several mountain-ranges,
spurs from the cordillera, which sometimes run up into peaks almost
to the snow-line, and at others sink into rocky plateaux raised like
steps above the plain. What strikes one most in travelling through
this country is the evidence of the vast population it must have
contained in the days of the Incas, indicated by the ruined remains of
_andeneria_, or terraces for cultivation, rising in every direction
tier above tier up the sides of the hills. But it is now almost
exclusively a grazing country, and the Indians, employed in tending the
large flocks of sheep, only raise a sufficient supply of edible roots
for the consumption of their families, and the market of the nearest
town. Frequently the shepherds are what are called _yanaconas_, or
Indians kept to service by the owners of the flocks, which vary from
400 to 1000 head. The condition of this class of Indians is very hard,
as they get only a monthly allowance of an _arroba_ of chuñu (frozen
potato) or quinoa, and a pound of coca, or four dollars a month in
money.

Puno, Juliaca, Lampa, Pucara, and Azangaro, are all between 12,800
and 13,000 feet above the sea. Between March 28th and April 15th, the
indications of the thermometer at these places were as follows:--

  Mean temperature        52-1/2°
  Mean minimum at night   37-1/4
  Highest observed        58
  Lowest                  37
  Range                   21

Azangaro is the capital of the province of the same name. There is a
tradition that, when the Indians were bringing gold and silver for
the ransom of the Inca Atahualpa, they received news of his murder
by Pizarro, at Sicuani, and at the same time orders came from Inca
Manco, who was at Cuzco, to remove the treasure to a greater distance;
and that they buried it near this town. _Asuan_ is "more," _carun_
"distant;" hence _Azangaro_. It is generally believed that this
treasure, worth 7,000,000 dollars, as well as the fifteen mule-loads
of church-plate brought into the town by Diego Tupac Amaru in 1781,
are concealed somewhere, and that some of the Indians know the place
well, but will not divulge it. Hence there have been numerous attempts
to discover it, and one sub-prefect made several excavations under the
pavement in the church, but without any success. On one occasion, not
long ago, an old Indian, who had been a servant in the house where
Diego Tupac Amaru lodged, told the sub-prefect that in the centre of
the _sala_, after digging down for about two feet, a layer of gravel
from the river would be reached; a little further down a layer of
lime and plaster; a little further a layer of large stones; and that
beneath the stones would be the treasure. The excavation was commenced,
and great was the excitement when all the different layers were found
exactly as the Indian had described them; but there was no treasure. It
is not unlikely that the Indian only knew or only told half the clue;
and that these layers were some mark, whence a line was to be measured
in some particular direction, and to a certain distance, to denote the
spot under which the treasure was deposited. Yet the searches have not
been wholly unsuccessful. There are several subterranean passages and
chambers under Azangaro, and one was discovered a few years ago which
had been made by the Indians in ancient times. It led towards the
plaza, and ended in a recess, where there were several mummies, adorned
with golden suns and armlets, and golden semispheres covering their
ears--now the property of my host, Don Luis Quiñones.

Azangaro is _par excellence_ the city of hidden treasure. The houses
are built of mud and straw, and thatched with coarse grass (_stipa
ychu_), the better sort being whitewashed. To the north of the town
there is a long ridge of rocky heights; to the south an isolated peaked
hill nearly overhangs the town; to the east is the river; and to the
west is a plain bounded by the mountains towards Pucara. The church,
in the plaza, is like a large barn outside, with walls of mud and
straw, and a tower with broad-brimmed red-tiled roof; but on entering
it I was astonished at its extraordinary magnificence, so entirely out
of proportion to the wealth or importance of this little town. The
nave is lined with large pictures on religious subjects, by native
artists, in frames of carved wood richly gilt. The elaborate gilded
carving was very striking; the leaves, bunches of grapes, and twisted
columns, being the workmanship of the famous carvers of Cuzco. Over
the arch leading to the chancel there is a picture representing the
Triumph of the Faith, in bright colours. The high altar is plated with
massive silver, with gilded columns, pictures, and images, in gorgeous
profusion up to the roof. On either side are two very remarkable
pictures, filling the walls between the altar and the chancel-arch. On
the right an allegorical picture, and the Shepherds worshipping. One
figure, in the latter picture, a girl holding a basket on her head,
is of great merit, and exactly resembles the 'Santa Justa' of Murillo
in the Duke of Sutherland's collection. On the left is a picture of
the 'Woman taken in Adultery,' and an excellent copy of the well-known
'Worshipping of the Magi,' by Rubens, in the Madrid gallery. In a side
chapel there is a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Last Supper,' with
portraits of two caciques--the heads of the two great families of
Azangero--with their wives, one of them very pretty, looking on in a
corner. These copies, which are excellent, must have been procured from
Europe at very great expense.

[Illustration: THE SONDOR-HUASI, AT AZANGARO. Page 193.]

The author of all this magnificence, according to the inscription on
his portrait, which is fixed in a handsome gilt frame by the side
of the chancel arch, was the Bachiller Dr. Don Basco Bernardo Lopez
de Cangas, a native of Cuzco, and Cura of Azangaro. The interior
decorations were completed on January 12th, 1758, and the cura died in
1771. He must have been possessed of enormous wealth, to have enabled
him thus to beautify and adorn his church with such lavish profusion.

In the days of the Incas the two great families of Azangaro, whose
heads ranked as Curacas, were the Murumallcucalcinas and Chuquihuancas;
and they retained the office of cacique until recent Spanish times.
The Murumallcucalcina family is now extinct: they lived in the town,
and a portion of their house still remains, called the _Sondor-huasi_,
dating from the time of the Incas, and the greatest curiosity in the
place. It is a circular building, about twelve feet in diameter, with
walls twelve feet high, of mud and straw, very strong and thick. The
dome-shaped roof of thatch also dates from the time of the Incas. The
outside coating consists of a layer of _stipa ychu_, two feet thick,
placed in very regular rows, and most carefully finished, so as to
present a smooth surface to the weather. Next there is a thick layer of
the same grass placed horizontally, netted together with reeds; and
finally an inner perpendicular layer; the whole thatch being five feet
thick. The interior framework consists of twelve perfect circles of
bent wands, with others descending in curves from the apex of the roof
to the crest of the wall, and where they cross there are lashings of a
tough reed. The whole is finished with most admirable neatness, forming
a perfect dome. This is the only roof of the time of the Incas still
remaining in Peru, and hence its great importance in an antiquarian
point of view. It has been said that the colossal and highly-finished
masonry of the Incas, and their poor thatched roofs, formed a barbaric
contrast; but the Sondor-huasi proves that their roofs rivalled
their walls in the exquisite art and neatness of their finish. The
Sondor-huasi is now in a very dilapidated state, and is used as a
kitchen by the degenerate collateral heirs of the old caciques.

The Chuquihuanca family had a country house about a league from
Azangaro, which was destroyed by the army of Tupac Amaru in 1780,
because the Chuquihuancas deserted their countrymen and adhered to
the Spanish cause. I accompanied Don Luis Quiñones, and the whole
of the society of Azangaro, to a picnic at the ruined house of the
Chuquihuancas; and it was amusing to see all the masters of families,
the Sub-Prefect Don Hipolito Valdez, the judge, the cura, and every
one else, locking the great folding-doors leading into their _patios_,
and putting the keys into their pockets. Azangaro was entirely
deserted. We were all well mounted, and there were fourteen young
ladies of the party, fresh pleasant girls, who thoroughly enjoyed
a good gallop. The ruined house was in a corner of the plain, and
surrounded on three sides by steep overhanging cliffs. There are the
remains of a house, with a long corridor of brick arches, behind
which several broad terraces rise up the face of the cliff, which
are still ornamented with some fine _oliva silvestre_ and _queñua_
trees, a few ancient apple-trees, and a dense growth of bright-yellow
Compositæ, and Solanums with a purple flower. A noisy torrent foamed
down the cliffs and over the terraces to the plain below. It was a
very pretty spot, but in a most desolate condition, and many small
doves made their nests in the trees. Lupins (_ccerra_[285]) and
nettles (_itapallu_) were growing in the crevices of the rocks. We
had an excellent and very merry dinner; a large amount of Moquegua
wine, and of the better-clarified and more generous liquor from Don
Domingo Elias's vineyards at Pisco, were drunk; and guitar-playing and
samocueca-dancing finished the day's entertainment. We returned to
Azangaro after dark. Don Luis assured me that the people of this little
town were like one family; and that, though election-time or periods
of civil dissension sometimes caused estrangement amongst them, the
habitual concord and friendship always returned when the excuse for
alienation had passed away.

Azangaro is a great cattle-breeding province, and there is a
considerable trade in cheeses with Arequipa and other parts. I found
very great difficulty in procuring animals to enable me to continue
my journey. At length I succeeded in hiring four miserable-looking,
vicious, undersized ponies; and, having crossed the Azangaro on balsas,
by far the largest river I had passed over since leaving Puno, the
way led over the rocky range of Pacobamba hills into another plain,
where there were several cattle and sheep farms; and the village of
Corruarini, consisting of a ruined church and a dozen huts. The river
Azangaro rises in the snowy mountains of Caravaya, forms an immense
curve of nearly half a circle in a course of about two hundred miles,
and, uniting with the river of Pucara, falls into the lake of Titicaca
as the river Ramiz, the largest of its affluents. After a ride of six
leagues we reached the little village of San José, under a conical
hill, and close to the snowy mountains of Surupana.

I dined with the cura, Fray Juan de Dios Cardenas, who gave me a
list of medicinal herbs used in Azangaro; and the beasts from that
place were so infamous that I was obliged to invoke his assistance
to procure fresh ones. It appeared that two Frenchmen had passed a
few days before, on their way to establish a saw-mill in the Caravaya
forests, with a view to floating timber down the river of Azangaro to
lake Titicaca, and that they had ill-treated some Indians. It was thus
very difficult to induce them to furnish ponies, but the alcaldes,
with their great hats and long sticks, were summoned, and, after some
negotiation, they were induced to supply four ponies to go as far as
Crucero, the capital of the province of Caravaya. It was most fortunate
that I was enabled to do this, for, during the night, the owners of the
Azangaro ponies came out to San José, and stole them, so that we should
have been left without even this wretched means of conveyance.

From San José the path winds up a long ravine for several leagues,
down which a torrent dashes furiously over the rocks, descending
from the snowy peak of Accosiri. The mountain scenery, consisting
of steep grassy <DW72>s, masses of rock, torrents, and distant snowy
peaks, was very fine. The ravine led up to the summit of the pass
of Surupana, where it was intensely cold, and the height of which
I roughly estimated, with a boiling-point thermometer, at 16,700
feet above the sea. Here I met an active young vicuña-hunter, well
mounted, and provided with a gun, who said he was a servant of the
Cacique Chuquihuanca of Azangaro, on his way to buy wool in Caravaya.
He continued in my company during most part of the day. Loud claps
of thunder burst out in different directions, and a snow-storm was
drifting in our faces. The ravines were covered with deep snow,
between high dark mountains, with abrupt cliffs cropping out. A
flock of vicuñas dashed across our path, disappearing again in the
driving sleet. After wading through snow and mud for several leagues
the weather cleared up, and we began to descend a splendid gorge,
exactly like some of the finest coombs on the north coast of Devon,
on a gigantic scale. This led us down into a valley, where I parted
with my young vicuña-hunter, who had been a very pleasant companion.
Riding down the grassy valley, and passing many flocks of sheep, I rode
through the village of Potoni, a dozen huts on the side of a hill;
forded the river Azangaro, which is here but a small stream even in the
rainy season; and riding up the opposite bank, got a magnificent view
of the snowy mountains of Caravaya, with their sharp needle-like peaks.
Two leagues brought me to Crucero, the capital of the province of
Caravaya, so called from the cross-roads which here branch off to the
various villages in the forests on the other side of the snowy barrier
which rises up close to the town, to the eastward.

Crucero is a collection of comfortless mud-houses, with a small
dilapidated church in the plaza, on a very elevated swampy plain. It
was intensely cold, with heavy snow-storms during the nights, and
the people sat wrapped up in cloaks without fires, shivering in a
dreary helpless way, and going to bed soon after sunset, as the only
comfortable place. I was most kindly received by the sub-prefect, Don
Pablo Pimentel, a veteran soldier, and an official who had served many
years at the head of the Government in Caravaya, and in Lampa. Dr.
Weddell had named a new genus of chinchonaceous plants _Pimentelia_,
in honour of the worthy old sub-prefect, which had pleased him very
much. I remained a few days in Crucero, before setting out for the
chinchona-forests in the valleys of Sandia and Tambopata; and during
that time I obtained a good deal of information from Don Pablo
Pimentel, and from Señor Leefdael the Judge, respecting the province
of Caravaya. Don Pablo had travelled over almost every part of it; and
I also received much information at Arequipa from Don Agustin Aragon,
a former sub-prefect, who has a large estate in the Caravaya forests.
From these sources I am enabled to offer some account of those parts
of Caravaya which I did not visit, and which will form the subject of
the following chapter. Caravaya is a region of which little is known to
European geographers, and, so far as I am aware, no traveller has yet
given any account of it to the English public.

  Puno to Paucar-colla      9 miles.
     "    Caracoto         18   "
     "    Juliaca           6   "
     "    Lampa            21   "
     "    Pucara           27   "
     "    Azangaro         16   "
     "    San José         18   "
     "    Crucero          36   "
                          ---
                          151   "
                          ---




CHAPTER XII.

THE PROVINCE OF CARAVAYA.

A short Historical and Geographical Description.


THE Peruvian province of Caravaya is drained by streams which form part
of the system of one of the largest and least known of the tributaries
of the Amazon--the river Purus.

The Purus is the only great affluent flowing into the Amazon from
the south, the course of which has never yet been explored. We have
detailed accounts of the Huallaga from Maw, Smyth, Poeppig, and
Herndon; of the Ucayali from Smyth, Herndon, and Castelnau; and of
the Madeira from Castelnau and Gibbon; but of the Purus, the largest
apparently, and one which, in course of time, will probably become the
most important, we have next to nothing. Its mouth, and the course of
its tributaries, near the base of the Andes, are alone described.

Condamine and Smyth, in descending the Amazon, mention the great depth
and volume of water at the mouth of the Purus: Herndon heard from
a Brazilian trader at Barra, who had ascended its stream for some
distance, that it was of great size, and without obstructions; and
Haënke, in the last century, arguing from reliable geographical data
which he had collected from Indians, stated his conviction that a very
large river, flowing from the Andes east of Cuzco, reached the Amazon
to the westward of the mouth of the Madeira.

This is the sum of our knowledge of the mouth and lower course of the
Purus. The tributaries which flow into it drain the eastern <DW72>s
of the Andes, from the latitude of Cuzco quite to the frontier of
Bolivia--that frontier dividing the streams flowing into the Purus, on
the Peruvian side, from those which feed the Beni, on the Bolivian.
These affluents of the Purus are divided into three distinct systems:
the furthest to the north and west, consisting of the streams flowing
through the great valley of Paucartambo, which unite under the name
of the Madre de Dios, or Amaru-mayu; the middle system, draining the
ravines of Marcapata and Ollachea; and the southern and eastern, being
the numerous rivers in the province of Caravaya, as far as the Bolivian
frontier, which unite as the Ynambari. The Madre de Dios and Ynambari
together form the main stream of the Purus.

The Paucartambo system is the only one which has, as yet, been
described by modern explorers. In Spanish times the streams which
compose it were explored, and farms of cacao and coca were established
on their banks; and in the end of the last century an expedition was
sent to explore the course of the Madre de Dios, under an officer
named Don Tiburcio de Landa. This must have been at some time previous
to 1780, for Landa was killed in that year in the great rebellion of
the Indians under Tupac Amaru.[286] After the declaration of Peruvian
independence, General Gamarra, the first Republican Prefect of Cuzco,
sent an expedition to protect the farms in the valley of Paucartambo
from the encroachments of the wild Chuncho Indians, and to explore
the Madre de Dios. It was commanded by a Dr. Sevallos, now a very
old man, retired to a farm in the Caravaya forests, but he has,
unfortunately, lost his journal. General Miller made an expedition
into the same region in 1835, and penetrated to a greater distance
than any other explorer before or since. A very brief account of his
journey was published in the 'Royal Geographical Society's Journal'
for 1836; but there is a much fuller and most interesting journal kept
by this gallant veteran, which has never been printed. In 1852 Lieut.
Gibbon, U.S.N., entered the valleys of Paucartambo; and in 1853 I
explored a part of the course of its principal stream, the Tono.[287]
Another expedition to explore this region, under the sanction and with
the aid of the Peruvian Government, was undertaken by some native
adventurers, accompanied by a few Americans, and an English artist
named Prendergast, in 1856, but it completely failed. Since that time
the wild Chuncho Indians have continued to attack and encroach upon the
few farms which existed in these valleys at the time of my visit in
1853, and at the present moment there is not one remaining. The rich
valleys of Paucartambo, once covered with flourishing cacao and coca
farms, have again become one vast uncultivated tropical forest.

Following the eastern <DW72>s of the Andes to the south and east, we
next come to the streams which drain the valleys of Marcapata and
Ollachea, but of these very little is known. These valleys are in the
province of Quispicanchi, in the department of Cuzco; and it is said
that in times past they were cultivated with advantage, and contained
many coca farms. In the beginning of the last century a Jesuit found
gold in a hill called Camante, in the Marcapata valley, situated
between two ravines, in one of which, called Garrote, a Spanish company
established gold-washings. The leading man of this company, named
Goyguro, employed hundreds of Indians, and extracted gold from the
Camante hill in lumps; but one day an immense landslip fell into the
Vilca-mayu,[288] the chief stream of Marcapata, and all the workmen
ran away, and could not be induced to return. This was in about the
year 1788.

For forty years after this event coca-farms and gold-washings were
alike abandoned in Marcapata, until in 1828 the cura of the village
of that name, Dr. Pedro Flores, again opened a road into the valleys,
and, with some associates, established several farms for raising coca
and fruit. In 1836 a company was formed by several young adventurers,
the chief of whom were José Maria Pacheco of Cuzco and José Maria
Ochoa[289] of Huara, with the object of again discovering the
long-lost golden hill of Camante. The party assembled at Ocongate,
in the cold region of the Andes, whence the distance to Marcapata,
at the commencement of the warm valleys, is fourteen leagues over a
bad road, which traverses the cordillera of Ausungate and Pirhuayani.
From Marcapata the two adventurers Pacheco and Ochoa, both active and
intrepid young men, advanced into the forests with fourteen Indians,
and a stock of chuñus and dried meat. These explorers penetrated for
several leagues, following the course of the Vilca-mayu, but their
expedition led to no practical results.[290] In 1851 Colonel Bologenesi
became the manager of an expedition for collecting chinchona-bark in
the forests of Marcapata, and proceeded to the scene of his labours,
accompanied by a young Englishman named George Backhouse. They advanced
into the forests until they fell in with parties of wild Chuncho
Indians, who were propitiated by presents of knives and other trifles,
and induced to assist young Backhouse and his party in collecting bark.
Some of the Chunchos, however, who had received knives, neglected to
work, which enraged the Indians in Backhouse's service, and a quarrel
ensued, ending in the massacre of Backhouse and all his party. Those
who were out collecting bark, on discovering what had happened, fled to
Colonel Bologenesi; but in their retreat, while fording a river, the
Chunchos poured in a volley of arrows amongst them, and killed forty of
their number. Bologenesi then collected a military force and advanced
into the forests, where he suffered great hardships, fighting with the
Chunchos all day, and harassed by alarms during the night. He, however,
collected a thousand quintals of bark, at a cost of fifty lives and
three hundred thousand dollars. During this expedition indications were
met with of the ancient gold-washings.

It will thus be seen that fevers and perilous roads are not the only
dangers to be apprehended in a search for chinchona-plants.

Lastly, and extending for a distance of one hundred and eighty miles,
from Marcapata to the frontier of Bolivia, is the watershed along that
part of the eastern Andes known as the Snowy Range of Caravaya, where
the numerous streams take their rise which unite to form the Ynambari.
The Madre de Dios, Marcapata, and Ynambari are thus the three great
sources of the Purus. The tributaries of the latter drain the province
of Caravaya.

The first mention of this region is to be found in the pages of the
old Inca historian, Garcilasso de la Vega, who says that "the richest
gold-mines in Peru are those of Collahuaya, which the Spaniards call
Caravaya, whence they obtain much very fine gold of twenty-four carats,
and they still get some, but not in such abundance."[291] The Jesuit
Acosta also mentions "the famous gold of Caravaya in Peru."[292] After
the final overthrow of the younger Almagro in the battle of Chupas in
1542, some of his followers crossed the snowy range, and descended
into the great tropical forests of Caravaya,[293] where they discovered
rivers, the sands of which were full of gold. On the banks of these
rivers they built the towns of Sandia, San Gavan, and San Juan del
Oro; large sums in gold were sent home to Spain, and the last-named
settlement received the title of a royal city from Charles V. In 1553
these settlers received a pardon from the Viceroy Don Antonio de
Mendoza, in consideration of the gold they sent home to the Emperor. It
is said that they sent him a nugget weighing four arrobas, in the shape
of a bullock's head; and that afterwards another nugget, in the shape
of a bullock's tongue, was sent to Philip II., but that the ship which
carried it was lost at sea. Eventually the wild Chuncho Indians of the
Sirineyri tribe fell upon the gold-washers, and overpowered them. In
the following century certain mulattos occupied the gold-washings in
Caravaya, and the king, as a reward for their labours in extracting
treasure, offered to comply with any request they might make. The
mulattos asked to be called Señores, and for the privilege of entering
every town on white mules with red trappings, and the bells ringing.
The Señores mulattos were finally expelled for knocking the priest of
San Juan del Oro on the head while he was saying mass, after a drunken
broil. There are many vestiges of washings, bridges, and cuttings made
by these mulattos, in different parts of Caravaya.[294]

The Spaniards, however, long continued to extract gold from the rivers
of Caravaya, and established coca-farms and coffee-plantations in some
of the ravines formed by spurs of the cordillera. Gold, however, was
the product for which Caravaya was most famous.

In 1615 the viceroy Marquis of Montes Claros spoke of the rich
_lavaderos_ or gold-washings of Caravaya;[295] and his successor,
the Prince of Esquilache, wrote a long report upon them in 1620. It
appears that, at that period, the richest of the Caravaya mines was
called Aporuma, and that it had then been worked for fifteen years
by a company of adventurers. These men, the chief of whom were named
Quiñones, Frisancho, and Perez, had excavated very extensive works to
drain off the water, and they petitioned the Viceroy to grant them
a _mita_ of Indians to complete the works, for that thus the royal
fifths would be augmented. The Prince of Esquilache wrote a marginal
note, which may still be seen on the original petition, ordering
Don Pedro de Mercado, the "visitador-general" of Caravaya, to grant
them a _mita_ of Indians within a circuit of twenty leagues of the
Aporuma mine, with three dollars a month each, besides salt-meat and
other provisions.[296] In 1678 the yield of the royal fifths from
the Caravaya gold-washings was at the rate of 806 dollars in three
months.[297] From this time to the end of the seventeenth century
Franciscan missionaries were at work amongst the wild Chunchos in the
forests of Caravaya.[298] Towards the end of the last century Caravaya
was separated from Peru to form part of the new viceroyalty of Buenos
Ayres, and the population of whites and civilised Indians was then only
estimated at 6500 souls. Just before that period the town of San Gavan,
with four thousand families and a large treasure, had been surprised
and entirely destroyed by the Carangas and Suchimanis Chunchos. This
calamity took place on the 15th of December, 1767. The viceroy Don
Manuel Amat swore vengeance on the Chunchos; but his famous mistress,
Mariquita Gallegas, better known as La Perichola, interceded for them,
and eventually nothing was done. The other town of San Juan del Oro had
been abandoned some time before; and the very sites where they stood
are now uncertain.

In the great rebellion of Tupac Amaru the caciques and people of
Caravaya took part with the Indians, probably owing to the influence
possessed by the Inca, arising from the large coca estate which
belonged to him near San Gavan.[299] At the independence Caravaya
became a part of the Peruvian department of Puno.

In 1846 Don Pablo Pimentel was appointed Sub-prefect of Caravaya, and
he endeavoured, by giving a glowing account of its vast capabilities,
to induce the government to make roads and develop the resources
of this important province. Shortly afterwards, in 1849, Caravaya
attracted notice as a land rich in the precious metal, and it soon
became the California of South America. In July of that year two
brothers named Poblete, in searching for chinchona-bark, discovered
great abundance of gold-dust in the sands of one of the Caravaya
rivers, and the news soon spread far and wide. Up to 1852 crowds of
adventurers, among whom were many Frenchmen, continued to follow in the
footsteps of the Pobletes, but most of them returned empty, and the
excitement has now died away. The trade in chinchona-bark, which once
was remunerative, and in which many Peruvians displayed extraordinary
energy and endurance of fatigue, ceased to exist in 1847, owing to the
habit of adulterating the Calisaya bark with inferior kinds, which gave
the Caravaya article a bad name in the market, and at length rendered
it unsaleable. This adulteration was practised either through fraud
or ignorance. If the former, it was certainly very short-sighted;
but Don Pablo Pimentel declares that it was done through ignorance,
the bark-collectors mistaking the _motosolo_ (C. micrantha) and
_carhua-carhua_ (Cascarilla Carua) for the Calisaya bark.[300]

The above meagre notices are all that I have been able to glean
respecting the history of Caravaya; and I will now give a brief
description of the geographical features of this interesting region.

The province of Caravaya consists of a narrow strip of lofty
table-land, bordering on that of Azangaro; the snowy range of the
Eastern Andes for a distance of 120 miles; and the boundless tropical
forests to the eastward, stretching away towards the frontier of
Brazil. It is bounded on the east and south by Bolivia, on the N.W. by
the province of Quispicanchi in the department of Cuzco, on the north
and N.E. by the illimitable forests, and on the west by Azangaro.

The lofty table-land to the westward of the snowy Andes extends for 120
miles, the whole length of Caravaya, but is only from five to ten miles
broad. It is 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, and here, about a
century ago, after the destruction of San Gavan, the town of Crucero
was founded, as a central position for the capital of the province, and
as being free from the attacks of wild Indians. It derives its name
from the numerous roads which branch from it to the villages on the
eastern <DW72>s of the Andes. This narrow plain, on which Crucero[301]
is situated, is very swampy, covered with long tufts of _ychu_ grass,
and intensely cold. It yields pasture to immense flocks of sheep; and
to the curious hybrid, first bred by the cura Cabrera in 1826, between
an alpaca and a vicuña, called the paco-vicuña, with a black and white
fleece of long fine wool, which is wove into fabrics like the richest
silk.[302]

But the largest and only important part of Caravaya consists of the
forest-covered valleys to the eastward of the Andes. On the western
side that mountain-chain rises abruptly into peaks covered with snow,
from an elevated plateau 14,000 feet above the sea; but on its eastern
side the descent is rapid into tropical valleys. Long spurs run off the
main chain to the northward, gradually decreasing in elevation; and it
is sometimes a distance of sixty or eighty miles before they finally
subside into the boundless forest-covered plains of the interior of
South America. Numerous rivers flow through the valleys between these
spurs, to join the Ynambari; and in these valleys, near the foot of
the main chain of the eastern Andes, are the few villages and coca and
coffee plantations of Caravaya. In these long spurs and deep valleys
Caravaya differs in geographical character from the more northern
region of Paucartambo, where the Andes subside much more rapidly into
the level plain.

In the warm valleys are to be found all the wealth and population of
Caravaya. The population consists of 22,000 souls, almost all Indians;
and the wealth, besides the flocks of sheep on the western table-land,
is created by the produce of coca, coffee, sugar-cane, and aji-pepper
plantations, fruit-gardens, and gold-washings. Correct statistical
returns are unknown in Peru; but, as near as I could make out, there is
an annual yield of 20,000 lbs. of coffee and 360,000 lbs. of coca.[303]
I could obtain no reliable statements respecting the yield of gold.

The Caravayan valley which is furthest to the north and west is that
of Ollachea, bordering on Marcapata, where there is a small village
at the foot of the Andes. Next come those of Ituata and Corani.
The little village of Ayapata, near the source of the river of the
same name, comes next; and thirty miles further in the interior, an
intelligent and enterprising Peruvian, named Don Agustin Aragon, has
established a sugar-cane estate called San José de Bella Vista. It
is situated at the junction of two rivers, and he is thus protected
from the attacks of the savage Chuncho Indians who prowl about in the
surrounding forests. He has made a road practicable for mules from
the village of Ayapata to his estate; and he finds the manufacture of
spirits from the sugar-cane far more profitable than digging for gold
or hunting for chinchona-bark. He is a man full of energy and resource.
His attempt to establish a manufactory of india-rubber only failed
through the refusal of the Peruvian government to give him a contract
for supplying the army, and thus assist his first efforts; in 1860 he
sent an expedition into the forests to collect wild cacao-plants; any
scheme for developing the resources of the country is sure to receive
his advocacy; and he looks forward with confidence to the day when a
steamer shall ascend the Purus and Ynambari, and return to the Atlantic
with a cargo of the produce of Caravaya. It would be well for Peru if
she contained many such men as Don Agustin Aragon.

It is supposed that the old Spanish town of San Gavan was situated near
a river of the same name, about twenty miles from Aragon's estate.
The site is now overgrown with dense forest, and it has never been
visited since its destruction; yet it is believed that vast treasure
lies concealed amongst the tree-covered ruins, because the attack of
the Chunchos was sudden, and at once successful; they care nothing
for the precious metals, and San Gavan contained a royal treasury,
and was a central deposit for the gold of Caravaya. The Chunchos,
in former times, were in friendly communication with, and even took
service under, the Spaniards; but the tyranny of the latter at length
exasperated them, and led to the destruction of San Gavan. Since that
time the Chunchos have wandered in the forests in small tribes,[304]
the implacable enemies of all white men and Inca Indians.

Following the eastern <DW72>s of the Andes to the south-east, the next
village to Ayapata, at the head of another deep ravine, is Ccoasa, and
next follow Usicayus, Phara, and Limbani. Phara is in a ravine on the
eastern <DW72> of the Andes, about thirty-five miles from Crucero. Here
many gold-mines were worked by the Señores Mulattos, and at no great
distance is the famous gold-mine of Aporuma, in the ravine of Pacchani.
Phara is on the road to the gold-diggings, which were discovered by
the brothers Poblete, and which attracted so many luckless adventurers
between 1849 and 1854. They are at a distance of fifteen leagues to
the northward. The path lies along a long ridge, gradually descending
for six leagues to a little hamlet called La Mina. Thence to the banks
of the river Ynambari, here called Huari-huari, is a distance of
three leagues, down a very dangerous road, covered with huge blocks
of schist, and skirting along fearful precipices. For this distance
the road is passable for mules. The river is seventy yards broad, and
is crossed by an _oroya_, or bridge of ropes, traversed by a sort of
net or cage, into which the passenger gets, and is hauled over to the
other side, at a giddy height above the boiling flood. On the other
side, at the junction of the Huari-huari and the golden river of
Challuma,[305] there is a place which has been named Versailles by
some French adventurers, of whom the most daring and energetic is a M.
La Harpe. The road, so far, was opened by a party of soldiers of the
batallion Yungay. From Versailles to the _lavaderos_ or gold-washings
is a distance of six leagues up a narrow forest-covered ravine; and,
in this distance, it is necessary to wade across the river Challuma no
less than fifty-three times--the water coming up to the waist, the feet
constantly slipping over loose rounded stones, the only support a long
staff, and where one false step would be inevitable destruction. At
the end of this perilous journey there is a place called Alta-garcia,
where the _administradores_ of the company of first discoverers were
established in 1850. Thence to Quimza-mayu (three rivers) is half a
league, and here the _lavaderos_ commence. In this part of its course
the river is called Taccuma. Many of the gold-seekers, such as the
Señores Carpio, La Harpe, Valdez, Tovar, Cardenas, and Costas, have
been men who were formerly engaged in the chinchona-bark trade, and who
know the country thoroughly. The tributaries of the Challuma, called
Quimza-mayu, rise in hills completely isolated from the Andes, and
their sands are full of gold, both in dust and nuggets. Immediately
above the _lavaderos_ rises a hill called Capacurco, and by the French
adventurers Montebello, formed of quartz and other primitive rocks,
with rich veins of gold. Here Don Manuel Costas of Puno erected a
house, and brought out machinery for crushing the quartz, but the
undertaking failed through the badness of the machinery, and the
immense cost and difficulty of transporting materials through such
a country. A few adventurers, however, still continue to wash for
gold in the Challuma or Taccuma. In the part of its course above
the _lavaderos_ this river descends rapidly from an isolated range
of forest-covered precipitous hills, and in one place its waters
plunge down in a cascade, with a sheer fall of forty feet.[306] The
gold-seekers of the Challuma have penetrated further into the forests,
and nearer to the main stream of the Purus, than any other explorers;
and their discovery of the Challuma, and of the auriferous hills near
its banks, has added something to our geographical knowledge of this
region.

The remaining villages on the eastern <DW72>s of the Caravayan Andes
are Patambuco, Sandia, Cuyo-cuyo, Quiaca, Sina, and the farm of Saqui,
on the frontier of Bolivia. The river of Sandia has one of its sources
near the pass twenty miles north-east of Crucero, whence it flows past
Sandia, and for many leagues down a narrow gorge, with magnificent
mountains rising up abruptly on either side. At a distance of twenty
miles below Sandia, in a part of the ravine called Ypara, the coca
and coffee plantations commence, at a height of 5000 feet above the
sea. Beyond Ypara cultivation ceases, and the river, now increased to
double its former size by its junction with the Huari-huari, flows for
many leagues between mountains covered from their summits with a dense
tropical forest. This region is known as San Juan del Oro, once famous
for its gold-washings; and here the royal town of the same name stood,
founded by the fugitive Almagristas, and afterwards tenanted by the
Señores Mulattos, but long since destroyed and abandoned. The forests
contain chinchona-trees of valuable species, and, until the last
fourteen years, they were frequented by bark-collectors.

While flowing through the forests of San Juan del Oro the river takes
a turn to the westward, and, at a distance of sixty miles from Sandia,
enters the Hatun-yunca, or Valle Grande, where the people of Sandia
have very extensive coca and coffee plantations. The curve here made
by the river is so considerable that the people from Sandia reach
their farms in the Valle Grande by leaving the ravine above Ypara, and
making their way across the grass-covered mountains. The coffee-plants
in these farms receive no attention whatever from the time they are
planted, so that, instead of the dense well-pruned bushes of India or
Ceylon, they grow into tall straggling trees about twelve feet high,
with a very small harvest of berries on each, but each berry well
exposed to the sun. The coffee is certainly excellent.

Passing through the Valle Grande the river flows on past Versailles,
where it receives the golden Challuma, and, uniting with all the other
rivers of Caravaya, becomes that great Ynambari which finally effects
a junction with the Madre de Dios, and forms the main stream of the
mighty Purus.

The river Huari-huari, which is formed by two streams flowing from the
villages of Sina and Quiaca, joins the river of Sandia about thirty
miles below that town, and their united streams compose the Ynambari.
Finally the river Tambopata rises near a farm called Saqui, just within
the boundary between Peru and Bolivia, at the foot of a ridge of the
Eastern Cordillera. After a course of forty miles it receives the river
of San Blas, on the banks of which the people of the Sina village have
their coca-plantations. Eighty miles lower down the Tambopata unites
with the river Pablo-bamba, on its right bank, at a place called
Putina-puncu. The Pablo-bamba rises in a hill called Corpa-ychu on
the very frontier of Bolivia, and is only divided from the Tambopata,
during its whole course, by a single range of hills. The frontier
between the two republics has never been surveyed. Below Putina-puncu
the united waters of the two rivers enter the vast forest-covered
plains into which the spurs of the Andes finally subside, and
henceforth its course is entirely unknown. I think it probable,
however, that the Tambopata finds its way direct to the Purus, without
previously uniting with the Ynambari.

The respective distances and populations of the villages of Caravaya
are as follows:--

                                Miles.      Population.
  Ollachea to Ituata              12}
       "      Corani              10}
       "      Ayapata             18}
       "      Ccoasa              10}           12,000
       "      Usicayus            18}
       "      Phara               20}
       "      Limbani              8}
       "      Patambuco           16             1,000
       "      Sandia              12             4,000
       "      Cuyo-cuyo           15             2,000
       "      Quiaca              21               600
       "      Sina                20               600
       "      Bolivian frontier   12
                                 ---            ------
                                 192            20,200
                                 ---
  Macusani to Crucero             30             1,800
                                                ------
             Population of Caravaya             22,000
                                                ------

But some of these villages are at greater distances from the foot
of the Andes than others; thus they are not in a straight line, and
the direct distance from Ollachea to the Bolivian frontier is a good
deal under 180 miles. The valleys in which the Caravaya villages are
situated are separated from each other by spurs of the Andes, many of
them so wild and precipitous as to be quite inaccessible; and there
is no means of passing from village to village, in many instances,
without crossing the Andes to Crucero or Macusani, and descending again
by another pass. For this reason Crucero, being in the most central
position, has been chosen as the site of the capital of the province,
though in a bleak and intensely cold region.

The geological formation of Caravaya is composed of non-fossiliferous
schists, micaceous and slightly ferruginous, with veins of quartz. It
is a portion of the extensive system of rocks which Mr. Forbes has
grouped together as belonging to the Silurian epoch, and which extends
almost continuously over an extent from north-west to south-east of
more than seven hundred miles, forming the mountain-chain of the
Eastern Andes, continuous from Cuzco, through Caravaya, to Bolivia.
These rocks throw off spurs along the eastern side of the main chain.
Of this formation, too, are the loftiest mountain-peaks in South
America:--Illampu, or Sorata (24,812 feet), and Illimani (24,155
feet). Illampu, Mr. Forbes assures us, is fossiliferous up to its very
summit.[307]

Such is a brief account of the geography of Caravaya, and especially
of the streams which combine to form the great river Purus, from the
rivers of the Paucartambo valley on the extreme north-west, to the
Pablo-bamba on the frontier of Bolivia. The streams flowing from the
Eastern Andes to the north-west of the Paucartambo system combine to
swell the Ucayali, while those to the south-east of the Pablo-bamba
fall into the Beni, one of the chief tributaries of the Madeira. The
intermediate streams are the sources of the unknown Purus, they are
all more or less auriferous, they flow through forests abounding in
valuable products, and through countries of inexhaustible capabilities.
Yet the courses of very few of them have been explored to distances of
seventy miles from their sources, and the main stream of the Purus, one
of the principal affluents of the Amazon, may be said to be entirely
unknown to geographers.




CHAPTER XIII.

CARAVAYA.--THE VALLEY OF SANDIA.


On the 18th of April I left Crucero, on my way to the chinchona
forests, rather late in the afternoon, accompanied by Mr. Weir the
gardener, a young mestizo named Pablo Sevallos, and two cargo-mules.
After a ride of three leagues along the bleak plain of Crucero, covered
with coarse _Stipa_ and stunted _Cacti_, we reached a little shepherd's
hut, called Choclari-piña, at dusk. It was built of loose stones,
with a sheepskin hung across the doorway, but with no plaster or mud
between the interstices of the stones, so that the piercingly cold wind
blew right through the hut.[308] The poor Indian family were kind and
hospitable, and gave us plenty of fresh milk. Next morning we continued
the journey along the same plain, with the snowy peaks of the Caravayan
Andes on the left, and the glorious nevada of Ananea ahead, whence rise
the rivers of Azangaro flowing into lake Titicaca, and of Ynambari
finding its way to the Atlantic. A ride of twelve miles brought us to
a hut called Acco-kunka (neck of sand), at the foot of long ridges of
dark- cliffs, with huge boulders of rock scattered over the
sides of the hills. A hard white frost covered the ground.

At Acco-kunka I met a red-faced man, about fifty years of age, who gave
his name as Don Manuel Martel. He said that he had been a colonel,
and had suffered persecution for being faithful to his party; that
he had lost much money in the _cascarilla_ trade; and that he was
now making a clearing in the forests of Caravaya, for the purpose of
growing sugar-cane. He talked about M. Hasskarl, the Dutch agent, who
was employed to obtain chinchona-plants in 1854, under his assumed name
of Müller; said that he employed an agent named Clemente Henriquez to
collect the plants; and vowed that if he, or any one else, ever again
attempted to take _cascarilla_ (chinchona) plants out of the country,
he would stir up the people to seize them and cut their feet off. There
was evidently some allusion to myself in his bluster; and I suspected,
what afterwards proved to be the case, that Martel had, by some means,
got information respecting the objects of my journey, and was desirous
of thwarting them. I had always carefully avoided any mention of
the subject since leaving Arequipa. Martel said he was going to buy
gold-dust at Poti, so I soon got rid of him; and, passing an alpine
lake, full of water-fowl, we began the descent into the golden valleys
of Caravaya.

On the left a black cliff, perpendicular, and fully 2000 feet high,
formed one side of the descent, and the space on its inner side was
occupied by a small glacier, the only one I have ever seen in the
Andes; whence descends, in a long waterfall, the source of the little
river Huaccuyo, which dashes down the ravine. For the first thousand
feet the vegetation continues to be of a lowly alpine character,
consisting of coarse grass and flowering herbs, chiefly _Compositæ_, of
which there were several _Senecios_, generally with yellow flowers, a
gentian with violet- flowers, a _Bartsia_ with a yellow flower,
a little _Plantago_, and a _Ranunculus_. As we continued the descent,
the scenery increased in magnificence. The polished surfaces of the
perpendicular cliffs glittered here and there with foaming torrents,
some like thin lines of thread, others broader and breaking over
rocks, others seeming to burst out of the fleecy clouds; while jagged
black peaks, glittering with streaks of snow, pierced the mist which
concealed their bases. After descending for some leagues through this
glorious scenery, the path at length crossed a ridge, and brought us to
the crest of the deep and narrow ravine of Cuyo-cuyo.

The path down the side of the gorge is very precipitous, through a
succession of _andeneria_, or terraced gardens, some abandoned, and
others planted with ocas (_Oxalis tuberosa_), barley, and potatoes;
the upper tiers from six to eight feet wide, but gradually becoming
broader. Their walled sides are thickly clothed with Calceolarias,
Celsias, Begonias, a large purple Solanum, and a profusion of ferns.
But it was not until reaching the little village in the bottom of the
hollow that all the glories of the scene burst upon me. The river
of Sandia, which takes its rise at the head of the ravine, flows by
the village of Cuyo-cuyo, bordered by ferns and wild flowers. It is
faced, near the village, with fern-covered masonry, and is crossed by
several stone bridges of a single arch. Almost immediately on either
side, the steep precipitous mountains, lined, at least a hundred deep,
with well-constructed _andeneria_, and faced with stone, rise up
abruptly. In several places a cluster of cottages, built on one of the
terraces, seemed almost to be hanging in the air. Above all the dark
rocks shoot up into snowy peaks, which stood out against the blue sky.
A most lovely scene, but very sad, for the great majority of those
carefully-constructed terraces, eternal monuments of the beneficence
of the Incas, are now abandoned. The alcalde of Cuyo-cuyo received me
most hospitably. In the early morning numbers of lambs and young llamas
were playing about in the abandoned terraced gardens near the village.
Besides Cuyo-cuyo, there are two small hamlets, called Muchucachi and
Sullanqui, and several scattered huts in the ravine, the population of
which is estimated at 2000 souls.

In the morning of April 20th I rode down the beautiful gorge to the
confluence of the rivers of Sandia and Huaccuyo. After this junction
the stream becomes a roaring torrent, dashing over huge rocks, and
descending rapidly down the ravine towards Sandia. On both sides vast
masses of dark frowning mountains rear themselves up for thousands of
feet, and end in fantastically shaped peaks, some of them veiled by
thin fleecy clouds. The vegetation rapidly increased in luxuriance
with the descent. At first there were low shrubs, such as _Baccharis
odorata_, _Weinmannia fagaroides_, &c.; which gradually gave place to
trees and large bushes; while all the way from Cuyo-cuyo there were
masses of ferns of many kinds, Begonias, Calceolarias, Lupins, Salvias,
and Celsias. Waterfalls streamed down the mountains in every direction:
some in a white sheet of continuous foam for hundreds of feet, finally
seeming to plunge into huge beds of ferns and flowers; some like driven
spray; and in one place a fall of water could be seen between two
peaks, which seemed to fall into the clouds below.

A most glorious and enchanting scene, allowing little time to think
of the road, which was very bad, and in many places most perilous.
In its best parts it was like a steep back-attic staircase after an
earthquake. Three leagues from Cuyo-cuyo is the confluence of the
torrent of Ñacorequi with the river of Sandia; and after this point
maize begins to be cultivated, where the craggy jutting cliffs permit,
between the river and the mountains. The Indians live in eyrie-like
huts, perched at great heights, here and there, amongst the maize
terraces. The village of Sandia is at a distance of fifteen miles from
Cuyo-cuyo, down this ravine, a dilapidated little place, with more than
half the houses roofless and in ruins. It is built along the banks of
the river, and has a church in the _plaza_. The mountains rise up all
round it, almost perpendicularly, forming a close amphitheatre; and in
two places glittering cascades foam down from their very summits, into
the bushes on a level with the town.

The descent from the summit of the pass over the Caravayan Andes to
Sandia is very considerable, nearly 7000 feet in thirty miles, from an
arctic to a sub-tropical climate. The height of Crucero is 12,980 feet;
of the pass 13,600; of Cuyo-cuyo 10,510; and of Sandia 6930 feet above
the sea.[309]

The four mountains closely hemming in the village of Sandia are mount
Chicanaco, which is beautified by a splendid cascade; mount Vianaco,
which ends in two fine wooded peaks, between which a long slender
thread of water descends into the foliage midway; mount Camparacani,
on the other side of the river, which rises up to a stupendous height,
ending in a jagged rocky peak; and mount Catasuyu, which completes
the circle, rising abruptly above the church. The name of Sandia
is probably a corruption of the Spanish word _sandilla_, the first
settlers having mistaken the quantities of gourds which grow here for
_sandillas_ or water-melons.

When I arrived in Sandia the governor was absent on his estate; the
cura, my good friend Dr. Guaycochea, was getting in his maize-harvest
on his land near Cuzco; and the principal remaining inhabitants were
the Juez de Paz, Don Francisco Farfan, and one Don Manuel Mena, who
was drunk in bed when I arrived, but who afterwards received me very
hospitably. These good people are, in manners and education, the
roughest backwoodsmen, much too fond of aguardiente, and addicted to
chewing coca to excess; but they are warm-hearted and neighbourly,
while they display some energy in working the coffee and coca estates
in the distant montaña, and in making roads, such as they are, from
these estates to Sandia. The richer people of Sandia all have more or
less of Indian blood, and their wives and daughters are unable to
speak any language but Quichua; and thus they seem to be more closely
united in interests and feelings with the mass of the population than
in any other part of Peru. The Indians of the district of Sandia are
divided into six _ayllus_ or tribes, besides the inhabitants of the
villages of Sandia, Cuyo-cuyo, and Patambuco. These _ayllus_ are
established on the mountains around Sandia, living in scattered huts,
some cultivating maize and potatoes, others raising barley and alfalfa
for mules. The _ayllus_ are called Laqueque, about a league up the
river, on the right bank; Cuyo-cuyo (not the village), behind mount
Camparacani; Oruro, on the heights below Cuyo-cuyo; Quiaca (not the
village), near Oruro; Quenequi, about a league down the river; and
Apabuco, behind mount Catasuyu. The population of the parish of Sandia
is about 7000; 4000 in Sandia and its six _ayllus_, 2000 in the village
and ravine of Cuyo-cuyo, and 1000 in Patambuco. As many as 1000 souls
fell victims to the dreadful pestilence of 1855, which raged over all
parts of the Andes of Peru. Nearly every Indian family, besides land
near Sandia, owns a small farm of coca or coffee down in the montaña,
to which men, women, and children go at harvest-time. As in all parts
of the Andes, so in the Sandia ravine, I constantly found the Indians
civil, obliging, and respectful, always saluting with an "Ave Maria
Taytay!" and a touch of the hat in passing. They are reserved and
silent, it is true, and superficial observers take this for stupidity.
Never was there a greater mistake: their skill in carving and all
carpenter's work, in painting and embroidery, the exquisite fabrics
they weave from vicuña-wool, the really touching poetry of their
love-songs and _yaravis_, the traditional histories of their _ayllus_,
which they preserve with religious care, surely disprove so false a
charge.

The houses in Sandia are the merest barns, with mud-walls, and roofs
which let the water in. All the family sleep together in a promiscuous
way; pigs and fowls wandering over the floor at early dawn. The Juez
de Paz, Francisco Farfan, administers justice in such a place as this,
lounging on a sort of mud-platform at one end of the room, where
his bed is made up, while the culprit, and a crowd of alcaldes and
spectators, stand before him. Every one chatters at the same time for
about ten minutes, and the prisoner is sent to the lock-up. The Jueces
de Paz have to render periodical accounts of all their cases, attested
by witnesses, to the Juez de Primera Instancia in the capital of the
province.

While upon the subject of these local authorities, it will be well to
give an account of the powers placed in their hands by the Constitution
of 1856, by which Peru is now governed; both because the measures then
adopted will, I believe, have a lasting and beneficial effect on the
people, and because the persons so vested with power endeavoured to
display their patriotic zeal by throwing obstacles in my way. By this
constitution it was provided that in the capital of each department
there should be a _Junta Departmental_,[310] the members of which
should be elected in the same way and with the same qualifications as
those for the National Congress, to meet every year. These _Juntas_
were to deliberate and legislate for the advancement and material
progress of the departments, their decrees being null if contrary
to any law of Congress. The evident objection to this measure is
its tendency to split the country up into small communities with
separate interests, which has always proved to be most disastrous in
thinly-peopled and half-civilized states. This view is taken in a very
able article on the constitution, in a periodical published at Lima,
where the _Juntas Departmentales_ are declared to be the initiation
of a system of "federation," the result of which has always been to
dismember countries into so many small depopulated districts, as in
Mexico, Central America, New Granada, and the Argentine Republic,
introducing civil war, anarchy, and dissolution. The writer might now
add the dis-United States of North America also.[311]

But the institutions to which I before alluded, as having had a
beneficial effect, are the _Juntas Municipales_,[312] which were to be
established in every district where materials existed to form them,
and to have the regulation of the local funds and improvements. They
were to consist of the most influential citizens, elected by their
fellow townsmen, and were to attend to local interests, have charge
of the civic registers, take the census, &c. The same writer speaks
of these municipalities in terms of unqualified praise, and says that
their establishment is a positive good, without in any way promoting
a federation which would be ruinous to Peruvian nationality.[313]
They will give young men the opportunity of becoming acquainted with
public affairs, teach them habits of business, and gradually train them
for more important political duties. I look upon these institutions
as one of the sources of hope for a brighter future for Peru; and as
long as they show activity, whether in a right or wrong direction,
they must be productive of good. The habit of taking an active part in
public affairs must be better than the torpor and indifference which
formerly prevailed. I saw several signs of activity in these _Juntas
Municipales_ during my journey from Puno. At Lampa they were actively
engaged in an endeavour to re-establish a manufactory of glazed tiles
in that town; in Azangaro they were collecting subscriptions for a
bridge across the river, to which one of their body had contributed
half the required sum; and in Sandia they were drawing up a report on
the state of the roads, with an estimate of the sum required for their
thorough repair and bridging. I was happy to be able to assist the
Sandia Municipality, by preparing a map for them, to illustrate their
report. The _Juntas Municipales_ of Sandia and Quiaca also, especially
the latter, took measures to prevent me from procuring a supply of
chinchona-plants or seeds, influenced by motives which exposed their
ignorance of political economy, while it displayed their activity and
patriotic zeal.

In Sandia the municipal body consists of the Alcalde Municipal, who
presides, the Teniente Alcalde, the Syndic, two Judges of the Peace,
three Regidores, one of whom is Don Manuel Mena, and a Secretary.

My original plan had been to examine the chinchona forests during
this month, make as many meteorological and other observations as was
possible, and perhaps send down a small collection of plants to the
coast; but to make the principal collection of plants and seeds in
August, the month when the seeds of _C. Calisaya_ are ripe. I had not,
however, been two days in Sandia before I discovered that Martel had
already written to several of the inhabitants, urging them to prevent
me from taking chinchona plants or seeds out of the country, and to
bring the matter before the _Junta Municipal_ of the district. I heard
also that he was busying himself in the same way in other villages
bordering on the chinchona forests. My mission was becoming the talk
of the whole country; and I at once saw that my only chance of success
was to commence the work of collecting plants without a moment's delay,
and, if possible, anticipate any measures which might be taken to
thwart my designs.

It was at Sandia that it became necessary to make final preparations
for a journey into the forests, for beyond this point the possibility
of procuring supplies of any kind is very doubtful. I here laid in a
stock of bread to last for about a month, which was toasted in the oven
belonging to the cura, the only one in the place, and which, together
with some chocolate and cheese, formed the provisions for myself and
the gardener. I then persuaded the judge to order the alcaldes of
four of the _ayllus_ to procure four Indians and two cargo-mules, the
Indians to bring their own provisions with them, for which I advanced
them money. After considerable delays my little expedition was ready
to start, consisting of myself, Mr. Weir the gardener, Pablo Sevallos
the mestizo, four Indians, and two mules. The supplies and provisions
were packed in six leathern bags, containing tea and sugar, chocolate,
toasted bread, cheese, candles, concentrated beef-tea, changes of
clothes, instruments, powder and shot, besides a tent, an air-bed,
gutta-percha robes, ponchos, a wood-knife and trowel, and maize and
salt meat for Pablo and the Indians. It took several days to complete
these preparations.

The climate of Sandia, at this time of the year, is exceedingly
agreeable, the days being fine and clear until late in the afternoon,
and not too hot. The prevailing wind blows up the ravine from the
north-east, being the trade which comes across the vast forest-covered
plains of the interior. It is this warm trade-wind which produces a
much milder climate and more tropical vegetation in Cuyo-cuyo than in
Arequipa, though the former place is three thousand feet higher than
the latter. In Sandia, just after sunset, it feels rather chilly, and
during the middle of the day the sun is exceedingly hot. Light clouds
generally hang about the highest peaks. The variety of most beautiful
and graceful ferns on the walls of the houses, and near the banks of
the river, is endless.

I had the satisfaction of seeing, in the house of Don Manuel Mena,
before leaving Sandia, a bundle of small branches of the _ychu
cascarilla_ (_C. Calisaya, var. β Josephiana_), with leaves and
flowers, which had been collected as a tonic medicine for a little
daughter of my host.

On the 24th of April, late in the afternoon, we left Sandia, and
reached the _tambo_, or travellers' hut, called Cahuan-chaca, before
dark. The road leads down the ravine, along narrow ledges overhanging
the river, which dashes furiously along, in most places between
perpendicular cliffs. The path is very narrow and dangerous, but the
scenery is superb, and the vegetation becomes richer and more tropical
at every league of the descent.

One of the Indians traitorously fled on the first day, and my
party was thus reduced to three, who were barely able to carry the
necessary provisions. These three men proved faithful and willing
fellow-labourers. Their names were Andres Vilca of the Oruro _Ayllu_,
Julian Ccuri of Cuyo-cuyo, and Santos Quispi of Apabuco. They were
fine-looking young fellows, wearing their hair in long plaits down
their backs, coarse canvas trousers and shirts. They carry the cargos
in large cloths tied in bundles, and placed in other cloths, which are
passed over one shoulder and tied across the chest, called _ccepis_.
They stoop forward and step out at a great rate; and it is in this
way that Indians carry their burdens along the roads, and women their
children, throughout Peru. The _tambo_ of Cahuan-chaca is a shed, with
one side open, and we slept in company with three Indians and a woman
on their way to get in a coca-harvest in the Hatun-yunca, who were
living very well on salt mutton, eggs, and potatoes.

The river rushing down the valley winds along the small breadth of
level land, striking first against the precipitous cliffs on one side,
and then sweeping over to the other, so that a road in the bottom
of the valley would require a bridge at almost every hundred yards.
It has, therefore, been necessary to excavate a path in the sides
of the mountains, high above the river, which in some places has a
breadth of three feet only, with a perpendicular cliff on one side,
and a precipice six or seven hundred feet deep on the other; while,
in others, it zigzags down amongst loose stones, where one false step
would be immediate destruction. But the scenery continued to increase
in beauty, and the cascades were really splendid:--

  "A land of streams! some, like a downward smoke,
    Slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn, did go;
  And some thro' wavering lights and shadows broke,
    Rolling a slumbrous sheet of foam below."

The river dashed noisily through the centre of the gorge, and the
masses of green on either side were toned down by many flowers in
large patches, bright purple _Lasiandræ_, orange _Cassiæ_, and scarlet
_Salviæ_. I also saw an _Indigofera_ growing in this part of the ravine.

A mile from the hut of Cahuan-chaca is the confluence of the river
Huascaray; and a league lower down is the little shed or tambo of
Cancallani. Here bamboos and tree-ferns first appear, and coca is
cultivated in terraces which are fringed with coffee-plants, with
their rich green foliage and crimson berries. I observed that the
huts in the middle of these patches of coca or maize had no doors,
showing the confidence of the inmates in the honesty of the numerous
passers-by, who go to and fro between Sandia and the more distant coca
estates.[314] I passed the estate of Chayllabamba, with terraces of
coca at least fifty deep, up the sides of the mountains; and Asalay, a
coffee estate, with groves of orange and chirimoya-trees, the extreme
point reached by M. Hasskarl, the Dutch collector, in 1854. At the
confluence of the rivers Asalay and Sandia perpendicular cliffs rise
abruptly from the valley to a stupendous height on both sides, and
the path winds up in a serpentine slippery staircase, to creep along
the edge of the steep grassy <DW72>s or _pajonales_, far above the
tropical vegetation of the ravine. Winding along this path, we came to
the _tambo_ of Paccay-samana, on the grassy _pajonal_, the mountains
rising up on the opposite side of the ravine only about sixty yards
distant; yet the river, in the bottom of the gorge, was many hundreds
of feet below. There were thickets with masses of bright flowers in
the gullies, and glorious cascades shimmering in the sunlight on the
opposite mountain-sides.

It was at this spot that we first encountered chinchona-plants. A
number of young plants of _C. Calisaya_, _var. β Josephiana_, were
growing by the side of the road, with their exquisite roseate flowers,
and rich green leaves with crimson veins. The rock is a metamorphic
slate, unfossiliferous, slightly micaceous, and ferruginous, with
quartz occurring here and there: the soil a stiff brown loam. Above
the tambo there was a small thicket of gaultherias, called _ccarani_
in Quichua, and Melastomaceæ with bright purple flowers (_Lasiandra
fontanesiana_), in a shallow gully, surrounded by the rich broad-bladed
grass of the _pajonal_. Here there were some fine plants of the
chinchona named by Dr. Weddell _C. Caravayensis_; and further on more
plants of _C. Josephiana_, called _ychu cascarilla_ by the natives. The
height of this spot is 5420 feet above the sea. A tree-fern and many
_Trichomanes_ were growing with the chinchonæ. Paccay-samana is sixteen
miles from Sandia.

Animal life did not appear to be very abundant. There were plenty of
large doves, some ducks near the river, and a brilliant woodpecker. I
also saw great numbers of large swallow-tailed butterflies, purple with
light-blue spots on the upper wings; and others with white upper wings
edged with jet black and rows of white spots, the lower wings orange.

Beyond Paccay-samana there were several more plants of _C. Josephiana_,
rising out of masses of maiden-hair and _Polypodia_. After following
the edge of the pajonal for about a mile, we descended by a precipitous
zigzag path and crossed over the river Pulluma, at its confluence with
the Sandia. Here the road to the Hatun-yunca or Valle Grande branches
off up the mountain of Ramas-pata, while our way continued down the
ravine. The scenery is here remarkably beautiful. Lofty mountains,
with their bright cascades, are clothed to their summits with rich
grass, while their gullies are filled with flowering trees and shrubs.
Half-way up, in many directions, the stone terraces of coca rise tier
above tier, fringed with ferns and begonias, and filled with the
delicate  green coca-branches, diversified occasionally by the
darker hues of the coffee. The ravine is filled with masses of purple
Melastomaceæ, and the river is fringed with tree-ferns, plantains, and
bamboos.

This purple Melastomacea (_Lasiandra fontanesiana_), called in Quichua
_panti-panti_, in the brilliancy and abundance of its flowers,
bears the same relation to this part of the Peruvian Andes as the
rhododendron does to the Himalayas. The effect in masses is much the
same, but the _Lasiandra_ appears to me to be a more graceful and
delicate tree, with a more beautiful flower. In this ravine we have the
shrub chinchonæ on the high grassy <DW72>s, perhaps the finest coffee
in the world near the banks of the river, and a little galium by the
road-side--all chinchonaceous plants.

At noon on April 26th we rested in the tambo of Ypara, in the centre
of coca cultivation, and in the afternoon, crossing the river by a
wooden bridge, we had to travel along the skirts of the mountains, at
a considerable height, in the region of the _pajonales_. No gullies or
large cascades cut up the face of these mountains, which were entirely
exposed to the full glare of the sun, and here, though there was a
profusion of purple Melastomaceæ in some of the shallow indentations,
there were no chinchonæ. Towards evening we came to a lofty spur of the
mountain, called Estanqui, at a great height above the ravine, whence
there was a most extensive view. To the left was the valley of Sandia,
with little coca-farms nestling in all the sheltered gullies; and I
could just make out the boys and girls far far below, like specks, busy
with the coca-leaves in the drying-yards. In front there was a distant
view of the hills in the direction of San Juan del Oro, covered with
virgin forest; while at our feet, and a thousand feet below us, was the
confluence of the rivers Sandia, Llaypuni, and Huari-huari, which unite
to form the great river Ynambari.

It was my intention, after marking down all the eligible plants of
the shrubby _Calisaya_, to be taken up on our return, to make for the
forest-covered valley of Tambopata, which is full of chinchona-trees;
and I therefore left the ravine of the Sandia river at this point,
and, by a rapid descent, went down from the grassy uplands to a region
of tropical forest, full of palms and tree-ferns. We thus reached the
banks of the Huari-huari. This river flows through a deep and very
narrow ravine, lined with forest, for about 500 feet, above which rise
grassy mountains to an immense height. Though only 30 feet across, and
confined by dark polished rocks, the Huari-huari is very deep, and
decidedly a more important stream than the Sandia, at their junction.

We established ourselves under a rock, where there was no room to
pitch the tent, and thus our first night of camping out commenced, for
previously we had slept in the road-side _tambos_. The Indians carried
little earthen pots for cooking, in their _ccepis_, and got up a fire
of dry sticks with great rapidity. I had a delicious bath in the river,
where the tall forest trees overshadowed the water on either side. At
night the moon streamed its floods of light over the forest, and the
brilliant sparks from myriads of fire-flies shone from the trees in
every direction up the side of the opposite mountain; but in the early
morning the sky clouded over, and a heavy drizzling rain began to fall,
which prevented sleep, and made us wish for day.

From this encampment our way led up the precipitous sides of the
mountain, to the grassy _pajonales_ which divide the valleys of Sandia
and Tambopata; but I will here halt awhile to give a brief account of
the cultivation of that plant, of which we had lately seen so much, and
which enabled me to ascend the mighty passes of the Andes on foot with
ease and comfort--the strength-giving, invigorating coca.

A general geographical description of all this country has been given
in the preceding chapter.

During my stay at Sandia the indications of the thermometer were as
follows, between the 20th and 25th of April:--

  Mean temperature                63-1/5°
  Minimum temperature at night    50-1/2
  Highest observed                65
  Lowest                          47
  Range                           18




CHAPTER XIV.

COCA-CULTIVATION.


THE coca-leaf is the great source of comfort and enjoyment to the
Peruvian Indian; it is to him what betel is to the Hindoo, kava to
the South Sea Islander, and tobacco to the rest of mankind; but its
use produces invigorating effects which are not possessed by the
other stimulants. From the most ancient times the Peruvians have
used this beloved leaf, and they still look upon it with feelings of
superstitious veneration. In the time of the Incas it was sacrificed
to the Sun, the Huillac Umu or high priest chewing the leaf during the
ceremony; and, before the arrival of the Spaniards, it was used, as the
cacao in Mexico, instead of money. After the conquest, although its
virtues were extolled by the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega,[315] and by
the Jesuit Acosta,[316] some fanatics proposed to proscribe its use,
and to root up the plants, because they had been used in the ancient
superstitions, and because its cultivation took away the Indians from
other work. The second council of Lima, consisting of bishops from all
parts of South America, condemned the use of coca in 1569 because it
was a "useless and pernicious leaf, and on account of the belief stated
to be entertained by the Indians that the habit of chewing coca gave
them strength, which is an illusion of the devil."[317]

In speaking of the strength the coca gives to those who chew it,
Garcilasso do la Vega relates the following anecdote. "I remember a
story which I heard in my native land of Peru, of a gentleman of rank
and honour, named Rodrigo Pantoja, who, travelling from Cuzco to Rimac
(Lima), met a poor Spaniard (for there are poor people there as well
as here) who was going on foot, with a little girl aged two years on
his back. The man was known to Pantoja, and they thus conversed. 'Why
do you go laden thus?' said the knight. The poor man answered that he
was unable to hire an Indian to carry the child, and for that reason he
carried it himself. While he spoke Pantoja looked in his mouth, and saw
that it was full of coca; and, as the Spaniards abominate all that the
Indians eat and drink, as though it savoured of idolatry, particularly
the chewing of coca, which seems to them a low and vile habit, he said,
'It may be as you say, but why do you eat coca like an Indian, a thing
so hateful to Spaniards?' The man answered, 'In truth, my lord, I
detest it as much as any one, but necessity obliges me to imitate the
Indians, and keep coca in my mouth; for I would have you to know that,
if I did not do so, I could not carry this burden; while the coca gives
me sufficient strength to endure the fatigue.' Pantoja was astonished
to hear this, and told the story wherever he went; and from that time
credit was giving to the Indians for using coca from necessity, and not
from vicious gluttony."

The Spanish Government interfered with the cultivation from more
worthy motives, and _mitas_ of Indians, for the purpose of collecting
coca-leaves, were forbidden in 1569, owing to the reputed unhealthiness
of the valleys.[318] Finally Don Francisco Toledo, viceroy of Peru,
permitted the cultivation with voluntary labour, on condition that the
Indians were well paid, and that care was taken of their healths. This
most prolific of Peruvian legislators issued no less than seventy
_ordenanzas_ on this subject alone, between the years 1570 and 1574.
Coca has always been one of the most valuable articles of commerce in
Peru, and it is used by about 8,000,000 of the human race.

The coca-plant (_Erythoxylon coca_)[319] is cultivated between 5000
and 6000 feet above the level of the sea, in the warm valleys of the
eastern <DW72>s of the Andes, where almost the only variation of climate
is from wet to dry, where frost is unknown, and where it rains more or
less every month in the year. It is a shrub from four to six feet high,
with lichens, called _lacco_ in Quichua, usually growing on the older
trunks. The branches are straight and alternate; leaves alternate and
entire, in form and size like tea-leaves; flowers solitary with a small
yellowish-white corolla in five petals, ten filaments the length of the
corolla, anthers heart-shaped, and three pistils.

Sowing is commenced in December and January, when the rains begin,
which continue until April. The seeds are spread on the surface of
the soil in a small nursery or raising-ground called _almaciga_, over
which there is generally a thatch roof (_huasichi_). At the end of
about a fortnight they come up; the young plants being continually
watered, and protected from the sun by the _huasichi_. The following
year they are transplanted to a soil specially prepared by thorough
weeding, and breaking up the clods very fine by hand; often in terraces
only affording room for a single row of plants, up the sides of the
mountains, which are kept up by small stone walls. The plants are
generally placed in square holes called _aspi_, a foot deep, with
stones on the sides to prevent the earth from falling in. Three or
four are planted in each hole, and grow up together. In Caravaya and
Bolivia the soil in which the coca grows is composed of a blackish
clay, formed from the decomposition of the schists, which form the
principal geological features of the mountains. On level ground the
plants are placed in furrows called _uachos_, separated by little walls
of earth _umachas_, at the foot of each of which a row of plants is
placed; but this is a modern innovation, the terrace cultivation being
the most ancient. At the end of eighteen months the plants yield their
first harvest, and continue to yield for upwards of forty years. The
first harvest is called _quita calzon_, and the leaves are then picked
very carefully, one by one, to avoid disturbing the roots of the young
tender plants. The following harvests are called _mitta_ ("time" or
"season"), and take place three times and even four times in the year.
The most abundant harvest takes place in March, immediately after the
rains; the worst at the end of June, called the _mitta de San Juan_.
The third, called _mitta de Santos_, is in October or November. With
plenty of watering, forty days suffice to cover the plants with leaves
afresh. It is necessary to weed the ground very carefully, especially
while the plants are young, and the harvest is gathered by women and
children.

The green leaves, called _matu_, are deposited in a piece of cloth
which each picker carries, and are then spread out in the drying-yard,
called _matu-cancha_, and carefully dried in the sun. The dried leaf
is called _coca_. The drying-yard is formed of slate-flags, called
_pizarra_; and, when the leaves are thoroughly dry, they are sewn up
in _cestos_ or sacks made of banana-leaves, of twenty pounds each,
strengthened by an exterior covering of _bayeta_ or cloth.[320] They
are also packed in _tambores_ of fifty pounds each, pressed tightly
down. Dr. Poeppig reckoned the profits of a coca-farm to be forty-five
per cent.

The harvest is greatest in a hot moist situation; but the leaf
generally considered the best flavoured by consumers, grows in drier
parts, on the sides of hills. The greatest care is required in the
drying; for too much sun causes the leaves to dry up and lose their
flavour, while, if packed up moist, they become fetid. They are
generally exposed to the sun in thin layers.

Acosta says that in his time the trade in coca at Potosi was worth
500,000 dollars annually; and that in 1583 the Indians consumed
100,000 _cestos_ of coca, worth 2-1/2 dollars each in Cuzco, and 4
dollars in Potosi. In 1591[321] an excise of 5 per cent. was imposed
on coca; and in the years 1746 and 1750 this duty yielded 800 and
500 dollars respectively, from Caravaya alone. Between 1785 and 1795
the coca traffic was calculated at 1,207,430 dollars in the Peruvian
viceroyalty; and, including that of Buenos Ayres, 2,641,487 dollars.

In the district of Sandia, in Caravaya, there are two kinds of coca,
that of Ypara and that of Hatun-yunca, which has a larger leaf. The
yield is 45,000 cestos a year. In the yungus of La Paz, in Bolivia,
the yield is about 400,000 cestos. The coca-trade is a government
monopoly in Bolivia, the state reserving the right of purchasing from
the grower, and reselling to the consumer. This right is generally
farmed out to the highest bidder. In 1850 the coca-duty yielded 200,000
dollars to the Bolivian revenue.

The approximate annual produce of coca in Peru is about 15,000,000
lbs.,[322] the average yield being about 800 lbs. an acre. More than
10,000,000 lbs. are produced annually in Bolivia, according to Dr.
Booth of La Paz; so that the annual yield of coca throughout South
America, including Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Pasto, may be estimated
at more than 30,000,000 lbs. At Tacna the _tambor_ of 50 lbs. is
worth 9 to 12 dollars, the fluctuations in price being caused by the
perishable nature of the article, which cannot be kept in stock for
any length of time. The average duration of coca in a sound state, on
the coast, is about five months, after which time it is said to lose
flavour, and is rejected by the Indians as worthless.

The reliance on the extraordinary virtues of the coca-leaf, amongst the
Peruvian Indians, is so strong, that, in the Huanuco province, they
believe that, if a dying man can taste a leaf placed on his tongue, it
is a sure sign of his future happiness.[323]

No Indian is without his _chuspa_ or coca-bag, made of llama-cloth,
dyed red and blue in patterns, with woollen tassels hanging from it.
He carries it over one shoulder, suspended at his side; and, in taking
coca, he sits down, puts his _chuspa_ before him, and places the leaves
in his mouth one by one, chewing and turning them till he forms a ball.
He then applies a small quantity of carbonate of potash, prepared
by burning the stalk of the quinoa-plant, and mixing the ashes with
lime and water; thus forming cakes called _llipta_, which are dried
for use, and also kept in the _chuspa_.[324] This operation is called
_acullicar_ in Bolivia and Southern Peru, and _chacchar_ in the North.
They usually perform it three times in a day's work, and every Indian
consumes two or three ounces of coca daily.

In the mines of the cold region of the Andes the Indians derive great
enjoyment from the use of coca; the running _chasqui_, or messenger,
in his long journeys over the mountains and deserts, and the shepherd
watching his flock on the lofty plains, has no other nourishment than
is afforded by his _chuspa_ of coca, and a little maize. The smell of
the leaf is agreeable and aromatic, and when chewed it gives out a
grateful fragrance, accompanied by a slight irritation, which excites
the saliva. Its properties are to enable a greater amount of fatigue
to be borne with less nourishment, and to prevent the occurrence of
difficulty of respiration in ascending steep mountain-sides. Tea
made from the leaves has much the taste of green tea, and, if taken
at night, is much more effectual in keeping people awake. Applied
externally coca moderates the rheumatic pains caused by cold, and cures
headaches. When used to excess it is, like everything else, prejudicial
to the health, yet, of all the narcotics used by man, coca is the least
injurious, and the most soothing and invigorating.

The active principle of the coca-leaf has, a few years ago, been
separated by Dr. Niemann, and called _cocaine_. Pure _cocaine_
crystallizes with difficulty, is but slightly soluble in water, but is
easily dissolved in alcohol, and still more easily in ether.[325]

I chewed coca, not constantly, but very frequently, from the day of my
departure from Sandia, and, besides the agreeable soothing feeling it
produced, I found that I could endure long abstinence from food with
less inconvenience than I should otherwise have felt, and it enabled
me to ascend precipitous mountain-sides with a feeling of lightness
and elasticity, and without losing breath. This latter quality ought
to recommend its use to members of the Alpine Club, and to walking
tourists in general, though the sea voyage would probably cause the
leaves to lose much of their virtue. To the Peruvian Indian, however,
who can procure it within a few weeks of its being picked, the coca is
a solace which is easily procured, which affords great enjoyment, and
which has a most beneficial effect.[326]




CHAPTER XV.

CARAVAYA.

Chinchona forests of Tambopata.


ON the morning of April 27th we crossed a rude bridge over the
Huari-huari, and began to make our way up the face of the steep
mountain on the other side, first through a thick forest, and then up
into the grassy highlands, until, after several halts, we at length
reached the summit of the ridge, though a mountain-peak still rose
up in our rear. From this point there was a most extensive panoramic
view. A sea of ridges rose one behind the other, with stupendous snowy
peaks in the background, and, more than a thousand feet below, the
rivers of Sandia and Huari-huari, reduced to mere glittering threads,
could be seen winding through the tortuous ravines. We had now reached
the _pajonales_, and were on a ridge or back-bone between the rivers
of Laccani and San Lorenzo, two tributaries of the Huari-huari;
a grass-covered and comparatively cold region, interspersed with
thickets, forming the crest of the tropical forests which line the
sides of the ravines through which the rivers wind, far below.

When there is sunshine, these _pajonales_ form a very pleasant
landscape: the broad expanse of grass, dotted over with a graceful
milk-white flower called _sayri-sayri_, is intersected by dense
thickets, some in the gullies and watercourses, and others in clumps,
like those in an English park, the palms and tree-ferns raising their
graceful heads above the rest of the trees. Here and there a black pool
of sweet water is met with at the edge of the thicket, with chinchona
and _huaturu_-trees drooping over it. Everywhere there is an abrupt
boundary to the foreground in the profound forest-covered ravines, with
splendid views of mountain ranges in the distance.

The vegetation of the thickets in these _pajonales_ consists of
_palms_, _tree-ferns_, _Melastomaceæ_ (_Lasiandra fontanesiana_) with
bright showy flowers, exceedingly pretty _Ericaceæ_ (_Gaultheriæ_),
_Vacciniæ_, the _huaturu_ or incense-tree in great quantities, and
_Chinchonæ_, chiefly consisting of _C. Caravayensis_ (Wedd.), with a
few plants of _Calisaya Josephiana_, but the latter are much more rare
here than in the neighbourhood of Paccay-samana. The _C. Caravayensis_,
a worthless species, has panicles of beautiful deep roseate flowers,
large coarse hairy capsules, and lanceolate leaves, above smooth with
purple veins, and hairy on the under side. It can probably bear greater
cold than any other chinchona.[327]

The afternoon was passed in searching for plants of the shrubby
_Calisaya_, but with little success. During our examination of the
thickets we found a single specimen, evidently belonging to the
_Calisaya_ species, but in the form of a tree, and not of a shrub.
Its height was eighteen feet six inches; its girth, two feet from the
ground, eight and a half inches; and the position in which it was
growing was 5680 feet above the level of the sea. I was uncertain
whether it belonged to the tree variety (_Calisaya vera_, Wedd.), or
to the shrub (_Calisaga Josephiana_); for Dr. Weddell only gives the
height of the latter at eight or ten feet.

Near the banks of one of the black pools, overhung by spreading
branches, we found a shed, a roof of coarse grass raised on four sticks
four and a half feet high, and here we encamped for the night. It had
been made by some party of incense-collectors from Bolivia, who wander
through these wilds. Towards sunset it began to pour with rain, and
continued through the night.

From this point to the Tambopata valley the road was unknown to my
Indians, and had not been traversed since the time of the bark-trade,
which came to an end fifteen years ago. It was supposed that any path
which might once have existed would be entirely choked up by the
forest, and I therefore started early in the morning, with Andres
Vilca, to reconnoitre. The backbone of the ridge along which we
travelled was not level, but up and down like a saw, and very rough
work. After walking for a league the ridge ended where a transverse
range of hills, at a lower elevation, connects the mountains on the
further sides of the rivers of San Lorenzo and Laccani, and, closing
up the ravines, contains their sources. This range, at right angles
with the one over which we had journeyed, is called the _Marun-kunka_,
and is covered with dense forests. It was necessary to force our way
through this formidable obstruction, and we plunged into it at once.
Our progress was vigorously opposed by closely matted fallen bamboos
for the first few hundred yards, and afterwards we followed the course
of a torrent, deeply cut in the rock, and forming a passage four to
six feet deep, and about three feet across, with masses of ferns
and the roots of enormous forest-trees interlacing across overhead,
and two feet of exceedingly tenacious yellow mud underfoot. In many
places it was almost dark at midday, while in others the rays of the
sun succeeded in forcing their way through the ferns, and throwing
a pale light across the otherwise gloomy passage. It was a weird
unearthly scene. After several hours of very laborious travelling we
at length forced our way across the Marun-kunka, and came out upon
another _pajonal_, on the eastern side, whence there was a grand view
of the forest scenery towards Tambopata, and the snowy peaks of the
cordillera above Quiaca and Sina to the right.

The afternoon was again devoted to searching for plants of _Calisaya
Josephiana_ in the thickets; where the _C. Caravayensis_ was very
plentiful, together with several plants of the shrubby _Calisaya_,
and four or five trees of the normal tree _Calisaya_, from 20 to 30
feet high. The elevation of this place was 5600 feet above the sea.
Later in the day the journey was continued over a most difficult
country, sometimes over grassy _pajonales_, and at others painfully
struggling through forests like those on the Marun-kunka. In one of
these forests I came upon a _Calisaya_-tree, 38 feet high, and 1 foot
3 inches in girth at a distance of 3 feet from the ground, which was
several feet deep in dead leaves, chiefly the smooth leathery leaf of
the _huaturu_-tree. At length we commenced the descent into the valley
of Tambopata, 1200 feet down slippery rocks and grass, then through a
belt of forest, until we suddenly emerged on an open space on the banks
of the large rapid river, where there was a bamboo hut. A little coca
and sugar-cane was planted, but the occupant was absent. With touching
confidence he had left his door open, so my Indians established
themselves comfortably, while Weir and I pitched the tent.

The river of Tambopata, descending from the farm of Saqui near the
frontier of Bolivia, here flows in a northerly direction. Up the stream
I could see a few little clearings, but looking down nothing appeared
but the virgin forest. A most magnificent range of mountains, with a
fine growth of forest trees, rises up on either side, and the rapid
swollen river rushed through the centre of the ravine. The rock of all
the ranges of hills between the Huari-huari and Tambopata rivers is
a yellow clay-slate, with masses of white quartz cropping out on the
_pajonales_.

Early in the morning we continued our journey down the valley, through
a forest of grand timber, passing the little hut of Tambopata which
Dr. Weddell had mentioned to me as having been the great rendezvous
for _cascarilleros_ or chinchona-bark collectors, at the time of his
visit. After wading across the rapid little river of Llami-llami, which
enters the Tambopata on the left bank, we came to a small clearing,
planted with sugar-cane, the property of a very energetic and obliging
old Bolivian, named Don Juan de la Cruz Gironda. He was living in
a shed, open on two sides, and with a young son, and two or three
Indians, was actively clearing, planting sugar-cane, and making rum in
an extemporized distillery of his own manufacture. This little farm was
the extreme outpost of civilisation in this direction, and had only
been commenced since December 1859.

Gironda was cultivating sugar-cane, maize, and edible roots; and, at
the time of my visit, he was just commencing his _michca_, or small
sowing of maize. His people were driving holes in the ground with long
poles, about a foot deep, into which they drop four to six grains, and
cover over. The holes are four feet apart, for here the maize grows
to an immense height. The agricultural tools were of a most primitive
kind. The ground is first broken and cleared with a bit of old iron,
fastened, at an acute angle, on a short handle. It is further broken
up by an attempt at a spade, an oblong piece of iron, bent at one end
round a long pole. The weeds and brushwood are cleared away by an
instrument like the first, only turned a different way, both being
secured to their handles by leathern thongs. They reap with the blade
of an old knife, and where the clods require to be broken up very
fine, as in coca plantations, it is done by hand. The only use that
Gironda puts his small supply of sugar-cane to, as yet, is making
spirits and a small quantity of treacle. The cane is expressed by a
very primitive mill of three upright rollers of hard wood, worked
by a single capstan-bar and a mule, the juice flowing into a gutter,
and running thence, through a bamboo, into a large jar. The juice is
then placed in two long canoes, hollow trunks of trees, where it is
allowed to ferment. In about eight days the fermentation is over, and
it is ready for distilling. This sugar-beer is called _huarapu_, and
is rather good. The juice is then poured into a large jar, over an
oven, and above the mouth of this jar he places the broken side of
another smaller one, covering the joining round with mud. From the
mouth of the second jar a bamboo is led through a large canoe to the
mouth of a third jar. The fire is lighted in the oven, the canoe is
filled with cold water to condense the vapour as it comes up through
the bamboo, and the work of distilling begins; the clear colourless
rum soon commencing to flow out of the bamboo into the receiving-jar.
The sugar-cane is of the purplish-brown kind, which is said to ripen
quickest.

Gironda also raises a few edible roots, such as _yucas_ (_Jatophra
manihot_), _aracachas_[328] (_Conium maculatum_), _camotes_ or sweet
potatoes, and _ocas_. He gave me the following information respecting
the climate and seasons in the valley of Tambopata, which is worthy of
attention, as this is the very centre of the _C. Calisaya_ region.

 January.--Incessant rain, with damp heat day and night. Sun never
 seen. Fruits ripen.

 February.--Incessant rain and very hot. Sun never seen. A coca harvest.

 March.--Less rain, hot days and nights, little sun. Bananas yield most
 during the rainy season.

 April.--Less rain; hot, humid nights, and little sun in the daytime.

 May.--A showery month, but little heavy rain. This is the month for
 planting coca and sugar-cane, and what is called the _michca_, or
 small sowing of maize, as well as yucas, aracachas, camotes, and other
 edible roots. Coffee-harvest begins.

 June.--A dry hot month. Much sun and little rain. Coca-harvest early
 in the month. Oranges and paccays ripen. Cool nights, but a fierce
 heat during the day.

 July.--The hottest and driest month, but with cool nights. Very few
 showers. Time for sowing gourds, pumpkins, and water-melons.

 August.--Generally dry. Trees begin to bud. A month for planting.

 September.--Rains begin. Time for blossoming of many trees.
 Coca-harvest.

 October.--Rains increasing. Maize-harvest, and time for the "sembra
 grande," or great sowing of maize.

 November.--Heavy rains. A coca-harvest.

 December.--Heavy rains. Pumpkins ripen.

The inhabitants of the valley of Tambopata consist of Gironda, his two
little boys, one Victorio Jovi, Villalba, and the _cascarillero_ named
Martinez. Another _cascarillero_, named Ximenes, has lately died. They
live with their families at a place called Huaccay-churu, about half a
mile up the Llami-llami river, where there are a few huts, and a small
clearing. Gironda's little farm is the last inhabited spot; beyond
is the illimitable virgin forest, stretching away for hundreds, nay
thousands of miles, to the shores of the Atlantic. This forest has not
been traversed since 1847, when the bark trade ceased, and it is quite
closed up.

By the desertion of one of my Indians on the day we left Sandia, the
other three and Pablo Sevallos were barely able to carry the provisions
and other necessaries, so that, on reaching Gironda's clearing, which
is called Lenco-huayccu,[329] I found that I had only sufficient food
to last for six days. Gironda himself was little better off, and was
living on roots, and _chuñus_ or potatoes preserved by being frozen in
the loftiest parts of the Andes. I determined, however, to penetrate
into the forest, in search of chinchona-plants, for six days, and to
trust to Gironda's kindness to supply me with provisions to enable me
to return to Sandia.

I was so fortunate as to secure the services of Mariano Martinez, an
experienced _cascarillero_, who had acted as guide to Dr. Weddell,
on the occasion of his visit to the valley of Tambopata in 1846.
He was thoroughly acquainted with all the different species of
chinchona-trees, and, reared from a child in these forest solitudes, he
was a most excellent and expert woodman, intelligent, sober, active,
and obliging.

On May 1st we prepared to enter the dense entangled forest, where
no European had been before, and no human being for upwards of
thirteen years, except the Collahuayas and incense-collectors. Our
party consisted of seven: the three Indians, Weir, Pablo, Martinez,
and myself. The Indians, each with their _chuspas_ of coca, and a
_chumpi_ or belt round their waists, carried the _ccepis_ or bundles of
provisions; Pablo bore the tent; and we were all armed with _machetes_,
or wood-knives, to clear the way. My people were all dressed in coarse
cotton cloth, and I wore a leathern hat, red woollen shirt, fustian
trousers, and the indispensable _polccos_, or shoes made of _bayeta_ or
felt, always used in these forests. We were all mustered and ready to
start on the verge of Gironda's clearing, which is surrounded by tall
forest trees, with the river rushing noisily past, and the opposite
mountains covered to their summits with fine timber, when half a
dozen pale-faced men emerged from the tangled thicket in our front.
They looked wan and cadaverous like men risen from the dead, and worn
out by long watching and fatigue. They turned out to be Collahuayas,
collectors of drugs and incense, who penetrate far into the forests to
obtain their wares, and come forth, as we then saw them, looking pale
and haggard.

These Collahuayas, called also Chirihuanos on the coast of Peru,
Yungeños, and Charasanis, are a very peculiar race. They come from
three villages in the forest-covered ravines of the Bolivian province
of Larecaja, called Charasani, Consata, and Quirbe; and their
knowledge of the virtues of herbs has been handed down from father to
son from time immemorial. They traverse the forests of Bolivia and
Caravaya collecting their drugs; and then set out as professors of
the healing art, to exercise their calling in all parts of America,
frequently being two and three years away from their homes, on these
excursions. With their wallets of drugs on their backs, and dressed
in black breeches, a red poncho, and broad-brimmed hat, they walk in
a direct line from village to village, exercising their calling, and
penetrating as far as Quito and Bogota in one direction, and to the
extreme limits of the Argentine Republic in the other. Their ancestors
did the same in the time of the Incas, and Garcilasso de la Vega gives
some account of the medical treatment adopted by the ancient Peruvian
physicians. They were in the habit of letting blood and purging, they
administered the powdered leaf of the _sayri_ (tobacco) for headaches,
_mulli_ (_Schinus molle_) for wounds, and a host of other simple herbs
for other ailments. Both Garcilasso[330] and Acosta[331] mention their
knowledge of the virtues of sarsaparilla, yet it is remarkable that the
Collahuayas should never have discovered the febrifugal qualities of
chinchona bark.

We saluted these hard-working physicians, and then entered the forest
from which they had just emerged. A short walk brought us to the river
Challuma,[332] a tributary of the Tambopata, which we waded across.
Martinez told me that this was the extreme point reached by Dr.
Weddell, and that he came here to see a tree of _C. micrantha_ growing.

Beyond the Challuma there is no road at all, and the really serious
forest work began; two hornets stinging me on the temple and back of
the neck, as I forced my way through the first bush. Martinez went in
front as pioneer, clearing away obstructions with his _machete_, and
the rest of our little party followed. Between lordly trees of great
height the ground was entirely choked up with creepers, fallen masses
of tangled bamboo, and long tendrils which twisted round our ankles,
and tripped us up at every step. Ten miles on open ground is only equal
to one over such country as this. In many places we had to scramble
through the same dense forest, along the verge of giddy precipices
which overhung the river. Often we came upon tracks where a giant of
the forest had fallen, bearing all before it, and finally dashing over
the cliff into the river below. The Tambopata was boiling and surging
over a rocky bed, at times far below us, while at others we took
advantage of a short strip of rocky beach to escape the forest. Thus we
struggled on until sunset, when we reached a stony beach, and encamped
for the night. This had been a most fatiguing march. In some places we
were a quarter of an hour forcing and cutting our way through a space
of twenty yards, and the halt was most welcome. It was a wild scene
as the darkness closed round: the camp-fire and Indians on the beach,
the dense gloomy forest close behind, the boiling river in front, and
forest-clad mountains rising up on the other side.

From this, the first day of our forest-life, until the 14th of May,
being just a fortnight, we were actively engaged in the examination
of the chinchona region, and in the collection of plants. As the best
way of recording the results of our investigations, I now propose to
give a detailed account of our proceedings from day to day; and, in
the following chapter, to recapitulate our observations with special
reference to the climate, soil, and general habit of those species of
chinchonæ which came immediately under our notice. I owe much to the
intelligent assistance of our guide Martinez, who, to great experience
in woodcraft, added a lynx's eye for a _Calisaya_-plant; and it
required no little quickness and penetration to distinguish these
treasures, amidst the close entanglement of the undergrowth, in the
dense forests. Martinez spoke Spanish very imperfectly, and, without a
knowledge of Quichua, I should have found much difficulty in conversing
with him; but he had a most complete and thorough knowledge of all
forest-lore, and was acquainted with the native name of almost every
plant, and with the uses to which they were or might be applied.

At dawn the Indians found the marks of a jaguar on the beach close
to the tent; and a huge snake wriggled through the fallen trees as
we re-entered the forest. The brilliant colours and great variety of
butterflies were very striking. I particularly noticed one, bright
blue and crimson above, with the underside marked with a pattern, as
if drawn by a crow-quill on a snow-white ground, edged with deep blue.
After struggling through the forest for about a mile we came to the
foot of the tremendous precipices, one on either side of the river,
which Martinez called Ccasa-sani. That on our (the western) shore rises
up perpendicularly from the water to a height which we estimated at 500
feet, ending in a rocky peak. Its sides are masses of bare polished
rock, except in the rear, and in some crevices, where vegetation finds
a foothold. Amongst other trees the paccay (_Mimosa Inga_), with its
cottony fruit, was drooping over the bubbling waves. The river, surging
furiously over and around huge masses of rock, dashed noisily on
between the two precipices.

We had to ascend the western precipice of Ccasa-sani by a frightful
kind of ladder, formed of ledges in the rock, or half-rotten branches
of trees, here and there having to cross a yawning chasm on the fallen
stems of tree-ferns rotting from age. Near the summit we had a glorious
view of the forest-covered mountains, running up into sharp peaks,
with graceful palms rising above the other trees on their crests, and
standing out against the sky. Several _Calisaya_-trees were growing
on the summit, with bunches of young capsules, in company with the
leathery-leafed _huaturu_, and the _Aceite de Maria_ (_Elæagia Mariæ_,
Wedd.). The latter is a tree about thirty feet high, with bark covered
with white lichens. Among the numerous ferns the most conspicuous was
a very large _Polypodium_, called _calaguala_. Descending the rocks of
Ccasa-sani, we had to continue the work of cutting our way through the
forest, our passage being opposed by matted entanglements of bamboo,
and a _Panicum_ with blades, the edges of which cut like a penknife,
called _challi-challi_. On many of the trees there were hornets'-nests,
globes of mud fixed to the leaves, and covered with the insects. I was
inadvertently going to touch one, which was attached to the back of
a large fern-frond, when Martinez, with great dexterity, hurled the
plants down the precipice, before the savage creatures were aware of
their danger.

We were now in the midst of the chinchona region; and passed several
trees of _C. ovata_ (_morada ordinaria_) and _C. micrantha_ (_verde
paltaya_). There were also great quantities of a false chinchona,
called by Martinez _Carhua-carhua blanca_. We passed through several
large groves of this species, which appeared to be a _Lasionema_, but
differed in several respects from the _L. chinchonoides_, mentioned
by Dr. Weddell as growing in the Caravayan forests. The tree is very
common near the banks of the river Tambopata, frequently with its
boughs, large coarse leaves, and panicles of flowers, drooping over the
water.[333]

The magnitude and variety of the trees of the forest were very
striking; and the imposing character of the scenery, in these vast
solitudes, was a source of constant enjoyment, and lightened the
fatigues of the journey. Among the wonders of the forest there were
enormous trees with great buttressed trunks, others sending down
rope-like tendrils from the branches in every direction, the gigantic
balsam-tree, the india-rubber tree, and many others. A list of the
ferns or mosses, endless in the variety of their shape and size, would
fill volumes. Of palms, also, there were many kinds. The tall _chonta_,
with its hard serviceable wood; the slender beautiful _chinilla_
(_Euterpe?_); the towering _muruna_ (_Iriartea?_), with its roots
shooting out in every direction from eight feet above the ground, and
triangular-notched leaflets; the _chaquisapa_ (_Astrocaryum?_), with
its lofty stem thickly set with alternate rings of spines, and thorny
leaves; the _sumballu_ (_Giulielma?_), a beautiful palm with a slender
stem covered with long sharp spines, numerous graceful leaves, and an
edible fruit; and above all the _sayal_, the monarch of the palms of
these forests, with a rather short thick stem, inner fibres of the
stalks like black wool, but with enormous leaves growing rather erect
from the stem to a length of at least forty feet--I should think they
must be the largest leaves in the whole vegetable kingdom. Among the
bright flowers there were crimson _Melastomaceæ_, called _ccesuara_, a
scarlet _Justitia_, the _Manetia coccinea_, and many beautiful orchids
in the branches of the trees.

At length, after a very hard day's work, we reached the mouth of
the Yana-mayu[334] or Black river; and attempted to wade across the
Tambopata, but found it too powerful. I was particularly anxious to
effect this, as Martinez assured me that chinchona-trees were most
abundant on the right or eastern bank. We, however, managed to get upon
an island, near the left bank, and encamped for the night on a shingly
beach. After sunset it came on to rain very heavily, and the waters
foamed furiously around us in the inky darkness. The rain continued
to pour down, and the waters to rise through the night, and I hourly
expected the island to be submerged; but, fortunately, we escaped this
danger, though the river came up to within a very few feet of the
tent-door. I served out a dram of brandy to all hands.

In the morning of May 3rd I continued my attempts to cross the river,
by stripping and trying the water for a ford at several points, with
a long pole as a support. But the water was deep, much swollen, and
very rapid; and, after having twice been as nearly as possible carried
away by the fury of the stream, I was obliged unwillingly to give up
the attempt for the present. I considered it prudent also to remove
our encampment from the island, and to establish it on a narrow beach
overshadowed by the forest, at the point where the muddy waters of the
Yana-mayu unite with those of the Tambopata.

These arrangements having been made, we devoted the day to an
examination of the adjacent forest. The spot on which we were encamped
was about 4600 feet above the sea. Our tent was pitched close to the
foaming torrent, and behind rose up the tall dark forests. In front
were the steep green sides of the Yana-mayu ravine, while looking down
the river the view was bounded by forest-covered mountains, surmounted
by the lofty peak of Corimamani. On the actual banks of the river
there were trees of _C. micrantha_, with large bunches of lovely and
deliciously sweet white flowers; many _carhua-carhua blancas_; and a
chinchonaceous tree, which Martinez called _Huiñapu_. The _Huiñapu_
grows low down and near the banks of rivers. Its capsules are three
inches long; and the veins of the leaves are a pale purple. Dr. Weddell
tells me that he recollects gathering the leaves of the _Huiñapu_, and
that he took it to be a variety of _Cascarilla magnifolia_.

We commenced the day's work in the forest on the south-west <DW72>s of
the Yana-mayu ravine, scrambling up the steep forest-covered declivity
amongst palms, tree-ferns, bamboos, and trees with buttressed trunks of
stupendous size. Here too were the vast leaves of the _sayal_ palm. At
a height of 400 feet above the river the _Calisaya_ region commences;
while in the lower belt, from the river banks to a height of 400 feet,
the most abundant chinchonaceous plant is the _Carhua-carhua grande_
(_Cascarilla Carua_, Wedd.), with very fragrant white flowers. I met
with flowers and capsules together on the same tree, which is forty
feet high, with a thick trunk, fine spreading branches, and masses of
beautiful white flowers.

I found that the _C. Calisaya_ region extended in a belt from 450
to 650 feet above the banks of the river; bamboos, large palms,
_C. micranthas_, _Huiñapus_, _Lasionemas_, and the _Cascarilla
carua_ being found below that line, and other species of chinchonæ
and chinchonaceous plants above it. We collected twenty-five
_Calisaya_-plants, two of them fine strong seedlings, and the remainder
root-shoots springing up from trees which had been cut down by
_cascarilleros_ in former times, but with good spreading roots of their
own. The search was exceedingly hard work, scrambling through matted
undergrowth, and up steep ascents, through masses of rotting vegetation.

The afternoon was devoted to an examination of the heights on the
north-east side of the Yana-mayu, where, at an elevation of 450 feet,
there is a level table-land, covered with palms and bamboos. The
search was chiefly conducted along a ridge above this plateau, where
the bamboos ended. We obtained twenty more plants of _C. Calisaya_,
one of which was declared by Martinez to be a _Calisaya morada_ (_C.
Boliviana_, Wedd.), and the leaf agreed well with Dr. Weddell's
description, though that botanist believed that the species was not
found in this part of Caravaya, but only in the valleys of Ayapata,
further north. To-day we saw a couple of _tunquis_,[335] birds with
the most gorgeous plumage I ever beheld. They are the size of large
pigeons, with orange-scarlet feathers on the head, neck, breast, and
tail, black wings, light-grey back, and scarlet crest. They have
a shrill, harsh cry. The butterflies and moths were numerous and
brilliant, but so tame, and in such swarms, as to be a perfect plague.
There was one bright swallow-tail, with blue wings, fringed with
crimson. The torments from venomous insects were maddening; especially
from a kind of fly which in a moment raised swellings and blood-red
lumps all over the hands and face, causing great pain and irritation.
During the night it rained heavily, with peals of thunder, and vivid
flashes of lightning, while the river increased in size, and roared
past the tent noisily.

The collection of chinchona-plants was deposited in a shady place, near
the tent, the roots being well covered over with soft moss.

On the morning of May 4th the river was so swollen as to destroy
all hopes of crossing it for the present. It frequently changed its
colour, on one morning the surging flood being black, on another
tolerably clear, and on another a light muddy colour. By these means
Martinez could always tell where the rains had been heaviest, and what
stream was contributing an unusual freshet to swell the waters of the
Tambopata.

I devoted the day to examining the forest on the declivities
overhanging the left bank of the Tambopata, and this was by far the
most toilsome and dangerous forest journey we had yet made, rendered
worse by a comparative want of success. The whole way was along giddy
precipices, seeming to hang half way between the sky and the roaring
torrent, with no foothold but decaying leaves, nothing to grasp but
rotten branches, every motion a drenching bath from wet leaves, every
other step a painful and dangerous slip or fall, besides hornets,
and endless thorns. Among the latter I was struck by a tree called
_itapallu_, with trunk and branches thickly set with thorns, very
large leaves, and the fruit in clusters, like bunches of pearls with
purple stalks. We met with large pigeons, flocks of green parrots,
paroquets, and tunquis. The forest peeps across the river were
superb, but it was difficult to enjoy them. Martinez pointed out a
small _Asplenium_, called _espincu_, which has a sweet taste, and is
sometimes chewed by the Indians for want of coca; and the _panchi_,
a tall slender malvaceous tree, with large round leaves on spreading
branches at the top, and very white wood. It is used by the Chunchos
for procuring fire by friction, and the bark, which peels off in long
strips, is serviceable for girdles. During this day we came to the
largest _Calisaya_ we had yet seen, and Martinez operated on the bark
to show his dexterity as a cascarillero, which was remarkable.[336]
Our collection only amounted to fourteen plants, among them two fine
seedlings of _C. Calisaya_, two of _C. micrantha_, two of _C. ovata,
var. β rufinervis_, and the remainder root-shoots of _C. Calisaya_:
seedlings of the latter species are exceedingly rare. We returned to
our camp dead beat, and drenched to the skin, only to find that my
Indians were mutinous, declaring that they had been away long enough,
that they had no maize or coca left, and that they must return to
their homes at once. Our only hope rested upon them, and, if they
had deserted, all our plans would have been entirely frustrated. It,
however, required no little persuasion and eloquence to induce them to
change their minds, and, as they had nothing left to eat, I sent Andres
Vilca back to Gironda, to entreat him to supply us with a few chuñus
and a little coca. I then told the others, in their own expressive
language, that if they deserted me they were liars, thieves, traitors,
and children of the Devil, whose punishment would soon overtake them;
while if they were true to me they would be well rewarded, and would
enjoy the friendship of a Viracocha. After this great effort in
Quichua, the evening ended pleasantly. The Indians had built themselves
a little shed of palm-leaves near the tent door, a bright fire was
lighted, and its cheery reflection danced on the waves of the noisy
flood.

It rained heavily through the night, and in the morning, hearing from
Martinez that the varieties of _C. ovata_, the collection of which had
been recommended to me by Dr. Weddell, were only found in a zone at a
much greater elevation than that of the _C. Calisayas_, I devoted the
day to a search in an almost vertical direction, on the north-east side
of the Yana-mayu, towards some heights called Pacchani.

Ascending the steep sides of the ravine of Yana-mayu for about two
hundred feet, we reached a narrow level shelf covered with ferns and
the huge leaves of the _sayal_ palm. The locality was very damp and
shady, and the _C. micrantha_, _Huiñapu_, and _Cascarilla Carua_
were in great abundance. We continued to ascend through the forest
which covered the sides of the steep mountain, for several hours
continuously; the footing consisting of decayed leaves and rotten
trunks, moss and ferns covering every tree, and all the vegetation
intensely humid. At a height of 750 feet above the river we came to
some trees of the _beno-beno_ (_Pimentelia gomphosia_,[337] Wedd.),
with its bright laurel-like leaves and minute capsules; the _C.
pubescens_, called by Martinez _cascarilla amarilla_, still only in
bud, which was very abundant; and large trees of the _morada naranjada_
(_C. ovata, var. α vulgaris_, Wedd.). Near this place a troop of about
twenty monkeys went chattering along the tops of the trees, and while I
was looking at them a huge black hornet rushed up out of the moss and
stung me on the chin. These savage creatures make their nests under the
earth, and are called _huancoyru_.

After a long and wearisome but fruitless search for young plants of
the _zamba morada_ (the _β rufinervis_ variety of _C. ovata_) in these
excessively damp forests, we began the descent again. Nothing struck
me so much as the extraordinary variety of forms and shapes in which
nature works in these tropical forests. One is amazed to see enormous
trees with their gigantic roots separating at least twenty feet above
the ground, and forming perfect Gothic arches. In one place a giant
of the forest had grown on the edge of a ridge of rock, and the roots
had combined with the stone to form a spacious vaulted cave large
enough to hold ten men comfortably. Beautiful variegated leaves of
_Colocasiæ_, and a scarlet-flowered _Justitia_, with bright purple
leaves, united with a profusion of ferns to ornament the opening, while
some tree-ferns, and a _chinilla_, the most slender and elegant of the
palms of the forest, guarded the entrance. Rays of the sun struggled
through a network of bamboos on an opposite bank, and penetrated into
the recesses of the cavern. While I gazed on this lovely scene, the
plaintive mournful notes of the little "_Alma perdida_" reached me from
the boughs of the great tree. This is a small bird of the finch tribe,
of which there are two kinds, one black, the other chesnut with black
wings. Their loud clear note is peculiarly sad. Such peeps as these
into the secret beauties of the innermost forest recesses are rewards
for many hours of toil and disappointment.

Late in the evening I returned to the tent dead tired, sodden and
wet to the skin, covered with moss and fungus, bitten all over by
mosquitos, stung by a hornet, and with hands sliced in pieces by the
sharp blades of a _Panicum_ called _challi-challi_, but with only three
plants of the valuable variety of _C. ovata_. It is most provoking that
only the seedlings of all the worthless species of Chinchonæ should be
in great abundance; the reason is of course connected with the general
felling of the trees of valuable species by the cascarilleros, years
ago.

There was little rain during the night, and on May 6th we commenced the
search of a range of forest on the south-west side of the Yana-mayu
ravine, where we found a large supply of plants of _C. Calisaya_. At a
height of 500 feet above the river there was a ridge of rock jutting
out from the forest-covered sides of the ravine. In this spot the
ground was not nearly so thickly covered with vegetation; there were
no palms, tree-ferns, or plants requiring extreme moisture, and young
plants received shade from taller trees, while they also enjoyed plenty
of sunshine through the spreading branches. The most abundant plants
were _Melastomas_, _huaturus_, and _Panica_, which climb amongst the
branches to a height of thirty feet and upwards. These afford but very
slight shade, and below there is an undergrowth of ferns, _Colocasiæ_,
and young plants. In different parts of this ridge we collected 124
young _C. Calisaya_ plants, most of them root-shoots, and a few
seedlings. There were also two young trees bearing capsules. The _C.
Calisaya_ plants were all growing out of the moss which covered the
rock to a thickness of eight inches or a foot, together with beautiful
_Hymenophylla_,[338] but there was scarcely any soil. The roots
spread along the face of the rock, which is a metamorphic clay slate,
unfossiliferous, slightly micaceous, and ferruginous;[339] and is
easily broken up into thin layers by the growth of the plants. In this
situation the _C. Calisayas_ were more numerous than in any other we
have yet seen.

Two bears had made themselves a comfortable and very carefully
prepared bed on the summit of the ridge, whence there was an extensive
bird's-eye view of the windings of the river, and of the forest-covered
mountains beyond. On the opposite mountains there were two or three
long bare places--tremendous landslips, not unfrequent occurrences in
the forest. There is a sudden crash, when masses of rock, huge trees,
and underwood come rushing down in one fell irresistible swoop. A
beautiful white _Stephanotis_ was climbing over the rocks. We returned
to the camp in a heavy fall of rain, after a very severe but successful
day's work, and found that both the Indians and ourselves had come to
the end of our provisions, and that Andres Vilca Lad not returned.

On May 7th we rose to find only a few bread-crumbs in the corner of our
bag, and, as famine was thus knocking at the door, it became necessary
to beat a hasty retreat. The plants were carefully packed in layers
of moss, and sown up in two bundles of Russia matting, which we had
brought with us, containing about 200 chinchona-plants. In the absence
of Andres Vilca, Mr. Weir showed much zeal and energy in undertaking
to carry one of these bundles, four and a half feet in circumference,
over the slippery and dangerous road, in doing which he fell into the
river.

On the morning of May 7th, when we commenced our retreat, it was
pouring with rain, and the forest was saturated, our bodies sodden,
our hands crumpled like washerwomen's, and our powder damp. We had to
wade across many little streams falling into the Tambopata. The first,
after leaving the Yana-mayu, was called Churu-bamba, because it empties
itself just opposite an island (_churu_, in Quichua). The next stream
was _Uma-yuyu_, _uma_ being water in Aymara, and _yuyu_ a plant with
a large cordate dock-like leaf, used in _chupes_. Thus every little
stream and hill had received a name from the cascarilleros of former
times, from some peculiarity of position or other similar circumstance,
which would easily impress it on the memory. What an improvement on
the nomenclature in new countries discovered by Englishmen, where
we have an endless succession of Jones's rivers, Smith's mountains,
and Brown's islands! Near the banks of these streams there are very
large snail-shells, and Martinez described the snails as "large kind
of hornets, all made of flesh, which do not sting." He called them
_Mamachuru_, or "Mother of the Island."

On reaching the precipice of Ccasa-sani we scrambled along its slippery
sides, in the pouring rain, to collect plants of _C. Calisaya_, and
obtained twenty-one good ones. They were growing in a similar situation
to those above the Yana-mayu, in company with a number of _Aceite de
Maria_ trees (_Elæagia Mariæ_),[340] and completely exposed to the
sun, without any shade whatever. Passing the precipice, we continued
our damp weary journey, Martinez pointing out everything that
was noticeable by the way, especially the _palo santo_ (_Guaiacum
sanctum_), a very tall tree, the stem 60 to 70 feet high, without a
branch, with a few short horizontally spreading branches at the summit,
with pinnate leaves. When the bark is cut, a host of stinging ants
come forth. There was also a plant, which he called _achira silvestre_
(_Canna achira?_) with a rhizome, and bunches of rank red berries. We
passed through groves of paccays (_Mimosa Inga_), a creeping legume
with bright flowers, wild coca, many _Lasionemas_, with their large
coarse leaves drooping over the river, and a melastomaceous plant with
a crimson fruit. After having been nearly carried away by the force of
the Challuma river, in wading across it, I reached Gironda's hospitable
shed, after a journey of more than thirty miles, in pouring rain.

On May 8th I left Gironda's clearing, with Martinez, in order to
examine the forests above the hut of Tambopata, for plants of _C.
Calisaya_. Here, in almost exactly a similar ridge of rock to those
which proved so prolific of these precious plants on the heights
above the Yana-mayu, and on the precipice of Ccasa-sani, I found a
number of plants of _Calisaya morada_ (_C. Boliviana_, Wedd.), growing
out of moss, amongst the rocks, with scarcely any soil. They were
overshadowed by numerous trees, called by Martinez "Compadre[341] de
Calisaya" (_Gomphosia chlorantha_, Wedd.), one of the most graceful and
beautiful of the chinchonaceous plants, with deliciously sweet flowers.
Dr. Weddell exactly describes it as rising without a branch above
all the trees of the forest, and then spreading out in the form of a
chandelier, and attracting the attention of the traveller from afar.
The bark of this tree, with its transverse cracks, can with difficulty
be distinguished from that of _C. Calisaya_. Whilst climbing amongst
these rocks, I nearly put my hand on a small viper of a most venomous
kind, 18 inches long, with a black skin marked with yellow rings,
edged with white. In the evening we returned to Gironda's clearing at
Lenco-huayccu, with eighty-seven chinchona-plants, sixteen of Calisaya
fina (_C. Calisaya, var. α vera_), and sixty-nine of Calisaya morada
(_C. Boliviana_, Wedd.).

We found Gironda, on whom we were now entirely dependent for food, very
little better off than ourselves. His supplies consisted of maize,
yucas, aracachas, chuñus or frozen potatoes, and quispiñas, made of
boiled quinoa-grains dried in the sun, ground, and preserved as little
gritty hard lumps. He also had some _achocches_, which are poor watery
cucurbitaceous things, squeezed, and served up in chupes. No salt.

Though frequently baffled, and more than once exposed to much risk in
making vain attempts, I had never given up my determination to have at
least one day's work on the right bank of the Tambopata. For some days
the volume of water had been gradually decreasing, but it was still
40 yards across, and rushing with great velocity over a ford which
Gironda believed to exist a little below Lenco-huayccu. I stripped and
went in, with the stem of a young _chonta_ palm as a support, but, on
approaching the mid-channel, the water came up above my middle, the
large pebbles slipped and rolled under my feet, and for some time it
was with the utmost difficulty that I held my own; but finally we all
reached the right bank in safety.

We were rewarded by a very successful day's work. After ascending the
steep ravine, through the zone of bamboos, to a height of 400 feet, we
reached a ridge of rocks, where we collected 109 good chinchona-plants
of the _Calisaya morada_ species. The leaves of the chinchonæ, and
more especially the _Calisaya_ species, are invariably perforated
by holes in every direction. Much of this mischief is the work of
caterpillars, but it may partly be attributed to the effects of drip
from the trees which overshadow them. In this forest there were trees
of great height, without a branch for a distance of 50 or 60 feet
from the ground, which Martinez called _canela_. The inner bark had a
strong taste of cinnamon, and they use it to scent and flavour their
_huarapu_, or fermented juice of the sugar-cane. On many trees, in
the forest, there are immense masses of earth fixed on the trunk,
called _cotocuro_. They consist of exceedingly thin layers, one added
to another until they are sometimes of an immense size, eight to ten
feet high, and three or four feet across. They are made by myriads and
myriads of small yellowish lice, which swarm between each thin layer.

In the evening we incurred the same risks in wading across the river
again, but arrived without any accident at Gironda's clearing, where we
now had a depôt of 436 chinchona-plants.

On May 10th I resolved to make a search on the heights immediately
above Lenco-huayccu, called Gloriapata, for the valuable red-nerved
variety of _C. ovata_. I first paid a visit to the poor little Indian
wife and children of Martinez at Huaccay-churu, in a hut of split
bamboos, surrounded by aracachas, yucas, camotes with their white
convolvulus flowers, plantains, frijoles or beans, and the _Amaranthus
caudatus_, which they call _jataccu_ and _cuimi_, using the leaves in
_chupes_. We then struck right up the steep declivity of Gloriapata,
making our way with difficulty through the dense bamboo thickets,
which, in spite of their obstinate obstructiveness, make excellent
cisterns, and their joints will always afford a good drink of cool
water. For some time we followed a pathway made by a herd of peccaries,
until it ended at the mouth of a cave which, though low, appeared to
be of considerable size. These peccaries come down in herds of thirty
or forty to the clearings, during the night, and do much damage amongst
the roots. Some are black and white, and others of a leaden colour.

After ascending for several hundred feet we came to trees of _C.
pubescens_, which appear to belong to a zone just below, but in contact
with the _C. ovatæ_. Their leaves were eaten by a caterpillar, red at
both ends, with a horn, red stripe down the back, and red spots on each
side, body striped green and yellow. Some hundred feet higher there
were large trees of both varieties of _C. ovata_, growing in very moist
parts of the forest, where the trees were covered with _Hymenophylla_
and dripping moss, the former a sure sign of extreme humidity. The
ground was covered with fallen leaves to a great depth, and there
was a good deal of shade. We collected seven plants of _C. ovata,
var. α vulgaris_, and eleven of _C. ovata, var. β rufinervis_, five
of which were strong healthy seedlings, the remainder being suckers,
with spreading roots of their own. With the _C. ovatæ_ grows the
_Carhua-carhua chica_ (_Cascarilla bullata_, Wedd.).

In descending from these heights I came to a tree which Martinez called
_copal_, but the trunk rose to such an extraordinary height, without
branches, that I was unable to make out the appearance of the leaves or
flowers. The bark was covered with a milk-white fragrant resin, of a
nature analogous to _gum thus_ or _gum elemi_. The forest also abounds
in vegetable and bees' wax, and in many varieties of gums and resins.

On May 11th, as we had now collected a sufficient number of
chinchona-plants, including those of the shrub _Calisaya_ which we
intended to take up on our return across the _pajonales_, to fill
the Wardian cases at Islay, Mr. Weir began to make up the plants in
layers, with plenty of moss between them, ready for sewing up in the
Russia matting. Having heard that a young man, a nephew of Gironda's,
had planted a _C. Calisaya_ in a small clearing a few leagues up the
ravine, I went to examine it. The clearing was on a steep declivity
sloping down to the river, and had been partly planted with coffee
and coca by its solitary occupant. The tree was a _Calisaya morada_,
having been a root-shoot twelve inches high when it was planted in
January, 1859. It is now seven feet high, six inches and four-tenths
in circumference round the trunk, and three feet three inches across
the longest branches from one side of the stem to the other. It was
growing on the side of a steep hill, quite open to the south, east,
and south-east, at the edge of a clearing, while mountains covered
with forest rise up close behind it, on the north and west, to a great
height. It is planted in a soil consisting of stiff yellowish loam,
composed of vegetable matter, mixed with the disintegration of the
soft clay slate. This is probably the only cultivated chinchona-tree
in Peru. In returning to Lenco-huayccu I saw a flock of _Alectors_,
large birds analogous to turkeys, and many parrots; and on my arrival I
found that Mr. Weir had already made up the chinchona-plants, in four
Russia-matting bundles, ready to start for Sandia on the following
morning.




CHAPTER XVI.

GENERAL REMARKS ON THE CHINCHONA-PLANTS OF CARAVAYA.


THE range of my observations in the chinchona-forests extended for
a distance of forty miles along the western side of the ravine of
Tambopata, and one day's journey on the eastern side. This region
is covered, with few exceptions, from the banks of the river to
the summits of the mountain-peaks, by a dense tropical forest. The
formation is everywhere, as I have before said, an unfossiliferous,
micaceous, slightly ferruginous, metamorphic clay-slate, with veins
of quartz, and the streams all contain more or less gold-dust. When
exposed to the weather this clay-slate quickly turns to a sticky yellow
mud,[342] and lower down it is very brittle, and easily breaks off
in thin layers. The soil formed by the disintegration of the rock,
mixed with decayed vegetable matter, is a heavy yellowish brown loam,
but there is very little of it on the rocky sides of the ravine, and
no depth of soil except on the few level spaces and gentle <DW72>s
near the banks of the river. Mr. Forbes, in speaking of the extensive
range of Silurian formation, of which the Tambopata hills form a part,
attributes the frequent occurrence of veins of auriferous quartz,
usually associated with iron pyrites, to the proximity of granite,
whence they have been injected into the Silurian slates. In the cooling
and solidification of granite the quartz is the last mineral element
to crystallize and become solid, and he suggests that, during the
cooling, the consequent expansion due to the crystallization of the
constituents has forced the quartz and gold, still fluid, into the
fissures of the neighbouring rocks, and so formed the auriferous quartz
veins. These are only developed in the slate rocks, which, when such
veins occur, must be at no great distance from granitic eruptions,
either visible, or such as may be inferred to exist.[343]

The chinchona forests which I examined in the Tambopata valley are
between lat. 13° and 12° 30´ S. The elevation above the sea, on the
banks of the river, is 4200 feet, while the loftiest crests of the
mountains which overhang it on either side attain an elevation of about
5000 feet. In the preceding chapter I have given a general idea of the
nature of the climate throughout the year, and my stay was too short to
enable me to give any more detailed information for most of the months;
but I did not fail to take careful observations while I remained in
the valley, which will give an accurate idea of the climate during the
month of May. During the fourteen first days of May the results were as
follows:--

  Mean temperature                   69-5/6° Fahr.
   "       "       at 7 A.M.         68
   "       "       at 3 P.M.         71-1/2
   "       "       at 9 P.M.         69
  Mean minimum in the night          62-5/7
  Highest temperature observed       75
  Lowest      "           "          56
  Entire range                       19
  Mean variation in the 24 hours     10-1/3
  Greatest       "         "         15
  Least          "         "          6
  Mean of the dew-point              61-4/5 }
       "          "     at 7 A.M.    61.9   } Dry bulb
       "          "     at 3 P.M.    62.5   } as above.
       "          "     at 9 P.M.    60.9   }

The wind generally blows up the valley during the daytime, when the
clouds ascend, to be condensed by the colder night-air. Thus we
almost invariably had rain at night, generally in a heavy fall, but
occasionally in small drizzle, which usually continued until the
forenoon. At noon it cleared up for a fine afternoon, and only on two
occasions did we have rain throughout the day. The valley, and the
course of the river, bear N.N.W. and S.S.E.

The three valuable species of chinchonæ found in Tambopata grow in
distinct zones as regards elevation, together with other chinchonaceous
plants, up the declivitous sides of the ravine.

From the banks of the river to about 400 feet up the mountains, the
forest consists of bamboos, several genera of palms, tree-ferns,
paccays, and other _Leguminosæ_, _Lasionemas_, _Cascarilla Caruas_,
and the _Chinchona micrantha_, together with the chinchonaceous
tree called by Martinez _Huiñapu_. This is the lower zone. The _C.
micrantha_, called by Martinez _verde paltaya_ and _motosolo_,[344]
was in flower in May. I met with it constantly in moist low places;
and several trees, with their very large ovate leaves, and bunches of
white fragrant flowers, were actually drooped over the waters of the
river. It produces a good quality of bark, and I collected seven fine
seedling-plants of this species.

From 400 to 600 feet above the river is the middle zone, and that which
contains the Calisaya-plants. The vegetation chiefly consists of huge
balsam and India-rubber trees, _huaturus_, _Melastomaceæ_, Aceite de
Maria (_Elæagia Mariæ_), Compadre de Calisaya (_Gomphosia chlorantha_),
and occasional trees of _Cascarilla Carua_, which straggle up from
the lower zone. Here the young trees of _C. Calisaya_ grow in great
abundance, but the cascarilleros had certainly done their work well in
former years, for every single tree of any size had been felled, though
many of the young root-shoots were 20 and 30 feet high, and covered
with capsule-bearing panicles. These precious trees were most plentiful
under the ridges of rock which crop out at intervals, where the ground
was not so thickly covered with vegetation, and where the young plants
obtained plenty of light and air, while they were partially protected
from the direct rays of the sun by the spreading branches of taller
trees. The _Calisaya_-trees, on the Ccasa-sani precipice, however,
had no shade whatever. They were covered with capsules. I observed
that when the young plants of _C. Calisaya_ grew up the sides of the
rocks, and actually came in contact, they often threw out roots from
their stems or branches. The _C. Calisaya_ is by far the most beautiful
tree of these forests. Its leaves are of a dark rich green, smooth and
shining, with crimson veins, and a green petiole edged with red, and
the deliciously sweet bunches of flowers are white, with rose-
laciniæ, edged with white marginal hairs. But it was evident that we
did not see them to advantage in these forests; they ran up tall and
straggling, as if seeking the sun, and seemed to pant for more light
and air, and a deeper and richer soil. Martinez told me that, when the
Calisaya is much overshadowed by other trees, it loses the crimson
colour on the petioles and veins of the leaves; and that fifteen
leagues lower down the river (I suppose at about four thousand feet
above the sea) the leaves of the _Calisaya morada_ become quite bright
purple all over the under side.

Gironda and Martinez told me that there were three kinds of
Calisaya-trees; namely, the _Calisaya fina_ (_C. Calisaya, α vera_,
Wedd.), the _Calisaya morada_ (_C. Boliviana_, Wedd.), and the tall
_Calisaya verde_. They added that the latter was a very large tree,
without any red colour in the veins of the leaves, and generally
growing far down the valleys, almost in the open plain. A tree of this
variety yields six or seven quintals of bark, while the _Calisaya fina_
only yields three or four quintals; and Gironda declared that he had
seen one, in the province of Munecas in Bolivia, which had yielded ten
quintals of _tabla_ or trunk-bark alone.

My remarks respecting the position of _C. Calisaya_ trees, on the
sides of the ravine, only apply to the forest below Lenco-huayccu;
above that position they are not found so high up the sides of the
mountains, probably owing to their greater proximity to the snowy
region of the cordillera. The nearest snow may be about forty miles
from Lenco-huayccu, as the crow flies. I also found that the _Calisaya
fina_ was most abundant about the Yana-mayu, while the variety called
_morada_ was plentiful in the upper part of the ravine. But it was very
difficult for an unpractised eye to detect the slightest difference
between these two varieties, until their leaves were placed side by
side, when that of the _morada_ appeared to be just a shade darker
green. Dr. Weddell has, in his work, named the _Calisaya morada_, as a
distinct species, _C. Boliviana_, but I understand that he is now of
opinion that it is scarcely more than a variety of the _Calisaya vera_,
its bark being very generally collected and sold as that of the latter.
No plants which I saw in the forests could be compared, for vigour and
regularity of growth, with the tree which I have already described as
having been planted on the edge of a clearing; and I think this tends
to prove that plenty of light and air is essential to the vigorous
growth of the _C. Calisaya_, so long as there is a sufficient supply
of moisture, and protection from the direct rays of a scorching sun
for the first year or two. The _C. Calisaya_ is undoubtedly the most
delicate and sensitive of all the species of chinchona.

Above the region occupied by _C. Calisayas_, in the forests, is the
third or upper zone, from 600 to 800 feet above the river. Here, amidst
very dense humid vegetation, covered with ferns and mosses, are first
met the trees of _C. pubescens_, and _Pimentelia glomerata_, and a
little higher up are numerous trees of the two valuable species of
_C. ovata_, namely, α _vulgaris_ and β _rufinervis_, with very large
ovate leaves, the latter being distinguishable by the deep red of the
leaf-veins. The _Cascarilla bullata_ grows with them, and extends still
higher up the sides of the mountains. The bark of the β _rufinervis_
variety is habitually used to adulterate the Calisaya, which it very
closely resembles, and is called _zamba morada_ by the cascarilleros,
while the α _vulgaris_ variety is known as _morada ordinaria_. Martinez
said that the _zamba morada_ was very tenacious of life, and that,
having once thrown away a branch amongst some moss, he found it a
fortnight afterwards, still throwing out shoots. Both varieties of _C.
ovata_ yield valuable barks.

Above the zone of the _C. ovatas_, and nearer the snowy cordillera (for
lower down the valley the forests cover the crests of the mountains),
commence the open grassy _pajonales_, which I have already described.
Here the formation is exactly the same as that in the valley of
Tambopata; and the vegetation of the thickets which fill the gullies,
and are interspersed over the grassy glades, consists of _huaturus_,
_Gaultheriæ_, _Vacciniæ_, _Lasiandræ_, and other _Melastomaceæ_,
_Chinchonæ_, palms, and tree-ferns. The chinchonæ consist of _C.
Caravayensis_, and of the shrubby variety of _C. Calisaya_, which
is called _ychu cascarilla_ by the natives. The shrub _Calisaya_ (β
_Josephiana_) is generally from six and a half to ten feet high, but
I met with an individual plant which I believe to belong to this
variety, which had attained a height of eighteen and a half feet; and
this inclined me to think, at the time, that this shrubby form could
not even be considered as a variety of the normal _C. Calisaya_, and
that its more lowly habit was merely due to the higher elevation and
more rigorous climate in which it grew. Dr. Weddell remarks that its
appearance varies very much according to the situation in which it
grows, and that the colour and texture of the different parts change
according to the amount of exposure.

I found the shrub _Calisaya_ in flower in the end of April.

We crossed two _pajonal_ regions, one above the valley of Sandia, and
the other between the valleys of Sandia and Tambopata. The height of
the former above the level of the sea was 5422 feet, and of the latter
5600 feet. The time of my visit was the end of April and beginning of
May, and I traversed both regions twice, so that an abstract of my
meteorological observations will give a tolerably correct idea of the
climate at that time of the year; although they only extend over the
25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th of April, and a few days in the middle of
May.

  Mean temperature                59° Fahr.
  Mean minimum at night           52
  Highest temperature observed    67
  Lowest       "         "        49
  Entire range                    18
  Mean of the dew-point           53.6 (dry bulb as above).

In the early morning there were generally masses of white clouds lying
in the ravines, and in the afternoon a thick mist drifted across the
_pajonal_, with drizzling rain.

The shrub-Calisayas, which were growing plentifully by the roadside,
above the valley of Sandia, were entirely exposed, without any shade
whatever, and the hill on which they grew had a western aspect. There
is a difference in elevation of about 1000 feet between the locality
where we saw the shrub-Calisayas, and the region of the normal
tree-Calisaya in the Tambopata forests; and the shrubby form is also
many leagues nearer the snows of the cordillera. These circumstances
are alone sufficient to account for the difference in the habit of
these two forms of _C. Calisaya_; and there seems to be no doubt that
the barks of the shrubby varieties of chinchonæ are specially good when
their stunted growth is owing to the altitude of the locality.

Our collection of chinchona-plants in the Tambopata forests, and on the
_pajonales_, was completed on May 14th, as follows:--

                                                          No. of Plants.
  _C. Calisaya_ (_calisaya fina_)                                    237
  _C. Boliviana_ (_calisaya morada_)                                 185
  _C. ovata, var. α vulgaris_ (_zamba ordinaria_)                      9
  _C. ovata, var. β rufinervis_ (_zamba morada_)                      16
  _C. micrantha_ (_verde paltaya_)                                     7
  _C. Calisaya, var. β Josephiana_ (_ychu cascarilla_)                75
                                                                     ---
            Total                                                    529
                                                                     ===




CHAPTER XVII.

JOURNEY FROM THE FORESTS OF TAMBOPATA TO THE PORT OF ISLAY.

Establishment of the plants in Wardian cases.


ON May 11th Mr. Weir completed the packing of the plants, and we were
preparing for the journey up into the _pajonales_ on the following day,
having previously fixed on the _Calisaya_-trees from which we intended
to obtain a supply of seeds in August, when Gironda received an ominous
letter from Don José Mariano Bobadilla, the Alcalde Municipal of
Quiaca, ordering him to prevent me from taking away a single plant; to
arrest both myself and the person who had acted as my guide; and to
send us to Quiaca.[345] I found that an outcry against my proceedings
had been raised by Don Manuel Martel, the red-faced man whom I had met
on the road to Sandia, and that the people of Sandia and Quiaca had
been excited by assertions that the exportation of cascarilla-seeds
would prove the ruin of themselves and their descendants. Gironda,
though friendly and hospitable, feared that the finger of scorn would
be pointed at him, as the man who had allowed the stranger to injure
his countrymen. He wanted to throw away all the plants, except a few
which we might take without observation, and, if we had not kept
constant guard over them, he would have carried his views into effect
without consulting us. I saw that in an immediate retreat was the only
hope of saving the plants; and I explained to Gironda that his views
were incorrect, and that, if necessary, we were prepared to defend our
property by force.

At the same time I addressed a letter to Don José Bobadilla, stating
that his interference was an unwarrantable step which I would not
tolerate; and that, as I understood the provisions of the Constitution
of 1856, the functions of the _Juntas Municipales_ were purely
consultative and legislative, conferring no executive powers whatever,
concluding with an expression of my sense of his patriotic zeal, and of
regret that it should be accompanied by such misguided and lamentable
ignorance of the true interests of his country. Nevertheless, I felt
the imperative necessity of immediate flight, especially as I obtained
information from an Indian of Quiaca that Martel's son and his party,
who had brought the letter, were only the vanguard of a body of
mestizos, who were coming down the valley to seize me, and destroy my
collection of chinchona-plants.

Early in the morning of May 12th we took leave of our kind and
hospitable old friend Gironda, without whose assistance we should have
been exposed to much suffering from want of food; and of the honest
forester Martinez. I expressed my sincere regret to Gironda that any
misunderstanding should have arisen at the close of our acquaintance,
and promised Martinez to obtain guarantees that he should suffer no
molestation on account of the services he had rendered to me. The most
melancholy part of travelling is the parting with friends, never to
meet again.

After a laborious ascent through the forest we found Martel's son and
his party stationed on the verge of the _pajonal_. They were evidently
waiting for us, but did not attempt to impede our passage, and a
display of my revolver, although it may have been very efficacious,
was perfectly harmless, as the powder was quite damp. The young Martel
asked the Indians in Quichua how they dared to carry the plants, and
called after them that they would be seized at Sandia; but he was
civil to me, and we continued our journey peaceably, though full of
apprehensions at the turn affairs might take on our arrival at Sandia.

We had to cross the same country as we had traversed in our journey
to the Tambopata valley; and, in skirting along the verge of a ridge,
near the Marun-kunka, the cargo-mule fell headlong down a precipice of
twenty feet, into a dense mass of trees and underwood. We could see the
poor beast's legs kicking in the air, but it was long before we could
reach her, and more than two hours before a circuitous path could be
cut and cleared away to extricate her. We encamped on the pajonal, and
next day, after a very laborious walk of twelve hours, we reached the
Ypara tambo, in the valley of Sandia, Mr. Weir having collected twenty
plants of _Calisaya Josephiana_ on the way. On May 14th we continued
our journey towards Sandia, and collected fifty-five more plants
of _Calisaya Josephiana_ on the pajonal of Paccay-samana, chiefly
seedlings.

The water of the numerous cascades is very refreshing, and as beautiful
in its limpid transparency as when it dashes down the rocks in dazzling
streams of purest white. We were now too in the land of luscious
oranges and chirimoyas. The commonest bird in the valley of Sandia is
the _cuchu_, a kind of large crow, with a shrill weak caw. It has a
long yellow bill, greenish-brown body and wings, rump-feathers red,
and a long bright yellow tail, with a black line down the centre. The
_cuchus_ walk about the fields eating the young maize, and perch upon
the adjoining trees. Humming-birds are numerous, and very beautiful; I
saw also a little cream- hawk, and lordly eagles were soaring
over the ravine, having their eyries in the inaccessible parts of the
lofty cliffs. Approaching Sandia in the early morning of May 15th, I
came upon many groups of Indians, with their wives and daughters, who
had slept in the road, on their way to and from their coca-harvests.
They were boiling their breakfasts of potatoes over little fires of
dry sticks, which crackled pleasantly. Grand precipices towered up
on either side of the valley, and in the bottom, where the bright
river was murmuring on its way, there was a hut in a field of maize,
surrounded by the drooping crimson flowers of the "love-lies-bleeding,"
with a girl in a bright blue woollen dress sitting at the door.

On arriving at Sandia I went through the ceremony of paying off my
Indians, and taking leave; and Vilca, Ccuri, and Quispi returned to
their homes. I formed a very high opinion of the Indian character
from my experience with these my fellow-labourers. Suspicious they
certainly were at times, and with good reason after the treatment
they have usually met with from white men, but willing, hard-working,
intelligent, good-humoured, always ready to help each other, quick in
forming the encampments, conversing quietly and without noise round the
camp-fires, and always kind to animals; altogether very efficient and
companionable people.

I found things at Sandia in a very alarming state; most of the people
had been excited by letters from Quiaca to prevent me from continuing
my journey with the chinchona-plants, and a sort of league had been
made with other _Juntas Municipales_ to protect their interests, and
prevent foreigners from injuring them. The tactics which were adopted
would have succeeded in their object, but for a great piece of good
luck. I was prevented from hiring mules, except to go to Crucero, where
I knew Martel was stationed, with the intention of raising obstacles
to my further progress until the plants had been killed by the frost.
I was in despair, and meditated setting out on foot, with all the
four bundles of plants on my own mule, when Don Manuel Mena told me
confidentially that, if I would give him my gun, he would get an Indian
to supply beasts, and accompany me to Vilque, on the road to Arequipa.
I willingly agreed to this bargain, and sent Mr. Weir and Pablo to
Crucero, so as to throw Martel off the scent, while I hurried the
plants down to the coast by the most unfrequented line of country.

An alarm had, however, been spread through all the villages bordering
on the chinchona forests, both in Caravaya and Bolivia, and I
ascertained that effectual measures had been taken to prevent my
return for seeds in August. Martel had also written to the towns and
villages between Crucero and Arequipa, to put obstacles in the way of
my retreat, so that I found it necessary to avoid entering any town
or village, and to shape a direct compass-course over the cordilleras
from Sandia to Vilque. I also reluctantly abandoned my intention of
returning to collect seeds in August, and made the best arrangements in
my power to obtain a supply, through a reliable agent, in the ensuing
year. Martel was a mischievous meddling fellow, but the members of
the _Juntas Municipales_ may have been influenced by misguided zeal
for the interests of their country, and for the preservation of a
strict monopoly in a trade which has ceased to exist, for no bark is
now-exported from Caravaya.

In the morning of May 17th I left Sandia on my own trusty mule,
driving two others with the plants before me, and accompanied by
their owner on foot, an Indian named Angelino Paco, a middle-aged
respectable-looking man, who had been one of the Alcaldes of Sandia
in 1859. Mr. Weir started for Arequipa on the same day, by way of
Crucero. Passing through Cuyo-cuyo without stopping, I continued to
ascend a mountain-gorge, by the side of the stream, but Paco had never
been out of the valley of Sandia before, and was useless as a guide.
All along the banks of the stream there were square pools dammed up
and filled with heaps of potatoes and ocas, placed there to freeze
into _chuñus_, the principal food of the Indians when in the forests,
or on the coffee or coca estates. Higher up the gorge all signs of
habitation cease, though there are still abandoned tiers of ancient
terraces, and the mountain scenery is quite magnificent. Night coming
on without a moon, I halted under a splendid range of frowning black
cliffs, and succeeded in pitching the tent in the dark, but there
was no fuel, and on opening the leathern bag I found that my little
stock of food and lucifer-matches had been stolen in Sandia. I was
thus entirely dependent for existence on Paco's parched maize, which
proved uncommonly hard fare. The cold was intense during the night, and
penetrated through the tent and clothes to the very marrow.

At daybreak Paco and I loaded the mules, and continued to ascend the
gorge by the side of the river of Sandia, which becomes a noisy little
rill, and finally falls, as a thin silvery cascade, over a black
cliff. Reaching the summit of the snowy cordillera of Caravaya, we
commenced the journey over lofty grass-covered plains, where the ground
was covered with stiff white frost. There were flocks of vicuñas on
the plain, and _huallatas_, large white geese with brown wings and
red legs, on the banks of the streams; but as we advanced even these
signs of life ceased, and, when night closed in, I looked round on
the desolate scene, and thought that to make a direct cut across the
cordilleras to Vilque by compass-course was a very disagreeable way of
travelling, though, in this case, a necessary one. I had been eleven
hours in the saddle, when Paco found an abandoned shepherd's hut, built
of loose stones, three feet high, and thatched with _ychu_ grass. The
minimum thermometer, during the night, was as low as 20° Fahr. by my
side.

At daylight on May 19th Paco complained of having to rise before the
sun, although he must have been half-frozen. The mules had escaped, and
we were fully three hours in catching them. The ground was covered with
a crisp frost, and during the forenoon we were traveling over the same
lofty wilderness, consisting of grassy undulating hills, with ridges
of cliffs, and huge boulders here and there. The view was bounded on
the north and east by the splendid snowy peaks of the Caravayan range,
and to the north-west by those of Vilcañota. The only living things, in
these wild solitudes, are the graceful _vicuñas_, which peered at us
with their long necks from behind the grassy <DW72>s, the _guanacos_,
the _biscaches_ burrowing amongst the rocks, and the _huallatas_ or
large geese on the margins of streams or pools of water.

At about noon we began to descend a rocky dangerous cuesta, where there
was much trouble with the mules, which were constantly attempting to
lie down and roll with the plants. The steep descent led into the
plain of Putina, which was covered with flocks of sheep, with small
farms, shaded by clumps of _queñua_-trees, nestling under the sandstone
cliffs which bound the plain. Crossing another range, we reached a
swampy plain, with sheep and cattle scattered over it, and stopped at
an abandoned shepherd's hut, the exact counterpart of last night's
lodging. I had been ten hours in the saddle, and was faint from hunger,
but had to go supperless to bed. Paco was nearly breaking down from a
bad wound in his foot, but I bandaged it with lint, and he was able to
proceed. He had an _alco_ or Peruvian dog with him, which was devotedly
attached to its master. These dogs are something like Newfoundlands,
only much smaller, generally black or white, and seldom bark.

On the morrow the way, for the first two hours, led over grassy
hills covered with flocks of sheep, with shepherd-lads playing on
_pincullus_, or flutes, the sound of which came floating pleasantly
on the air, from every direction far and near. We passed several
blue mountain-lakes, with islands of rushes, and many ducks. From
10 A.M. until sunset the whole day was occupied in crossing a vast
plain covered with sheep and cattle, and just after sunset we reached
a small _estancia_ or sheep-farm. It was occupied by a large family
of good-tempered Indians, whose eyes glistened when I offered them a
_cesto_ of coca which I had with me, in exchange for unlimited supplies
of milk and cheese. It was pleasant to see their happiness at the
acquisition of this treasure, which was shared by the children and
dogs. The place was full of guinea-pigs, which are considered great
delicacies. The extreme hunger from which I had suffered since leaving
Sandia was here relieved by plenty of milk, cheese, and parched maize.
Every night I had wrapped the Russian mats, which enveloped the plants,
in warm ponchos, and the tent. The crooked wriggling queñua-branches,
which formed the roof of the hut, looked like snakes in the dim light
after sunset.

At sunrise on May 21st there was a white frost, and the deep blue sky
was without a single cloud. Suddenly an immense flock of flamingos,
called _parihuanas_[346] in Quichua, rose in a long column from the
margin of the river of Azangaro, which flows through the plain. These
birds, with their crimson wings, and rose- necks and bodies,
whirring up in a long spiral column, formed one of the most beautiful
sights I ever saw.

Crossing a range of rocky hills, we entered a plain, which extended to
the banks of a large lake, with the little town of Arapa built along
the shore. Dark mountains rise up immediately in the rear. I believe
that I am the first English traveller who has ever visited this lake,
and M. de Castelnau, who obtained some information respecting it at
Puno, says that it is not to be found in any map.[347] Along the
shores there were long rows of flamingos, standing like a gigantic
regiment, with a few skirmishers thrown out fishing. There were also
_huallatas_, ibises, ducks, and a stout-built stunted sort of crane.
Journeying on, we began to cross a vast plain which extends for many
leagues round the north-west corner of lake Titicaca, and is dotted
with walled _estancias_ and flocks of sheep. At length we reached the
ford over the river of Azangaro, in sight of the little village of
Achaya, to the left. The water came above the mules' bellies, and,
crossing half a mile of swampy ground, we came to another ford over
the river of Pucara. The two rivers, uniting just below Achaya, form
the Ramiz, the largest feeder of lake Titicaca. We continued our way
for many hours over the plain, until we reached an Indian's hut long
after dark, having been twelve hours in the saddle, at the slow tedious
pace of a tired mule. The cargo-mules had played every kind of vicious
trick throughout the day, running off in different directions at every
opportunity, and constantly trying to roll.

Starting at daybreak on the 22nd, we forded the river of Lampa, crossed
the road between Lampa and Puno, passed over a rocky cordillera and
a wide plain, and reached the little town of Vilque by four in the
afternoon. The place presented a very different appearance from the
time when we passed through it in March, on our way to Puno. It was
now the time of the great yearly fair, when buyers and sellers from
every part of South America flock to the little _sierra_ town. This
great gathering was first established in the time of the Spaniards, and
it is not improbable that the Jesuits, who once possessed the great
sheep-farm of Yanarico near Vilque, and who always looked well after
the improvement of their property, may have been the great promoters of
the fair.

Outside the town there were thousands of mules from Tucuman waiting for
Peruvian arrieros to buy them. In the plaza were booths full of every
description of Manchester and Birmingham goods; in more retired places
were gold-dust and coffee from Caravaya, silver from the mines, bark
and chocolate from Bolivia, Germans with glass-ware and woollen knitted
work, French modistes, Italians, Quichua and Aymara Indians in their
various picturesque costumes--in fact, all nations and tongues. In the
plaza, too, there were excellent cafés and dining-rooms, all under
canvas; but house-rent was exorbitant, and a lodging was not to be had
for love or money. There was much complaint of the injury done to trade
by the threatened war with Bolivia, and the edict of President Linares,
prohibiting all intercourse with Peru.

I placed the bundles of plants, carefully wrapped round with ponchos,
in a barley-field occupied by arrieros, covered over with their warm
_aparejos_; but the thermometer was down to 23° Fahr. in the night.

In the afternoon of the 23rd I left Vilque for the sheep-farm of
Taya-taya, in company with Dr. Don Camillo Chaves the superintendent.
The road was crowded with people coming from Arequipa to the fair
at Vilque: native shopkeepers, English merchants coming to arrange
for their supplies of wool, and a noisy company of arrieros on their
way to buy mules, and armed to the teeth with horse-pistols, old
guns, and huge daggers, to defend their money-bags. Many of them were
good-looking fellows, the older ones bearing signs of hard drinking.

The sheep-farm of Taya-taya,[348] four leagues from Vilque, is a large
range of mud-plastered buildings with thatched roofs, built round
a large _patio_, on a bleak plain surrounded by mountains. In the
morning a flock of forty llamas were being laden with packs of wool in
the patio, at which they were making bitter lamentations. We started
early on May 24th, and encountered a cold gale of wind, blowing in
icy squalls over the cordillera. I reached the posthouse of Cuevillas
in the night, a distance of 45 miles; got as far as the posthouse of
Pati the next day; encountered a tremendous gale of wind on the skirts
of the volcano of Arequipa, but descended to the valley of Cangallo
on the 26th; and rode into the city of Arequipa, with my plants, on
the morning of the 27th of May. Mr. Weir arrived from Crucero on the
29th, having, as I expected, found Martel in that town, whose designs
were thus baffled. From Sandia to Arequipa is a distance of nearly 300
miles. No opposition was made to my departure from Arequipa, although
the local newspaper had something to say afterwards,[349] and on June
1st the plants were safely deposited by the Wardian cases at the port
of Islay.

"John of the Fountain" had provided plenty of soil, and by the 3rd all
the plants were established in the Wardian cases by Mr. Weir. But the
difficulties of getting the plants out of the country were not entirely
ended by my escape from Martel and the _Juntas Municipales_ of the
interior. The Superintendent of the custom-house of Islay declared it
to be illegal to export cascarilla-plants, and refused to allow them
to be shipped without an express order from the Minister of Finance
and Commerce at Lima. He had probably received intelligence respecting
the contents of the cases from Vilque, where all news centres at the
time of the fair. This obliged me to go to Lima to obtain the necessary
order from Colonel Salcedo, the Minister of Finance, which, after much
difficulty, I succeeded in doing, and returned with it to Islay on June
23rd.[350]

Meanwhile, since the plants had been established in the Wardian cases,
they had begun to bud and throw out young leaves, which seemed to prove
that they had quite recovered from their journey across the arctic
climate of the Andes. In the evening of the 23rd the cases were hoisted
into a launch, ready to go on board the steamer on the following
morning; and during the night attempts were made to bribe the man in
charge to bore holes and kill the plants by pouring in boiling water,
but without success. On the following day they were safely lodged on
board the steamer bound for Panama.

It was impossible not to feel regret that H. M. steamer 'Vixen,' then
lying idle at Callao, had not been ordered to take the plants direct
across the Pacific to Madras, when a majority would have arrived in
perfect order. But this was not to be, and we had to look forward to
long voyages, several trans-shipments, and the intense heat of the Red
Sea, before this most valuable collection of plants could reach their
destination in Southern India.

Yet it could not but be satisfactory to look back upon the
extraordinary difficulties we had overcome, the hardships and dangers
of the forests, the scarcity of the plants, the bewildering puzzle to
find them amidst the dense underwood, the endeavour to stop my journey
first at Tambopata and then in Sandia, the rapid flight across unknown
parts of the cordillera, and the attempts first to stop and then to
destroy the plants at Islay: it was a source of gratification to look
back upon all this, and then to see the great majority of the plants
budding and looking healthy in the Wardian cases.

The climate at Islay, during the time that the plants remained there,
was as follows, from the 1st to the 24th of June:--

  Mean temperature                69° Fahr.
  Mean minimum at night           60
  Highest temperature observed    73
  Lowest                          58
  Entire range                    15

The temperature is almost exactly the same as that of the Tambopata
forests in May; but the forests were always exceedingly moist, while
Islay is intensely dry. This, however, was unimportant to the plants in
their cases.




CHAPTER XVIII.

PRESENT CONDITION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF PERU.

  Population--Civil wars--Government--Constitution--General
  Castilla and his ministers--Dr. Vigil--Mariano Paz
  Soldan--Valleys on the coast--Cotton, wool, and specie--The
  Amazons--Guano--Finances--Literature--Future prospects.


AFTER a sojourn of a few days at Lima we took a final farewell of the
land of the Incas, on June 29th, 1860. As we steamed along the coast,
in sight of the emerald-green valleys, surrounded by trackless wastes
of sand, and of the glorious cordilleras which towered up behind them,
a long train of memories passed in array before us. In this land
alone, of all the nations of the earth, did the ideal of a perfect
patriarchal form of government become a reality. Here, too, are the
scenes of the most romantic episode in modern history, comprised in the
career of the Pizarros. The sufferings of the gentle Indians excited
the indignation of the Elizabethan chivalry; the fabulous riches
extracted from the mines of Peru attracted the adventurous spirit of
the buccaneers of a baser age; and the brave struggle for independence
led more than one gallant Englishman to shed his blood in the cause of
Peruvian liberty.[351] What is now the state of this famous land, and
what prospect is there of the glowing hopes expressed in Mr. Canning's
well-known speech ever being fulfilled, are questions which cannot fail
to arouse some passing interest.

In giving an account of the present condition and future prospects of
Peru, the invariable kindness and frank hospitality of its inhabitants
impose an obligation to speak with as much leniency and forbearance
as the interests of truth will admit. The South American Republics
are peopled by races of mixed origin, who are doubtless inferior to
Europeans, both mentally and physically; and the unsettled condition
of those countries, which inevitably succeeded the struggles for an
independence for which the people were unprepared, has continued longer
than might justly have been expected. But it appears to be a generally
received idea in England, originating from the accounts of travellers
unacquainted with the people, and ignorant of their language, that the
South Americans are a mongrel degraded race, incapable of improvement,
and hopelessly degenerate.[352] So far as my experience extends, and
after a careful consideration of the subject, I can see no grounds for
resigning the hope that a brighter future is yet in store for the land
of the Incas.

It is true that, after a casual and superficial glance at the state
of affairs in South America since the expulsion of the Spaniards, the
prospect appears sufficiently gloomy. But a more intimate acquaintance
with the subject, and especially a knowledge of the tone of thought
amongst the younger men, as expressed in conversation and in their
writings, would show that, under the surface, noble aspirations and
steady enlightened views prevail, which must eventually yield fruit,
and thus justify our hopes for the future. When independence was
established in South America, there were two principal causes which led
to the civil wars which ensued; namely, the question between a federal
or a centralized form of government, and the disputes respecting
boundaries. The power attained during the revolution by the armies, and
the selfish ambition, treason, and corruption of public men, aggravated
these sources of evil to a melancholy extent. But other countries,
far greater and nobler than these poor struggling republics, have had
to pass through as long and as degrading a crisis in their history.
Englishmen must remember the thirty years comprising the reigns of the
two last Stuarts with quite as much shame as the great-grandchildren of
the present Peruvians will experience when they learn the history of
their country for the first forty years after its independence. It is
recorded that in a British House of Commons there was but one Andrew
Marvel. To my personal knowledge there are now several Andrew Marvels
in Chile and Peru. These young and inexperienced countries have had to
pass through a fierce ordeal, and, truth to say, they have played their
part but indifferently as yet. They indeed require forbearance, but let
us not turn from them with disdain and contempt, in the pride of our
present grandeur and prosperity. Were treason and corruption and base
selfish faction never rife in England's court and parliament?

The fatal mistake of several of the old Spanish colonies was in
establishing a federal system of government, in imitation of the United
States. This was the case in Mexico, Central America, New Granada, and
the Argentine Confederation. No system can possibly be more entirely
unsuited to a thinly-peopled mountainous region, without roads, and
unprovided with a sufficient number of capable educated men in the
distant provinces to undertake the local government. Power necessarily
falls into the hands of any cunning adventurer, every little state
becomes a focus for revolution, and an endless succession of civil wars
are the result. Such, in fact, has been the fate of those republics
where federation has been established. Pernicious as centralization
always is when carried too far in old and densely-peopled countries,
it is an absolute necessity in young states, with a small population
thinly scattered over a vast extent of country. The distant
inaccessible districts do not possess the materials for self-government
within themselves, and necessarily depend for their prosperity and
advancement on the capital.

Peru has only once been subjected to the federal experiment, and she
has not suffered so much from internal dissensions as the unfortunate
countries above mentioned. She holds a central position amongst the
South American republics, not so cruelly torn by anarchy as Mexico on
the one hand, and not enjoying so good and settled a government as
Chile on the other. Her people too are perhaps inferior in capacity and
mental endowments to the Chilians and the natives of New Granada, but
infinitely superior to those of Central America and Mexico. She may,
therefore, be taken as an average example of these half Spanish, half
Indian states; and as such I will proceed to give some account of her
people, her government, and her material resources.

The population of Peru, by the latest accounts, was 1,880,000 souls:
the whole of the labouring classes in the interior being pure Indians;
the artizans and shopkeeping classes in the towns partly Indians and
partly half-castes or mestizos; the lower orders on the coast being
<DW64>s, or zambos, a caste between <DW64>s and Indians, with some
imported Chinese; and the upper classes being chiefly of Spanish
descent with a slight dash of Indian blood, many nearly or quite
half-castes, not a few pure Indian, and an exceedingly small proportion
of pure Spanish descent.[353] The men of Indian extraction display
perhaps more energy and equal ability with their fellow-countrymen of
pure Spanish origin; and many Indians are wealthy enterprising men,
while others have held the highest offices in the state. The Peruvians
are intelligent and quick of apprehension, exceedingly hospitable
and kind-hearted, and remarkably humane and forgiving, as a rule, in
the conduct of their civil wars; but they are apt to be fickle and
volatile, incapable of any long-sustained effort, and inclined to
indolence. Corruption, bribery, treason, and pusillanimity are but
too common; but may not these be the vices engendered by civil strife
and periods of anarchy, rather than the normal characteristics of the
people? With the exception of the <DW64> races on the coast, there are
few people among whom crime is more uncommon.

The causes of the civil and foreign wars which have retarded the
progress of Peru since her independence may be explained in a very few
sentences.

The first of these has arisen from disputes with her neighbours
respecting boundaries. On her southern frontier the ambitious policy
of Bolivar created a small republic, from no reason or motive that
was apparent, beyond the childish vanity of having a country called
after his name. This country was to all intents and purposes a part of
Peru. Her people, her languages, her traditions and feelings were the
same, and, until the latter part of the last century, she had formed
a part of the Peruvian viceroyalty. No good end was attained by this
division; while disputes respecting a doubtful unsurveyed boundary,
jealousies and misunderstandings arising from all imported goods
from Europe having to be landed at the Peruvian port of Arica, and
conveyed to Bolivia across Peruvian territory, has created a hostile
feeling, embittered year by year, between people who should have lived
as brothers under a single government. On her northern frontier Peru
has the little republic of Ecuador, until 1830 a portion of Colombia;
which possesses the only good port, with the exception of Callao, on
the western coast of South America, that of Guayaquil. This port has
always been coveted by Peru; and the question of the frontier was
further confused by the civil jurisdiction in Peru and Quito, during
Spanish times, having been divided by one line, and the ecclesiastical
by another. The generally recognised rule for deciding the frontiers
between the South American Republics is the _uti possidetis_, as
regards the former colonial jurisdictions, at the time of the war of
independence.

These frontier disputes, carried on with feelings embittered by former
jealousies, led to a war between Colombia and Peru in 1828,[354] in
which the latter republic was worsted; and a campaign, ending in a
treaty, between Peru and Bolivia at the same time.

The second and more disastrous cause for civil dissensions was the
question between a federal and a centralized form of republican
government. Peru enjoyed a period of peace between the war with
Colombia in 1828 and the year 1834; but between the latter period
and the year 1844 the unfortunate country was subject to a constant
series of civil wars and insurrections. The ten years between 1834
and 1844 was Peru's most miserable time. Her public men were corrupt,
pusillanimous, and selfishly ambitious; she was given up to be torn
and distracted by wretched military adventurers; and the marches of
armies, with their system of forced recruiting, banished all attempts
at advancement or improvement from the country. Yet even during this
dark interval there was a space of two years, when General Santa Cruz
established his dream of a federal republic under the name of the
Peru-Bolivian Confederation, during which the land enjoyed peace and
some signs of revived prosperity. The able and vigorous administration
of Santa Cruz, whose mother was an Indian chieftainess, was the one
bright spot in this dreary waste of anarchy.

For the following ten years Peru enjoyed a period of peace, under
the rule of General Don Ramon Castilla, an old Indian of Tarapaca,
for the first six years, and afterwards of General Echenique. During
this period the country advanced rapidly in material prosperity, but
in 1854 it was again convulsed by a revolution, caused by the general
discontent of the people at the gross malversations and unblushing
robbery of Echenique's Government. Castilla placed himself at the head
of this movement, and, with the aid of a large army, has retained his
power up to the present day. The insurrection at Arequipa, and mutiny
in the fleet, in 1857-58, were purely local, and did not affect the
general tranquillity of the country.

Towards the close of Peru's ten years of convulsion, a constitution was
adopted, establishing a strictly centralising form of government, in
1839, in which immense power was placed in the hands of the executive.
But during the ten years of peace which followed the election of
Castilla in 1844, men's minds were strongly influenced by European
travel and by more extended reading, extreme liberal views were very
generally adopted, and the old constitution was felt to be out of
date. In 1856, therefore, a new constitution was promulgated by a
national assembly summoned for the purpose by General Castilla, in
which abstract ideas of what is just and right were unhesitatingly
and heedlessly adopted; and a strong tendency to federalism and local
self-government was displayed.

By a stroke of the pen the capitation-tax paid by the Indians, the
principal source of revenue in ordinary times, the slavery of <DW64>s
on the coast, and all capital punishments were entirely abolished.
There would have been some nobleness in the abolition of slavery, and
the grant of 1,780,000 dollars as compensation, as well as a display
of liberal sentiment, if it had in any way increased the burdens
of the people, but this was not the case. For the same reason the
discontinuance of the tribute paid by the Indians was a mere act of
recklessness. In this constitution there were two legislative chambers,
a Senate and a House of Representatives; but half the representatives
were chosen by lot to form a Senate, so that one chamber was a mere
counterpart of the other. The most remarkable clauses, however, were
those in which measures leading to the federal form of government, a
plagiarism of the disastrous system of the United States, were adopted.
Peru continued to be divided into Departments governed by Prefects
appointed by the President; but it was now enacted that in the capital
of each Department there should be a sort of state legislature called
a _Junta Departmental_, the members being elected by the people, and
empowered to deliberate and legislate for the good of the Department.
This measure was but a commencement of that fatal system which had
convulsed some of the other republics; and its tendency was so apparent
that Castilla was accused of intending to divide Peru into a dozen
petty states, and to rule as a Dictator, by fomenting dissensions
among them.[355] A wiser and more useful measure was the establishment
of what are called _Juntas Municipales_ in the towns and unions of
villages, composed of the principal residents, who are intrusted with
the supervision and promotion of all local interests and improvements.

In November 1860 this constitution was reformed, improvements were
introduced, and some of its more absurd and injurious provisions
were repealed. Capital punishment for the crime of murder was again
enacted. The Congress was to meet every two years on the 28th of July;
a third of their number to be renewed every two years; and, during the
recess, a permanent committee of the Congress, consisting of seven
senators and eight deputies, to be elected at the end of each session,
was to watch the execution of acts passed by the Congress, and to
exercise its functions. A great improvement was also adopted in the
constitution of the Senate. The members of that body are to be elected
by the Departments, each one electing a certain number according to the
number of its provinces, and the qualification of a senator is raised
to 1000 dollars a-year. Thus there is now an intelligible difference
between the two chambers, and, in the formation of the Senate, one of
the few good points of the constitution of the United States has been
wisely adopted. The executive power is in the hands of a President
and two Vice-Presidents elected for four years, and a council of
ministers. Finally the mischievous _Juntas Departmentales_, which I
believe had never been allowed to meet, were abolished, while the
municipal institutions of the constitution of 1856, which could only be
productive of good, remained in full force.

Such is the present form of government in Peru, perhaps as good a one
as the country is fit for, and capable, in firm and honest hands,
of meeting all the present requirements of the people; but it is of
more importance to know in whose hands the government of the country
is placed, and what manner of men are intrusted with the destinies
of a country so rich in memories of the past, as well as in material
resources; a young republic still bleeding at every pore from a series
of civil wars, yet with a growing desire to struggle up, through shame
and misfortune, to a respectable place among the nations. I will give a
few hasty sketches of the men who formed the executive power during my
stay at Lima in 1860.

General Ramon Castilla, the President, is a native of Tarapaca in the
extreme south of Peru, and must now be close upon seventy years of age.
He is the son of Pedro Castilla, who worked the refuse silver-ores of
the mines of El Carmen,[356] and young Ramon acted as his father's
_leñatero_, or woodcutter. He, afterwards, entered the Spanish army,
and on the arrival of the patriot forces from Chile in 1821 he joined
their cause, and attained the rank of colonel. After the independence
he was appointed Sub-prefect of his native province of Tarapaca, in
1826; and he was Prefect of Puno from 1834 to 1836; but he was mixed up
in all the civil wars, and, after a victory gained by him in 1844, he
was elected President of the Republic. Castilla is a small spare man,
with an iron constitution, and great powers of endurance. His bright
fierce little eyes, with overhanging brows, stiff bristly moustaches,
and projecting under lip, give his countenance a truculent expression,
which is not improved by a leathery dried-up complexion; but he has a
look of resolution and an air of command which is almost dignified.
This remarkable man is an excellent soldier, brave as a lion, prompt
in action, and beloved by his men. Uneducated and illiterate, his
political successes and management of parties almost amount to
genius, while his victories have never been stained by cruelty, and
his antagonists have seldom been proscribed for any length of time,
generally pardoned at once, and often raised by him to posts of
importance in the service of the Republic. His firm and vigorous grasp
of power has secured for Peru long periods of peace; faction has been
kept under, while an incalculable blessing has thus been conferred on
the country; and probably no other man had the ability and the nerve
to effect this. But Castilla, though a necessity, has been a necessary
evil. His want of education renders him useless as a statesman. He
has generally shown himself indifferent to all public works, and to
measures for the moral or material benefit of the country, while
he insists on keeping up an enormous standing army, and on spending
untold sums on a costly navy, thus squandering the public money, and
continuing a pernicious and ruinous system. The brave old man has been
a necessity. He alone has been able to keep the peace, and give time
to the Peruvians slowly to develop the resources of their country;
and through this period of tranquillity, when he shall have passed
away, interests and influences may have insensibly risen up, which
will prevent the recurrence of such periods of anarchy as preceded
Castilla's first accession to power.

Juan Manuel del Mar, the first Vice-President, a tall, sallow,
earnest-looking man, is a native of Cuzco, the old capital of the
Incas. He has held office for some years, and has more than once been
in supreme command during the absence of Castilla. This statesman was
called to the bar in 1830, and has led an active public life as deputy
to Congress, judge, or minister ever since. He is thoroughly honest,
possessed of enlightened views and some ability, very popular, and
universally and deservedly respected.

The second Vice-President, elected under the provisions of the reformed
constitution of 1860, is General Pezet, the son of a physician of
French extraction, who died in Callao Castle when it was held by the
Spaniards, and stood a long siege. General Pezet, a native of Lima,
joined the patriot ranks when they landed in Peru in 1821, then only
eleven years of age; and was at once sent on active service. Thus he
was present at the battles of Junin and Ayacucho, which destroyed the
Spanish power, and was mixed up in the subsequent civil wars.

Castilla's ministers, at the time of my visit, were far from
representing the most able and distinguished class of Peruvians.
Colonel Salcedo, the Minister of Finance, a native of Lampa, was born
in 1801. He was one of the few members of Congress who, in 1824,
firmly opposed and defeated the ambitious designs of Bolivar; and he
has since almost constantly served as sub-prefect or prefect, or as
a member of Congress. Another minister was Don José Fabio Melgar,
a brother of the famous poet of Arequipa, whose melancholy death I
have already mentioned. He has served as chief clerk in one or other
of the public offices since 1833, is an amiable man, well read, and
intelligent, but with only moderate abilities, and no originality or
force of will. The minister of Foreign Affairs was Don Miguel del
Carpio, a veteran statesman, born in 1795, and who, having joined the
patriots and been taken prisoner by the Spaniards in 1822, was long
kept in prison, and heavily chained. Since the independence he has held
important offices both in Bolivia and Peru.

But old Castilla requires obedient clerks around him, not independent
ministers, and the more able and active-minded Peruvians are not to
be found filling high political posts. The best specimens of the
natives of Peru are either to be met with leading unobtrusive literary
lives, and preparing for better times; or on their estates actively
and energetically developing the resources of their country. Such men
are Mariategui, Felipe Pardo, Vigil, Paz Soldan, and Elias, whose
patriotism and great ability would do honour to any country.

Dr. Vigil is one of Peru's most distinguished sons. In early life
he was an active and eloquent member of Congress; subsequently he
was engaged on one of the most learned, as well as the most liberal
works that a Roman Catholic clergyman has ever ventured to publish on
the Papacy; and now in his old age he continues to advocate, in his
forcible writings, every cause and every measure which is intended to
advance religious freedom, or the moral well-being of his countrymen.
Dr. Vigil fears that liberal views on religious subjects, such as
toleration, the marriage of the clergy, and independence of Rome,
cannot be expected to make any rapid progress at present, but he
is confident that a future generation will appreciate his works,
and introduce the measures which he advocates. One of his strongest
convictions is that priests will never lead virtuous lives until they
are humanized by family ties: and that, while now they live for the
Church--that is for themselves and their order--they ought to live for
their flocks.

While the learned and amiable Vigil represents the literary men of
Peru, Mariano Paz Soldan is one of the best specimens of the men of
action. His benevolent mind was shocked at the wretched condition
of the prisons in Peru, and he has displayed an amount of energy
and ability in endeavouring to remedy this evil which goes far to
vindicate the Peruvian character from the charge of indolence and
procrastination. In 1853 Paz Soldan published a very able and detailed
report on the prisons of the United States; and in 1856, by dint of
unceasing representations, he obtained the necessary grant from the
Government for the erection of a penitentiary on the most improved
principle at Lima. The work was at once commenced with vigour. The
foundations, basement, and first story are built of a very hard
porphyritic stone, brought from the hills about two miles from Lima,
where a quarry was opened for the first time by Paz Soldan, with a
tramroad direct to the works. The entrance is by a flight of four
steps, cut out of a single block of this porphyritic rock. The second
story is of brick, and all the iron for gratings, doors, bolts, and
roofing came out ready made from England. The wards for men, women, and
children are separated, each with its large well-ventilated workroom,
exercising yard, and cells; and everything is arranged on the best
English and American models. It will hold 52 women, 52 boys, and 208
men. This great public work will be a credit to the country, and a
lasting monument of the energy and perseverance of its projector, who
trusts that it will be but the first of a series of such penitentiaries
in different parts of the country. Don Mariano Paz Soldan is also
engaged in organizing a general topographical survey of Peru.

There are many landed proprietors and others, of Paz Soldan's stamp,
who have availed themselves of the period of tranquillity since 1844,
interrupted only by one year of revolution, to improve their estates,
and thus add to their country's wealth, especially in the valleys on
the coast. The long slip of land between the Andes and the Pacific
Ocean enjoys an equable climate, rain and heavy storms are nearly
unknown, and refreshing dews descend during the night. The greater
part of this region consists of sandy desert, traversed by ridges of
rocky barren hills; but wherever a stream, descending from the Andes,
is of sufficient volume to reach the ocean, a rich and fertile valley
borders its banks. These valleys, of greater or less extent, and at
various intervals, break the monotony of the desert from the bay of
Guayaquil to the river Loa, which separates Peru from Bolivia. They are
admirably adapted for the cultivation of cotton, the vine, the olive,
and sugar-cane.

Immense wealth is already derived from these valleys, and, with
judicious outlay for obtaining more regular supplies of water, their
capabilities might be multiplied indefinitely. The valley of Cañete,
south of Lima, which is in the hands of six enterprising proprietors,
is covered with sugar-cane plantations. In 1860 it yielded sugar
worth 1,000,000 dollars, all raised by Chinese and free <DW64> labour.
Further south, the valleys of Pisco and Yca, thanks chiefly to Don
Domingo Elias and his sons, yield 70,000 _botijas_ of a spirit called
pisco, 10,000 barrels of excellent wine, 800,000 lbs. of cotton, and
40,000 lbs. of cochineal. Still further south there are many valleys
which render their owners wealthy by the produce of cane-fields and
vineyards, in the departments of Moquegua and Arequipa; and in the
valley of Tambo, near Arequipa, there are 5000 olive-trees and seven
mills.

Now that the question of cotton-supply is attracting so large a share
of attention in England, it is gratifying to be able to state that
landed proprietors on the coast of Peru have seriously turned their
attention to the subject, and that in 1860 the cultivation of cotton
was becoming a favourite speculation. The soil and climate of these
coast valleys are admirably adapted for its growth, and, though the
quantity that could be drawn from them would be insignificant when
compared with the vast demands of Manchester, yet the quality is good,
and they will supply one out of many sources which may hereafter
render us partially independent of the Confederate States. The estates
of Don Domingo Elias and others, in the valleys of Yca, Palpa, San
Xavier, and Nasca, yield 800,000 lbs. of excellent cotton. I visited
these cotton estates in 1853, and found that the cotton was carefully
picked, and packed by screw presses. A great deal of cotton is also
shipped from the port of Payta, which sells in Liverpool at 8_d._
to 9-1/2_d._ the lb.; and in the valley of Lambayeque,[357] between
Payta and Lima, cotton cultivation has lately been undertaken on a
very large scale. In 1860, in the four districts of Talambo, Cayalti,
Collus, and Calupe, there were already 600,000 plants in the ground,
and in neighbouring estates extensive tracts of land had been prepared
for cotton by the house of Zaracondegui and others. At Talambo, in
the valley of Pacasmayo, there are many Biscayan families, numbering
in all 176 souls, who are exclusively engaged in cotton cultivation;
and the yield in that district in the first year was 800,000 lbs.
In the province of Chiclayo 700,000 plants were put in the ground
during 1860, and land was being prepared for the growth of cotton
crops to a much larger extent. These cotton-growing provinces of
Lambayeque, Chiclayo, and Truxillo are fertile and well watered;
storms of rain are unknown, and they enjoy an equable climate with
a mean temperature between 70° and 84° Fahr. It has been calculated
that, after leaving a fifth of the available land for crops to supply
provisions for the inhabitants, as many as 140,000 _fanegadas_[358]
might be brought under cotton cultivation in these provinces alone.
Allowing four feet for each plant, and that each plant yields four
pounds a year, this extent of land would produce 580,000,000 lbs. of
cotton annually, worth twelve dollars the cwt. at the port of shipment,
or 69,600,000 dollars. Deducting 22,400,000 for expenses, this would
leave 47,200,000 dollars profit. But these provinces only contain a
small fraction of the fertile coast valleys of Peru; and it is clear
that, if the speculations of 1860 yield a reasonably profitable return,
the cultivation of cotton may, in all probability, be undertaken
over a vast area, and render Peru an important source of supply for
Manchester.[359]

The lofty table-lands of the cordillera of the Andes produce
sufficient maize, wheat, and sugar for home consumption; but their
chief exportable wealth is to be found in the vast flocks of sheep and
alpacas which find pasture on those grassy uplands, and in the veins
and washings of silver and gold. About 400,000_l._ worth of wool is
annually exported, of which 5,017,100 lbs., valued at 287,339_l._, were
embarked from the port of Islay in 1859, and 4,214,000 lbs. in 1860.
The export of specie amounted to about 200,000_l._ in 1859, of which
34,705_l._ were exported from Islay, and 32,000_l._ from Arica. But of
this a portion is in coined money and _chafalonia_, or old plate.

Besides the raising of the various valuable products suitable to the
coast valleys and the _sierra_, the vast forests to the eastward of the
Andes, and the great fluvial highways which flow through them to the
Atlantic, offer an inexhaustible field for Peruvian enterprise. The
incredible resources of this portion of Peru are only now beginning to
be fully appreciated, though ten, and even twenty years ago, there were
evident symptoms of the first early pulsations of life and commerce
on the mighty river Amazons and its tributaries. Petty traders, the
pioneers of a stirring future, were then busy, each in his little
traffic; canoes laden with hammocks, hats, wax, sarsaparilla, copaiba,
and other products of the forest, found their way to Para at the mouth
of the Amazons, and returned with European manufactured goods.

But of late years an immense stride in advance has been taken; and in
1857 a Brazilian company was working eight steamers on the Amazons
and its tributaries, conveying passengers, and bearing up and down
a ceaseless ebb and flow of commerce. Measures were adopted in 1853
to connect the Brazilian line of steamers with a Peruvian line
navigating the upper waters, and two small steam-vessels were sent out
from New York for the purpose, called the "Tirado" and "Huallaga."
The revolution of 1854 temporarily put a stop to these efforts,
and the two steamers were left to rot at Nauta, 2300 miles up the
Amazons. Latterly, however, steps have again been taken to supply
the Peruvian tributaries of the Amazons with steam navigation, and
thereby to encourage settlement, attract commerce, and thus develop the
incalculable wealth of Peru's Amazonian provinces.

In October 1858 a fluvial convention was signed between Brazil and
Peru, establishing the free navigation of the Amazons, under certain
restrictions; and in February 1860 the Brazilian steamer 'Tabatinga'
arrived at Laguna on the Peruvian river Huallaga, upwards of 3000 miles
from the mouth of the Amazons. Meanwhile the Peruvian Government have
ordered steamers to be constructed to work on the upper waters of the
Amazons, in conjunction with the Brazilian line; and roads are to be
made connecting inland towns with the nearest navigable points on the
tributaries of the Amazons. In June 1860 a party of sixty men left the
town of Huanuco to explore the wide forest-covered plains known as the
"Pampas del Sacramento" to the eastward; and in July a road had already
been commenced, which is to connect Huanuco with a navigable part of
the river Ucayali, a distance of 150 miles. A small colony of Germans
has been established on the river Pozuzu. Other measures of a similar
nature are in contemplation, and it is impossible to estimate the rapid
and certain increase of wealth which will accrue to this hitherto
neglected region, when steam communication has thus brought one of the
richest regions in the world within reach of a market. Para, at the
mouth of the Amazons, already exceeds, in the number of its staple
commodities of export, all indigenous to the regions of which it forms
the outlet, almost any other port on the surface of the globe. My space
will not allow me to dilate further on this most interesting subject;
but it is assuredly one which well deserves the attention of commercial
men in England.

The most remarkable source of Peruvian wealth, and one which has
caused effects on her financial system which are perhaps unique in the
history of any country, is the guano on the desert islands off the
coast. When the South American Republics were thrown open to the trade
of Europe, the value of guano as a manure was soon discovered, the
demand rapidly increased, and the Peruvian Government were not long in
availing themselves of this, as they believed, inexhaustible source of
riches.[360] The three Chincha islands, in the bay of Pisco, contained
a total of 12,376,100 tons of guano in 1853, and, as since that time
2,837,365 tons have been exported up to 1860, there were 9,538,735 tons
remaining in 1861.[361] In 1860 as many as 433 vessels, with a tonnage
of 348,554, loaded at the Chincha islands; so that, at the above rate,
the guano will last for twenty-three years, until 1883. The guano
monopoly brings in a revenue to the State of 14,850,000 dollars.

In Peru even the arid deserts are the sources of enormous wealth; for
while the desolate Chinchas pour millions into the treasury, the pampa
of Tamarugal, in the Tarapaca province, contributes its nitrate of soda
(_salitre_) and borate of lime to swell the riches of this favoured
land. It is calculated that the nitrate of soda grounds in this
district cover fifty square leagues, and, allowing one hundred pounds
weight of nitrate for each square yard, this will give 63,000,000
tons, which, at the present rate of consumption, will last for 1393
years.[362] In 1860 the export of nitrate of soda from the port of
Iquique amounted to 1,370,248 cwts., and a good deal of borax is also
exported, though its shipment is prohibited by the Government.

The extensive use of mineral substances, such as guano and nitrate of
soda, as a top-dressing for corn-crops, is a discovery of modern times,
and these manures were not generally appreciated in England until a
period between 1824 and 1829. I believe that farmers consider guano and
nitrate of soda to be about equally efficacious as a top-dressing for
corn; and it is now a matter of pressing interest to the agricultural
community in England to reduce their prices, which are as high as
twelve and sixteen pounds a ton respectively. But, with this view,
a careful search for deposits of guano in other parts of the world
has only led to the discovery of those at Ichaboe, on the coast of
Africa, in 1843, and of those on the Arabian Kooria Mooria islands
more recently. The deposit at Ichaboe was all carried off by the end
of 1845, while that on Jibleea, one of the Kooria Moorias, is still
being worked; but it is very inferior to the guano of the Peruvian
islands.[363]

On the whole these attempts to find other deposits of guano, which
would tend to bring down the price in England, have failed of success;
and the Peruvians may consider themselves secure of their strange
source of revenue for some twenty years to come. And a stranger means
of defraying nearly the whole expenditure of the state was never before
heard of. In 1859 the disbursements amounted to 20,387,756 dollars, of
which sum three-fourths were raised by shovelling heaps of dirt off a
desolate island on the coast!

A prudent Government would have looked upon the guano monopoly as
an extraordinary item in the receipts, and would have reserved it
for paying off the internal and foreign debt, for public works, and
improvements; but the heads of the Peruvians appear to have been
turned by this wonderful increase of their revenue, and they have
squandered it with ruinous and dishonest recklessness. It is true that
the interest of the foreign debt has been paid,[364] but otherwise the
large receipts have either been embezzled, as in General Echenique's
time, or spent on immense and unnecessary armaments, and in jobbing
salaries and pensions. Thousands of families now live on the public
money, and, when the guano receipts fail, the ruin and suffering will
be severe and widely spread. On the strength of the guano monopoly
almost all the taxes have been abolished, the tribute of the Indians
amongst them, and the revenue is composed mainly of three items--guano,
customs, and stamps. A biennial budget, containing the receipts and
disbursements, is laid before Congress every session. I have these
budgets before me for several years back; but that for 1859 will
suffice to show the extraordinary nature of the revenue, and the still
more extraordinary way in which it is spent:--

         _Receipts._          |         _Disbursements._
                              |
                     Dollars. |                                 Dollars.
  Guano             15,875,352|Pay, &c., to members of Congress  211,084
  Customs, &c.       5,079,439|Army and navy, with pensions    9,746,432
  Surplus from 1858    938,389|Civil expenses, with pensions   2,129,904
                              |Payments to ecclesiastics          63,296
                              |Public works                      718,124
                              |Education and charitable
                              |institutions                      332,471
                              |Police                             92,807
                              |Compensation for slaves
                              |and internal debt               1,576,004
                              |Redemption of Bonds             3,218,700
                              |Miscellaneous                     107,146
                              |Interest of all kinds           2,191,777
                              |                               20,387,745
                    --------- |     Surplus                    1,505,435
                   21,893,180 |                               21,893,180
                   ---------- |

The foreign debt is 24,205,400 dollars, and the internal debt and
compensation for slaves amount to a still larger sum. But the great
drag upon the public treasury is the enormous army of 15,000 men for a
population under two million, with upwards of 2000 officers, those who
are unattached being still retained on full pay. This will give some
idea of the number of families who are living in luxury and idleness
on the public money, and of the distress that will follow the sudden
stoppage of their incomes, which is inevitable when the guano comes
to an end. It will be an embarrassing and difficult question for some
future Government to decide upon the proper measures for the disposal
of an unwieldy army and a crowd of hungry beggared officers. The best
suggestion on this subject has come from the late General Miller,
who, when governing Cuzco in 1836, proposed to establish military
colonies in the forests to the eastward of the Andes, and thus convert
a mischievous and dangerous tool for treason and faction into a means
of enriching the country.

The administration of justice in Peru, though the laws are excellent,
and have been codified and ably edited, is so corrupt that it is better
to pass over the subject with a hope that things may be better in a
future generation; and the police administration, especially round
Lima, is disgraceful.

Much indeed will be required, and much I trust is to be hoped, from the
rising generation of young men who are now about to enter upon public
life. Many of them have been educated in Europe, a large proportion
are well-informed, polished by travel and extensive reading, and
ardently desirous of distinguishing themselves in the service of the
State. In literature they have already displayed considerable industry
and ability. The 'Revista de Lima,' a bi-monthly periodical, contains
archæological, biographical, historical, and financial articles and
reviews, generally very ably written, in an enlightened and liberal
spirit, and by men who evidently take an earnest view of life. The
contributors, among whom are the Señores Lavalle, Ulloa, Pardo, Flores,
Masias, and the painter Laso, are all young men with a career before
them. It is a good sign, too, that effective steps have been taken
to edit and reprint historical materials which have long remained in
manuscript, or in scarce old editions. Thus Don Manuel A. Fuentes has
recently brought out six most interesting volumes containing reports of
the administrations of several of the Spanish viceroys of Peru,[365]
and a new edition of the 'Mercurio Peruano.' His 'Estadistica de Lima'
is also a work which displays considerable merit: and Don Sebastian
Lorente's well-known learning, and habit of careful research, promise
that his history of Peru, now on the point of being published in Paris,
will be a work of great value.

This hasty glance at the present state of Peru, as regards its
government, material resources, and literature, will, I trust, have
shown that the people of these South American states are not altogether
the hopelessly degraded race that they are often represented; and that
there are grounds for believing that there is yet a happier future in
store for them. For, be it remembered, that Peru is far from being the
best specimen of these republics, and that the Chilians have displayed
tenfold the ability, both in governing, in commercial and agricultural
pursuits, and in literature. I think there can be no doubt that a
hasty conclusion respecting the South American races, founded on their
history since the independence, is likely to be erroneous and unfair;
and that, under more favourable circumstances, they are in every way
capable of better things.

I cannot better conclude this chapter than by quoting the words of that
noble old warrior General Miller, written only a few months before
his death, in November 1861. This most excellent of men fought all
the battles of independence from 1817 to 1824; he was covered with
wounds and riddled with bullets[366] while striving for South American
freedom; he had watched with sorrowful attention the subsequent anarchy
and civil wars, and his words carry great weight with them. It will
be seen that he does not despond, but looks forward with hope to the
future.

He says, "South America, with good reason, must feel for ever proud
of Camilo Henriquez, Vigil, and Mariategui, Olmedo and Felipe Pardo,
San Martin and O'Higgins, and many others of her illustrious sons. And
what may not be expected from the rising and future generations, now
that there are such universities as that of Santiago de Chile, and
such men as Bello to direct and foster them! Who can be blind to the
genius and great natural abilities of the Peruvian youth, now shooting
forth, notwithstanding the great disadvantages under which Peru at
present labours, with regard to the state of her colleges? With her
immense resources, a good government, and tranquillity, what may not be
expected! But every nation has its beginning, an inevitable and perhaps
necessarily rough ordeal to undergo, and South America must not expect
to make a leap that no other country has been able to do."

[Illustration: Map to illustrate M^R. SPRUCE'S REPORTS on the "RED
BARK" REGION OF ECUADOR.]




CHAPTER XIX.

  Mr. Spruce's expedition to procure plants and seeds of the "red bark"
  or _C. succirubra_--Mr. Pritchett in the Huanuco region, and the "grey
  barks"--Mr. Cross's proceedings at Loxa, and collection of seeds of
  _C. Condaminea_.


IN a previous chapter I have given an account of the arrangements
which I made for procuring the various species of Chinchonæ in
districts other than that of the Calisaya, and it now remains for me to
record the labours of those whom I employed on this service, and the
successful results with which those labours were rewarded. And first,
both in importance and success, stands the expedition of Mr. Spruce, to
collect the seeds and plants of the "red-bark" tree or _C. succirubra_,
of whose services it would be impossible to speak too highly. I may
mention, at starting, that he received my first letter, requesting him
to undertake the work, on July 2nd, 1859, and such was his zeal that on
the 22nd of the same month he was on his way to the chinchona forests,
at his own expense, to ascertain the best locality for collecting the
plants and seeds.

The species of chinchona, known as the "red-bark" tree, yields a larger
per-centage of febrifugal alkaloid than any other, and must therefore
be considered as the most important.[367] Its native forests are on the
western <DW72>s of the famous mountain of Chimborazo, in the Republic
of Ecuador, and for a great many years it has not been found beyond 2°
36´ S. lat., but Mr. Spruce thinks it probable that in former times the
tree grew all along the roots of the Andes of Cuenca and Loxa to the
limits of the Peruvian desert in 5° S. To the north it scarcely passes
the latitude of 1° S.; and these precious trees are thus confined
within a very narrow latitudinal zone.[368] Within the ascertained
limits of the true "red-bark" tree, it exists in all the valleys of
the Andes which debouch on the plain of Guayaquil; but great havoc
has been made amongst the trees of late years by the bark-collectors.
In the valleys of Alausi, Pallatanga, and Chillanes (see map) all the
large trees have already been cut down. At the bases of the ridges of
Angas and San Antonio, the localities originally mentioned by Pavon,
and where "red-bark" trees once grew in abundance, the same destructive
system has been adopted; and now the "red-bark" grounds are confined to
the ravine of the river Chasuan, and its tributaries, which rise on the
northern <DW72>s of Chimborazo, and fall into the river of Guayaquil.

On the 22nd of July 1859 Mr. Spruce set out from the pleasant town
of Ambato, in the Quitenian Andes, where he was then residing, and,
passing through Alausi, arrived at the banks of the river Chanchan, and
established himself at a place called Lucmas, which is conveniently
near the "red-bark" chinchona forests. Lucmas is a sugar-cane farm,
between 5000 and 6000 feet above the sea; there are forest-trees in
the valleys and on the hills, while the steep <DW72>s are often covered
with scrub and grass. From Lucmas Mr. Spruce went to the forests on
the banks of the river Pumachaca, which rises in the mountain of
Asuay, and falls into the Chanchan, at an elevation of 4000 feet. One
circumstance, among many, will give an idea of the difficulties which
he had to encounter. On reaching the Pumachaca he found that the ford
had been destroyed by the falling of a cliff, and that in its place
there was a deep whirlpool; so, with the driftwood along the banks, a
bridge had to be made where the river was narrowed between two rocks,
by which his party crossed with the baggage. Then, after a long search,
he found a place where the horses could swim across, and, by rolling
down masses of earth and stones, a way was made for them to ascend
on the other side. Once across, a hut was made among vegetable-ivory
palms, thatched with the palm-fronds, and Mr. Spruce commenced the
examination of the forest.

After a long search, during which he passed several felled trunks of
chinchona-trees, he at length came upon a root-shoot about twenty feet
high. It is very rare to find these root-shoots, because the bark is
stripped from the roots as well as from the trunk. Mr. Spruce, from
his observations in the Pumachaca forest, came to the conclusion that
the "red-bark" trees grow best on stony declivities, where there is,
however, a good depth of humus, at an elevation of from 3000 to 5000
feet above the sea. The temperature was very like that of a summer
day in London, but with cold mists towards evening, and from January
to May unceasing rain. He found the chinchona-trees, in this part of
the country, almost entirely extirpated, and, after a short stay at
Lucmas, he proceeded to examine the region of the "hill barks" or
_cascarillas serranas_, which is at an elevation of 8500 to 9000 feet,
on both sides of the river Chanchan. In the forest of Llalla, at the
foot of the mountain of Asuay, he found two kinds called by the natives
_cuchi-cara_ (pig-skin) and _pata de gallinazo_;[369] and on a stony
hill-side there were twenty large trees of the former, from 40 to 50
feet high.

By this excursion in the summer of 1859 Mr. Spruce ascertained the
districts where he should not go to, a very important point; and he
finally determined to carry on his collecting operations, in the season
of 1860, at a place called Limon, at the junction of a stream of that
name with the river Chasuan, which falls into the river of Ventanas
at a place called Aguacatal. (See map.) The forests are all private
property, and, after much negotiation with the owners, Señor Cordovez
of Ambato, and Dr. Neyra of Guaranda, an agreement was made by which,
on payment of 400 dollars, Mr. Spruce was allowed to take as many seeds
and plants as he liked, on condition that he did not touch the bark.

Mr. Spruce had made arrangements for Dr. Taylor of Riobamba to proceed
to Loxa, and collect seeds of the _C. Condaminea_ species; but a severe
rheumatic and nervous attack, almost amounting to paralysis, induced
him to resign the duty of collecting the "red bark" to Dr. Taylor, and
it was only at the last moment that he was strong enough to undertake
the journey in company with his friend. During the whole time that
Mr. Spruce was at work he was suffering severely from illness; the
benefit derived from the milder climate of the forests was neutralized
by the fogs and damp; and, to use his own words, "although upheld by
a determination to execute to the best of my ability the task I had
undertaken, I was but too often in that state of prostration when to
lie down quietly and die would have seemed a relief." Leaving the
town of Ambato on the 11th of June, Mr. Spruce and Dr. Taylor reached
Guaranda on the 13th, and continued their journey towards the forests
on the 17th. At a very little below 4000 feet above the sea they
reached the small farms at Limon. Their abode stood on a narrow ridge
sloping gradually to the river Chasuan. It was merely a long low shed,
two-thirds of which was occupied by the rude machinery of a sugar-cane
mill; the remaining third had an upper story with a flooring of
bamboo-planks, half of it open at the sides, and the other half with a
bamboo wall about six feet high, not coming up to the roof in any part
of it. This was their dormitory, and it was reached by a ladder, merely
a trunk of a tree with rude notches for steps. On the ground-floor was
the kitchen, with a wall of rough planks of raft wood, not touching
each other; so that the whole fabric was abundantly ventilated, and
only too often filled with fog, causing coughs, aching limbs, and
mouldy clothes.

This was their head-quarters during the time that they were collecting
seeds and plants; and the severe hardships, miserable lodging, and
acute sufferings from illness must increase our admiration for Mr.
Spruce's zeal and resolution in performing this great public service.

Mr. Cross, the gardener whom I had engaged to assist Mr. Spruce,
conveyed the fifteen Wardian cases, which I had previously sent to
Guayaquil, up the river as far as Ventanas, and reached Limon on the
27th of July.

In the mean while Mr. Spruce had carefully examined the chinchona
forests, and visited all the bark-trees known to exist within reach
of Limon. He found a good crop of capsules on many of them, which had
already nearly reached their full size on the finest trees; on others,
however, there were only very young capsules, and even a good many
flowers, and not one of the late-flowering panicles produced ripe
capsules. On the tree which bore most capsules they began to turn
mouldy, the mould being not fungi, but rudimentary lichens, which,
whilst it proved that the capsules were still alive and growing,
proved also that they were exposed to an atmosphere almost constantly
saturated with moisture.

The _manchon_ or clump of "red-bark" trees at Limon lies nearly west
from the peak of Chimborazo, and the river Chasuan rises on the
northern shoulder of that mountain. The view from Limon takes in a vast
extent of country, and the whole is unbroken forest, save towards the
source of the Chasuan, where a lofty ridge rises above the region of
arborescent vegetation, and is crowned by a small breadth of grassy
_paramo_. The waters of the Chasuan run over a black or dull blue,
shining, and very compact trachyte, over which, in the bottom of the
valleys at Limon, there is a fine-grained ferruginous sandstone of a
deep brown colour, in thick strata. The soil is a deep loamy alluvial
deposit. The ridges on which the "red-bark" trees grow all deviate
a little from an easterly and westerly direction, and the chinchonæ
are far more abundant on the northern than on the southern <DW72>s.
The northern and eastern sides of the trees, too, had borne most
fruit, and scarcely a capsule ripened on their southern and western
sides. This is explained by the trees receiving most sun from the
east and north, the mornings being generally clear and sunny in the
summer, whilst the afternoons are foggy, and the sun's declination is
northerly. Mr. Spruce also observed that the trees standing in open
ground were far healthier and more luxuriant than those growing in the
forest, where they are hemmed in and partially shaded by other trees;
and he concludes, from this circumstance, that, though the "red-bark"
tree may need shade whilst young and tender, it really requires (like
most trees) plenty of air, light, and room wherein to develop its
proportions.

The lowest site of the "red-bark" tree at Limon is at an elevation of
2450 feet above the sea, and its highest limit is at an elevation of
about 5000 feet. The trees nearest the plain are generally the largest,
but those higher up have much thicker bark in proportion to their
diameter.

The havoc committed by the bark-collectors on these trees within the
last twenty years has been very great. The entire quantity of "red
bark" collected in 1859 did not reach to 5000 lbs., and in 1860 no
"red bark" at all was got out, so that the trade is nearly extinct. In
the valleys of the Chasuan and Limon Mr. Spruce saw about 200 of these
trees standing, but only two or three were saplings which had not
been disturbed; all the rest grew from old stools, whose circumference
averaged from 4 to 5 feet. He was unable to find a single young plant
under the trees, although many of the latter bore signs of having
flowered in previous years; and this was explained by the flowering
trees invariably growing in open places, where the ground was either
weeded, or trodden down by cattle.

Mr. Spruce describes the _C. succirubra_ or "red-bark" tree as very
handsome, and he declares that, in looking out over the forest, he
could never find any other tree at all comparable to it for beauty.
It is fifty feet high, branching from about one-third of its height,
with large, broadly ovate, deep green, and shining leaves, mixed with
decaying ones of a blood-red colour, which give it a most striking
appearance.

The _Cascarilla magnifolia_, a very handsome tree, with a fragrant
white flower, grows abundantly with the "red bark," and attains a
height of 80 feet.

After the arrival of Mr. Cross at Limon the work of collecting
commenced in earnest. A piece of ground was fenced in, and Mr. Cross
made a pit and prepared the soil to receive cuttings, of which he put
in above a thousand on the 1st of August and following days; and he
afterwards went round to all the old stools and put in as many layers
from them as possible. "But," as Mr. Spruce most truly observes, "only
those who have attempted to do anything in the forest, possessing
scarcely any of the necessary appliances, can have any idea of the
difficulties, and Mr. Cross's unremitting watchfulness alone enabled
him to surmount them."

Towards the end of July, in a few sunny days, the fruit of the
"red-bark" trees made visible advances towards maturity; and in the
middle of August the capsules began to burst at the base, and appeared
ripe. An Indian was then sent up the trees, and, breaking the panicles
gently off, let them fall on sheets spread on the ground to receive
them, so that the few loose seeds shaken out by the fall were not
lost. The capsules were afterwards spread out to dry for some days on
the same sheets. In September Mr. Spruce went across to the valley
of the San Antonio, to the southward, in order to secure additional
seeds from "red-bark" trees there, leaving Mr. Cross to watch over the
rooting of the cuttings at Limon. Between the 14th and 19th he gathered
500 well-grown capsules at San Antonio, in addition to 2000 already
collected at Limon. Good capsules contain forty seeds each, so that
at least 100,000 well-ripened and well-dried seeds were now gathered;
and on the 28th of September Mr. Spruce started for Guayaquil.[370]
In November he proceeded up the river again, and purchased one of the
rafts at Ventanas, which are used for conveying cacao to Guayaquil. It
was composed of twelve trunks of raft-wood, sixty-three to sixty-six
feet long and one foot in diameter, kept in their places by shorter
pieces tied transversely, and covered with bamboo planking, fenced
round with rails to a height of three feet, and roofed over. The rope
used for binding the parts of the raft together was the twining stem
of a _Bignonia_. The Wardian cases were got ready on the raft at
Ventanas, and Mr. Cross arrived with the plants from Limon on the 13th
of December, and established them in the cases to the number of 637.

After encountering several dangers and mishaps in navigating the river,
the raft with its precious freight reached Guayaquil on the 27th of
December; and the plants were safely embarked on board the steamer, in
charge of Mr. Cross, on the 2nd of January, 1861.

Thus skilfully and successfully did Mr. Spruce, and his able
colleagues, perform this most difficult and important service. Mr.
Spruce, during the whole time that he was in the chinchona forests,
made most careful meteorological observations. From June 19th to
December 8th the results of observations of the thermometer were as
follows:--

  Mean minimum                       61-1/2°
  Mean maximum                       72-1/3
  Mean temperature at 6-1/2 P.M.     67-3/4
  Highest temperature observed       80-1/2 on July 27th.
  Lowest       "         "           57     on July 11th.
  Entire range                       23-1/2
  Mean daily variation               10-1/2

On the western side of the Quitenian Andes, south of the Equator, the
summer or dry season lasts from June to December, the remaining five
months constituting the wet season. In the summer, at Limon, the early
part of the day is often sunny, and fogs come on in the afternoon and
night; but in the wet season there are fogs in the morning, and heavy
rains during the rest of the day and night.

A perusal of the foregoing pages, which are nothing more than a brief
abstract from Mr. Spruce's official reports, cannot fail to impress
the reader with the valuable nature of the service which has been
performed, and with the energy and fortitude, combined with great skill
and ability, which enabled Mr. Spruce to overcome so many difficulties;
and almost equal praise is due to Mr. Cross. But in recounting these
arduous labours, only half of Mr. Spruce's services have been recorded.
That gentleman is an accomplished botanist, and most accurate observer;
and he has supplied us with a detailed report which, I do not hesitate
to say, contains a larger amount of valuable information on the
chinchona-forests than any account which has yet appeared in Europe.
In addition to the narrative of his proceedings, and his observations
on the "red-bark" tree, Mr. Spruce here gives a minute account of
the vegetation of the "red-bark" forests of Chimborazo, a detailed
meteorological journal, and important remarks on the climate and
soil.[371]

My apprehensions respecting the feelings of the natives, when our
proceedings became known, were fully justified by what took place in
Ecuador, as well as in Peru. But the South Americans are, as a rule,
remarkable for the slowness of their movements; and it was not until
May 1st, 1861, that the legislature of Ecuador decreed that every
person, whether foreigner or native, should be forbidden to make
collections of plants, cuttings, or seeds of the quina-tree; and that
precautions should be taken to prevent those articles from passing the
ports and frontiers of the Republic. A fine of 100 dollars on every
plant, and every drachm of seed, was imposed on those who attempted to
break this decree. But by May 1st, 1861, the plants and seeds of the
quina-tree were safe on the Neilgherry hills, in Southern India.

While Mr. Spruce was engaged in collecting these seeds and plants in
the forests at the foot of Chimborazo, Mr. Pritchett, whose services I
had secured for the Huanuco region in Northern Peru, was employed on
the species of chinchonæ yielding grey bark.

Mr. Pritchett left Lima on the 18th of May, 1860, and arrived in the
town of Huanuco, the centre of the grey-bark region, on the 28th, where
he made the necessary preparations for a journey into the neighbouring
forests. On the 9th of June he set out for the mountain-range of
Carpis, to the northward, where there are several species of chinchonæ.
The _C. purpurea_ is very abundant; the _C. nitida_ is common on
the north-east side, and on the upper part of the mountains; the _C.
obovata_ is more rare; and the _C. micrantha_ and _C. Peruviana_ are
both inhabitants of the lower <DW72>s. After crossing the Carpis range,
Mr. Pritchett followed the course of the river of Casapi to the village
of Chinchao, and went thence to the coca estate of Casapi, at the
eastern end of the valley, where it joins that of the river Huallaga,
and here he was joined by his guide.

[Illustration: CHINCHONA NITIDA TREES.

FROM A SKETCH BY MR. PRITCHETT.  Page 323]

About three leagues from Casapi, and close to the Huallaga, is the
mountain called San Cristoval de Cocheros (Cuchero of Pavon and
Poeppig), which rises from the low land at the junction of the two
rivers to a height of about 1200 feet above them, and is the centre of
the bark district of Huanuco. On the northern side Mr. Pritchett found
abundance of _C. micrantha_, and some trees of _C. Peruviana_; but
the latter species was much more rare. They both grow to a very large
size, some of them being thirty inches in diameter and seventy feet in
height. The trees of _C. nitida_ were at a higher elevation.

During June and July, though it was the dry season, heavy rains
continued to fall from day to day; but towards the end of July the
weather broke up, and the sun began to make an impression on the solid
banks of cloud which filled the valleys, and then it was that, during
some portion of the day, the sun penetrated to the very underwood of
the forest. In the first half of August there was fine weather, with
only an occasional shower. The seeds on the chinchona-trees ripened
rapidly in the sunshine, and Mr. Pritchett collected them by felling
the trees--a labour which was performed by Indians, whom he hired from
the coca estate of Casapi. Seven large trees were cut down daily, and
denuded of their capsules, for a fortnight; the drying process being
carried on at the estate, where every moment of sunshine was taken
advantage of. On the 13th of August he started for the coast with his
collection of seeds, and half a mule-load of young chinchona-plants,
which were in perfect health when placed in the Wardian cases at Lima.

Mr. Pritchett reports that in the district around Cocheros, Casapi,
and Carpis, the rocks are of crystalline formation, in many localities
highly disintegrated, and composed of masses of hornblende, felspar,
and mica. He remarks that felspar contains much potash, of which the
chinchona-trees are said to require a large quantity for their full
development; and, as felspar abounds in this region, he attributes the
abundance and size of the chinchona-trees to this circumstance. He also
reports that steatite, a silicate of magnesia and alumina, abounds in
the vicinity of Huanuco.

He describes the climate as moist and warm, and says that the
difference in the degree of moisture and warmth between the lower
<DW72>s where the _C. micrantha_ flourishes, and the higher parts of
the mountains inhabited by the _C. nitida_, is very striking, while on
the lower <DW72>s the soil is much deeper and richer.[372] He reports
the elevation of Cocheros above the level of the sea to be about 4000
feet,[373] but he made no meteorological or other observations; and
I think there can be no doubt that the elevation of that mountain
is much greater than Mr. Pritchett supposes. I do not find any
information on this point in Poeppig's travels; but the Huanuco region
is quite a beaten track, and there are several accounts of it by
modern travellers. Huanuco itself is 6300 feet above the sea;[374]
the distance thence to the summit of the cuesta del Carpis, which is
8000 feet above the sea, is about twenty miles, and there is a descent
on the other side into the valley of the Casapi of 2920 feet.[375]
According to this account the village of Chinchao, in the Casapi
valley, would have an elevation of about 5000 feet. From Chinchao to
the foot of the Cocheros mountain is a distance of twenty-five miles
down the Casapi valley,[376] a gentle descent, with numerous cottages
and plantations on both sides of the road.[377] Thus the foot of the
Cocheros mountain would be about 4500 feet above the sea, and its
summit at least 6000 feet.

We shall not, therefore, be very far from the truth if we place the
region of _C. nitida_ on the Cocheros and Carpis mountains at from 6000
to 7000 feet above the sea, and of _C. micrantha_ at from 4000 to 5000
feet.

Mr. Pritchett performed the portion of this important undertaking which
I intrusted to him with promptitude and zeal. Time was a great object,
and, by going direct from Lima to the best locality in the Huanuco
chinchona region, he completed the necessary collection of plants and
seeds, and returned to the coast in little more than three months.[378]
This shows how essential a previous knowledge of the chinchona region,
of the people, and of the language, was, without which the collector
would probably lose much time, which is the same thing as spending
much money, and eventually wander into a locality where only worthless
species are found, as was the case with the Dutch agent.

Owing to the unavoidable abandonment of Mr. Spruce's intention of
sending Dr. Taylor to collect seeds of _C. Condaminea_ at Loxa, one
portion of my scheme for introducing all the valuable species into
India remained incomplete at the close of 1860. On my return from
India, therefore, in May 1861, I obtained the sanction of the Secretary
of State for India to take measures for obtaining a supply of seeds
from the Loxa forests. Mr. Cross, the gardener who had so ably assisted
Mr. Spruce, and shared his labours, after safely depositing the
collection of seeds and plants in India, had returned to South America,
attracted by the richness and variety of the flora of the Andes. Having
acquired experience of the people and language, of the localities
where chinchona-trees are found, and of the mode of travelling, during
his former visit, he possessed the necessary qualifications; and, as
Mr. Spruce was too ill to undertake the work, it was intrusted to Mr.
Cross, who performed it with expedition and success. He is an excellent
practical gardener, intelligent and persevering, ardently devoted to
his profession, and thoroughly trustworthy.

On the 17th of September, 1861, Mr. Cross left Guayaquil in an open
rowing boat, and landed at Santa Rosa, the port of the province of
Loxa, whence he proceeded, by way of Zaruma, to the town of Loxa, which
he reached on the 27th. He had to pass through dense swampy forests,
over dangerous precipitous ridges of the Andes, in crossing one of
which his mule slipped down a deep ravine and was dashed to pieces, and
along barren lofty plains. He mentions that during the ascent to Zaruma
he saw several "red-bark" trees growing at an elevation of eight or
nine thousand feet.

On the 1st of October he left Loxa, and went to a long low ridge
of hills, called the Sierra de Cajanuma, about eight miles to the
southward, a locality which is mentioned by Humboldt, Bonpland, and
Caldas, as the abode of the most valuable kinds of _C. Condaminea_. He
came to an Indian hut on a little rounded eminence near the summit of
the mountain, which, being far from public roads or other dwellings,
seemed well suited for his head-quarters during the time that he was
searching for seeds. For be it remembered that the Decree of May 1st,
1861, already mentioned, was in full force, and that he was running the
risk of fine and imprisonment in performing this important service. The
owner of the hut, who was an experienced bark-collector, allowed Mr.
Cross to establish himself in a little shed at one end of it, which,
although favourable for drying seeds, was so cold that he was sometimes
compelled, during windy nights, to seek shelter in the bottom of a
neighbouring ravine.

After many comparatively unsuccessful searches in the surrounding
woods, he was one day passing along the bank of a steep ravine, and,
happening to look over a projecting rock, he saw a number of fine young
trees of the _C. Condaminea_ on the steep <DW72> beneath, some of which
bore a few panicles of seeds, which, on examination, he found to be
perfectly ripe. After this discovery he continued to search all the
ravines in the vicinity from sunrise to sunset, some of which he had to
descend by means of the trailing stems of a species of _Passiflora_,
and in this way a good supply of seeds was collected. He reports that
on the accessible <DW72>s there are few chinchona-trees, owing partly
to the annual burning, and partly to continual cropping of the young
shoots by cattle. He describes the rocks, composed of micaceous schist
and gneiss, as being, in many places, in a state of decomposition,
and states that large portions are frequently tumbling down from the
more elevated summits. The alluvial deposit in the ravines, where
the _C. Condaminea_ is found growing, is shallow, in many places not
more than six inches in depth, and Mr. Cross often gathered seeds
from trees which were growing in clefts of rock, where there was not
a single ounce of soil to be found. He describes the _C. Condaminea_
as a slender tree, from 20 to 30 feet in height,[379] and from 8 to
10 inches in diameter at the base; but he saw few trees of these
dimensions, and the plants from which the bark of commerce is now taken
are in general not more than 8 to 10 feet in height.[380] When the
plants are cut down, three or four young shoots or suckers generally
spring up, but this does not always happen, as some of the more
industrious bark-collectors frequently pull up the roots, and bark them
also. The bark is taken from the smallest twigs, and thus the annual
growths are often taken, especially if they are strong. The plants are
sometimes found growing in small clumps, and sometimes solitary, but
always in dry situations.

The temperature of this region ranges according to Humboldt and Caldas
from 41° to 72° Fahr., and according to Mr. Cross from 34° to 70°
Fahr.; but he adds that it seldom falls below 40°, and rarely rises
above 65°; the mean range being from 45° to 60° Fahr. The climate of
Loxa is very moist. The wet season commences in January and lasts until
the end of April or middle of May; in June, July, and August there are
heavy rains, accompanied by strong gales of wind; from September to
January there is generally fine weather, but occasional showers of rain
fall even at that time of year.[381]

The vegetation on the Sierra de Cajanuma is of a semi-arborescent
character, but some of the higher summits are bare. In the bottoms
of the ravines grow a species of _Alnus_, _Melastomæ_, _Peperomias_,
palms, and two species of tree ferns; and on the <DW72>s throughout the
low-lying country, barley, maize, peas, and potatoes are cultivated.
Mr. Cross sent home a large collection of dried specimens of
plants gathered on the Sierra de Cajanuma. Among them I observed a
_Befaria_ with pretty crimson flowers, of which he says that one
ounce of the roots in two pints of water is taken twice a day by the
Indians for dysentery; a very handsome purple lupin, growing six to
eight feet high; an _Embothrium_, a wide-spreading shrub, growing
in dry situations; another smaller _Befaria_, a beautiful shrub,
growing in very lofty dry localities; a _Veronica_, a shrub six to
eight feet high, with a blue flower; a _Gaultheria_; a wide-spreading
_melastomaceous_ plant, with inconspicuous flowers; and a number of
_Lycopodia_ and ferns.

[Illustration: CHINCHONA CHAHUARGUERA.

(From Howard's 'Nueva Quinologia de Pavon.')   Page 329.]

Besides the seeds of the _C. Condaminea_, which is identical with
the _C. Chahuarguera_ (Pavon), Mr. Cross succeeded in collecting a
few seeds of _C. crispa_ (Tafalla) after several long journeys up
the mountains. He found this kind growing at a great elevation, in a
deposit of peat, where the temperature sometimes falls to 27° Fahr.
This species of chinchona yields the _cascarilla crespilla negra_, one
of the most esteemed forms of Loxa bark. Mr. Howard[382] mentions that
the _Josephiana_ bears the same relation to the normal _C. Calisaya_
as the _Crespilla_ bark at Loxa does to the normal and full-grown _C.
Chahuarguera_.

Mr. Cross did his work right well, and in December, 1861, he returned
to Guayaquil with nearly 100,000 seeds of _C. Chahuarguera_, and a
smaller parcel of _C. crispa_, which were forwarded to India by way of
Southampton.[383]

Thus were the various operations which I organized for procuring the
valuable species of chinchona-trees in South America satisfactorily
completed; and the labours of Mr. Spruce, Dr. Taylor, Mr. Pritchett,
Mr. Cross, and Mr. Weir, though differing in value and importance, all
deserve the warmest recognition, for all those intrepid and courageous
explorers worked zealously and successfully, and did good service in
furthering this most important public enterprise.




CHAPTER XX.

CONVEYANCE OF CHINCHONA-PLANTS AND SEEDS FROM SOUTH AMERICA TO INDIA.

  Transmission of dried specimens--Voyages of plants in Wardian
  cases--Arrival of plants and seeds in India--Depôt at Kew--Treatment
  of plants in Wardian cases--Effects of introduction of
  chinchona-plants into India on trade in South America--Neilgherry
  hills.


THE attempt to make simultaneous collections of seeds and plants of all
the valuable species of chinchonæ was thus crowned with almost complete
success. Out of my original scheme the _C. lancifolia_ of New Granada
was the only one which had not been procured. It is unnecessary to
say more respecting the numerous difficulties and dangers which were
encountered by the collectors, for the narrative of the proceedings
detailed in previous chapters will have made these sufficiently
obvious. So far as the labours in South America were concerned, all
obstacles were surmounted, and the objects of this great enterprise
were fully attained. Not only were plants and seeds safely brought
to the coast, but, in every instance, the collectors took care to
provide themselves with botanical specimens from the chinchona-trees.
Thus the leaves, flowers, fruit, and bark of each species, which were
brought to England, placed the identity of the valuable species to
which the plants and seeds belonged beyond the remotest possibility
of a doubt.[384] But in conveying these precious mule-loads to the
coast of Peru, and safely embarking them, only half the difficulties
had been overcome; and I could not but feel that some failures and
disappointments must be expected before the chinchona-plants were
fairly established in India.

There was not much reason for apprehension with regard to the seeds;
but the plants, in the absence of any provision for conveying them
direct across the Pacific, had to undergo an ordeal of unprecedented
duration. Yet the great advantage of introducing plants as well as
seeds, in the immense start they would give to the young plantations in
India, was strongly felt, and the complete success that attended the
hazardous transit of at least one relay, which came under peculiarly
favourable circumstances, fully justified the attempt.

I gave directions to Mr. Spruce and Mr. Pritchett to send small parcels
of seeds of each species to Jamaica and Trinidad, in obedience to an
order received from England, so that quinine-yielding trees might also
be introduced into our West Indian colonies; and the results of the
experiment in those islands will be given in a future chapter. The
great bulk of the collections, however, were despatched to India, by
the roundabout way of Southampton, directly they arrived on the coast
of the Pacific.

The thirty Wardian cases which I sent out round Cape Horn were three
feet two inches long, ten feet ten inches broad, and three feet two
inches high; and, with soil and plants, each case weighed a little
over three hundredweight. The collection of plants of _C. Calisaya_,
_C. ovata_, and _C. micrantha_ filled fifteen cases; and the other
fifteen received the collection of _C. succirubra_ at Guayaquil. I also
had six cases of somewhat smaller dimensions constructed at Lima for
the plants from Huanuco. The fifteen cases containing the collection
of chinchona-plants from Caravaya sailed from the port of Islay on the
23rd of June, and reached Panama on the 6th of July, 1860, when 207 had
already begun to throw out green shoots. On their arrival in England,
in August, these 207 plants were in a most flourishing and healthy
condition, and continued so until their arrival at Alexandria early in
September. But the intense heat of the Red Sea, where the thermometer
ranged from 99° in the night to 107° in the day-time, proved too much
for them, and the damage was increased by a detention of a week at
Bombay. Their roots were attacked by rot, yet, on their arrival in
the Neilgherry hills, their leaves still looked fresh, and several
hundred green cuttings were obtained from them, which, however, failed
to strike. The cases containing the chinchona-plants from Huanuco left
Lima in September, and were also in a most promising state when they
reached England, but on their arrival in India they were all dead. The
"red-bark" collection, under the able management of Mr. Cross, sailed
from Guayaquil on the 2nd of January, 1861. On their arrival in England
in excellent order, six of them were left at Kew as a precaution, and
replaced by six plants of _C. Calisaya_ supplied by Sir W. Hooker. At
that season the climate of the Red Sea is cool, and, owing to this
circumstance and still more to the intelligent watchfulness of a good
practical gardener, 463 plants of _C. succirubra_ and six of _C.
Calisaya_ were handed over to the superintendent on the Neilgherry
hills, in as vigorous and healthy a condition as could possibly have
been hoped for after such a voyage.

The "grey-bark" seeds arrived in the Neilgherry hills early in January,
1861, and the "red-bark" in the following March, and both collections
came up abundantly. The supply of seeds of _C. Condaminea_ reached
their destination in Southern India in February 1862. In order to guard
against all accidents, a portion of the seeds of each species was left
in England, and a depôt of young chinchona-plants has thus been formed
at Kew Gardens, with a view to fall back upon them in the event of
possible failures or misfortunes in India.[385] Seeds of each of the
species were also sent to Ceylon, to which Sir W. Hooker added a few
plants of _C. Calisaya_ from his stock at Kew.

Thus, in spite of one or two disappointments, the great object of the
undertaking sanctioned by the Secretary of State for India was fully
attained. By the spring of 1861 a large supply of plants and young
seedlings was established in the Neilgherry hills; and at the present
moment we have thousands of chinchona-plants, of all the valuable
species, flourishing and multiplying rapidly in Southern India, and in
Ceylon. When the unprecedented length of the voyages and the numerous
trans-shipments are taken into consideration, the wonder is that any
of the plants should have been successfully conveyed from the <DW72>s
of the Andes in South America to the ghauts in Southern India, over
thousands of miles, through every variety of climate, and subject to
the risk of crossing the isthmus of Panama, of changing steamers at the
island of St. Thomas, at Southampton, at Suez, and at Bombay, and of
the journey through Egypt.

The most important introduction of plants into India, by means of
Wardian cases, previous to the arrival of the chinchonas, was that
of the tea from China in 1849 and following years by Mr. Fortune. On
those occasions the cases were strongly and coarsely made, the glass
shades firmly fixed, and the glass itself thick, and glazed in pieces
of moderate size. The frames were protected by a grating of iron wire,
with a canvas covering capable of being unrolled so as to screen the
plants from the direct rays of the sun, if necessary. The soil was not
less than eight or ten inches deep, and kept down by cross-battens, and
the plants were fairly established in it before starting. In 1849 Mr.
Fortune sowed large quantities of seeds in the cases, between rows of
young plants, which germinated on their way from China to India, and
reached their destination in the Himalayas in good condition. Out of
250 tea-plants, 215 arrived in perfect order.[386]

But it was an easy process to convey plants by the short voyage from
China to Calcutta, when compared with the introduction of plants from
the western coast of South America into India; and the performance of
the latter feat, in the case of the chinchona-plants under Mr. Cross's
care, is undoubtedly the most extraordinary success of the kind that
has yet been achieved.

A few remarks on the treatment of plants in Wardian cases were supplied
to me by Mr. Weir and Mr. Cross, who acquired their experience in the
voyages from South America to India; and by Mr. McIvor, who received
the plants on the Neilgherry hills. The cases were filled with soil to
a depth of nine to ten inches, in which the chinchonas were planted
in rows, from the back to the front of the case. The distance from
plant to plant was regulated by their size, but, in the case of their
having much foliage, they should be rather wide apart, for the crowding
of foliage is always injurious, and often brings on mildew or mould.
After having been planted they were well watered, and shaded from the
glare of the mid-day sun. On the surface of the soil, between each row
of plants, a batten was placed, extending from the back to the front
of the case, and held firmly down by two longer battens extending
lengthways. By this means the soil and plants are not disturbed in the
operation of moving the cases. When the cases are finally closed the
soil should be in a medium state as regards moisture, and all dead
foliage should be removed. The cases should be made as air-tight as
possible by filling the seams with putty, and every precaution must
be taken to preserve the plants from the slightest contact with salt
water.[387] Mr. McIvor strongly recommends that the cases should be
furnished with a false bottom, raised about two or three inches above
the true bottom, by bars of wood of the required thickness being nailed
on the underside. The false bottom should have holes bored in it at
regular intervals, with a few broken pieces of pot and a layer of moss
placed over them. He considers that the best sort of soil is formed of
equal parts of leaf-mould, turfy loam, and sand, mixed in a dry state,
and spread out and exposed to the action of the sun for a few days
before being placed in the cases. During the voyage the plants should
have plenty of light and air, one side of the case being left open for
two or three hours, morning and evening, during fine weather, when dead
leaves should be picked off, and water administered to any plant which
may require it. The soil should be turned up on the surface to the
depth of about half an inch with a small pointed stick every three or
four days, and always kept rough on the surface, so as to allow the air
to circulate in the soil. This circulation of air is also facilitated
by the false bottom. The action of the air on the soil keeps the roots
in fine condition, and entirely prevents the formation of mildew and
damp; but the principal object of the false bottom is to allow any
excess of water to drain off into a place where it cannot _sour_ the
soil, and yet will not be lost. Then, as the soil becomes dry above,
the water will be attracted to it.

With the exception of the false bottom, all the above suggestions
were carefully attended to by the gardeners who were in charge of the
chinchona-plants during the voyage to India; the partial failures
which attended some of the relays from South America could not, under
the circumstances, have been avoided by any human foresight; and, as
the general result of my arrangements has been to introduce all the
valuable kinds of quinine-yielding plants into India, we have every
reason to congratulate ourselves on the success of our labours.

With the chinchona-plants I brought from Peru a supply of seeds of the
chirimoya, of aji-pepper, and of the _Schinus molle_, all of which
are coming up well on the Neilgherry hills.[388] They have most of
the other kinds of _Anonas_ in India, but the chirimoya fruit, the
most exquisite of all, has yet to be raised. He who has not tasted
the chirimoya has yet to learn what fruit is. "The pine-apple, the
mangosteen, and the chirimoya," says Dr. Seemann, "are considered the
finest fruits in the world. I have tasted them in those localities
in which they are supposed to attain their highest perfection--the
pine-apple in Guayaquil, the mangosteen in the Indian archipelago,
and the chirimoya on the <DW72>s of the Andes; and, if I were called
upon to act the part of a Paris, I would without hesitation assign the
apple to the chirimoya. Its taste indeed surpasses that of every other
fruit, and Haenke was quite right when he called it the masterpiece of
nature."[389]

In obtaining plants and seeds of these valuable chinchonas from South
America, it would be a source of deep regret to me if that measure
was attended by any injury to the people or the commerce of Peru or
Ecuador, countries in the welfare of which I have for years taken the
deepest interest. But I have no apprehension that such will be the
result of the cultivation of these plants in other parts of the world.
The demand for quinine will always be in excess of the supply from
South America; and the result of chinchona cultivation in India and
Java will have the effect of lowering the price, and bringing this
inestimable febrifuge within the reach of a vast number of people
who are now excluded from its use, without in any way injuring the
trade of Peru and Ecuador. I trust that not only will this measure
do no injury to the South Americans, but that it may be hereafter
productive of good to them, as well as to the rest of mankind. Hitherto
they have destroyed the chinchona-trees in a spirit of reckless
short-sightedness, and thus done more injury to their own interests
than could possibly have arisen from any commercial competition; but
it may be that the influence of peace and education will inaugurate a
new system in time to come, that more enlightened views will prevail,
and that they themselves may undertake the cultivation of a plant
which is indigenous to their forests, but which, up to this time, they
have so foolishly neglected. It will then be a pleasure to supply them
with the information which will have been gained by the experience of
cultivators in India, and thus to assist them in the establishment of
plantations on the <DW72>s of the eastern Andes.

Under any circumstances the South Americans, who owe to India the
staple food of millions of their people, and to the Old World most of
their valuable products--wheat, barley, apples, peaches, sugar-cane,
the vine, rice, the olive, sheep, cattle, and horses--have no right
to desire to withhold from India a product which is so essentially
necessary to her welfare. Nor do I believe that the better conditioned
Peruvians have any such desire. On the contrary, many of them have
shown themselves willing to promote a friendly interchange of the
products of the New and Old Worlds; and the foolish decree issued in
Ecuador on the 1st of May, 1861, as well as the numerous obstructions
thrown in my way in southern Peru, may be imputed either to the
narrow-minded selfishness of half-educated officials, or to the
ignorant patriotism of backwoodsmen. These are feelings which are not
shared by either the educated few, or by the Indian population.

After much careful consideration it had been decided that the best
place for commencing the experimental cultivation of chinchona-plants
in India would be the Neilgherry hills, in the Madras Presidency. Here
are to be found a climate, an amount of moisture, a vegetation, and
an elevation above the sea, more analogous to those of the chinchona
forests in South America than can be met with in any other part of
India. In the Government gardens at Ootacamund, on the Neilgherries,
there were the necessary conveniences for propagating plants and
raising seedlings; and in Mr. William G. McIvor, the Superintendent,
was to be found a zealous, intelligent, and practical gardener, who
had carefully studied the botany of the chinchona genus, and under
whose care the cultivation would be commenced with the best possible
guarantees for its success.

From the Neilgherries the chinchona-plants will, it is hoped, be
introduced into such other hill districts of Southern India as, after
examination, may be found suitable for their growth; and it was a part
of my duty to visit the most promising localities, and, in conjunction
with Mr. McIvor, to select the sites for chinchona plantations on the
Neilgherry hills. With this object in view we landed at the port of
Calicut, on the coast of Malabar, on the 7th of October, 1861.




TRAVELS IN INDIA.




CHAPTER XXI.

MALABAR.

  Calicut--Houses and gardens--Population of Malabar--Namburi
  Brahmins--Nairs--Tiars--Slaves--Moplahs--Assessment
  of rice-fields, of gardens, of dry crops--Other
  taxes--Voyage up the Beypoor river--The Conolly teak
  plantations--Wundoor--Backwood cultivation--Sholacul--Sispara
  ghaut--Black-wood--Scenery--Sispara--View of the Nellemboor
  valley--Avalanche--Arrival at Ootacamund.


HE who would desire to receive the most pleasant impression of India,
on a first arrival, must follow in the wake of Vasco de Gama, and land
on the coast of Malabar, the garden of the peninsula. Here Nature
is clad in her brightest and most inviting robes, the scenery is
magnificent, the fields and gardens speak of plenty, and the dwellings
of the people are substantial and comfortable.

As we steamed into the anchorage at Calicut, on board the little yacht
'Pleiad,' no appearance of any town was visible, and no building except
a tall white lighthouse. Thick groves of cocoanut-trees line the shore,
and are divided from the sea by a belt of sand; while undulating green
hills rise up behind, and the background of mountains was hidden by
banks of clouds. The whole scene bore a close resemblance to one of
the Sandwich or Society Islands, down to the canoes which came off to
us the moment the anchor was let go. They are hewn out of the trunk of
the jack-tree, with an upper bulwark fastened with coir twine; and the
canoe-men were naked athletic-looking fellows, with enormous hats made
of a frond of the tallipot palm (_Corypha umbraculifera_). When we
shoved off from the 'Pleiad' a handsome fish-hawk, with white head and
breast, was perched on the fore-topsail yard-arm, and sea-snakes were
playing in the water alongside. In-shore there were a few native craft,
called _pattamars_, at anchor. Pattamars are the vessels which have
carried on the coasting trade on the western side of India from time
immemorial. As in the days of Sinbad the sailor, their planks are not
nailed, but sewn together with coir-twine, and they have high sterns
and bows sheering rapidly aft. The deepest part is at the stem, whence
the bottom curves inwards to the stern. A pattamar has two masts raking
forward, with long picturesque lateen yards slung with one-third part
before the mast, and two-thirds abaft. They never attempt to tack, but
always ware, and if taken aback there is no alternative but either to
wait until she comes round, or to capsize.

On landing at Calicut, a carriage drawn by two white bullocks was,
through the hospitality of Mr. Patrick Grant, the Collector of Malabar,
waiting for us on the sandy beach, to convey us to his house; a
drive of about two miles. The excellent road, of a bright red colour
from the soil being composed of laterite, passes through groves of
cocoanut-trees, interspersed with many houses, each surrounded by
its garden of mangos, nux vomica trees, jacks with pepper-vines
creeping over them, and palm-trees. The houses are all substantial
and comfortable-looking, built of square blocks of laterite joined
with _chunam_, or lime made from calcined sea-shells, and roofed with
tiles. The laterite or iron-clay is a rock full of cavities and pores
like coral, overlying the granite which forms the basis of Malabar.
When excluded from the air it is so soft that any iron instrument can
readily cut it, and is dug up in square masses with a pickaxe, and
afterwards shaped into blocks with a knife or trowel. After exposure
it soon becomes as hard, and is as durable as bricks. Each house has
a cocoanut safe or store-room on one side, of open wood-work. Many
people were walking along the road, naked men with huge tallipot-palm
hats, and women with nothing on but bright- petticoats, looking
picturesque in the foreground and middle distance of the palm-shaded
vistas. At intervals the cocoanut groves were broken by fields of vivid
green paddy, and tanks filled with red lotus-flowers.

From Mr. Grant's house, on the top of a rounded grassy hill, there is
an extensive and very beautiful view of the undulating hills and dales
of Malabar, generally covered with forest; with the ocean on one side,
and the Wynaad mountains on the other. Malabar is 188 miles long, 25
miles broad in the northern, and 70 in the southern half, and contains
6262 square miles. It is divided into 17 _Talooks_ or districts, and
has a population of 1,602,914 souls; of whom 1,165,174 are Hindus,
414,126 Moplahs, and 23,614 Christians.

The people of Malabar are a thriving active race, the men well built
and handsome, and the women remarkable for their beauty. The highest
caste among the Hindus is that of the Namburi Brahmins, who claim all
the land below the ghauts, and appear to have actually possessed a
large portion of it previous to the invasion of Hyder Ali of Mysore.
They declare that when Parasu Rama, one of the incarnations of Vishnu,
hurled his axe from the mountains, the ocean receded, leaving the
land of Kerala, as Malabar, Cochin, and Travancore were called; which
he gave to the Namburi Brahmins. It is true that the undulating
flat-topped hills, which cover the part of Malabar near Calicut, are
like the waves of the sea, and appear as if the ocean in receding had
forced channels, and thus formed the intervening valleys. The Namburis
are fast dying out: they are landed proprietors, and perform such
offices as bestowing holy water and ashes, or performing _poojah_ or
worship for the other Hindus, but never enter the public service.

The most important portion of the population is included in the eleven
classes of Nairs,[390] a race of pure Sudra caste. They pretend to be
born soldiers, and formed the armies of the Zamorin and Cochin Rajahs,
the lower castes not being allowed to bear arms. The Nairs now hold
most of the land in Malabar, and are frequently very rich. Both the
Zamorin of Calicut and the Rajah of Cochin are Nairs; and the origin
of their rule is said to have been as follows. About a thousand years
ago, a Viceroy of the Sholum Rajah ruled over Malabar, named Cheruman
Permal, who made himself independent, and divided the country among his
nobles, of whom five were of the Kshatri caste, and seven were Nairs.
After the division it was found that one of his bravest officers, the
ancestor of the present Zamorin or Tamori Rajah, had been left out;
Cheruman Permal, therefore, gave him his sword, and all the territory
in which a cock crowing at a certain small temple could be heard.
Hence Calicut, from _Colicodu_, a cock-crowing.[391] Down to the time
of Tippoo the whole of Malabar was governed by the descendants of the
sisters of these thirteen Nair chiefs. The Zamorin of Calicut has some
influence, though he is much reduced in wealth and importance since the
days of Vasco de Gama.

The Nairs live under the remarkable institution called
_murroo-muka-tayum_. Sisters never leave their homes, but receive
visits from male acquaintances, and the brothers go out to other
houses, to their lady-loves, but live with their sisters. If a younger
brother settles in a new house, he takes his favourite sister with him,
and not the woman who, according to the custom in all other countries,
should keep house for him. The man's mother manages the house, and
after her death his eldest sister takes her place; but no man has any
idea who his father is, and the children of his sisters are his heirs.
Moveable property is divided amongst the children of the sisters of the
deceased equally, and the land is managed by the eldest male of the
family, but each individual has a right to a share in the income.

This strange custom gives the women an important position; and as
they are pretty, and take pains with their personal appearance, their
influence is very great. The Nairs are addicted to drink, and may eat
venison, fowls, and fish; and the families are fond of gaiety, and of
visiting among people of their own rank, when there is much talking
and singing. Most of the men, as well as the women, read and write
in their own character, and there is a Government Gazette printed in
the Malayalim language. The Collector was anxious, also, to establish
a paper in Malayalim, containing general information, which would no
doubt have an excellent effect, but the difficulty is to find a good
native editor.

Next in rank to the Nairs come the _Tiars_ or _Shanars_, a stout,
good-looking, hard-working race, who do not pretend to Sudra origin.
Formerly the Nairs exacted deference from the Tiars with extreme
cruelty and arrogance, treating them more like brutes than men; and if
a Tiar defiled a Nair by touching him, he was instantly cut down. But
British rule is gradually uprooting these caste barbarisms, and the
position of the Tiars is improving. Some of them hold appointments as
clerks in Government offices, and they are protected by just and equal
laws. The Tiars form the mass of the field labourers; but the proper
duty of their caste is to extract juice from the palm-tree, and either
boil it into _jaggery_ (unrefined sugar), or distil it. Their women are
exceedingly pretty, with masses of long hair; but there is a prevalent
custom for all the brothers of a family to have but one wife amongst
them to save expense, which leads to most disastrous consequences.
Below the Tiars there are several outcast tribes; among them the
_Churmas_ or slaves, a miserable and down-trodden race, possibly the
remnant of the aboriginal inhabitants. Even now they are slow to
understand that they are not slaves, and land on which there are most
_Churmas_ still sells at the highest price.

The _Moplahs_, or Mohammedans of Malabar, are descended from Arab
mariners and traders by native women, and hence their name, from
_Mah-pilla_ "son of the mother." They have certainly been established
in Malabar for a thousand years, if not more, as it is on record that
the Viceroy Cheruman Permal, who then divided the country amongst
his chiefs, was converted by a Moplah, and sailed for Mecca. All the
sympathies of the Moplahs are with Arabia and the Red Sea, and they
frequently undertake pilgrimages to Mecca. Respecting their creed
they are fanatical, and are easily roused to fury by an insult, or
an attempt on the part of the Nairs to treat them as a lower caste.
On these occasions they run mucks; but in ordinary times they are
hard-working, intelligent, abstemious, excellent boatmen, and capital
backwoodsmen. Many of the Moplahs are very wealthy. Their mosques,
however, are poor edifices, not to be distinguished from ordinary
dwelling-houses, and the temples of the Hindus are no better. There is
no attempt at ornamental architecture in the religious buildings of
Malabar.

One-fifth of the collectorate of Malabar is taken up with rice and
garden cultivation, the remaining four-fifths being covered with
forest, or cleared for dry grains and coffee plantations. The land
revenue, taking the average of five years ending in 1858-59, is
255,000_l._ The assessment of the rice-lands is essentially the
same as that fixed by the Government of Tippoo Sultan of Mysore in
1783-84. Though unequal, and in some places burdensome, it is on the
whole light, and, except in two of the Talooks,[392] it is lighter in
the north than in the south. As an example of the inequality of the
land-tax, I may mention that the district of Pattaumby, on the river
Ponany, is very highly and unfairly assessed, as it is said, from
the following cause. Before the invasion of Tippoo all the land in
Malabar was in the hands of feudal chiefs; there was no land-tax, and
the Zamorin and other Rajahs were supported by the produce of their
own estates. The first ruler who imposed a land-tax was the Mysore
conqueror. Any village which offended his officers was highly assessed;
and hence the present inequalities, which will, however, be corrected
by the new Survey and Assessment Commission. In the case of Pattaumby
the accountant quarrelled with the landowners, and threatened to impose
a heavy assessment, and, when they attempted to murder him, he escaped
to Wynaad, and sent in his report to Tippoo.

All land in Malabar is private property, and the landlord gets 20 to 40
per cent. of the net rent, the remainder being the Government demand.
From the gross produce of the rice-fields 20 per cent. is deducted
for reaping and other small charges called _puddum_, the remainder
being available gross rent. From the gross rent one-third is deducted
as the expense of cultivation, called _vitoo vally_; one third as the
cultivator's share, or _koshoo labon_, whether he be a _jemakar_ or
proprietor, a _kanomkar_ or mortgagee, or a _pattamkar_ or renter; and
the remaining third is the _pattom_, net produce, or rent. Of this
last third the Government share is 65 per cent., leaving 35 per cent.
as the share of the proprietor. The Government share is thus a little
less than a quarter of the gross produce.

The assessment is not calculated on the extent of land, but on the
amount of seed required to sow a given space, according to the quality
of the soil, which is divided into three classes, namely _pasma_
(clay), _rasee pasma_ (sand and clay), and _rasee_ (sand). On an
average the soil does not yield more than tenfold, and most of it bears
only one crop. Some lands are sown in April or May, and the crops cut
in August or September. These are chiefly in the coast Talooks. Others
are sown in September and October, and the crops cut in January and
February. The seeds are raised on small pieces of land, and the plants,
when young, removed by hand, and planted in the paddy-fields.

The garden assessment, as it is called, on cocoanut-trees, the great
wealth of Malabar, betel-palms, and jacks, was fixed in 1820.

The cocoanut-trees are divided according to their situations and soils
into five classes--the first and second classes being _attivepoo_, or
sea-coast; and the third, fourth, and fifth, _karavepoo_, or inland
cocoanut-trees. Each tree pays, on an average, eighteen pies,[393]
those which are unproductive from age or youth being excluded. The
betel-nut palms pay, on an average, six pies, and the jack-trees
twenty-eight pies; but the tax on gardens is not more than forty per
cent. of the landlord's rent. A cocoanut-tree is estimated to bear at
least sixteen to forty nuts in the year, according to its site; and the
owner of a plantation derives profit from the leaves as well as from
the husks and shells of the nut. The leaves, used for covering houses,
sell at two and a half to five Rs. the thousand, each tree yielding
ten to fifteen annually; and the husks, for coir ropes, fetch six annas
the thousand.[394]

The betel-nut palm (_Areca catechu_), which is also taxed has a
long slender smooth stem, and graceful curving fronds. I have seen
palm-trees in the South Sea islands, many kinds in the forests of South
America, and in India; but, of the whole tribe, the betel-nut palm is
certainly the most elegant and beautiful. Dr. Hooker likens it "to an
arrow shot from heaven, raising its graceful head and feathery crown in
luxuriance and beauty above the verdant <DW72>s." A tree will produce
300 nuts in the year, and continues to bear for twenty-five years.
The nut is very hard, the size of a cherry, and is chewed by all the
natives of India with the leaves of the betel-pepper (_Chavica betel_)
spread with _chunam_. It is cut into long narrow pieces, and rolled up
in the leaves of the betel-pepper or pawn. It makes the mouth and teeth
red, and gives the chewer a disgusting appearance. The consumption
must be enormous, for it is chewed by 50,000,000 of men, and, next to
tobacco, is the most extensively used narcotic; but it has none of the
excellent properties of the coca-leaf of the Peruvians.

The jack (_Artocarpus integrifolius_), the only other tree which
is taxed in Malabar, grows to a considerable size, and the wood is
much used for furniture of all kinds. The fruit, a favourite article
of food, is of enormous dimensions, and grows out of the trunk. In
Travancore they put the whole fruit in the ground, and, when the young
shoots grow up, the stems are tied together with straw, and by degrees
they form one stem, bearing fruit in six or seven years.[395] Besides
the taxed trees, the gardens round Calicut generally contain mangos and
nux vomica.

In addition to the rice or wet cultivation, and the above-mentioned
trees, the upland or dry cultivation of rice and sesame or gingelee
oil-seed is assessed on an annual inspection: forty per cent. of the
gross produce of the former being deducted, on account of the peculiar
labour and probable loss, and twenty per cent. of the remainder being
the Government share. The sesame cultivation has no deduction from the
gross produce; and ginger, pepper, and some other dry crops are free
of land-tax. The pepper cultivation is chiefly carried on in northern
Malabar, and ginger in the Shernaad district, south of Calicut, by the
Moplahs.[396]

The other taxes are _abkarry_, or the privilege of selling
liquors, which is either farmed by public sale, or levied from the
toddy-drawers, when it is called _kutty-chatty_ (knife and pot) tax;
_mohturfa_ on houses, shops, fishing-boats, oil-mills, and looms;
licences, stamps, and the salt monopoly; the whole revenue of Malabar
in 1859 having been 266,860_l._ The income-tax had not yet been levied
at the time of our visit, but its nature had been carefully explained
to the people, it had been stripped of everything that was offensive or
inquisitorial, and no difficulty was anticipated in its introduction,
although it was very generally considered that it was unwise and
impolitic, and that it would be unproductive. In the matter of taxes
there was a striking contrast between Peru, whence we had just come,
and where they are scarcely known, and this land of manifold imposts.

On the whole, however, Malabar is a splendid possession; the people are
very flourishing, the population increasing, and cultivation rapidly
encroaching on the forests. There is no gang robbery, but occasional
housebreaking, and a good many murders, often caused by jealousy,
the criminals usually making a full confession, and thus saving much
trouble.

In the evening we embarked in a canoe which had been prepared for us
near the fine timber bridge over the Calicut river, on the road to
Beypoor. The setting sun and banks of rosy clouds were visible through
the graceful fronds of the cocoanut-trees as we drove along the shady
road, with occasional glimpses of the sea. The canoe was very long,
and cut out of one trunk, with raised bow and stern, ornamentally
carved. It was pulled by four tall wiry-looking Moplahs, with nothing
on but clouts and huge umbrella-hats, made of the tallipot palm;[397]
and a fifth steered with a paddle. Their oars were long bamboos, with
circular boards fastened to one end by neat coir seizings. We started a
little after sunset, and passed from the Calicut river by a backwater
into the Beypoor, where there were many shallow places, and the Moplahs
had constantly to jump out and drag the canoe over them. The banks of
the river are wooded down to the water's edge, with groves of slender
betel-nut palms rising aloft, and standing out against the starry sky.
The foliage was covered with brilliant fire-flies, and here and there
we passed a hut, with its owner standing on the shore, waving a burning
brand. All night the boatmen sang noisy glees, and in the morning we
reached the landing-place at Eddiwanna, forty miles from Calicut, and
near the Government teak plantations of Nellamboor.

These plantations were originated by Mr. Conolly, the late Collector
of Malabar, with a view to the establishment of nurseries for
replenishing the teak forests, as nearly all the fine timber had been
felled many years ago. There is a great deal in North Canara of small
size, and still more in Cochin and Travancore; but the reckless system
of felling threatened the same results as has already overtaken the
supply of chinchona-bark in South America. The only forests containing
teak, in Malabar, in which Government has a proprietary right, are
25 square miles in the Palghat talook, where all the mature trees
have long since gone to the Bombay dockyard; but in 1842 leases of
forest-land were obtained from the Zamorin for the cultivation of
teak, 70 to 80 square miles in extent, chiefly in the Ernaad talook,
near Nellamboor. This most important and now successful measure is
due to the zeal and perseverance of Mr. Conolly, and there is a good
prospect of the stock of teak-timber in these forests being eventually
replenished. The trees, however, require a growth of 60 or 80 years
to reach a maturity fitting the wood for shipbuilding; but it is then
unequalled by any other known timber; it does not injure iron, and is
not liable to shrink in width.

It was some time before the method of inducing the teak-seeds to
germinate was discovered, and several experiments were tried. In
the forests it was observed that the seeds were prepared for growth
by losing the hard outer shell through the warmth caused by fires
which annually consume the brushwood. Mr. Conolly, therefore, burnt a
coating of hay over the ground where the seeds were sown. This trial
was unsuccessful, and in 1843 it was found that the best method was to
steep the nuts in water for thirty-six hours, then sow them in holes
four inches apart, and half an inch under the surface, covering the
beds with straw, so as to prevent evaporation, and gently watering
them every evening. By following this plan the seeds germinated, and
sprouted in from four to eight weeks. In 1844 as many as 50,000 young
trees, raised in the adjacent nurseries, were planted, eight feet
apart, in the cleared ground near Nellamboor, along the banks of the
Beypoor river, which had been cleared of jungle. The seedlings are
transplanted from the nursery at the age of three months, and for the
first seven or eight years they sprout up very fast, but afterwards
they grow slowly. From 1843 to 1859 as many as 1,200,000 trees have
been put down, and they are now planted at the rate of 70,000 a year.
Much care is required in systematic thinning and pruning, and, for the
superintendence of this important work, an annual visit is paid to the
plantations by Mr. McIvor, who is now so ably conducting the chinchona
experiment on the Neilgherry hills.

We were met by Mr. McIvor at Eddiwanna, and started for the village
of Wundoor, six miles distant, in _munsheels_ or hammocks, slung to
bamboos with a shade over them, and carried by six men, who kept up
unearthly yells the whole time. The road leads through rice-cultivation
and groves of betel-nut palms, jacks, and mangos. Wundoor is a
pretty village, with an avenue of sumach-trees[398] leading up to
the post-house or travellers' bungalow. These post-houses, which
are erected by the Government at easy stages along all the roads in
India, for the convenience of travellers, are exceedingly comfortable,
and render travelling in India as easy and commodious as it is the
reverse in Peru and other parts of South America. At Wundoor the first
bungalow we had seen put an end to all idea of having to rough it while
travelling in India. The building contained several clean rooms, with
cane-bottom sofas, arm-chairs, and tables; and outside there was a
pleasant verandah, with a glorious view of the Koondah mountains, which
it was necessary to ascend on our road to the Neilgherries. A clump of
trees, consisting of jacks, mangos, and peepuls, formed a huge arch,
through which there was an enchanting landscape of smiling hill and
dale, with the dense forest beyond, crowned by the broken outline of
the distant mountains.

We set out from Wundoor at daybreak, and passed a house just outside
the village, where, a few days before, a tiger had carried off a child
before the eyes of its parents. Next day the brute had the temerity
to come again and try to force open the door, when a man shot it
from the window. For some hours we rode through a country where the
jungle alternated with cultivation in open glades, which in their
natural state are covered with _Pandanus_, but the people here, as
in other parts of Malabar, are fast encroaching on the forest, and
converting these glades into paddy-fields. As we approached the foot
of the mountains cultivation at last entirely ceased, and the road led
through a dense forest of enormous bamboos, teak-trees with their large
coarse leaves, black-wood, and other fine timber. At noon we reached
the post-house of Sholacul, at the foot of the Sispara ghaut, which
leads up to the summit of the Koondahs, a western continuation of the
Neilgherries.

The building at Sholacul was surrounded by a very stout pallisade,
to protect it from the wild elephants, who strongly object to all
encroachments on their domain; and even take the trouble of pulling
up the wooden milestones by the side of the roads. We found all the
roads which we travelled over in Malabar excellent, and the ascent
of the Sispara ghaut, though only a zigzag bridle-path, is in very
good order. After leaving Sholacul the road first passes through a
region of gigantic reeds, and then through a belt of black-wood,
palms, and tree-ferns, with an undergrowth of _Curcumas_, ferns, and a
brilliant purple flower (_Torenia Asiatica_). The black or rose-wood
tree (_Dalbergia latifolia_) grows to a height of about fifty feet,
with handsome spreading branches, and pinnate leaves. The timber is
very valuable; it is extensively used in Bombay for making beautiful
carved furniture, and planks are sometimes obtained four feet broad,
after the sap-wood has been removed. In consequence of the increasing
price, Dr. Cleghorn, the able and energetic Conservator of Forests in
the Madras Presidency, has caused a number of seedlings to be planted
at Nellamboor; and plantations have also been formed in N. Canara and
Mysore.

The occasional openings in the forests, at turns in the road,
afforded us views of the mountains below us covered with the richest
vegetation, and of the rice-fields of Malabar stretching away to the
faintly indicated blending of sea and haze on the horizon; which
almost equalled in beauty the finest parts of the eastern Andes. From
about 1000 to 5000 feet above the sea the jungle is covered with
innumerable leeches, which eagerly fasten on their prey, whether men,
horses, or dogs, and make a journey through this region, in the wet
season, exceedingly disagreeable. Within this leech-zone there is a
considerable clearing called Walla-ghaut, planted with coffee, which is
in a ruinous and abandoned state, chiefly owing to the difficulty of
inducing labourers to venture among the leeches. As we continued the
ascent, the scenery increased in magnificence, the views became more
extensive, and there were mountain-tops crowned with glorious forest
trees far below us. At 6000 feet mosses appear, then lilies, brambles,
and wild strawberries, and occasionally we crossed noisy little streams
overshadowed by the trees. We reached the Sispara bungalow, on the
summit of the ghaut, 6742 feet above the level of the sea, late in the
afternoon.

The Sispara ghaut takes the traveller from the tropical plains to the
temperate climate of the hills, where the face of nature is entirely
changed. Here the hills are covered with grass, and the ravines only
are filled with trees, forming thickets called _sholas_. In the rear of
the bungalow there is an almost unrivalled view of the Malabar plains,
from the edge of a precipice. The Koondah hills sweep round until they
join the Wynaads, half encircling the Nellamboor valley, which was
thousands of feet below us, and is covered with forest, intersected
in all directions by open glades of a rich light green. The Koondahs
rise up from Malabar like perpendicular walls, so steep that even a cat
could not scale them in any part, for a distance of forty miles; and
the grandeur of the view from this point, with these sublime cliffs,
and the vast expanse of forest-covered plain below, is very striking.

At daylight next morning we left the Sispara bungalow, and rode
for several miles through a valley interspersed with _sholas_ of
rhododendron-trees. Eighteen miles from Sispara is the Avalanche
bungalow, 6720 feet above the sea, whence there is a good carriage-road
to Ootacamund, the chief European station on the Neilgherry hills. At
Avalanche the Koondah range is considered to cease, and the Neilgherry
hills to commence, but the nature of the country is the same. Between
Avalanche and Ootacamund, a distance of 15 miles, the country consists
of grassy undulating rounded hills, divided from each other by wooded
_sholas_. Herds of fine buffaloes were grazing by the roadside, and
here and there we saw patches of millet (_Setaria Italica_) near the
huts of the natives of these hills. As we rode round the artificial
lake, and, passing several pretty little houses surrounded by
shrubberies, stopped at the door of Dawson's hotel at Ootacamund,
it was difficult to persuade ourselves that we were not again in
England. The garden in front of the house was stocked with mignonette,
wallflowers, and fuchsias, but the immense bushes of heliotrope covered
with flowers, ten feet high and at least twenty in circumference, could
not have attained such dimensions in an English climate. Ootacamund is
nearly in the centre of the table-land of the Neilgherries, at the foot
of the western face of the peak of Dodabetta, and, except to the N.W.,
the station is completely surrounded by grass-covered hills. Houses
are scattered about under the shelter of the hills, with gardens and
plantations of _Eucalyptus_ and _Acacia heterophylla_, trees introduced
from Australia, around them; and the broad excellent roads are bordered
by _Cassia glauca_ bushes with a bright orange flower, honeysuckles,
fox-gloves, geraniums, roses, and masses of the tall _Lobelia excelsa_.
A graceful white iris is also common.

This charming spot, now that the roads are planted with tall trees, and
the hedges filled with all the familiar flowers introduced from old
England, while curling smoke ascends through the foliage, and suggests
the idea of chimneys and warm firesides, is as unlike India, and as
like an English watering-place, as can be imagined. The tower of the
church, seen from many points of view, increases the resemblance, which
is certainly not lessened by the rosy cheeks and healthy looks of the
children, and the fresh invigorating mountain air. But when a few miles
from the station, and out of sight of all English associations, there
was much that reminded me of the _pajonales_ in the chinchona region of
Caravaya at a first glance: and I felt sanguine that all the _pajonal_
chinchona-trees would thrive in most of the _sholas_ on the Neilgherry
hills, while suitable sites for those species which require a warmer
climate would be found in the forest <DW72>s which overlook the plains.
A closer inspection confirmed me in this opinion.




CHAPTER XXII.

NEILGHERRY HILLS.

  Extent--Formation--Soil--Climate--Flora--Hill
  tribes--Todars--Antiquities--Badagas--Koters--Kurumbers--Irulas
  --English stations--Kotergherry--Ootacamund--Coonoor--Jakatalla
  --Government gardens at Ootacamund and Kalhutty--Mr. McIvor--Coffee
  cultivation--Rules for sale of waste lands--Forest conservancy.


THE Neilgherry[399] hills, between latitude 11° 10' and 11° 32' N., and
longitude 76° 59' and 77° 31' E., form the most elevated mountain mass
in India, south of the Himalayas; the highest peak, that of Dodabetta,
being 8610 feet above the level of the sea. They are isolated on three
sides, and rise up abruptly from the plains of Coimbatore on the south,
and from the table-lands of Wynaad and Mysore on the north and east,
to a height of 6000 feet above the former, and 2000 to 3000 above the
latter; from which they are divided by the broad ravine of the river
Moyaar. On the west they are united with the Koondah range, which is
a continuation of the western ghauts. The area of the Neilgherries
contains 268,494 acres, of which 24,000 are under cultivation.

The formation consists of syenitic granite, with veins of basaltic
rock, hornblende, and quartz, while, in some parts, half-decomposed
laterite underlies the soil. The plateau is not a flat table-land, but
a succession of undulating hills and intervening grassy valleys, with
ravines thickly wooded, numerous streams, and occasional rocky ridges
running up into fine mountain-peaks. The streams all go to swell the
great river Cauvery, by its tributaries the Moyaar and Bowany; the
Moyaar descending from the hills by a fine waterfall at Neddiwuttum, on
the northern <DW72>; and the Bowany flowing down between the Koondahs
and Neilgherries to the south. The soil of the plateau is very rich,
being formed by the decomposition of basaltic and hornblende rocks,
mixed with the clayey products of the granite, and much decomposed
vegetable matter. The latter consists of the grass killed down to the
roots by the frost, washed in by the succeeding rains, and mixed with
the subsoil, increasing its richness and depth season after season. The
richest land is on the lower <DW72>s, where there are accumulations of
soil washed from the hills above:[400] and there are extensive deposits
of peat in the valleys, which afford supplies of fuel. The chief defect
in the soil is the absence of lime.

The temperature and amount of humidity vary according to the locality.
At Ootacamund, 7300 feet above the sea, the means of the thermometer
range from 42° to 68°, while in the two other lower and warmer stations
of Coonoor and Kotergherry, about 6000 feet above the sea, the range
is from 52° to 71°. The annual rainfall at Ootacamund is sixty inches,
at Coonoor fifty-five inches, and at Kotergherry fifty inches. During
the south-west monsoon, from May to September, the rain comes down in
torrents at Sispara, and in the western parts of the Neilgherries,
but their force is somewhat exhausted before reaching Ootacamund, in
the centre of the plateau. At that station the rainfall, during the
south-west monsoon, is about thirty-four inches; and the range of
Dodabetta, which rises up like a wall, immediately to the eastward of
Ootacamund, almost entirely screens the eastern part of the hills from
the rains of the south-west monsoon, and there the rainfall is only
twelve inches from May to September. During the portion of the year
from October to April the western parts of the hills are comparatively
dry, the prevalent winds are from the north-east, and the rains which
they bring with them from the Madras coast do not extend farther west
than the neighbourhood of Ootacamund. Kotergherry, and the eastern
parts of the hills, receive the full benefit of the rains from the
north-east monsoon, but they are not heavy, and the rainfall at
Kotergherry, in that season, is thirty-eight inches. Ootacamund also
gets some of the rain of the north-east monsoon (thirty-six inches),
so that, in that central part of the plateau, there is a belt which
receives a moderate supply of rain throughout the year. In January and
December there are frosts in the night, and the extreme radiation which
goes on in the valleys causes great cold at sunrise; but these frosts
are confined to the valleys in the upper plateau, and they never visit
the higher <DW72>s, or the well-wooded "_sholas_."

The climates of the Neilgherry hills are the most delightful in the
world; and it may be said of this salubrious region, with its equable
seasons, what the Persian poet said of Kung, "the warmth is not
heat, and the coolness is not cold."[401] On the open plateau, in
the wooded _sholas_, and in the thick forests of the lower <DW72>s,
there is a great variety of beautiful flowering trees and shrubs; and
the vegetation of the hills is both varied and luxuriant. First, in
the brilliant splendour of its flowers, must be mentioned the tree
rhododendron (_Rhododendron arboreum_), which is very common in all
parts of the hills, either forming small thickets or dotted about on
the grassy <DW72>s. It grows to a height of twenty feet, with a gnarled
stunted trunk, and masses of deep crimson flowers. In the "sholas" are
the _Michelia nilagiraca_, a large tree, with yellowish-white fragrant
flowers of great size; the _Symplocos pulchra_, with hairy leaves and
snow-white flowers; the _Ilex Wightiana_, a large umbrageous tree,
with small white flowers and red berries; the pretty pink-flowered
_Rhodo-myrtus tomentosa_, the berries of which are called "hill
gooseberries;" the _Jasminum revolutum_, a shrub with sweet yellow
flowers; the _Sapota elingoides_, a fine forest-tree, with rough
cracked bark, and an edible fruit used in curries; _Crotalariæ_;
_Bignoniæ_; peppers, cinnamon, a number of chinchonaceous shrubs, and
many others.

In the open grassy <DW72>s and near the edges of the wooded ravines
are several _Vaccinia_, especially the _Vaccinium Leschenaultii_,
a shrub with pretty rose- flowers; the beautiful _Osbeckia
Gardneriana_, with a profusion of large purple flowers; the handsome
_Viburnum Wightianum_; a number of balsams (_Impatiens_ of several
species); the _Gaultheria Leschenaultii_ in great quantities, a pretty
little shrub with white flowers and blue berries; the _Berberis
Mahonia_, with its glossy prickly leaves and long slender racemes of
yellow flowers; and the bright little pink _Indigofera pulchella_;
while the climbing passion-flower (_Passiflora Leschenaultii_) hangs in
festoons over the trees, especially in the eastern parts of the hills.
Among the more inconspicuous plants are the _Gallium requienianum_;
the _Rubia cordifolia_;[402] the thorny _Solanum ferox_, with stem
and leaves covered with strong straight prickles; the _Girardinia
Leschenaultii_,[403] or Neilgherry nettle, a most virulent stinger;
the tall _Lobelia excelsa_; a _Justitia_, with a blue flower, which
entirely covers some of the hills; some pretty _Sonerilas_; several
beautiful _Ipomœas_ and _lilies; elsias_; and the _Hypericum
Hookerianum_, growing plentifully in the meadows, with large orange
flowers; besides ferns, lycopods, and numberless small wild flowers in
the grass and underwood.

Enjoying a delightful climate, well supplied with water, and with
its gentle undulations of hill and dale in some places clothed with
rich pasture, in others presenting woods of fine timber and beautiful
flowering shrubs, the Neilgherry hills are eminently fitted for the
abode of a thriving and civilized people. Yet for many centuries
it would appear that their sole inhabitants were a strange race of
cowherds, a people differing in all respects from their neighbours in
the plains, and indeed from all the other natives of Hindostan.

These are the Todars, a race numbering less than a thousand souls, who
now claim to be the original "Lords of the hills." In times so remote
that no record of them remains there are still indications that the
Indian peninsula was peopled by races of Scythic origin: and, when
the Aryan warriors came forth with their Vedic hymns and grand old
civilization from the fastnesses of Sind, they swept irresistibly over
Hindostan, and formed as it were an upper stratum of the population.
The Scythic element either mixed with, or became subservient to the
Aryan in the plains, as the Sudra caste, while in the hill and forest
fastnesses a few tribes remained isolated and independent. Such,
possibly, may have been the origin of the Todars on the Neilgherries.
The Brahmins, characteristically dovetailing every tradition and every
race into one or other of their historical myths, declare that the
Todars came from the north in the army of Rama, when he marched against
the wicked Ravana; and that, deserting their chief, they fled to these
hills. They themselves have no tradition of their origin, but believe
that they were created on the hills.

They are certainly a very remarkable and interesting people, tall,
well-proportioned, and athletic, and utterly unlike all other natives
of India. They have Jewish features, with aquiline noses, hazel eyes,
thick lips, bushy black beards, and immensely thick clusters of glossy
hair cut so as to stand in dense masses round the sides of the head, a
very necessary protection from the sun, as they never wear any other
head-covering. The old men are very handsome, with long white beards
and upright gait, looking like the patriarchs of the Old Testament,
with their strongly marked Jewish features: but the expressions of
the younger men are less agreeable to look upon. The women are very
careful of their hair, which hangs down in long glossy ringlets; and
both sexes wear nothing but a long piece of coarse cotton cloth, with
two broad red stripes round the edges, worn by the men like a Roman
toga, which sets off their well-shaped limbs to advantage, and exposes
one leg entirely, up to the hip; and by the women so as to form a short
petticoat and mantle. They never wash either their persons or their
clothes from the day of their birth to the day of their death. They
live in small encampments called _munds_, which are scattered over the
hills, and consist of five or six huts, and a larger one used as a
dairy. The families are in the habit of migrating from one _mund_ to
another, at certain seasons of the year; so that we often came upon a
_mund_ apparently abandoned. A Todar's hut is exactly like the tilt of
a waggon, very neatly roofed, with the ends boarded in, and a single
low entrance. They are generally surrounded by a stone wall, and the
dairy, a larger and more important building, is always a little apart.
The only occupation of this singular people is to tend their large
herds of fine buffaloes; they live on milk, and on the grain which they
collect as a due or _goodoo_ from the other hill tribes, and pass the
greater part of their time in idleness; lolling about and gossiping
in their munds, or strolling over the hills. We passed through one of
these munds, about a quarter of a mile from our hotel, almost daily,
but I never remember having seen a Todar engaged in any occupation
whatever.

The women become the wives of all the brothers into whose families
they marry, the children being apportioned to husbands according to
seniority. This pernicious custom is also common among the Coorg, and
the Tiars of Malabar. The Todars, formerly, only allowed one female
child to live in each family, the rest being strangled; but the
authorities have lately interfered to put a stop to this custom. When
a Todar bride is given away, she is brought to the dwelling of her
husbands, who each put their feet upon her head; she is then sent to
fetch water for cooking, and the ceremony is considered to be complete.

The German missionaries, who have had a good deal of intercourse with
these people, say that they worship the "sacred buffalo bell," as
a representation of _Hiridea_, or the chief God, before which they
pour libations of milk; and when there is a dispute about wives or
buffaloes it is decided by the priest, who becomes possessed by the
_Bell God_, rushes frantically about, and pronounces in favour of the
richest. Formerly there were seven holy _munds_, each inhabited by
a recluse called _palaul_ (milkman), attended upon by a _kavilaul_
(herdsman); but three of these are now deserted, and the fourth is
rarely frequented. The rest have a herd of holy buffaloes attached to
them for the use of the sanctified occupants, and no women may approach
them. The only religious festival of any kind celebrated by the Todars,
and that scarcely deserves the name, takes place on the occasion of a
funeral, when there is much dancing and music. The body is burnt, and
buffaloes are slaughtered to go with the spirit, and supply it with
milk. This is called the green funeral. A year afterwards there is
another ceremony called the dry funeral, when forty or fifty buffaloes
were hunted down, and beaten to death with clubs; but the Government
has recently prohibited the immolation of more than two beasts for a
rich, and one for a poor Todar. The burial-places are like gigantic
extinguishers, twelve feet high, and thatched with grass. The bodies
are burnt, and the ashes collected and put into chatties, which are
deposited in the extinguisher. The Todars have no other ceremonies,
care for nothing but their buffaloes, and leave prayers to the _palaul_
in his lonely retreat, or to the _palikarpal_ or dairyman of each mund,
who covers his nose with his thumb when he enters the sacred dairy, and
says "May all be well!"[404]

The Todar language is a very rude dialect of the old Canarese, and
similar to that of the Badagas, another hill tribe. It is very poor in
words conveying abstract ideas, as they have few notions beyond their
buffaloes; their verbs have generally but one tense, and they express
the future and past by means of adverbs of time.[405]

There are many ancient cairns and _tumuli_ on the peaks of the
Neilgherries, and it has been objected that they cannot be assigned
to the ancestors of the Todars, because agricultural implements have
been found in them, and these people never cultivate the ground. But
it must be remembered that the Todars now extort _goodoo_ or tribute
of grain from the other hill tribes, and that it is their only food.
It must be inferred, therefore, that, before they discovered this easy
mode of procuring food, and previous to the arrival of these weaker
agricultural tribes on the hills, the Todars must have been their own
cultivators. The hill people attribute all ancient ruins, of the origin
of which they know nothing, to the Pandus, the famous heroes of Hindu
tradition; and all that can be said of these Neilgherry cairns is that
they are probably the work of an unknown extinct race, who practised
Druidical rites.[406]

We visited several of these remains of an ancient people. On the summit
of the peak of Kalhutty, on the left hand of the road leading down the
Seegoor ghaut to the Mysore plains, whence there is a grand view of
mountain scenery, forest-clad <DW72>s, and a wide expanse of country
stretching away to the horizon, we found several old cairns. They were
of great size, built of immense stones, and hollow in the centre. On
another peak, called Ibex Hill, one side of which is a scarped cliff
many hundreds of feet in height, overhanging the Seegoor ghaut, we also
found two huge cairns, forming a circle about eight feet in diameter.
There are many others in different parts of the hills, generally on
the highest peaks, and iron spear-heads, bells, sepulchral urns with
figures of coiled snakes, tigers, elephants, dogs, and birds on them,
sickles and gold rings have been found buried under the piles of stones.

The Todars, as has been said, are the "lords of the hills," and not
only all the other hill tribes pay them tribute, but the English
Government also pays rent to them for the land on which the stations
are situated.[407] But the agricultural tribe of Burghers or Badagas,
who came to the hills several centuries after the Todars, and are
subject to them, are by far the most numerous, numbering 15,000 souls,
and occupying 300 villages. They are divided into eighteen classes or
castes, the members of one of which, called the Wodearu Badagas, wear
the Brahminical string, are proud and lazy, and inhabit five villages
apart from the rest. The villages of the Badagas are scattered all
over the plateau of the hills, and their land occupies two-thirds
of its area. They are much darker, and not nearly such fine men as
the Todars, wear cotton-cloth turbans and clothing much like other
natives of India, and are very superstitious and timid; but they are
industrious, though not so much so as the labourers who come up from
the plains, and kind and affectionate to their women and children.
The Badagas, though they possess herds of buffaloes, are chiefly
employed in cultivation. Their crops consist of _raggee_ (_Eleusine
corocana_), the most prolific of cultivated grasses,[408] which is
made into dark brown cakes and porridge; _samee_ or Italian millet,
barley, an amaranth called _keeray_, some pulses, mustard, onions, and
potatoes. We often passed through the Badaga villages. The houses are
built in a single row, with one thatched roof extending over so as
to form a verandah, supported on poles. In front there is a hard mud
floor, where the piles of grain are heaped up; and there is generally
a _Swami_-house or temple, with a verandah in front supported by
numerous poles, the walls and poles being painted in red and white
stripes, the Hindu holy colour. Round the villages there are cultivated
patches of _raggee_ and _samee_, which they were reaping in December.
In the centre of the fields there is a small threshing-floor, where
we often saw the Badagas sifting the grain from the chaff by shaking
it through sieves, and letting the wind blow the chaff away. A Todar
was generally squatting near, like an old vulture, waiting for his
_goodoo_. The Badagas belong to the Siva sect, their principal deity
being Rungaswamy, whose temple is on the summit of the easternmost peak
of the Neilgherries; but they also worship 338 other idols or _Swamis_,
such as trees, streams, stone pillars, and even old knives.

Another hill tribe is that of the Koters, who occupy seven large
villages called _Kotergherry_ (cowkiller's hill). They are of very
low caste, and work as carpenters, smiths, rope-makers, and potters,
besides cultivating the ground. The Koters also dress and prepare
buffalo-hides, and they are a squalid dirty race, living on the carrion
they pick up on the road-sides. They number about five hundred souls,
and are the artizans of the hills, repairing the ploughs, hoes, and
bill-hooks for the Badagas.

The Kurumbers, another tribe, live on the <DW72>s of the hills, in the
most feverish places. They are a short miserable-looking race, and
those called _Mooloo_ or jungle Kurumbers are regular wild men of the
woods, in no respect raised above the beasts of the forest. The others
act as musicians and sorcerers to the Todars and Badagas.

Lastly, the Irulas live low down the <DW72>s of the hills, perform the
office of priests in the Badagas' temple on the Rungaswamy peak, and
occasionally act plays from the life of Krishna at Badaga festivals.

These five tribes of Todars, Badagas, Koters, Kurumbers, and Irulas,
appear for centuries to have had the exclusive enjoyment of the
Neilgherry hills; though Tippoo Sultan of Mysore erected a fort
at Kalhutty, half-way up the Seegoor ghaut, and another on the
Hoolicul-droog, overhanging the Coonoor ghaut, which leads up from the
Coimbatore plains. He is said to have used these strongholds for the
detention of prisoners, and to enable his officers to extort tribute
from the hill tribes. The Neilgherry hills were first discovered by two
English civilians who made their way up to the plateau in chasing some
Moplah smugglers.[409]

In 1820 Mr. John Sullivan, then Collector of Coimbatore, built the
first house in Ootacamund, on the site of a Todar mund of the same
name.[410] It is now used as the building for the Lawrence Asylum.
The first sanatarium on the hills, however, was at Dimhutty, on the
eastern side, and at the adjoining station of Kotergherry, but the
former is now abandoned. The delightful climate soon attracted crowds
of visitors from the burning plains; many houses gradually rose up
on the grassy <DW72>s round the lake which was formed at Ootacamund
by bunding up one end of the valley, and the place rapidly became an
important hill-station. A small native town and bazaar sprang up on
the banks of the lake, a handsome church was erected, a club-house,
and, most conspicuous of all, an immense Parsee shop kept by Framjee
Nusserwanjee of Bombay. The roads are excellent, and planted with tall
graceful Acacia and gum-trees from Australia, and many of the houses
are surrounded by beautiful gardens and shrubberies. The most charming,
perhaps, is that of the late Bishop Dealtry, called Bishops-down,
whence there is a glorious view of the station on one side, and of the
distant Koondah hills, overtopped by the sharp peak of Makoorty, on
the other. Advantage has here been taken of a wooded _shola_ to make
pleasant shady walks, and cut vistas through the trees.

The warmer station of Coonoor is about nine miles from Ootacamund, at
the head of the ghaut which leads down to the plains of Coimbatore.
Here the scenery is far more beautiful than at the central station,
as the wooded sides of the ghaut run up into a fine peak called the
Hoolicul-droog, and the view extends far away over the plains. The
houses are perched on the rounded tops of a range of hills, and there
is a church with a fine tower, which is a great addition to the view
of Coonoor from the surrounding eminences. A mile from Coonoor, in
the direction of Ootacamund, is the military station of Jakatalla,
the finest barracks I ever saw in any part of the world. It is well
sheltered by high hills from the cold north winds to which Ootacamund
is exposed, as well as from the south-west monsoon, and is in every
respect admirably adapted as a sanatarium for soldiers and their
families. It has been maintained that the children of Europeans cannot
be reared even on the hills of India, though upon what grounds this
extraordinary assertion is based I have not yet learnt. The strongest
arguments against this idea are the fresh rosy cheeks and rude health
of the boys and girls in the Lawrence asylum, and of the boys and
young men at Mr. Pope's[411] and Mr. Nash's schools in Ootacamund,
who present a striking contrast to the children on the plains. The
bracing climate of the upper plateau of these hills appears to me
to be perfectly well adapted for European colonists: it has all the
advantages with none of the disadvantages of England, and there are
no influences which can be detrimental to English constitutions. At
the time of our visit a battalion of the 60th Rifles, and a number
of convalescent soldiers from other regiments, were stationed at
Jakatalla. The quarters for the men are built round a large quadrangle,
with an upper story, and airy corridors for exercise in wet weather.
Beyond are the married quarters for ninety couples, each with two
comfortable rooms and a little garden; and there are also a hospital,
library, schoolrooms, substantially-built skittle-alley with brick
arches, fives-court, and swimming-bath. The officers are quartered
in bungalows on the surrounding hill-<DW72>s, or at Coonoor. It would
be well if the whole of the European troops in the Madras Presidency
were permanently quartered on the Neilgherry and other hills as soon
as the railroads are completed. Many of the married men might be
permitted to cultivate and settle on land of their own, with their
families, subject to the condition of being liable to be called on to
serve if required, and a sort of military colony might thus be formed.
There is excellent pasture for flocks of sheep, wheat may be grown in
any quantity, and there is not the slightest danger to Europeans in
undertaking field labour.

The English settler on the Neilgherries will find English fruits,
flowers, vegetables, and grasses, the introduction of which is mainly
due to the exertions of Mr. William G. McIvor, the Superintendent of
the Government gardens at Ootacamund, and now also Superintendent
of Chinchona plantations in Southern India. This gentleman has been
in charge of the gardens at Ootacamund since 1848, and unites zeal,
intelligence, and skill to the talent and experience of an excellent
practical gardener. Under his auspices the steep <DW72>s of one of
the spurs, which run off from the peak of Dodabetta, and overlook
the cantonment of Ootacamund, have been converted into a tastefully
laid-out garden, in a succession of terraces. Hampered at first by the
interference of a useless committee, and with no assistance beyond that
of an East Indian foreman and labourers from the Mysore plains, he has
succeeded in changing the wild mountain-sides into a very beautiful
public garden. Every point of view is taken advantage of with admirable
taste, and numerous trees and flowering shrubs have been introduced
from England, Australia, and other countries, while the native flora of
the hills is fully represented. There are English roses and geraniums,
ponds bordered by white arums, shady walks over-arched by trellis-work,
tasteful vases filled with showy flowers, thickets of rhododendrons,
hedges of heliotrope and fuchsia, fine clumps of tall spreading trees,
and, from the upper terraces, between the leafy branches, there are
glorious views of the Ootacamund valley, and of the finely broken range
of the distant Koondah hills.

Mr. McIvor also has a small branch-garden at Kalhutty, about half-way
down the Seegoor ghaut, leading to the Mysore plains, for raising
fruits which require a warmer climate. This garden is self-supporting.
A magnificent waterfall descends into a rocky basin close beside it,
and the garden contains oranges of many kinds, shaddocks, lemons,
limes, citrons, nutmegs, loquats, and plantains. On this spot the
delicious chirimoyas, the seeds of which we brought from Peru,
will hereafter ripen, and enable the people of India to taste the
"masterpiece of nature."

European enterprise on the Neilgherries has hitherto been chiefly
directed towards the cultivation of coffee, and there are several
fine estates near Coonoor. On the 15th of November we set out from
Ootacamund to visit them, and rode down the valley of Kaitee, where the
house stands which once belonged to Lord Elphinstone, certainly not in
a well-selected spot. It was originally chosen for a Government farm,
which was given up, and the house was then occupied for a short time by
the Governor of Pondicherry. Lord Elphinstone, when Governor of Madras,
took a fancy to the place, erected a very substantial house, finished
it handsomely, and frequently resided there. In 1845 the property
was bought by Mr. Casamajor of the Civil Service, who established a
school there for Badaga children, on the principle of paying them for
coming, at the rate of 1 anna a day. On his death he left it to the
Basle Evangelical Missionaries, by whom it is now occupied. They have
schools, and labour amongst the Badagas, but as yet with scarcely any
success.

The stream which drains the Kaitee valley forms a very beautiful
waterfall down the face of a cliff into the Karteri valley, where there
is a small coffee estate worked by a Frenchman; and, after crossing
a range of hills, in parts thickly wooded, and in parts covered
with a shrubby _Justitia_ with a blue flower, we reached the coffee
plantation of Hoolicul,[412] owned by Mr. Stainbank. The highest
part of his estate is 5700 feet above the sea,[413] and here he has
twenty-five acres planted in rather poor soil. Below his house there
are about forty-five more acres planted, down the steep <DW72>s of the
hill, some of the bushes in very good bearing. They are thick, as he
is against pruning the branches, saying that when covered by leafy
branches the fruit ripens by degrees, and consequently requires less
labour in picking. The estate has passed through several hands, and the
oldest trees were planted seventeen years ago. Mr. Stainbank expects
eventually to get fifty tons of coffee off this estate, in the year. An
acre will occasionally yield twenty-five hundredweight.

The view from the house is very fine. The plantation <DW72>s away by a
very steep descent, and in the distance are the Lambton's Peak range of
mountains, and the wide plains of Coimbatore.

Leaving Hoolicul, we again descended into the ravine of Karteri, where
the river passes close under the steep face of the hills on which the
station of Coonoor stands, and on the <DW72>s of the opposite mountains
there are several coffee estates. Mr. Dawson, a son of the landlord of
the hotel at Ootacamund, has 100 acres planted; but the most extensive
estate, on the steep <DW72>s overlooking the ghaut leading down into
the Coimbatore plains, belongs to Mr. Stanes. He has 200 acres planted
with 250,000 trees, up the precipitous sides of the mountain, facing
east, and protected from the excessive rains of the S.W. monsoon. The
elevation above the sea is upwards of 4800 feet. On the summits of the
mountains above this estate Mr. Stanes has induced the Todars to form
two cattle crawls, whence manure is washed down to his plantation. The
trees are planted in rows, 6 to 8 feet apart, and regularly topped and
pruned, so as to admit the sun to ripen the fruit on every branch.
They are from 4 to 6 feet high, and planted in holes 20 inches deep
by 18; the young plants being brought from a nursery, where seedlings
are raised. The trees are generally in full bearing in the third year.
After the berries are picked, and brought in baskets to the _godown_
or warehouse, the pulp or fleshy part has to be removed. The berries
are placed in heaps in a loft, above the _pulper_, looking bright and
red like ripe cherries. They are then sent down a shoot, into which
a stream of water is conducted, and are thus washed into the pulper.
On Mr. Stanes's estate this machine is worked by a water-wheel, but
generally it is turned by hand and a fly-wheel. The pulper is a roller
covered with a sheet of copper, made rough like a nutmeg-grater. The
berries fall on it as it goes round, but there is only room for the
seed to pass, so that the pulp is squeezed off, and carried away by
a stream thrown off by the water-wheel, while the naked coffee drops
on the other side. The seeds are still covered with glutinous matter,
to remove which they are well washed in a cistern, the inferior ones
floating, while the good ones sink. The coffee-seeds are then laid out
on the _barbecus_, square platforms of brick plastered with _chunam_,
with sides a foot high; where they dry in the sun for about three days,
and are afterwards stored in the godowns.

It is estimated that an acre of jungle on the Neilgherries may be
cleared for 200 Rs., including all expenses. The coffee-seedlings, from
the nursery, may be planted out in seven months, and they will yield a
first crop in three years. Coffee-seeds are 5 Rs. a bushel, and that
quantity will rear 10,000 plants, covering 10 acres. One acre ought to
yield one ton, when well cultivated, selling at Calicut, uncleaned,
for 4 annas the pound. In three years the estate ought to pay 10 per
cent. on the capital expended, if well conducted; the next year the
gross profit should increase to 60 per cent., and afterwards to 100
per cent. A good dwelling-house will cost 4000 Rs.; the pulping-house,
machinery, and godowns, 4000 Rs. more. Carpenters get 20 Rs. a month,
bricklayers 15 Rs., with 2 annas a day batta for coming out of the
town, and common labourers 4-1/2 Rs.

The Neilgherry planters have great advantages in the way of means of
conveyance from their estates to Calicut and Beypoor, their ports of
shipment. The coffee is carried down the Coonoor ghaut on pack-bullocks
to Matepoliem, and thence in carts along a good road, by Palghatchery,
to the sea-coast. Generally the coffee from the Neilgherry estates
is bought by Mr. Perry and Mr. Andrews at Calicut, in rather a dirty
state. They have garbling-machines for clearing away all remaining dry
pulp, and removing the outer coat from the seeds; and they make their
profit by shipping the coffee and selling it in a clean state fit for
European use. Neilgherry coffee has an excellent name in the London
market.

Europeans, on the Neilgherries, hold land by a _puttum_ or grant from
Government, leasing it in perpetuity, so long as the assessment is
paid, which is fixed at 1 R. per acre of coffee-land, levied after
the third year. By the resolution of the Madras Government, dated
August 5th, 1859, the terms on which waste lands can be purchased were
regulated. These orders apply to all the regions in Southern India
which are suited for coffee or chinchona cultivation. It was resolved
to sell outright the fee-simple of all land used for building, and of
waste land in the hills, without reservation of quit-rent, and with an
absolute and indefeasible title, sold to the highest bidder at an upset
price, at twenty times the amount of yearly quit-rent or land-tax. A
title-deed will be given under the seal of the Government, declaring
the absolute title of the holder, free from all demands on account of
land-revenue, with full powers to dispose of the land at pleasure, but
not exempting it from payments for municipal purposes. Other parties,
however, claiming a previous right in the land, will be free to sue
the holder in the Civil Courts, up to a certain time, so that it will
be necessary to make careful investigations on this point before
purchasing. When the land-tax is not redeemed, Government will issue
permanent title-deeds, reserving a quit-rent, and the holder will be
free to redeem the tax, on the same terms, at any future time.

With regard to labour on the Neilgherries, there used to be abundant
supplies of coolies from Mysore and Coimbatore, but they have recently
fallen off, owing to competition on the railway works. Mr. Stanes was
paying his labourers 4-1/2 Rs. a month, and women 3-1/2 Rs. He told me
that he was particular always to pay every labourer himself, and to
be very kind to them, by which means he never found any difficulty in
procuring labour. Some of the planters get the services of Badagas, and
even of some Kurumbers in the picking-time, but the hill tribes are not
generally willing to work on the coffee plantations. There are fifteen
coffee estates on the Neilgherry hills.

But the oldest coffee-district in Southern India is Wynaad, a
forest-covered plateau about 3000 feet above the sea, which adjoins the
Neilgherries on the north. In this district there are upwards of thirty
coffee-plantations, some of them, such as that of Messrs. Campbell
and Ouchterlony, near the ascent to the Neilgherry hills, being very
extensive.[414] There is a great rainfall in Wynaad during the S.W.
monsoon, and the crops are very abundant; but at the same time the
coffee is not so good as that grown in drier situations, such as the
Neilgherries near Coonoor, though the yield is greater. Most of the
available land is already taken up. The labour is derived from Mysore,
whence the coolies come, often from distances of sixty or seventy
miles, returning to their families when their wages are paid. In 1860
the tax on coffee-estates in Wynaad was fixed at 2 Rs. an acre on land
actually planted, to be imposed in the third year, at which time the
trees are in bearing.[415]

The export trade in coffee, from all the hill-districts of Southern
India, was, in 1859-60, as follows:--

                                    Quantity.        Value.
  From the ports of Malabar        7,35,19,26lbs.  7,35,177 R^s
    "         "     Canara         5,13,36,35      8,66,644
    "         "     Tinnevelly       23,36,93        23,387
    "       port of Madras         8,15,89,74      2,49,846
                                   ----------     ---------
                                  20,87,82,28     18,75,054
                                  -----------     ---------

In connexion with the clearing of forests for coffee-cultivation, it
is imperative that due attention should be paid to the preservation
of valuable timber, and the conservancy of the belts of wood near the
sources and along the upper courses of streams, so as to ensure the
usual supplies of water, and to retain a due amount of moisture in
the atmosphere. For the superintendence of these important measures,
together with other duties, Dr. Cleghorn has been placed at the head of
a Forest Conservancy Department in the Madras Presidency. He strongly
urges that the high wooded mountain-tops overhanging the low country
should not be allowed to be cleared for coffee-cultivation, lest the
supplies of water should be injured.[416] "The courses of rivulets,"
he says, "should be overshadowed with trees, and the hills should
therefore be left clothed for a distance of half their height from
the top, leaving half the <DW72>s and all the valleys for cultivation.
Immense tracts of virgin forest in the valleys of the Koondah hills
are eminently suited for coffee-cultivation. The clearing should only
be allowed from 2500 to 4500 feet, this being the extreme range within
which coffee planted on a large scale is found to thrive."

There are still thousands of acres of uncleared forests, at suitable
elevations, well adapted for the growth of coffee, in the cultivation
of which the English capitalist would make large and rapid profits; yet
it is not many years since the first coffee-plants were introduced into
these hills. Coffee now forms an important item in the exports from the
Madras Presidency. There is every reason to hope that the bark from
quinine-yielding chinchona-trees may also become one of the valuable
products of the hills; and in the following chapter I propose to give
an account of the selection of the sites for the first experimental
plantations.




CHAPTER XXIII.

SELECTION OF SITES FOR CHINCHONA-PLANTATIONS ON THE NEILGHERRY HILLS.

The Dodabetta site--The Neddiwuttum site.


IN selecting sites for chinchona plantations in the Neilgherry hills
we had to compare the climate and other conditions of growth which
prevail in the chinchona forests and open _pajonales_ in the Andes
with any similar localities which might be found in Southern India.
For the first experimental sites, it was of course important that the
resemblance, as regards elevation, temperature, and humidity, should be
as close as possible; but there was every reason to hope that, under
cultivation, these plants, like most others, would adapt themselves to
conditions of soil and climate extending over a far more extensive area.

It was necessary to fix upon two sites in the first instance, one at
the highest point at which chinchona-plants were likely to flourish,
for the species from Loxa and others growing at great elevations,
and as an experimental plantation; and another in a lower and warmer
position for the plants of _C. succirubra_, _C. Peruviana_, _C.
micrantha_, and the tree _C. Calisaya_. The highest point at which
these plants will flourish, and the greatest exposure they will bear
without injury, are the most favourable conditions for the formation of
quinine; while, if the _sholas_ in the upper plateau of the Neilgherry
hills should prove to be adapted for their growth, their cultivation
might be indefinitely extended in a climate suitable for English
settlers.

Previous to my arrival on the hills Mr. McIvor had selected a site for
the highest plantation in a wooded ravine or _shola_ at the back of the
hills which rise above the Government gardens; and, after a careful
examination, I came to the conclusion that it was well suited for the
growth of the hardier species, and for the experimental culture of all
the kinds which have been introduced into India. It has been named the
"Dodabetta" site, from the peak, the highest point of the Neilgherries,
and 8640 feet above the sea, which rises up immediately behind it.

With regard to the species for which I considered the Dodabetta site
to be suitable, it will be well in this place to recapitulate the
circumstances under which they grow on their native mountains.

The shrub variety of _C. Calisaya_ (lat. 13° to 15° S.) flourishes
in open _pajonales_, quite exposed, at elevations from 5000 to 7000
feet above the sea, and in April and May I found the mean temperature
to be 60-1/3°, minimum 55°, and range 17°. The _C. nitida_ (lat. 10°
S.) grows at similar elevations, but we have no exact information
respecting the temperature and humidity. The varieties of _C.
Condaminea_ (lat. 4° S.) flourish at heights from 6000 to 8000 feet
above the sea, where the mean range is from 45° to 60°, in a moist
climate, and in exposed but always dry situations; and one kind,
the _C. crispa_, the seeds of which have been received in India and
Ceylon, grows in a deposit of peat, 8000 feet above the sea, in a
temperature falling as low as 27°.[417] The _C. lancifolia_ (lat. 5°
N.) is found at 7000 feet above the sea and upwards, where the annual
range is from freezing-point to 75°, in an exceedingly moist climate.
The rainy season lasts for nine months, when the constant rain is
only interrupted in the day by interchanging sun-rays and fog-clouds.
In the dry season cold clear nights follow days in which a warm sun
penetrates through the fog, which almost constantly lies on the damp
foliage of the forest.[418] Mr. Cross mentions that he saw trees of _C.
succirubra_ on his way to Loxa, growing at elevations of from 8000 to
9000 feet above the sea.

The site, in the Dodabetta ravine, <DW72>s down from 7700 to 7600 feet
above the sea, yet, from local causes, it is several degrees warmer
than the station at Ootacamund; and the temperature agrees with that of
the species of chinchona-plants described above. The annual temperature
of the peak of Dodabetta, of Ootacamund, and of the warmer station of
Kotergherry, are given on the following page.

The Dodabetta site, being four or five degrees warmer than Ootacamund,
throughout the year, has a temperature, on the whole, somewhat warmer
than the lofty regions where the species of chinchona grow, for
the cultivation of which this position was selected. The elevation
above the sea exactly corresponds, and the amount of humidity is
about the same. The ravine is full of fine trees, with a variety of
exposures, the general aspect being north-west; a clear little stream
flows through it; and, in most parts, the soil consists of a rich
loam four or five feet deep. Outside the wooded ravine there are
tree Rhododendrons, Berberis, Gaultherias, lilies, Lycopodia, and
brake-ferns, scattered about on the grassy <DW72>s; and the character of
the scenery and vegetation very closely resembles that of the _pajonal_
country between the valleys of Sandia and Tambopata in Caravaya, where
the shrub _Calisaya_ flourishes. The site is protected by rising
grounds from the cold northerly winds, and the colder breezes blowing
over it from ridge to ridge prevent the warm air in the ravine from
rising, so that the temperature became warmer as we ascended through
the wood, and in the highest part there were orchids and pepper-vines
hanging on the trees.

[Illustration: Observations by T. G. TAYLOR, and by Capt. OUCHTERLONY.]

The analogy between the flora of the Dodabetta ravine and of the
loftier parts of the chinchona region was another point which
influenced my decision. Within the ravine there are nine species of
chinchonaceous plants, namely--

  _Hedyotis Lawsoniæ._
  _Hedyotis stylosa._
  _Lasianthus venulosus._
  _Coffea alpestris._
  _Coffea grumelioides._
  _Canthium umbellatum._
  _Grumilea elongata._
  _Grumilea congesta._
  _Psychotria bisulcata._

These are mostly ornamental pretty shrubs, from six to eight feet
high, with clusters of white or cream- flowers. The other
genera of which the wood is composed are as follows:--_Vaccinium_,
_Myrsine_, _Symplocos_, _Ilex_, _Michelia_, _Sapota_, _Isonandra_,
and _Cinnamon_ among the trees; _Eugenia_, _Myrtus_, _Jasminum_,
_Osbeckia_, _Sonerila_, _Solanum_, _Viburnum_, and _Acanthus_ among
shrubs; _Lonicera_, _Passiflora_, _Rubia_, and _pepper-vines_ among the
climbers; with an undergrowth of _Lobelia_, _Begonia_, _Convolvulus_,
orchids, and ferns. The _Osbeckias_ and _Sonerilas_ represent the
melastomaceous plants, the constant companions of chinchonæ in South
America.

It was no small advantage that this excellent site for a chinchona
plantation was close to the Government gardens, and that it would thus
be under the constant supervision of Mr. McIvor. It receives a supply
of moisture during both monsoons, and is, therefore, as good a position
as could have been selected on the higher plateau of the Neilgherries,
though there are many _sholas_ which will be found equally well adapted
for the growth of the hardier chinchonas. These precious plants will,
it is to be hoped, before very long, form large plantations on all
parts of the hills, and become one of the most important products
of the Neilgherries. In the mean while Mr. McIvor, the Government
Superintendent, using the Dodabetta site as an experimental plantation,
will be enabled to demonstrate the successful results of chinchona
culture, and to raise thousands of plants for the supply of private
enterprise.

The most extensive operations must, however, necessarily be carried
on at much lower elevations, where the _C. succirubra_, the species
richest in febrifugal alkaloids, will flourish best, and where vast
unoccupied forests afford space for plantations on a large scale. A
northern aspect is the one best adapted for the vigorous growth of
trees on the Neilgherry hills, and we, therefore, proceeded to examine
the forest-covered <DW72>s overlooking the table-lands of Wynaad and
Mysore, for a site for the lower chinchona plantation. We started from
Ootacamund early one November morning, and rode across the central
plateau of the hills, consisting of rounded grassy undulations,
intersected by wooded _sholas_. In some of the hollows the streams
had formed large swamps, where there were extensive deposits of peat.
The traveller's bungalow of Pycarrah, the first on the road towards
Wynaad, is ten miles from Ootacamund, on the banks of a river of the
same name. Several huge boulders of syenite obstruct the stream and
cause it to foam noisily round them, and the wet stones were covered
with _Podostemads_, herbaceous branched floating plants, with the habit
of liverworts. We saw several otters playing in the water, and peering
at us from behind the rocks. Six miles beyond Pycarrah is the bungalow
of Neddiwuttum, on the edge of the rapid descent into Wynaad, and the
road descends from the upland <DW72>s through a jungle where the ferns
first appear, and maiden-hair, ceterach, and other ferns grow by the
roadside. Some garden marigolds from England had been planted near the
Neddiwuttum bungalow, and they had spread themselves in masses over the
adjacent <DW72>s.

The tract of forest land which we came to examine is close to the
bungalow, and from the grassy hill above it there is a glorious view of
Wynaad, and of the plains of Mysore, stretching away to the horizon.
Here the mountains sink abruptly down to the Wynaad table-land, and
the Moyaar river thunders down in a long waterfall, divides Wynaad
from Mysore, and, flowing through a deep gorge to join the Bowany in
Coimbatore, eventually swells the waters of the great river Cauvery.
The land available for immediate occupation comprises about 400 acres
of uncleared forest on the mountain <DW72>s, at an elevation from
a little over 6000 to a little under 5000 feet above the level of
the sea, and with a mean temperature about 8° warmer than that of
Ootacamund.

I selected this site for a plantation of _C. succirubra_, _C.
Calisaya_, _C. micrantha_, and the very delicate _C. Peruviana_,
because, with a good supply of water, and a deep rich soil on a base of
decomposing laterite and syenite, it had a suitable elevation above the
sea, temperature, and amount of humidity. The information we possess
on these points, with regard to the above species, is by no means
complete; but it is sufficiently exact to enable us to form a correct
opinion. Mr. Spruce gives the following details respecting the climate
of the region of _C. succirubra_, in latitude 1° 40´ S. The zone of the
"red bark" is from 2450 to 5000 feet above the sea.

                                                               Range in
      Mean Min. Mean Max. Mean of   Lowest        Highest      24 hours.
         for       for    Minima &                                ----
      7 months, 7 months, Maxima, Temperature. Temperature. Entire range
   1860.                                                    in 7 months,
   MONTH. °        °         °          °            °             °
        61-1/2    72-1/5   66-3/4      57          80-1/2        23-1/2
   -----+-------+--------+---------+-----------+--------------+--------

          °        °         °          °             °            °
   June  61-1/5     74     67-1/2  {   60-1/4   } {    77      } 12-4/5
                                   {on the 27th.} {on the 29th.}

   July    60     72-1/2   66-1/4  {    57      } {  80-1/2    } 12-1/2
                                   {on the 11th.} {on the 27th.}

   Aug.  61-1/3   74-2/3     68    {   59-3/4   } { 80-1/4     } 13-1/3
                                   {on the 12th.} {on the 28th.}

   Sept. 62-1/4   72-1/2   67-1/2  {    60      } {    80      } 10-1/4
                                   {on the 16th.} {on the 19th.}

   Oct.    62       70       66    {    60      } {    74      }   8
                                   {on the 21st.} {on the 24th.}

   Nov.  62-1/5     71     66-1/2  {    58      } {    75      }  8-4/5
                                   {on the 29th.} {on the 30th.}

   Dec.    62      71-1/2  66-3/4       ..             ..         9-1/2

  -------+-------+---------+-------+------------+--------------+-------

From the 1st of June to the 31st of December is the dry season in
the "red-bark" region, when the days are usually sunny in the early
morning, and mists generally begin to form as the sun declines; while
after the autumnal equinox there are heavy rains and thunder-storms. In
the wet season the early part of the day is foggy, and there is heavy
continuous rain during the afternoons and nights. In the region of _C.
Calisaya_, from 13° to 16° S. lat., and from 4000 to 6000 feet above
the sea, the dry season lasts from April to the end of August. April
and August are showery months. May is also showery, but clear in the
forenoons, and the mean temperature during the first half is 69°, mean
maximum 71-1/2°, and mean minimum 62-1/2°. June and July are hot dry
months, with little rain, a bright hot sun in the day, but cold clear
nights. In September the rains begin, increase in October, and pour
down incessantly from the beginning of November to the middle of March,
with very hot, damp days and nights. We have no detailed information
respecting the region of _C. micrantha_ and _C. Peruviana_, species
which flourish in 10° S. lat., from 4000 to 5500 feet above the sea.
From May to November the sun shines powerfully, yet heavy rains fell
from day to day in June and July 1860, and it was not until August
that the days were clear and bright. At Casapi, in this region, where
a register was kept, it rained during half the days in the year.[419]
From November to May is the rainy season, and sometimes the rain pours
down for six or seven days without intermission.[420]

The Neddiwuttum site, being about 8° or 10° warmer than Ootacamund,
has a temperature exactly similar to that of the forests where the
above species of chinchonæ flourish. Its elevation above the sea is
also the same as that of the chinchona forests. It is true that Mr.
Spruce gives the extreme upper limit of the "red-bark" region at 5000
feet; but Mr. Cross saw that species growing at an elevation of 8000
feet; and the great importance of cultivating this species at the
highest possible elevation is demonstrated by Mr. Spruce's observation
that the bark of trees growing low down and near the plains is by no
means so thick as that of trees which flourish in a loftier and more
temperate climate.[421] The Neddiwuttum site is within the limit of the
region which receives both monsoons. Though protected to some extent
from the south-west, it receives a full share of the rains during the
summer, and is also supplied with moisture by the north-east monsoon,
coming across Mysore between October and December. During the remaining
months it is visited by mists and heavy dews in the nights until
the south-west monsoon again commences in May. It will probably be
found that these species of chinchonæ will bear a much drier climate
than we at present suppose; and I have no misgivings that the amount
of humidity at Neddiwuttum will not be amply sufficient for their
successful cultivation. The only person who has visited this site since
its selection, who is capable, through personal knowledge of the South
American chinchona forests, of forming an opinion, is Mr. Cross. It is
exceedingly satisfactory to find that he not only approves of it for
the cultivation of plants of the "red-bark" species, but that, from the
superior depth and richness of the soil, he considers that they are
likely to thrive even better than in their native forests near Limon,
on the eastern <DW72>s of Chimborazo.

In the Neddiwuttum forest, among other plants, I found the
_Hymenodictyon excelsum_,[422] wild yams, coffee-plants, cinnamon,
pepper-vines, _Andromedas_, _Osbeckias_, wild ginger, a _Balanophra_
with a scarlet flower, and abundance of orchids and ferns. On the
edge of the forest there was a little hut, merely a few branches
covered with grass, and leaning against the trunk of a tree, with
some empty honeycombs lying about. It was the habitation of a family
of Mooloo Kurumbers, a wild race who live in the forests, and run
away in great terror when any one approaches them. The establishment
of the plantation will soon make them alter their haunts from the
neighbourhood of Neddiwuttum.

The magnificent view from this point embraces a great part of Wynaad.
Far below there was a small coffee-estate, its bright green contrasting
with the more sombre hues of the surrounding forest; and more to the
left, though out of sight, is the extensive plantation which, together
with a tract of forest on the <DW72>s of the Neilgherries, is owned by
Messrs. Ouchterlony and Campbell.

After passing the night at Pycarrah, we started next morning to examine
another site further to the eastward, and overlooking the plateau of
Mysore. We crossed several ranges of grassy hills, with streams in the
intervening valleys flowing through thickets of tree rhododendrons,
with the gorgeous crimson flowers just beginning to bloom, _Osbeckias_,
and a _Lasianthus_ with a beautiful glossy leaf. The hills were
dotted with a St. John's-wort with a bright orange flower (_Hypericum
Hookerianum_). We soon reached the edge of the plateau, overlooking
the low country, and looked down on the wide plains of Mysore, with
some Neilgherry peaks in advance of us, and a valley between, where
there was bright green cultivation, and crimson patches of amaranth,
surrounding the Badaga village of Choloor. Between the place where we
stood and the Choloor valley there were some fine patches of forest on
the steep hill-<DW72>s; but they did not offer the same advantages as
Neddiwuttum for a first experimental chinchona plantation. This side
of the hills is drier, the soil poorer, and water is less abundant,
though it is nearer Ootacamund, and both labour and supplies are more
easily procurable. Returning to Ootacamund we rode up to a Todar-mund,
where something unusual had evidently occurred. About thirty Todars
were walking in a line through the forest glades below, and several
jackals were prowling about in the broad daylight. We afterwards heard
that a huge tiger had killed one of the Todar buffaloes that morning,
and retreated into the _shola_ on the edge of which we had just had
luncheon. They expected him to come out at sunset for his supper.

We continued our excursion to the summit of the Kalhutty peak,
overlooking the Seegoor ghaut, whence several fine tracts of
forest-land <DW72> down; but Neddiwuttum was decidedly preferable in
every respect to all the localities which we examined on the northern
side of the Neilgherries, and to the eastward of that site. The part of
the hills on the south, towards Coonoor and Kotergherry, was out of the
question on account of the summer drought, as it is completely screened
from the south-west monsoon by the spurs from the Dodabetta peak; and
the forests towards the Sispara ghaut, being too far west to receive
moisture from the north-east monsoon, were not so good as Neddiwuttum,
at least for a first experiment.

When the success of the chinchona culture on the 400 acres of the
Neddiwuttum plantation is fully established, the experiment may then
be extended to the east and west, both by Government and through
private enterprise; and these precious barks may be expected to yield
remunerative profits to European speculators, while they will at the
same time confer an inestimable blessing on the native population.

Everything, however, depends upon the method which is adopted for the
cultivation of the chinchona-plants in the experimental plantations;
and, in a future chapter, I propose to give a detailed account of the
course of events, as regards the chinchona-plants on the Neilgherry
hills, up to the latest date.




CHAPTER XXIV.

JOURNEY TO THE PULNEY HILLS.

  Coonoor ghaut--Coimbatore--Pulladom--Cotton
  cultivation--Dharapurum--A marriage procession--Dindigul--Ryotwarry
  tenure--Pulney hills--Kodakarnal--Extent of the
  Pulneys--Formation--Soil--Climate--Inhabitants--Flora--Suitability for
  chinchona cultivation--Forest conservancy--Anamallay hills.


IN the end of November I set out from Ootacamund, by way of the Coonoor
ghaut and Coimbatore, with the intention of examining the suitability
of the Pulney hills in Madura for chinchona cultivation. The Coonoor
ghaut, on the southern side of the Neilgherry hills, leads down into
the plain of Coimbatore. The road is good, though much too steep ever
to make a convenient means of carriage traffic, and the scenery is
exceedingly fine. The deep gorge has forest-covered mountains on the
left, and a grand range of cliffs on the right, crowned by the bold
peak of the Hoolicul Droog. There are few districts in India without
some local tradition respecting the five Pandus,[423] the great
mythical heroes of ancient Hindoo history, and the Hoolicul Droog is
not without one. It is said that the fort on the summit of the Droog
was inhabited by a _rakshi_ or giant named Pukasooren, who levied a
tribute on the people of the plains, in the shape of a cart-load of
provisions daily. When he had eaten the provisions he swallowed the
driver, and kicked the cart down again. Bhima, the impersonation of
strength, when passing through this part of the country, volunteered
to act as driver, had a desperate encounter with the giant, and killed
him. The dying Pukasooren cursed the whole country over which the
shadow of the mountain fell during the day, and it has ever since
been the abode of a deadly fever. It is certain that the jungles at
the roots of the hills are the most fever-haunted districts in India,
and I rode rapidly through this belt of forests, and along a road
bordered with _cana-fistula_ and _sappan_-trees,[424] to the village of
Matepoliem, on the banks of the river Bowany, and five miles from the
foot of the ghaut.

Matepoliem is twenty-three miles from the town of Coimbatore, and I
rode this distance on a Neilgherry pony in the early morning. The road
is perfectly straight, with an avenue of shady trees along the whole
length, and good bridges over the dry sandy water-courses. The soil
appeared to be poor, partly waste, and partly cultivated with _cholum_
(_Sorghum Vulgare_[425]), _lablab_,[426] and sesame. _Cholum_, or great
millet, is much cultivated in the peninsula, and used as food in the
shape of cakes and porridge, where rice is scarce or too expensive.
It grows to a height of five or six feet, and cattle are very fond of
the straw, which contains sugar, but it soon exhausts the soil, and
two crops are never taken off the same land in succession. There are
two villages on the road between Matepoliem and Coimbatore, called
Karamuddy and Goodaloor, in both of which there is a _choultry_ or
native bungalow, and in the latter an English post-house. At Karamuddy
there is a very picturesque temple, and on the roadside I passed
several horses of earthenware, votive offerings by the potters to their
god. Under many of the trees there are images of the elephant-headed,
pot-bellied god of wisdom, Ganesa, anointed with ghee, and adorned with
garlands of flowers.

The streets of Coimbatore consist of long rows of red-tiled, mud-walled
buildings, with no windows, and overhanging eaves supported by wooden
pillars, under which there are raised platforms where the people sit
and talk. In peeping in at the doors, I could never discern any article
of furniture in the dark obscurity of the interiors, but they generally
looked clean and well swept. The houses of the English officials
are about a mile from the town, generally surrounded by park-like
compounds, but the trees and grass thrive badly in the shallow sandy
soil. Outside the town there are two very large tanks, one nearly a
mile long, which irrigate some rice-fields. The view is very pretty,
with these extensive sheets of water in the foreground, the cupolas of
temples rising above the trees beyond, and Lambton's Peak with the blue
line of the Neilgherries in the distance.

Some exertions are being made at Coimbatore, both by Protestant and
Roman Catholic missionaries, and about sixty natives attend the little
chapel of the London Mission Society. The Bible is very properly
not admitted into any of the Government schools, and, strange to
say, educated natives often inquire why this is not done, and why
Christians are ashamed of their Shaster. But in schools unconnected
with the Government the study of the Bible is enforced like any other
class-book, and there are upwards of forty Brahmin youths in Coimbatore
who habitually take it home to learn, with their other lessons, and
never make the slightest objection. Mr. Thomas, the Collector, felt
very strongly the great importance of educating the women, and a
girl-school has been set on foot, after much difficulty. At present
the influence of the women, and all women have influence, is for
evil. The men, to maintain their superiority, dislike the women to
know anything, and the head official of the cutcherry at Coimbatore,
who is a Brahmin, dare not let his friends know that his wife can read
and write, though this accomplishment makes her a more useful and
agreeable companion. The women, generally, are treated like slaves
by their husbands. They are never allowed to eat at the same time,
except on the wedding-day, and must walk behind their husbands on a
journey, generally carrying a child on their hips; yet I have seen the
man carrying the child, and at least taking turn about, and in other
respects they always appeared to be on good terms with each other.

At Coimbatore I bought a _bandy_ or country cart of the simplest
construction, with two wheels, no springs, and a hood of matting spread
over curved canes; and started, with relays of bullocks posted at
intervals of fifteen miles. This mode of travelling is inconceivably
slow, the rate being about three miles an hour, and it was near sunset
before I reached Pulladom, a village twenty-two miles from Coimbatore.
The road is nearly straight, and planted on both sides with trees of
stunted growth, owing to the shallowness of the soil. It was market-day
at Pulladom, and people were sitting in rows, before piles of cotton
cloths, rice, and dry grains; while an old Tahsildar, in spectacles and
snow-white garments, was holding a court under a verandah. In strolling
about I came upon the huge idol-car belonging to the village, on heavy
wooden trucks. The carvings on its sides were very elaborate, with
elephant-headed gods at the angles; but it is only dragged out on very
great occasions, and will require new trucks before it is moved again.

All this country round Coimbatore produces much cotton, and cloths
are manufactured in great quantities, which supply garments, such
as they are, for the people of the plains, as well as for the hill
tribes of the Neilgherries. The native cotton is of two kinds, called
_oopum-parati_ and _nadum parati_.[427] The seed of the latter is sown
broadcast, in the same field with _cholum_ and _cumboo_.[428] After the
grain is cut, the ground is ploughed between the plants four times, and
in the next year the cotton yields a small crop in July, and a larger
one in the following January. After the third year the field is manured
and cultivated with grain for two years, cotton being again sown when
the third crop of grain has been reaped. This _nadum_ cotton is very
little cultivated in the Coimbatore district. The chief product is the
_oopum_, the best indigenous cotton, raised, in rotations of two years,
with _cumboo_ and _cholum_.

The _oopum_ cotton is raised on the black soil,[429] an adhesive black
clay, while the little Bourbon cotton that is cultivated is grown on
red soil. It is picked very carelessly, and the bales are so badly
pressed that those which I passed in carts on the road looked as if
they would sink in like a feather-bed, if any one sat upon them.

Much pains have been taken by the Government for a series of years to
improve the method of cultivating cotton in India, and to introduce
American and other species; and very large sums of money have been
spent on experiments. Bourbon cotton was cultivated in Coimbatore as
early as 1824; and in 1842 Government cotton-farms were established
for the growth of New Orleans and Indian plants, both in the black and
red soils, under the able superintendence of Dr. Wight, the eminent
botanist. In 1849 these experiments were abandoned.

The great importance of the question of cotton supply from India has
been long felt, and never more so than at the present time. To meet the
requirements of the English markets numerous and costly attempts have
been made during a course of years to introduce the American species,
which produces a much longer staple than the indigenous Indian kind.
Yet American cotton has not hitherto been raised so as to yield a
profitable return, excepting in the province of Dharwar, in the Bombay
Presidency. The success in this instance is chiefly to be attributed
to a suitable soil and climate; but also, in no small degree, to the
energy of Mr. Shaw, a former Collector.

Great attention has been paid to the nature of the soils, while less
importance than it really deserves has been attached to climate,
though climate, and mainly one element of climate--the moisture of the
atmosphere--is an essential condition in the successful culture of
American cotton. In travelling southward from the latitude of Bombay
the climate becomes gradually moister, and at 300 miles there is a
very decided change. The American cotton-plant has a very different
constitution from the Indian; it cannot stand so much drought, and the
conditions required for its culture are an equable and moderate supply
of moisture through all the stages of its growth. These conditions are
fulfilled in the Dharwar country, which retains a considerable quantity
of moisture in the air during the cold season, when other parts of the
Bombay Presidency are intensely dry. Wherever this is the case, as in
Sind, Guzerat, Broach, and Ahmednuggur, the American plant will not
yield a remunerative crop. The indigenous plant is able to endure this
dry season well, because it is a native, not of the peninsula, but of
the arid country of Sind and part of the Punjab, where it grows wild.

If careful hygrometrical observations were taken throughout the year
in the various cotton districts, the results might be compared with
similar observations taken in Dharwar; and thus the localities may be
ascertained where the American cotton can be advantageously cultivated,
so far at least as this depends on the amount of moisture in the
atmosphere. The supply of aqueous vapour in the atmosphere, at any
period of the year, diminishes as we recede from the coast; but, having
once found a centre where the American plant can be profitably raised,
in Dharwar, it is advisable to work from that centre, especially in a
south-eastern and southerly direction. This spread of the growth of
American cotton has already taken place to the eastward of Dharwar,
to a considerable extent. The people in the Bellary district, and in
neighbouring parts of the Nizam's territory, have for some years grown
cotton from American seeds, and value it more highly than their native
species.

In Coimbatore, where scorching hot dry winds parch up the plains during
part of the year, and where the rainfall varies so much in different
seasons,[430] sometimes being thirty inches, and at others only seven
inches, it is perhaps doubtful whether it will ever answer to cultivate
American cotton on a large scale, yet excellent samples were obtained
from cotton raised on the farms, under the superintendence of Dr.
Wight. The attention of Sir William Denison, the present Governor of
Madras, has been chiefly directed to the improvement of native cotton,
by increasing the length of the staple, and lessening the coarseness
of the fibre. It is a well-established fact that "the best seeds make
the best breeds,"[431] and Sir William Denison proposes to select
those seeds to which the largest fibres are attached, to be used for
the next crop, and so on in each successive season, the minimum length
being increased every year. He believes that, in this way, a permanent
addition may be made to the length, and possibly to the fineness of
the fibre of the native cotton, which might thus ultimately be able to
compete in the English markets with its American rival. Mr. Haywood,
the Secretary of the Manchester Cotton Company, on the other hand,
strongly urges that attention should be given to the improvement
of American cotton. Well-directed efforts in both directions will
doubtless be rewarded.

I left Pulladom in the night, and arrived at the large village of
Dharapurum in the following morning, a distance of twenty-eight
miles. Dharapurum is on the banks of a small river, where there are
rice-fields and cocoanut-trees; for wherever there is the means of
irrigation, rice is always cultivated. Great quantities of cows and
calves swarm along the roads, and in the open spaces of the village,
where there are some fine spreading peepul-trees (_Ficus religiosa_),
one of the sacred trees of the Hindus. It has a peculiarly shaped
cordate leaf, with a long narrow acumen one-third the length of the
leaf, and yellow flowers; and it is venerated from a belief that the
god Vishnu was born amongst its branches. Potters' horses, and images
of the elephant-headed Ganesa, were placed under the trees, the objects
of worship by the villagers, who make offerings of ghee and flowers to
them. Literally "an idol under every green tree."

After leaving Dharapurum the road becomes very sandy, and passes over
a bleak open country covered with low bushes, on the frontier between
the Coimbatore and Madura collectorates. A range of mountains bounded
the view to the south. A slow jolting journey of thirty miles brought
me to the village of Pulkanooth in Madura. _Cholum_ and _lablab_
were cultivated in the surrounding fields, and from the top of a
ridge of rocks overhanging the village there is an extensive view of
open country covered with waving _cholum_, and bounded by the broken
outline of the Pulney hills. Near the village there is the ruin of a
square brick fort, with bastions at the angles, entirely overgrown
with bushes. One of the happiest signs of English rule is to be found
in the number of ruined forts scattered over the country, once the
lurking-places of brutal robbers who extorted half the crops from a
wretched peasantry, whose descendants now reap the fruits of their
labour in peace.

In taking a walk near Pulkanooth I encountered a marriage procession.
First came a man with a drum, then two more with a gong of skin
stretched on wooden hoops, then a man with a large game-cock under
his arm, then a bullock led by a woman, then four women covered with
bracelets and anklets, then a pony ridden by a boy about twelve, with
nothing on but a red turban and gold necklace and bracelets, with a
little girl about five in front, whom he clasped round the waist; then
more men and women, another drum, and lastly a small boy mounted on a
large cow. They appeared to have come from a distance, as they stopped
to rest under a peepul-tree, by the road-side.

Another night journey took me to the town of Dindigul, a pretty
little place at the foot of an isolated mass of primitive rock, whose
perpendicular sides are crowned by a dismantled fort, said to have
been erected in the days of Dupleix and French ambition, and to have
been occupied and long held by Hyder Ali of Mysore. Here the plains
are chiefly covered with _cholum_ and _cumboo_; and between the town
and the rock there is a grassy esplanade, a grove of cocoanut and
betel-palms, and a neat little temple to Ganesa. Troops of young
girls were drawing water from a tank near the esplanade. Their slight
graceful figures, supporting chatties on their heads, were perfect
models of beauty; but they had black ugly faces, flabby ear-lobes, and
large studs stuck in their noses. To be admired their backs must be
turned.

The Tamil people, who inhabit this part of India, are an exceedingly
black and ugly race, and the Brahmins are the only people who have
any pretensions whatever to fair skins. On the whole the peasantry in
the country between the Neilgherry and Pulney hills appeared to be
tolerably well off, and the country was well cultivated, considering
the unpropitious climate and poor soil. As is well known, the
people in this part of India hold their land by what is called the
_ryotwarry_ tenure, which is a settlement for the land assessment with
each individual ryot or cultivator, without the intervention of any
zemindar or renter. The land is made over to the actual cultivator,
who is regarded by the Government as the proprietor of the soil, and
the arrangement for the payment of land-tax is made directly with
him, while he receives assistance by remissions of assessment in
unfavourable seasons, and cannot be ejected so long as he pays his dues.

The land is classified as irrigated and un-irrigated, and then
according to its different degrees of fertility; and this settlement
is permanent so long as the land remains in the same condition. The
Collector of each district makes an annual tour of inspection, called
_jummabundy_, to ascertain the extent to which the Government demand
ought to be reduced, owing to particular circumstances of season; but
in ordinary times the duty of collection is intrusted to the Tahsildars
or native officials, and their subordinates the Sheristadars. These
officials, who visited me in the villages through which I passed,
appeared intelligent respectable men, and all the younger ones talked
English fluently.

Sir Thomas Munro, who was Governor of Madras from 1818 to 1827,
established the _ryotwarry_ system, and since his time the conditions
on which the ryots hold their land have been made lighter and more
advantageous. In 1837 it was enacted that there should be no increase
of land-tax on account of the growth of more valuable crops; in 1852
it was ordered that no ryot should pay an additional tax on account of
improvements made by himself, causing an increased value;[432] and,
during Lord Harris's administration, considerable reductions were made
in the land-assessment in nearly all the Madras collectorates. These
reductions, independent of the boon conferred on the people, have been
attended by the most successful results, in an increasing revenue,
and in the extension of the area of cultivation over lands which were
formerly waste.

Dindigul is about forty miles from the foot of the ghaut leading up to
the Pulney hills, and relays of bullocks were posted for me every seven
miles, with a man running in front of the cart with a blazing torch.
Passing through the village of Periacolum, round which there are many
large tanks and extensive rice cultivation, we reached the jungle at
the foot of the Pulney hills at early dawn. The path, which is only
practicable for ponies and pack-bullocks, leads up a ravine for half
the distance, and then corkscrews up the steep sides of the mountain.
The range looks very imposing from the plain, but not equal to the
Neilgherries at the foot of the Coonoor ghaut. After resting under a
clump of trees I commenced the ascent on foot, driving an unhappy sheep
before me, which was to be sacrificed on the summit, where, at this
time of the year, there are no residents, no market, and no means of
procuring any supplies.

The ascent is exceedingly beautiful, but the undergrowth is thick
grass, and the vegetation is not nearly so luxuriant as at similar
elevations on the Neilgherries. The trees are chiefly _Leguminosæ_, and
at an elevation of 3000 feet chinchonaceous plants commence, amongst
which I observed the _Hymenodictyon excelsum_. At 6000 feet the steep
ascent is covered with long grass, and trees are confined to sheltered
hollows and ravines. After reaching the plateau it is necessary to
scale a second steep grassy <DW72> before arriving at the settlement of
Kodakarnal, which is 7230 feet above the level of the sea. Kodakarnal
consists of eight houses, built along the crests of undulating hills,
and one of the inner <DW72>s is clothed with a wood of fine trees and
tree-ferns, from which the Tamil people have named the settlement.[433]
Round the houses there are gum-trees. _Acacia heterophylla_, _Cassia
glauca_, fruit-trees, and hedges of roses and geraniums as at
Ootacamund. The houses belong to the officials of the Madura district,
the American missionaries, a Mr. Clerk of Madras, and the French priest
of Pondicherry, who come here to recruit their healths, and for short
intervals of holiday and relaxation.

Mr. Ames, the Sub-Collector at Dindigul, had kindly given me the use of
a house which he shared with Mr. Levinge, the Collector of Madura. It
has a pleasant garden, whence there is a glorious view of the Madura
plains, with their numerous tanks glittering in the sun; and close
to the house a torrent of deliciously cold water babbles over huge
boulders of rock, and finally leaps in long falls down the face of the
cliffs, making a noise at night like the roar of the sea. The house
was in charge of a very original old native of low caste, with a large
family, named Chenatumby, who is a tolerable gardener, and cultivates
his own patch of potatoes. Chenatumby is a devoted Protestant, feels
a conscientious horror for the idolatry of the Roman Catholics, and
intends to bring up his eldest son as a half-caste, this honour being
conferred on him by the simple process of attiring him in a hat and
trousers. Old Chenatumby acted as a guide in my walks over the hills,
and was very useful.

The Pulney[434] or Varragherry hills, like the Neilgherries further
north, branch out in an easterly direction from the main line of the
western ghauts. United to a portion of the Anamallay range at their
western end, they stretch out into the Madura plains for a distance of
fifty-four miles, with a medium breadth of fifteen, and an area of 798
square miles. On the south they rise very abruptly from the plains,
presenting, near their summits, a perfect wall of gneiss; but on the
north and east they <DW72> down in a succession of broken ridges. The
Pulneys are divided into two parts: a lower series of hill and dale to
the eastward, called Mailmullay or Kunnundaven, averaging a height of
4000 feet, and covering 231-1/2 square miles, where there are extensive
tracts of forest, some cultivation, and several villages; and a loftier
region to the westward 6000 to 7500 feet above the sea, with undulating
grassy hills and mountain-peaks, the highest of which, Permanallie,
attains an elevation of 8000 feet.

The formation is gneiss, interstratified with quartz, and traversed by
veins of felspar; and the rock is generally decayed to a considerable
depth on the plateau, and disintegrated so as to form a gritty clay. In
the eastern part the soil is a light reddish loam; but on the western
and loftier half it is very poor, being a heavy black peat several feet
thick, with a stiff and plastic yellowish clay as a sub-soil. The rains
on the Neilgherry hills have the effect of mixing the decaying grass
with the decomposed rock, and a rich soil is thus formed; but on the
plateau of the Pulneys this operation does not appear to take place,
the one becoming a black peat, and the other a stiff clayey subsoil.
These remarks, however, only apply to the interior valleys, for on
the outer <DW72>s, overlooking the plains of Madura, there is plenty of
good soil, and magnificent forests clothe the mountains at the foot of
the perpendicular walls of gneiss which form the southern ridge of the
Pulneys.

The climate of the Pulneys, as regards temperature, very closely
resembles that of the Neilgherries. At the time of my visit, in the end
of November and beginning of December, the season was very late, though
there were thick mists and showers of rain every afternoon. This is
the time of the north-east monsoon, and the streams swell to torrents
after every shower. During the first two months in the year it is very
cold, and the ground is often covered with frost on the upper plateau.
In March there are light showers of rain, which increase during April
and May, and continue, with strong westerly winds, until October. Thus
the Pulneys are within the influence of the south-west monsoon.[435] In
June and July, the warmest months, the thermometer never falls below
50°, nor rises above 75°; and the westerly winds, with occasional rain,
continue during August and September.

The eastern part of the Pulneys, called Kunnundaven, and Poombary,
the principal village to the westward, are inhabited by people of the
Kunnuver and Karakat Vellaler castes, numbering about two thousand of
both sexes. The villages are chiefly on the lower Pulneys, and one
which I visited, called Vilputty, was surrounded by terrace cultivation
of mustard, garlic, _raggee_, and _keeree_ or amaranth. The people also
cultivate _lablab_, limes, oranges, and plantains; and I heard that in
one or two villages there were small coffee-gardens. Many low-country
natives are also settled on the Pulneys, chiefly men outlawed from
their castes; and in the more inaccessible forests are the Poliars, a
race of timid wild men of the woods. Chenatumby told me that they have
no habitations of any kind, but run through the jungle from place to
place, sleep under rocks, and live on wild honey and roots. The women
run with them, like wild goats, their children slung in rows on their
hips. The Poliars occasionally trade with the country people, who place
cotton and grain on some stone, and the wild creatures, as soon as the
strangers are out of sight, take them and put honey in their place, but
they will allow no one to come near them.

The undulating hills and valleys of the interior plateau are
covered with an aromatic grass (_Andropogon_), which grows in large
coarse tufts, like the _Stipa ychu_ in Peru; and it is not until
the young tender shoots come out that it affords good pasture for
cattle, of which there is a small herd on the hills, belonging to
American missionaries and others. The grassy <DW72>s are dotted with
tree-Rhododendrons, Gaultherias, Osbeckias, Lobelias, the _Hypericum
Hookerianum_, and brake ferns. This upper plateau is admirably adapted
for the growth of English fruits and vegetables. In Mr. Levinge's
garden there were bushes of Fuchsias, Daturas, roses, and geraniums;
and behind the house grew peach, apple, plum, and loquot-trees,
strawberries, potatoes, green peas, and artichokes.

Where there are springs or watercourses on the higher range, there are
generally fine wooded "_sholas_" facing inwards, and very extensive
tracts of forest on the outer <DW72>s; but the timber, especially teak
and black-wood, has been very extensively cut by the people of the
hills. I examined a _shola_ called Minmurdi-karnal near Pattoor, on the
south side, another between that and Kodakarnal, and two others, and
observed trees of the following genera:-- _Michelia_, _Cinnamomum_,
_Dodonæa_, _Millingtonia_, _Myrsine_, _Monocera_, _Symplocos_,
_Bignonia_, _Crotalaria_, _Passiflora_, _Osbeckia_, _Jasminum_,
_Hedyotis_, _Lasianthus_, _Canthium_, and _Hymenodictyon_. Tree-ferns
abound near the streams, and in some of the jungles there were trees
of enormous size. Early one morning I went with Chenatumby to see the
"pillar-rocks," three miles to the westward of Kodakarnal. They consist
of grand perpendicular cliffs descending from the grassy heights, with
their bases clothed with forest. Two of them are separated by fissures
from the main cliff, and have the appearance of gigantic columns. It
was altogether a most magnificent sight, with volumes of fleecy clouds
rolling up from the low country, and occasional peeps of the far-away
plains and glittering tanks through their folds.

The natives have long been in the habit of recklessly felling the
most valuable timber, and acres of fine _shola_ used to be annually
destroyed to make clearings for plantain and cardamom groves. For
the latter, however, only the small trees and underwood are burnt on
the Pulneys, the larger trees being left standing. But this wasteful
destruction of timber has recently been checked by the authorities,
and in 1860 Mr. Spershneider was appointed as overseer of the Pulney
forests, with a small staff, to prevent the reckless cutting of timber,
and to mark, from year to year, the trees which arrive at sufficient
maturity, and are fit to be felled.

I came to the conclusion that in several of the wooded _sholas_
the chinchona-plant might be cultivated with advantage, the _C.
Condaminea_, and other species which thrive at great elevations, on the
upper plateau, and the _C. succirubra_ in Kunnundaven. Mr. Levinge,
the Collector of Madura, takes an interest in the experiment, and Mr.
Spershneider would be willing to superintend the chinchona plantations;
so that, when the undertaking is in a sufficiently advanced stage on
the Neilgherry hills to enable Mr. McIvor to distribute plants for
cultivation in other parts of India, a number might advantageously be
sent to the Pulneys. I understand, too, that it is in contemplation
to form a Company for the cultivation of coffee on these hills,
in which case it is to be hoped that the extension of the growth
of chinchona-plants will be advanced by private enterprise, from
motives of humanity as well as with a view to successful commercial
speculation.[436]

I did not visit the Anamallay hills, to the south of Coimbatore and
westward of the Pulneys, as no planter was as yet established on
them, and a considerable time must elapse before they are prepared
for the introduction of the chinchona-plant. At the time of my visit
no bold clearer of jungles had ventured to invade the domains of the
conservators of forests on the Anamallays.

Dr. Cleghorn reports that these hills are under the influence of the
south-west monsoon, though not so much so as the Koondahs at Sispara:
but I do not find that he gives any detailed account of the amount of
moisture in the atmosphere during the winter. The soil is described
as deep and covered with rich pasture, streams of water are numerous,
there are table-lands 6000 to 7000 feet above the sea, and very
fine timber in the ravines. The three hill-tribes, called Kaders,
Poliars, and Malsars, trade in cardamoms, turmeric, ginger, honey,
wax, resins, soapnuts, and millet. Dr. Cleghorn considers that, from
the extent of forest, the resemblance of the flora to that of Ceylon,
and the altitude, the Anamallays are suitable for the cultivation of
coffee on a large scale, and for colonization of small communities of
Englishmen.[437] In this case they are also adapted for the growth
of chinchona-plants, and their introduction, which will of course
be simultaneous with the settlement of Europeans, will be the more
beneficial because the lower <DW72>s of the Anamallays are the haunts
of fevers. The quinine-yielding trees will confer blessings on those
whose duties or interests oblige them to frequent the forests of the
Anamallays, while their cultivation will be a remunerative speculation
to the settlers on the upper plateau.




CHAPTER XXV.

MADURA AND TRICHINOPOLY.

  Arrive at Madura--Peopling of India--The Dravidian race--Brahmin
  colonists in Southern India--Foundation of Madura--Pandyan
  dynasty--Tamil literature--Aghastya--Naik dynasty--The Madura
  Pagoda--The Sangattar--The Choultry--Tirumalla Naik's palace--Caste
  prejudices--Trichinopoly--Coleroon anicut--Rice cultivation--The
  palmyra palm--Caroor--Return to the Neilgherries--Shervaroy
  hills--Courtallum.


THE road from the foot of the Pulney hills to Madura, a distance of
upwards of forty miles, is very bad, but it passes through avenues of
shady banyan and peepul trees most of the way, and is, therefore, not
so wearisome for the natives on foot, as for a European jolting at the
rate of three miles an hour in a bullock-cart without springs.

Near Madura there are tracts of rice cultivation, plantain groves, and
topes of palm-trees; and at sunrise I came in sight of the _gopurams_
or towers of the great pagoda, rising above thick groves of palmyra
palms, with a foreground of bright green paddy-fields. The city is
very interesting from its remarkable palaces and temples, as the
capital of a once powerful kingdom, and as the ancient centre of Tamil
civilization: and a few words respecting the former history of this
part of India appear necessary before describing the pagoda, and other
architectural remains of the former greatness of Madura.

Tradition relates that in the most ancient times the country from the
mouths of the Godavery to Cape Comorin was one vast forest. Here the
great Aryan hero Rama is said to have resided during his exile, with
his wife Sita, and here he commenced his wars against the Rakshasas
or fiends, who divided with hermits and sages the possession of the
wilderness. The simple truth probably is that these "fiends" were the
original inhabitants of Southern India, which was called Dravida Desa,
and that Rama was the first Hindu invader. Dravida denotes the country
of the Dravidas, who are described in Sanscrit writings as men of an
outcast tribe, descended from degraded Kshatriyas.

The history of the early peopling of India, by its various races,
is involved in much obscurity; and the little light which has been
thrown upon it is chiefly derived from a comparison of languages. The
prevailing opinion is that India was originally inhabited by a people
whose remains are to be found in the Koles, Sontals, Bheels, and other
wild hill tribes; that the Dravidians, a Scythic people, came from the
north, settled in Hindustan, and drove the aborigines into the hills
and fastnesses; that in their turn the Dravidians were driven across
the Vindhya mountains by another Scythic race, and became the ancestors
of the present population of Southern India; and that finally the Aryan
race, with its Vedic civilization, brought this pre-Aryan Scythic race
under subjection, and formed it into the servile Sudra caste.

Thus the Dravidian people of Southern India were of Scythic origin,
and they spoke a language from which the four modern ones of the
Madras Presidency, Tamil, Telugu, Canarese, and Malayalam,[438] are
derived. These are all grouped as Dravidian languages, and their source
is no longer a matter of doubt. It was formerly supposed that they
were Aryan, from the great number of apparently Indo-Germanic roots;
but it is now known, from the structure of their grammar, that they
belong to the great Turanian or Scythic group of tongues. Mr. Caldwell
considers that the Scythian family to which they are most closely
allied is the Finnish or Ugrian;[439] and in this view Professor Max
Müller concurs with him.[440] The ancient Dravidian religion, before
the people were converted to the belief taught in the Puranas, also
favours Mr. Caldwell's view. If we may judge from the creed which still
lingers in Tinnevelly and other districts, it consisted in the worship
of evil spirits by means of bloody sacrifices and frantic dances,
while a Supreme Being was acknowledged but not venerated, and there
was no trace of worship of the elements. In these respects it closely
resembled the Shamanism of the Scythic races of High Asia.

It is tolerably certain that the Dravidian races had attained to some
degree of civilization before the Aryans appeared in their country,
and, with a system of castes, introduced the worship of Vishnu and
Siva. One evidence of the ancient civilization of the Dravidians is
that they possessed a system of numerals up to 1000, essentially the
same in all the four languages; though in counting above 1000 they make
use of Sanscrit numerals. From the existence of these native numerals
among the Dravidian nations, Mr. Crawford draws the inference that
these people must have attained a considerable measure of civilization
before they adopted the Hinduism of the north, and hence stood in no
need of foreign numerals.[441]

From the time of Rama, who appears to have been assisted in his
invasion of Lanka (Ceylon) by a Dravidian chief, now deified as the
monkey God Hanuman, the influence of Hinduism rapidly increased, and
caste prejudices spread over Southern India. But the annals are far too
obscure, and too deeply buried under extravagant fable, to enable us to
form any idea of the time and manner of the complete inoculation of the
Dravidian races with Brahminical legends, caste observances, and Hindu
religious ideas. It is clear, however, that "to the early Brahminical
colonists the Dravidians are indebted for the higher arts of life, and
the first elements of literary culture."[442]

The Brahmins came to Southern India not as conquerors, but as peaceful
settlers and instructors; and their influence was obtained through
their superior civilization and learning. They gave the name of Sudra
to all the upper and middle classes of native Dravidians, while the
servile classes were not, as in Hindustan, called Sudras, but Pariars.
Thus, while in the north a Sudra is a low-caste man, in the south he
ranks next to a Brahmin.

It is said that, after the avatur of Rama, pilgrims came in great
numbers to visit the scenes of his triumphs, and, settling in the
country, cleared land for cultivation, and laid the foundations of
future principalities. One of these settlers was a man named Pandya,
of the Vellaler or agricultural caste, who established himself in
the south; and his descendant Kula Sekhara, son of Sampanna Pandya,
was the first king of Madura. Some centuries elapsed, probably five,
before the foundation of the city of Madura, during which the settlers
were occupied in clearing the ground, and forming themselves into an
organized state; and it has been conjectured that the building of the
capital was commenced between 500 and 600 B.C. Previously the kings of
the Pandyan dynasty resided at a place called Kurkhi.[443]

Another tradition states that a merchant lost his way in the forests,
and discovered an ancient temple dedicated to Siva and his wife Durga,
which had been erected by the God Indra. The merchant was directed by
the God to announce to the Pandyan king, named Kula Sekhara, that it
was the will of Siva that a city should be erected on the spot. Kula
Sekhara, therefore, cleared the forest, rebuilt the temple, and founded
a city. On the completion of the work a shower of nectareal dew fell
from heaven, spreading a sweet film on the ground, and hence the name
of _Madura_ (sweet).[444]

The wife of Siva became incarnate as the daughter and successor of this
prince, under the name of Minakshi; and Siva himself as Sundara, or the
handsome, was her mortal husband. Thus the Pandyan kings, like many
of the dynasties of ancient Greece, placed their gods at the head of
their genealogical tree. The immigration of a colony of Aryan Brahmins
from Magadha into the Madura country, and the commencement of Tamil
civilization and literature, have been placed, by Mr. Caldwell and
others, in about the seventh century B.C.

At the Christian æra the kings of Madura were very powerful, and had
extended their dominions over the whole of the peninsula. They sent two
embassies to Rome--the first in the eighteenth year after the death of
Julius Cæsar, which found the Emperor Augustus at Tarragona; and the
second six years later, when he was at Samos.[445] Subsequently the
kingdom was reduced in size by the independence of Malabar, the rise
of Chira in the west, of the state of Chola in the east, and of Ramnad
in the south.[446] A long list of kings is mentioned in the native
annals, with numerous wars, first against the Buddhists, and afterwards
with the Rajahs of Chola and Ramnad.

The most flourishing period of Madura history appears to have been
during the reigns of Vamsa Sekhara and his son Vamsa Churamani, in
about 200 A.D. They erected grand temples and palaces, and the more
ancient and massive parts of edifices still in existence probably
date from their reigns. A college, called _Sangattar_, was founded
at Madura, at this time, for the cultivation of the Tamil language
and literature.[447] The first stimulus was given to this movement
by the famous _Rishi_ or sage, Aghastya, the leader of a colony of
Brahmins, whose migration to the south is mentioned in the Ramayana.
He was a chief agent in diffusing the worship of Siva in the Deccan;
and it is supposed that there was a second man of learning of the
same name in the eighth or ninth century. Aghastya is said to have
been the offspring of two gods, Mithra and Varuna, and he received
the Brahminical string from seven holy prophets. He became a most
wonderful and enlightened personage, and composed works on medicine,
moral and natural philosophy, and botany, in high Tamil verse, called
_Yellacanum_, greatly improving and refining his adopted language.
Aghastya's memory is deeply venerated by the Tamil people, and his
healing spirit is still believed to hover amongst the mountains
of Courtallum, in Tinnevelly;[448] where he is worshipped as
_Agast-isvara_, or the star Canopus.

From the ninth to the tenth centuries the Jain religion predominated
in Madura. The Jains were animated by a national and anti-Brahminical
feeling, and it is chiefly to them that Tamil is indebted for its high
culture and independence of Sanscrit. They were expelled in the reign
of Sundara Pandya, at about the time when Marco Polo visited India.
The Mohammedans first made an inroad into the Deccan in the reign of
Alla-ud-deen of Delhi in 1293, they crossed the Kistna in 1310, and
advanced as far as Rameswara in 1374.

After reigning for many centuries the Pandyan dynasty became tributary
to the powerful Brahminical kingdom of Bijayanuggur in Mysore,
in about 1380 A.D. A list of more than seventy kings is given in
the annals.[449] But in the fifteenth century an officer of the
Bijayanuggur Rajah, named Nagama Naik, was installed as feudatory
King of Madura, and founded the Naik dynasty. He procured the cession
of Trichinopoly from the Chola Rajah, and his son Viswanath Naik
distributed the district of Tinnevelly amongst his adherents of
the Totia caste, the ancestors of the Poligars of Tinnevelly. His
descendant Tirumalla Naik, who succeeded in 1623 A.D., had a long
and flourishing reign, and public edifices still furnish splendid
proofs of his wealth and magnificence. He died in 1657 A.D.; and the
Naik dynasty, which came to an end in 1730 A.D.,[450] was followed by
obscure feudatories of the Nawabs of the Carnatic, who eventually made
way for British rule.

I went early one morning, with Mr. Levinge the Collector, to visit the
great pagoda of Madura, some of the oldest parts of which date from
the reigns of Pandyan kings in the eighth century. It covers twenty
acres of ground, and is surrounded by a high stone wall painted in red
and white stripes, the Hindoo holy colours. The walls form a perfect
square, and in the centre of each side there is a lofty _gopuram_ or
tower. These towers are broad, solid, and very lofty masses of brick,
in the form of a truncated pyramid. From the base to the summit they
are one mass of sculptured figures, representing all the gods in Hindu
mythology, rising tier above tier to the summit, and decreasing in size
with the height. Each end of the top of the _gopuram_ is ornamented
by a fan-shaped structure of brick-work, representing the hood of a
cobra. We entered the pagoda by a gateway in the left corner of the
wall facing the great _choultry_ built by Tirumalla Naik. Here the
warden of the pagoda was waiting for us, who had arrived just before in
his palkee. He is of Sudra caste, a man advanced in years, and of much
reputed holiness; and he received us in a state of nudity, with the
exception of a yellow gauze scarf, his belly, chest, and forehead being
smeared with holy ashes. A crowd of Brahmins accompanied us.

A long corridor leads from the entrance to the cloister, with a roof
supported by stone pillars, between which elephants were stationed,
gaudily painted and caparisoned. The cloister is the finest part of
the interior of the pagoda. The walls are covered with paintings
representing the marvellous adventures of Krishna, and the pillars
supporting the roof of the galleries are roughly carved. The central
space is occupied by "the tank of the golden lotus," with very dirty
green water, and stone steps leading down from the cloister. The view
from one corner of this tank is very striking; with green stagnant
water as a foreground, rows of fantastically-carved pillars supporting
the gallery on the opposite side, with the lofty _gopurams_ in the
rear, rising as it were from the graceful fronds of cocoanut-trees
which waved over the roof of the cloisters. Sacred monkeys were running
about in all directions over the roofs.

The _Sangattar_ or literary college of Madura held its sittings in
this cloister; and Siva is said to have presented it with a diamond
bench which extended itself readily for such persons as were worthy to
be on a level with the sages of the _Sangattar_, and excluded all who
tried to sit on it without possessing the necessary qualifications.
In other words, the learned corporation of Madura maintained a strict
and exclusive monopoly. One day a man of the Pariar or lowest caste,
named Tiruvallavar, appeared as a candidate for a seat on the bench of
_Sangattar_ professors. The sages were indignant at his presumption,
but, as he was patronized by the Rajah, they were obliged to give his
book a trial. It was to find a place on the bench, which the professors
took care to occupy fully. But the miraculous bench extended itself
to receive the book, which expanded and thrust all the sages off into
"the tank of the golden lotus," and the _Sangattar_ was abolished. This
took place in about the ninth century, and the work of Tiruvallavar,
called _kural_, and consisting of 1330 aphorisms, still exists, and
is the oldest extant work in Tamil literature. Though rejected by the
_Sangattar_, on account of the low caste of its author, it was received
by the Rajah and people; and the college was abolished, or perhaps
dissolved itself from mortification at this defeat.

In a corner of the cloister is the entrance to one of the _gopurams_,
and we went up to the top. Holding on by the cobra's hood which crowns
the tower, there was an extensive view of the town of Madura and
surrounding country, with its bright green rice cultivation, groves of
palmyra-palms, broad expanses of water, isolated masses of rock, and
the Pulney hills in the far distance.

We passed from the cloister, and walked round the corridors which
surround the holy of holies containing the _Sokalinga_, the sacred
emblem of the God Siva, which no one but a Brahmin can enter; and the
temple of Minakshi, his fish-eyed wife. The pillars in these corridors
are curiously carved in the form of dancing-girls, elephant-headed
Gods, Sivas, and bulls. Here I was decorated with garlands of flowers
by the warden of the temple, and I saw that there was a flower-garden
in a small enclosure near the cloister, to supply offerings of flowers
for the ceremonial worship in the temple. In the Hindu religion
bright- or fragrant flowers take a prominent place as offerings
to the gods. The arrows of Kama, the God of Love, were tipped with
five flowers:[451] the _asoka_ (_Jonesia pinnata_), a beautiful
flower diversified with orange, scarlet, and bright-yellow tints, is
consecrated to Siva; the lotus-flower, called _kamata_ or _padma_,
to Vishnu and his wife Lakshmi; a sweet-scented jasmine (_Jasminum
undulatum_) to Vishnu, and Mariama the Goddess of Pariars; the superb
crimson _Ixora Bandhuca_ is offered at the shrines of Vishnu and Siva;
and the _Nauclea Cadumba_, a stately tree, yields the holiest flower in
India.[452] In an angle of one of the corridors all the jewels of the
temple were spread out on a table for our inspection, and we sat down
before them, by the side of the old warden. It was a truly magnificent
display of wealth; and it was impossible not to feel that there must
be deep faith and conviction in a religion which induces men to go
about naked and in ashes, and to devote tens of thousands of rupees
to ornament the mystic emblems of their Gods. I particularly noticed
some sapphires of extraordinary size and brilliancy; the cover of the
_lingam_, a cylinder of pure gold, four feet high, encrusted with
pearls and rubies; the golden sceptre of Siva, three feet long, and one
mass of rubies; the golden shoes and gauntlets of Siva and Minakshi,
inlaid with rubies, emeralds, and pearls; the head-dress of Minakshi of
gold Trichinopoly-work, adorned with pearls and rubies, with enormous
emeralds hanging from it; her playthings, consisting of golden birds
overlaid with rubies and emeralds; and necklaces and bracelets covered
with jewels of priceless value. There was also a costly gold chain
presented by Mr. Peters, a former Collector, and another which had
lately arrived from Agra, in an anonymous letter addressed to the
pagoda.

From this corridor I was able to peep down a dark passage at the end of
which there were some dim lights surrounding the sacred _Soka-linga_,
but I could not distinguish anything. The warden told us that it was
a piece of solid rock cropping out of the ground, and cut into the
shape of a cylinder, with a rounded top, as the mysterious emblem of
Siva, the God of reproduction. Its roots are said to be in the centre
of the earth, and to have been there since the creation. The Pandyan
kings, when they were dying, were taken into the innermost sanctuary
of Siva's temple, to expire and be united with their God. Parallel with
this holy of holies dedicated to the worship of Siva, in the form of
his mystic emblem, is the temple of his wife Parvati, here better known
as Minakshi, or the fish-eyed.

We then went into the hall of the thousand pillars, which are carved
into the shape of gods or dancing-girls, and support a flat stone
roof. Here some nautch-girls came dancing before us in silk trousers,
long tunics, golden headdresses, and rings on their ears, noses, and
toes; as we walked down the long vistas of pillars. Their motions are
stiff and without grace, like the contortions of galvanized corpses,
and they are generally very ugly, with black teeth. I was glad when
they relieved us of their disgusting presence, as we were shown into
a chamber near the outer door, where the horses and bulls used in the
great processions are kept. These are made of solid silver, ornamented
with precious stones, and on festivals the God and Goddess are mounted
on them, and carried round the town.

This great pagoda is very richly endowed, and is one of the most famous
in Southern India. It was originally, and for several centuries,
the centre of Tamil civilization, and it is a very characteristic
specimen of Hindu architecture. All originality and intellectual
vigour has disappeared from amongst the Tamil people, under the
blighting influence of foreign domination, but their devotional feeling
appears to have survived; together with respect and veneration for
the doctrines and aphorisms of their classic sages, among the more
educated. Aghastya stands at the head of the Tamil authors, and the
following confession of faith, in the _Njana-nuru_ is attributed to
him:--

  "Worship thou the light of the Universe, who is One:
  Who made the world in a moment, and placed good men in it;
  Who afterwards himself dawned upon the earth as a Guru;
  Who, without wife or family, as a hermit performed austerities;
  Who, appointing loving sages to succeed him,
  Departed again into Heaven:--worship Him."[453]

We left the pagoda by a corridor leading through one of the _gopurams_
into the street, immediately in front of the great choultry erected
by Tirumalla Naik. It consists of an immense hall of granite, 300
feet long by 80, supported by upwards of a hundred pillars of the
same stone, elaborately carved, and about thirty feet high. One of
them is formed of a single block of granite. Figures of the Madura
kings of the Naik dynasty are carved on these pillars, amongst whom is
Tirumalla Naik, the founder of the edifice. One curious group of carved
figures represents a tradition of the old Pandyan times. It is related
that a rich farmer, living near Madura, had twelve sons, who passed
their time in the chace. A wild hog once attacked them, killed some,
and chased the rest to the vicinity of a sage engaged in meditation.
The angry ascetic cursed them, declaring that, in their future life,
they should be hogs themselves. They were born again as porkers, but
Minakshi took pity on them, officiated as their nurse, and they became
men with pig's heads, in which capacity they are sculptured on one of
the pillars of the choultry. The pig-headed brethren were taught the
arts and sciences, and were eventually advanced to the ministerial
administration of the affairs of the Pandyan kingdom. The choultry
was originally built as a magnificent approach to the temple, and to
receive the image of the God Siva for ten days every year. It was
crowded with people, and the spaces between the pillars were occupied
by traders selling silks and cotton-cloths, turbans, bags for betel,
and trinkets.

Next to the great pagoda and the choultry, the most interesting
architectural remains of the former grandeur of Madura are the ruins
of the palace of Tirumalla Naik. They consist of a large quadrangular
court, now roofless,[454] but apparently once covered over, with side
aisles supported by massive stone pillars, rendered almost double their
original size by a thick coating of _chunam_, or lime made with pounded
sea-shells, which takes a very fine polish, like marble. These columns
are exceedingly handsome, and their capitals bear evidence of Italian
design.[455] They are in double rows, and the roof of the aisles is
most elaborately carved with mythological figures, originally painted
in bright colours. Numerous green paroquets were screaming and flying
about near the roof. At the end of this splendid court, opposite the
street entrance, there is a broad flight of steps leading up to an
inner hall, where columns of the same massive character support a
richly carved roof. The whole building has an exceedingly imposing
effect, and in the sombre melancholy of its decay it gives a grand idea
of the former civilization of the Tamil people; but as the English
Judge now holds his court in a portion of the ruins, we must not say,
with the Persian poet,--

  "The spider now weaves its web in the palace of Cæsar,
  The owl stands sentinel on the watch-tower of Afrasiab."

Tirumalla Naik also constructed a great tank, about a mile outside the
town, said to be the finest in Southern India. It is an exact square,
with sides 300 yards long faced with granite, and flights of steps down
to the water, at intervals. In the centre there is a square island,
rising in broad flights of steps from the water, and covered with a
grove of trees, above which rises the tall tower of a pagoda.

The town of Madura, situated on the banks of the river Vaigay, contains
about 50,000 inhabitants. It is by far the cleanest and best built city
that I saw in India, with fine broad streets, and houses with tiled
roofs extending far beyond the walls, so as to form verandahs supported
by poles. Here and there a house with an upper story, belonging to some
wealthy citizen, rose above the rest; and in the bazars there was a
strong sickly smell of spices. Madura is indebted, for its superiority
over other Indian towns, to Mr. Blackburn, a former Collector, and the
inhabitants have erected a lamp on a tall pedestal to his memory.

On the day of my visit to the pagoda, the streets were densely crowded,
the women were decked out in all their finery, and those of the
Brahmin caste had their faces hideously stained with saffron. It was
a festival in honour of some cow or other, who had been turned into a
rock, through the excess of her love for _Nandi_, the bull on which
the God Siva rides. The religious feelings of the people are displayed
in these festivals, and whether they worship and venerate the stone
or wooden image, or the attributes of God-like virtue and wisdom
which the emblems connected with the image are intended to represent,
my observations led me to believe that, in all classes, there was a
display of most undoubted sincerity. In connection with their religious
observances, the people of Southern India feel very strongly on the
subject of caste distinctions. The Brahmins are fair skinned, of Aryan
descent, and comparatively strangers, having been barely a thousand
years in the country.[456] Next come the _Sudras_, who represent the
upper classes of the Tamil race. The _Vellaler_ or agricultural caste
comes next, and then the _Maravar_ and _Kallar_, or robber castes. The
Prince of Ramnad, who is hereditary guardian of Rama's bridge, belongs
to the Maravars, and the Rajah of Tondiman to the Kallars. Below the
robber castes are the _Shanars_ or toddy-drawers, who are free and
proprietors of land; then the _Pariars_[457] and chucklers or slaves;
then the _Korawars_ or vagrant basket-makers, and last of all the
shoemakers and low-caste washermen.

The higher castes had recently been outraged by the Shanars having
been allowed to go in procession along the road, on the occasion of
a marriage at Arpucaté, a populous mercantile town in the Madura
district. This was done in defiance of all ancient customs and usages
connected with caste, which are clearly defined and acknowledged by
all classes of Hindus. The high-caste people defend their feeling of
exclusiveness by urging that the Shanars and Pariars are guilty of
one or other of the five great sins, namely, killing the sacred cow,
theft, drunkenness, adultery, and lying: for that the Shanars draw
toddy, and the Pariars eat meat. They claim for immemorial custom the
same authority that is given in England to common law, and declare
that the Shanars never had the right of parading the streets in
procession, with music and flags. In considering this question it
should not be forgotten that the Shanars and other low castes will no
more allow a man of still lower caste to overstep his privileges by one
hair's breadth than will a Sudra or a Brahmin. Even the Pariars are a
well-defined, distinct, and ancient caste, jealous of the encroachments
of the castes both above and below them: they have strong caste
feelings, and treat the caste of shoemakers with contempt.[458] Thus,
if the Shanars and Pariars insist upon their own caste privileges, it
is difficult to see why they should be permitted to infringe upon those
of the castes above them; and it would seem that a feeling of content
and satisfaction with our rule would be best promoted by ensuring to
all classes of the community the exclusive enjoyment of their own
peculiar usages and privileges.

Caste is one among many instances of the peculiar exaggerations
in which the Hindu mind loves to indulge. The social distinctions
which prevail in other countries are represented in India by this
institution, in which those distinctions are, not altogether
illogically, carried to an extreme point. Caste may be modified
and rendered less harsh in its general outline; but it will never
cease to exist. The Protestant missionaries, of course, declare war
to the knife against it, as a system of falsehood and deceit, and
an absurdity contrary both to reason and revelation. This may be
true, as well as that Brahmins get drunk, and eat asafœtida-cakes in
which buffalo flesh forms an ingredient, without losing their caste;
but missionary denunciations of caste absurdity, and exposures of
Brahminical irregularities, are not likely to make the slightest
impression on the minds of a people with whom caste distinctions are
hallowed by immemorial usage, and bound up in every act of their lives.
The favourite missionary receipt is, therefore, to deprive Brahmins
of their _Enam_ or rent-free lands, to induce Government entirely to
disavow caste, to put an end to all caste distinctions in jails, and
to raise the Pariars and Chucklers from their degradation.[459] A very
summary plan no doubt, but as impracticable as it would be impolitic
and unjust.

After a most delightful visit at Madura, I started for Trichinopoly
late one night, and found the road so execrable in some places, that it
was necessary to go off into the fields, and make a long circuit. The
country between Madura and Trichinopoly is chiefly cultivated with dry
grain, but there are occasional patches of rice. Ranges of rocky hills
intersect the plain, covered with underwood and low trees, which the
natives are allowed to use for firewood, but, when they carry it off
for sale, in cart-loads, there is a small duty. I walked most of the
distance under the shade of the peepul and banyan-trees which line the
road, and reached Trichinopoly after a journey of a day and two nights.

Trichinopoly is a large military station, and the European houses,
therefore, are very numerous, and occupy a considerable space, as they
are generally surrounded by large parks or compounds. A bridge over a
small tributary of the Cauvery leads to the bazar and native town; and
the view from the bridge is very pretty, with cocoanut-trees and bushes
coming down to the water's edge, and houses embosomed in trees, whence
flights of steps lead down into the water. Beyond the bridge there is a
picturesque mosque of white stone, and the bazar, a long street leading
to the principal part of the town, in the centre of which the famous
rock of Trichinopoly rises up abruptly. Brahmins and other traders
were sitting in their shops, before piles of earthenware and copper
chatties, cotton cloths, and numerous kinds of grains and pulses in
baskets. The rock is a mass of granite, 400 feet high, crowned by a
small Hindu temple; the ascent is cut in steps out of the solid rock,
and from the summit there is a most extensive view, including the city,
the fine bridges over the Coleroon and Cauvery, the _gopurams_ of the
great pagoda of Seringam on an island in the river, and a vast expanse
of rice cultivation and palm-groves, with Tanjore on the distant
horizon. The native town contains several large handsome houses
belonging to Mohammedans, and the ruins of the palace of the Nawabs of
the Carnatic.

Through the kindness of Mr. McDonnell, the Collector, I was enabled to
pass a very interesting day at the Upper Coleroon _anicut_. Passing
the base of the rock of Trichinopoly, and following the main street
of the native town, the banks of the river Cauvery are reached, where
there are rows of stone temples and houses with open corridors, whence
flights of steps lead down into the water. Near the river there is a
tank filled with red and white lotus-flowers. A handsome stone bridge
spans the Cauvery, and another of equal length crosses the Coleroon,
about a mile further on. The two rivers form an island, and unite a few
miles lower down; and the upper _anicut_ is about fourteen miles up the
river, where Mr. McDonnell had a comfortable bungalow on the banks,
shaded by lofty trees.

The Upper Coleroon _anicut_ or weir is constructed at the west end
of the island of Seringam, which is formed by the separation of the
Cauvery into two branches, namely the Coleroon on the north, and the
Cauvery on the south. Formerly the bed of the Coleroon was continually
deepening, while that of the Cauvery was rising, so that there was much
difficulty in obtaining a sufficient supply of water for the irrigation
of the rice-fields of Tanjore. The upper _anicut_, commenced by Colonel
Cotton in 1836, and finished in 1850, completely answered the purpose
of deepening the bed of the Cauvery, so much so that another weir was
made across that river, sixty miles lower down; and by means of the
second weir, made in 1845, and the under sluices in the upper one, the
water is now effectually kept under command.[460] The upper _anicut_,
which I visited, is broken into three parts by two small islands. The
south part is 282 yards long, the centre 350, and the north 122, the
whole length, including the islands, being 874, and without them 754
yards. The weir is a plain brick wall, plastered with _chunam_, six
feet thick, and seven feet high, the top being lined with masonry. It
is defended from the overfall by masses of rough stone; and there are
twenty-four sluices, which prevent accumulations of sand from forming
above the _anicut_. The sluices are connected by a narrow bridge of
sixty-two arches, to secure access to them during floods, and it
also serves as a means of communication between the banks for foot
passengers. The cost of the work, and of repairs between 1836 and 1850,
was two lacs of rupees, and it assists the irrigation of 600,000 acres,
yielding a revenue of 400,000_l._, or equal to two-thirds of that of
the whole island of Ceylon.

By means of these _anicuts_ the fertile province of Tanjore is
converted into one vast rice-field,[461] and the portion of
Trichinopoly below the upper weir is equally rich. The country to the
north of the road between the _anicut_ and the town of Trichinopoly
was a wide expanse of bright green rice cultivation, stretching to the
horizon. In Southern India there are two annual crops of rice, called
the _caar_ and the _soombah_ or _peshanum_ crops. The former is reaped
in October and is reckoned inferior, and the latter in February and
March. Two crops in the year from the same land do not yield much more
than a single crop, but, owing to the liability of the seasons to fail,
the cultivators rear as much as possible for the first crop. This is
reaped in the rainy season, when the straw cannot be preserved, so that
the second crop must necessarily be sown, for fodder for cattle. Rice
requires rain to ensure the full development of the grain, as well
as irrigation. The seed is sown thick, and then transplanted to the
fields about forty days afterwards; and the fields must be constantly
supplied with water. The stalks when cut are stacked for a few days,
and the grain is then thrashed out by manual labour or cattle, the husk
being separated from the grain with a rice-stamper, generally beaten by
women. In the interval of sowing, the natives often sow the land with
pulse or sesame, the stubble of which is used as manure for the next
rice-crop.

At intervals scattered over the plain, there are groves of cocoanut
and palmyra-palms, like islands in the vast sea of rice-fields, with
small villages built under their shade. As the betel-nut palm is the
most graceful in India, so the palmyra (_Borassus flabelliformis_) is
undoubtedly the ugliest, with its black stem the same size all the way
up, and coarse fan-shaped leaves. It is chiefly from this tree that the
Shanars draw the toddy. The spadix or young flowering branch is cut off
near the top, and an earthenware _chatty_ is tied on the stump, into
which the juice flows. Every morning it is emptied and replaced, the
stump being cut afresh, and so on until the whole is exhausted. Sugar
is also extracted by the same process, the inside of the _chatty_ being
powdered with lime to prevent fermentation, and the juice being boiled
down and dried. The sugar thus obtained is called _jaggery_. The timber
of the palmyra-palm is extensively used for building.

As we drove towards Trichinopoly, with these rice-fields studded with
palm-groves on our right, the tall towers of Seringam[462] appeared
rising above the trees which border the waters of the Cauvery; and near
the town there are large plantain-groves. In leaving Trichinopoly on
the road to the Neilgherries it is necessary to cross a small affluent
of the Cauvery in ferry-boats. Those for foot-passengers are of wicker
covered with hides, and perfectly round, like those which are described
by Herodotus, and are still used on the Tigris and Euphrates. After
jolting all night through endless groves of banyan and peepul trees,
I reached Caroor,[463] the ancient capital of the Chira Rajahs, the
following morning. The Chira state, in the days of its prosperity,
extended over Coimbatore, and part of Mysore and Malabar. Caroor is
a town of some size, in the middle of a plain, through which flows
the river Amaravati, a tributary of the Cauvery. Mr. Roberts, the
Sub-Collector, was living in a curious upper story, on the top of a
pagoda, the entrance to which leads under a tall brick _gopuram_, 86
feet high, 64 feet long at the base, and 52 feet broad, sculptured with
images exactly on the pattern of those at Madura. The country between
Caroor and the foot of the Neilgherries is flat and uninteresting,
chiefly cultivated with _cholum_, _cumboo_, cotton, and a few pulses,
with rice in some places. The road is execrable, and generally lined
with banyan-trees, which, though affording pleasant shade, are ungainly
and ugly, owing to the numerous bunches of dusty-looking roots, which
hang in all directions from the branches. On arriving at Matepoliem
I found a pony waiting, and, riding up the Coonoor ghaut, returned
to Ootacamund. Half-way up the ghaut, at a place called Burlear, Mr.
Thomas, the Collector of Coimbatore, has a small but interesting
garden, containing all kinds of spices, cacao, coffee and tea plants,
besides oranges, lemons, and citrons.

During my tour through the principal Tamil districts I was chiefly
struck with the evidences, furnished by the pagodas of Madura and
Seringam, and the works of Tirumalla Naik, of the great surplus revenue
which was once derived from the land. By the execution of additional
public works, the improvement of means of communication, and judicious
reductions of the land-tax, which will induce the ryots to bring more
waste land under cultivation, much has been effected, but much still
remains to be done, before the country attains the same degree of
prosperity which it appears to have enjoyed in the best days of the
Pandyan and Naik dynasties. Tanjore has probably already reached the
highest state of profitable rice cultivation, through the irrigation
supplied by the Coleroon _anicuts_. But much may yet be done with
regard to the encouragement of the growth of cotton in Coimbatore,
Madura, and Tinnevelly; and hereafter the coffee and chinchona
plantations of the Neilgherry hills, the Pulneys, and the Anamallays
will supply another important source of wealth and prosperity.

To the north of the Cauvery, in the district of Salem, there is a
range of isolated hills, called the Shervaroys, which rise, a few
miles north-east of the town of Salem, into a mass of densely wooded
flat-topped hills. The mean height of the table-land of the Shervaroys,
on their summits, is 4600 feet, and the highest peak rises to 5260
feet. In the Salem district the south-west monsoon sets in early in
June, and showers continue till September; and in the end of October
the north-east monsoon brings a return of rain from the opposite
quarter, which continues until December, when the rains cease, owing
to the change of wind from north-east to due north. There are several
coffee estates on the Shervaroy hills, but they are considered to
be too dry, and, although the coffee produced is said to be of
excellent quality, yet the yield is small, and I was told that the
Shervaroy plantations were generally losing concerns. The land-tax on
these estates is one rupee an acre. Between December and June it is
exceedingly dry, and I, therefore, did not consider it advisable to try
the experiment of chinchona cultivation on the Shervaroys during the
first or second years. If the plants are hereafter found to be capable
of enduring longer droughts than we at present expect, they may then be
tried on the Shervaroys.

For the same reason I gave up all idea of the hills near Courtallum,
in Tinnevelly. At Courtallum, notwithstanding the perennial humidity,
the rainfall is only 40 inches, though on the surrounding hills it
is probably greater.[464] The elevation of those hills, however, is
not sufficient for the profitable cultivation of most species of
chinchona-plants. Tinnevelly is sheltered from the south-west monsoon
by the Travancore mountains, and from the north-east monsoon by the
Serumullay hills, 3500 feet high, which rise from the Madura plains
near Dindigul, and by the island of Ceylon to the east. This extreme
south part of the peninsula, between latitude 8° and 10° north,
therefore receives little moisture, and has a hot arid climate,
resembling Egypt, and producing senna and Indian cotton of the best
quality.[465] It is possible, however, that localities may hereafter
be found, where the chinchona species suited to comparatively low
elevations might flourish, such as _C. succirubra_ and _C. micrantha_,
on the mountains dividing Tinnevelly from Travancore.




CHAPTER XXVI.

MYSORE AND COORG.

  Seegoor ghaut--Sandal-wood--Mysore--Seringapatam--Hoonsoor--The
  tannery--Fraserpett--Mercara--The fort--The Rajahs of Coorg--The
  Coorgs--Origin of the river Cauvery--Coorg--Climate--Coffee
  cultivation--Sites for chinchona-plantations--Caryota
  Urens--Virarajendrapett--Cardamom cultivation--Kumari--Poon,
  blackwood, and teak--Pepper cultivation in
  Malabar--Cannanore--Nuggur and Baba Bodeen hills--The Beebee of
  Cannanore--Compta--Sedashighur--Arrive at Bombay.


THE descent from the plateau of the Neilgherries to the plains of
Mysore on the north, is by the Seegoor ghaut, the only one which is
practicable for carriages. It is much tamer, and not to be compared
with those of Sispara or Coonoor; and at the foot there is a wide belt
of thin, stunted, pestiferous jungle, twenty-five miles in breadth,
through which the river Moyaar flows to join the Bowany. There are a
great many young teak-trees, and sandal-wood is also found, in the
forests on the inner or eastern <DW72>s of the ghauts; but all the
timber looked poor and stunted.[466] The sandal-wood tree (_Santalum
album_) is about twenty feet high, with numerous spreading branches,
and small purplish flowers. Dr. Cleghorn reports that with vigilant
supervision, and slight assistance to nature in clearing the heads of
young plants, which are often matted down by creepers, an addition
might accrue to the revenue of several districts in the Madras
Presidency by the sale of sandal-wood. The export trade in sandal-wood
and oil is even now very considerable. The road from the foot of the
Seegoor ghaut to Mysore, a distance of sixty-four miles, is excellent,
and there is a very good bridge over the river Moyaar. We passed the
night at the half-way bungalow of Goondulpett, whence there is a grand
view, with scattered date-palms in the foreground, a vast expanse of
undulating plain beyond, bounded by the belt of forest, with the blue
line of the Neilgherries in the distance. There is nothing of interest
between Goondulpett and Mysore.

Mysore is on a table-land 2450 feet above the sea. On the western
side of the town flows the Purneah canal, which comes from a distance
of seventy miles to supply Mysore with water, and was made by the
Brahmin minister Purneah, who came into power during the present
Rajah's minority, after the death of Tippoo. In approaching the town,
the isolated rocky hill of Chamandi is seen on the right. Mysore is
fortified, and, after passing under the ramparts, we entered a square,
one side of which is occupied by the Rajah's palace. Here, and in the
adjoining streets, there was an unusual amount of life and bustle owing
to the presence of a native court; and we met crowds of nautch-girls,
men in various costumes, elephants, camels, and bullock-carts. Some of
the houses have upper stories, but the majority are dark places, with
red-tiled roofs extending far over, and forming verandahs.

Mysore is so called from its having been the abode of the
buffalo-headed demon _Mahesh-asur_, who was slain by Parvati, the
wife of Siva, in her most hideous and repulsive form, as Cali, the
impersonation of vengeance. The country, from 1336 to 1565, formed a
part of the Brahminical kingdom of Bijayanuggur; and in 1576 one Raj
Wadeyar established his independence as ruler of Mysore, from whom the
present Rajah is descended. After the death of Tippoo Sultan, and the
capture of Seringapatam by the English in 1799, the present Rajah, then
only five years old, was placed on the throne, and the country was
ruled by his very clever minister Purneah, until he came of age. He
afterwards proved so utterly incompetent to govern, that the country
fell into a state of anarchy, and the English therefore undertook
the administration in 1832. The Mysore Commission was then formed,
with Sir Mark Cubbon at its head, and Mysore was divided into four
divisions--Bangalore, Astagram, Nuggur, and Chitteldroog.

The table-land of Mysore covers an area of 30,886 square miles,
and contains a population of 3,300,000 souls. Sir Mark Cubbon's
administration was vigorous and progressive. In 1832 the revenue
was 440,000_l._, in 1860-61 it was 950,000_l._, and in the latter
year there was an excess of income over expenditure, amounting to
120,000_l._ The Chief Commissioner has made upwards of 1600 miles of
excellent carriage-road, bridged throughout, and has introduced many
important measures, while the officers who have worked under him have
generally been distinguished for ability and zeal. The good old general
was sixty years in India, and governed Mysore from 1832 to 1861. He was
adored by all ranks of the people, and his resignation caused universal
regret, when, early in 1861, he sailed for England. But he was not
destined to see his native land again, he died at Suez, and thus passed
away a brave soldier and an enlightened statesman, one who had done as
good and valuable service to his country as any English public servant
during the present century.

During our stay at Mysore we drove over to Seringapatam, a distance of
twelve miles. The immediate neighbourhood of the capital is chiefly
planted with dry grains, such as raggee and pulses. The common people
live chiefly on raggee, which they store in underground pits. They
also use the seeds of gram (_Cicer arietinum_) in curries and cakes,
and the oxalic acid which exudes from every part of the plant serves
instead of vinegar for their curries. The roads round Mysore are
lined with hedges of American aloe. After the first few miles, we
began to pass through groves of cocoanut and betel-palms,[467] much
rice cultivation, and fields of sugar-cane. Close to Seringapatam
a sugar manufactory has been established by Mr. Grove, who buys up
the _jaggery_ from the ryots and refines it. We crossed the Cauvery
by a fine bridge, and saw the great canal constructed by Tippoo for
irrigating the rice-fields. There are large ruinous houses and temples,
embowered in palm-trees, with flights of steps down to the river,
outside the old town itself, which is surrounded by a wall and ditch.

We first drove to the tomb under which Hyder Ali and Tippoo are buried.
It is in the middle of a garden called the _Lal-bagh_, with a pretty
avenue of cocoanut and betel-palms leading up to it. The tomb is a
square building, surmounted by a dome, with minarets at the angles,
richly decorated with arabesque-work in _chunam_. It is surrounded by
an open corridor, supported by pillars of black hornblende, and in
the centre of each side there is a doorway. That facing the avenue is
filled in with an open-work screen of the same stone, and the others
have double doors richly inlaid with ivory, the gift of Lord Dalhousie.
The tombs are placed under the dome, three in number, namely, of Hyder,
Tippoo, and Tippoo's mother, each covered over with a pall of crimson
silk. The building is surrounded by cloisters, a part being used as a
choultry for Moslem travellers, another as a mosque, and another as a
school for small boys who learn to read the Koran. Government grants an
allowance for keeping the place in repair, and paying Moulvies to serve
in the mosque. The effect of the snow-white tomb, richly adorned with
arabesque-work, the lance-like minarets, the cloudless sky, and the
feathery palm-trees rearing their graceful heads round the building,
was exceedingly like a scene in the Arabian Nights. The tomb of Colonel
Baillie, who was taken prisoner by Hyder Ali in 1780, is close by, but
in a very neglected state.

We then went to the _Derya Dowlet-bagh_ close to the town, which was
the favourite summer-palace of Tippoo. It is a very richly ornamented
arabesque building, every part being covered with gilding and bright
colours, and pictures on the walls representing the repulse of Lally,
and the defeat of Colonel Baillie. From this place we went to the town
of Seringapatam itself, which is built on an island in the Cauvery,
and surrounded by a strong wall and two very deep ditches. Close to
the gate is the _jumma musjid_, or principal mosque, with two tall
minarets; and, in one corner, the spot was pointed out where Tippoo
was accustomed to pray, entering the mosque by a small side-door. The
double ditch is a very formidable defence to the town, but it does
not extend along the side facing the river, and it was here that the
assault was delivered by the English general. A feint was made in the
direction of the _Lal-bagh_, where the English suffered severely, while
the real storming party was formed on the opposite side of the Cauvery,
at a spot which is now marked by two upright posts. A bastion facing
the river had previously been breached, the four guns on it dismounted,
and scarcely any other guns could be brought to bear on the soldiers
of the assaulting column at this particular point, who dashed across
the Cauvery and up the breach. Tippoo was jammed by the flying crowd in
a small doorway, which we saw, where he was killed, and from that day
the pestiferous Seringapatam ceased to be the capital of Mysore. The
palace, now in ruins, is very like that of the Nawab of the Carnatic
at Trichinopoly, a plain rambling building with rows of large windows,
and there are extensive gardens round it, full of tamarind-trees,
cocoanuts, plantains, and vines.

The old town of Seringapatam is exceedingly interesting, but it now
wears an appearance of silent decay and desolation. It is notoriously
unhealthy, and the inevitable penalty of a night passed in the town is
a severe attack of fever.

From Mysore we took our way, by Hoonsoor, to the hill district of
Coorg. The road to Hoonsoor passes over twenty-eight miles of a country
very little cultivated, with extensive tracts of waste land, and a few
fields of dry grain near the villages. Hoonsoor has for many years
been a Government grazing-farm and manufactory. In 1860 the bullocks
were all sold off, but there are still thirty-eight fine elephants,
and upwards of a hundred camels. We saw the elephants having their
breakfasts in a solemn motionless row, large heaps of rice wrapped in
bundles of reed being put into their mouths by the mahouts. Besides an
establishment of blacksmiths, carpenters, brass-workers, and of women
employed in making blankets, there is an extensive Government tannery
at Hoonsoor. There are many trees in India well adapted for tanning
purposes, but the American sumach (_Cæsalpinia coriaria_) introduced
by Dr. Wallich in 1842, and called by the natives _divi-divi_, appears
to be considered the best at Hoonsoor. The _kino_-tree (_Pterocarpus
marsupium_) is another, and there are two kinds of _catechu_ used for
tanning, one from the betel-nut-palm, and the other from an acacia.
To obtain the _catechu_ from the betel-palm the nuts are boiled,
and the remaining water is inspissated, and yields the best kind,
which is used for the golden coffee-brown colour in dyeing calico,
as well as for tanning. From the acacia the _catechu_ is obtained by
boiling the unripe pods and old wood. It is not considered so good as
_kino_ or _divi-divi_ for tanning purposes, on account of its extreme
astringency. The tannery at Hoonsoor is a very extensive establishment,
where shoes, sandals, crossbelts, and scabbards are made for the army.

This place suffers frequently and most severely from cholera; and,
during these terrible visitations a _Swami_ or God, in the shape of
a small stone image of Ganesa seated under a black-wood tree, is
specially invoked.

Hoonsoor is 25 miles from Fraserpett, at the foot of the Coorg
mountains, and we passed through extensive groves of palm-trees with
chatties fastened round the spadices to catch the toddy. Fraserpett is
within the Coorg district, and it is in the pleasant little bungalows
which have been built here, that the English take refuge during the
heavy down-pour of the south-west monsoon. Through the kindness of
Captain Martin, a former Superintendent of Coorg, and now engaged
in the cultivation of coffee, we found horses waiting for us at
Fraserpett, and continued our journey to Mercara, the capital of the
district.

After the first two miles the road enters a dense bamboo jungle,
extending along the base of the mountains. It was the month of January
and the forest was completely dried up and burnt by the sun and want
of rain, looking brown and sombre. A splendid white _Ipomæa_, with a
rich lilac centre, was creeping in festoons to the very top of the
feathery bamboos which bent gracefully over the road. At a place called
Soonticoopah, ten miles from Fraserpett, the ascent of the mountains
begins. The road leads up and down a succession of wooded heights,
which gradually increase in elevation, with intermediate valleys
cultivated with rice and generally fringed with plantain-groves,
through which the huts of the Coorgs are visible. At the heads of
these valleys the streams are divided into two channels, and led down
each side, the space between being sown with rice in terraced fields,
gradually descending with the <DW72> of the valley. These bright
patches of cultivation are very pretty, with their light vivid green
contrasting with the sombre hues of the forest. Near Mercara the jungle
is a good deal cleared, and the <DW72>s are covered with coffee-plants.
The road is excellent.

Towards evening we came in sight of Mercara, by far the prettiest place
I have seen in India. On the opposite side of a deep narrow valley was
the fort and palace, built on an eminence overlooking a vast extent
of mountainous, forest-covered country. The palace is surrounded by
a fortified wall of dark- stone, with semicircular bastions
at intervals. On the wall facing us were two square buildings, with
a row of long windows, and an overhanging roof, the residence of
Captain Eliott, the Superintendent of Coorg; and behind rose up the
long edifice forming the old palace, and the white steeple of a modern
church. A range of wooded hills, with heavy clouds hanging over them,
formed the background. To the right, at a lower elevation were the
native town, and two mosque-like buildings, snowy white, with domes,
and minarets at the angles, rising up amongst a grove of trees. These
are the tombs of the former Rajahs. The narrow gorge below the fort
is planted with coffee and plantains, which almost hide the huts that
nestle amongst them. In the bottom of the ravine is the principal
pagoda of Mercara, built like a mosque, with the tops of the minarets
richly gilded. The entrance to the fort is by a steep ascent, leading
under a deep gateway in the outer line of fortification, into a
courtyard. A second archway leads into a second small court, where
there is an elaborately carved pagoda to Ganesa. A third archway opens
upon the principal courtyard of the fort, one side of which is occupied
by the Rajah's palace, a long barrack-looking building, with an upper
story and projecting tiled roof. The officers of a native regiment are
quartered in the palace. To the left is the English church, and to the
right there is a dark dungeon under the rampart, where the late Rajah
kept his prisoners. He used to allow one at a time to run out, and try
to escape by the archway, while he picked them off with a rifle from a
window of the palace as they ran. There are two full-sized models of
favourite elephants, built of brick and _chunam_, in the courtyard.
The huts of the native regiment are clustered in a little valley close
under the south wall of the fort.

The palace is entered by an archway, over which there is a balconied
window supported by two white horses. The inner court is surrounded by
a corridor of stone pillars, with a roof entirely of copper; and in the
centre of the court there is a tank paved with stone flags, now dry,
with five steps down to it, on two sides, and a carved stone tortoise
in the centre.

On the other side of the small valley filled with soldiers' huts, there
is a parade-ground, and a small amphitheatre dug out of the solid rock,
where elephants and tigers fought for the diversion of the Rajah.
Beyond the parade-ground the ridge on which Mercara is built abruptly
terminates, and the land sinks down into a wooded valley. Here the
late Rajah had built a little brick and _chunam_ summer-house, whence
the land descends precipitously to the road leading down the Mangalore
ghaut. From this point there is one of the most glorious views to be
found in India, and we could sit on the grassy edge of the cliffs for
hours, without ceasing to enjoy it. Right and left there is a wide
expanse of forest-covered ranges of mountains extending into the
blue distance, and in front rises up the mountain of Tadiandamol, the
loftiest peak in Coorg. We watched the crimson sunset over the hills,
and after dark a spontaneous ignition of the dry grass wound like a
serpent along the loftier ridges of the opposite mountains, producing
an indescribably beautiful effect in the clear starry night.

Coorg has been a portion of the British dominions since 1834, when
the last Rajah was deposed. The old Rajahs were not Coorgs, but Hindu
Lingayets, a peculiar sect whose members wear a small god round their
necks, in a little silver coffer.[468] The family had certainly reigned
in Coorg since 1633; and Dodda Virappa, who died in 1734, fixed the
seat of government at Mercara, and was the greatest prince of his
family. He repulsed a simultaneous invasion of the Mysore Rajah and the
Nairs of Malabar, and afterwards reigned in peace for eighteen years.
Hyder Ali invaded and overran the country several times, but in 1788
the young Rajah Viraraja rallied the people round him, disputed every
inch of ground against Tippoo's invading army, and made an alliance
with the English in Malabar. On the fall of Tippoo a treaty was signed
between the East India Company and Viraraja of Coorg, who died in
1807, leaving the country to his favourite daughter Devammaji. His
brother Lingaraja, however, usurped the throne. He was a monster of
cruelty, and, dying in 1820, was succeeded by his still more brutal
son Viraraja, who massacred all his father's friends, together with
the poor young princess Devammaji. Her sister, who had married a
Coorg, escaped into British territory. It would be too revolting to
recount all the atrocities of the last Rajah of Coorg; but at length
the patience of Lord William Bentinck was exhausted, and in April
1834 General Fraser entered Mercara, and deposed him. Coorg has since
been governed by an English Superintendent, under the orders of the
Commissioners of Mysore.

The Kodagas or Coorgs are a tall, muscular, broad-chested,
well-favoured race of mountaineers, numbering about 25,000, with a
population rapidly increasing since the deposition of the Rajah.[469]
They are of Dravidian origin, and speak a dialect of Canarese; but a
colony of Brahmins early settled in the country, and endeavoured to
mould the traditions of the Coorgs into harmony with their own legends.
These are embodied in the Cauvery Purana, where there is a romantic
account of the origin of that important river, which rises in the
mountains of Coorg.

In the Mahabharata it is related that the _amrit_ or drink of
immortality, which had been lost in the waters of the Deluge, was
recovered by the Suras and Asuras, gods and demons, by churning the
ocean. The Asuras are then said to have stolen it, and it was finally
restored to the gods by the maiden Lopamudre, who charmed the Asuras by
her beauty. The fair damsel then resolved to become a river, and thus
pour herself out in blessings over the earth. But the sage Aghastya,
so famous in the history of Madura, was enamoured of her, and she at
length so far yielded as to consent to be his wife, on condition that
she should be at liberty to forsake him the first time he left her
alone. One day he went to a short distance to bathe, when Lopamudre
immediately gratified her early longings, by jumping into Aghastya's
holy tank, and flowing forth as the river Cauvery. The sage, on his
return, ran after her, but the only consolation that was left to him
was to explain to his beloved the course she ought to take in flowing
towards the eastern sea.

The Cauvery Brahmins, as persons of that caste are called in Coorg,
wear the sacred thread, and perform _poojah_ to Amma, the goddess
of the river. They number about forty families, but are fast dying
out. They are often very rich, and are employed in the pagoda, or as
clerks in the Superintendent's office. The Coorgs themselves, the
inhabitants of this mountainous district, are divided into thirteen
castes.[470] They generally retain the old devil-worship of the Scythic
or Dravidian race from which they are descended, and are addicted to
the use of charms and sorceries. They marry at a ripe age, but the
wives of brothers are considered as common property. All the men wear a
silver-mounted dagger, secured round the waist by a silver chain; and
the women, who are often very pretty, wear a white cotton cloth round
the head, with the ends hanging half-way down the back. The men are an
independent, hard-working race, tall, with comparatively fair skins.
They are very keen sportsmen, and most of them possess a gun, the boys
practising with pellet-bows.

Coorg consists of a succession of lofty wooded ridges and long deep
valleys, forty miles broad by sixty long, between lat. 12° and 13°
N. It is bounded on the north by the river Hemavati, on the south by
the Tambacheri pass, on the west by Malabar and South Canara, and on
the east by Mysore. South of Mercara the country appears covered with
forest, wave upon wave of wooded mountain ranges rising one behind
the other, the highest peak of all having its summit partially bare of
trees, and covered with rich herbage. The elevations above the sea are
as follows:--

  Tadiandamol (the highest peak)      5781 feet
  Pushpagiri (another peak)           5682
  Mercara                             4506
  Virarajendrapett                    3399
  Fraserpett                          3200

The river Cauvery drains about four-fifths of the surface of Coorg,
while about a dozen streams, issuing from the same hill region,
traverse Malabar and South Canara. From the end of December to the end
of March rain is very scarce, but the valleys are seldom without fogs
more or less dense in the evenings and mornings, and heavy dews are
frequent. During these months a dry east wind prevails, which has long
ceased to carry rain with it from the Bay of Bengal. Towards the end
of March clouds begin to collect, and the air grows moister. In April
and May there are thunderstorms and frequent showers, with a warm and
moist climate. In the end of May the clouds in the western sky grow in
strength; and in June rain prevails, descending at times softly, but
generally with great violence, accompanied by heavy gusts of westerly
wind. In July and August the rain pours down in floods day and night,
to such a degree that a flat country would be deluged, but Coorg, after
being thoroughly bathed, sends off the water to the east and west by
her numerous valleys. The yearly fall of rain often exceeds 160 inches.
In September the sun breaks through, in October a north-east wind
clears the sky, in November showers fall over Coorg, being the tail of
the north-east monsoon, and December is often foggy.[471] The following
table will give an idea of the annual temperature of Mercara,[472] the
extremes ranging from 52° to 82°, and the average being 60°:--

  ---+-------------------------------------------------------+---
     |                                                       |
     |            MERCARA, THE CAPITAL OF COORG,             |
     |                                                       |
     |                      1836-37.                         |
     |                                                       |
     +-----------+-------------------+-- -------+------------+
     |           |      Mean         |          |            |
     |           |   Temperature.    | Rainfall | Prevailing |
     |   MONTH.  |-------------------|   in     |   Wind.    |
     |           |  6 A.M. | 10 A.M. | Inches.  |            |
     +-----------+---------+---------+----------+------------+
     | January   |   56    |   69    |  None.   | N.E.       |
     |           |         |         |          |            |
     | February  |   60    |   74    |  None.   | E.N.E.     |
     |           |         |         |          |            |
     | March     |   64    |   76    |   1.3    | Variable.  |
     |           |         |         |          |            |
     | April     |   65    |   78    |   0.2    | Variable.  |
     |           |         |         |          |            |
     | May       |   63    |   72    |   7.6    | N.W.       |
     |           |         |         |          |            |
     | June      |   62    |   68    |  20.8    | W.N.W.     |
     |           |         |         |          |            |
     | July      |   62    |   64    |  23.7    | W.N.W.     |
     |           |         |         |          |            |
     | August    |   60    |   63    |  24.7    | W.N.W.     |
     |           |         |         |          |            |
     | September |   62    |   67    |   7      | W.N.W.     |
     |           |         |         |          |            |
     | October   |   63    |   68    |   0.5    | W.N.W.     |
     |           |         |         |          |            |
     | November  |   60    |   70    |   1.5    | E.N.E.     |
     |           |         |         |          |            |
     | December  |   58    |   70    |   0.07   | N.E.       |
  ---+-----------+---------+---------+----------+------------+---

An immense quantity of rice is cultivated in the Coorg valleys, and
largely exported, but scarcely any dry grain is raised. In 1853 the
rice harvest was said to have been worth seven lacs of rupees. The
Coorgs pay so much on the seed sown, as a land-tax, besides a small
house-tax, and the cardamom sales yield about 35,000 Rs.[473]

Coffee cultivation was only commenced in Coorg about six years ago,
but its extension both amongst natives and Europeans has since been
very remarkable. There are now more than a dozen plantations owned by
Europeans, chiefly near the road leading down the ghaut from Mercara
to the port of Mangalore, and several thousand acres are already under
cultivation. Mr. Mann, the largest proprietor, has upwards of 800 acres
planted with coffee-trees. The natives too have shown great enterprise
in undertaking a cultivation previously unknown to them, and there is
now scarcely a hut to be seen without its little coffee-garden. All
the plantations on the eastern side of Mercara, excepting one, belong
to natives; and close to the town I observed a small clearing where a
Coorg was hard at work building himself a hut, cutting away the jungle,
leading a small stream into new channels for purposes of irrigation,
and planting the <DW72>s of two hills with coffee.

An export duty of four annas the maund is levied on coffee in Coorg,
which, in 1861, brought in a revenue of 23,000 Rs. In that year
1,29,869 maunds were exported, 1,17,223 by native growers, and 12,645
by Europeans. This disproportion will not exist this year, as the
plants on several new estates will now be in bearing for the first
time. The main roads in Coorg are excellent, and one at least of the
planters, if not more, has displayed great energy in connecting his
estates by good roads with the main Government highways. Most of the
available land, within reasonable distance of a highway, is already
taken up for coffee cultivation. Labour, as is also the case in Wynaad
and the Neilgherries, is chiefly procured from Mysore, the coolies
coming up after their own work is done.

It will be seen by the account I have been able to give of the
elevation, temperature, and of the periods of drought and moisture
in this hill district, that it is not nearly so well adapted for
the cultivation of chinchona-plants as Neddiwuttum, and many other
localities on the Neilgherry hills. It may be compared, more
appropriately, with the forests near Sispara on the Koondahs, as it is
exposed to the full force of the south-west monsoon, and suffers from a
long drought during the winter.

The country to the north and east of Mercara is a plateau, about 4500
feet above the sea, intersected by ravines full of trees and underwood,
amongst which I observed wild orange and lime-trees, _Michelias_, and
tree-ferns, with an undergrowth of ferns, _Lobelia_, _Ipomæa_, and
_Solanum_. The scenery is charming, with grassy <DW72>s, wooded glades,
and here and there a secluded hut in a grove of plantains, on the
edge of a small patch of rice cultivation. I also examined some of
the forests down the Mangalore ghaut. The road is excellent, winding
with a gentle gradient through the beautiful forest scenery past
numerous coffee-plantations to their port of shipment at Mangalore.
At the fourth milestone from Mercara there is a forest extending for
nearly a mile, on the left of the road, at an elevation of 3800 feet
above the sea. It descends from the road to the bottom of the ravine,
and on the opposite side there are forest-covered heights of greater
elevation. The forest contains many tall trees, not growing very
close, with tree-ferns, _Cinnamomum_, _Hymenodictyon_, _Melastomaceæ_,
a _Papilionacea_ with a bright yellow flower, and ferns, of which I
collected five kinds. The general character of the flora appeared
suitable for the growth of chinchona-plants; and, though this was the
driest time of the year, I found at least one small stream trickling
down through the underwood. The valley runs north-west and south-east.

In this locality plants of _C. succirubra_ would no doubt flourish,
and the experiment ought certainly to be tried; though, from the low
elevation, the bark would probably be thin, and would yield perhaps
a small per-centage of alkaloids. These points, however, can only be
ascertained by experience gained from experimental culture. I was told
by Captain Eliott, the Superintendent of Coorg, that the forest in
question has been applied for and refused to several coffee-planters.
The land belongs to Government, but there is a devil living on it,
to which the Coorgs do _poojah_, and the Commissioner of Mysore has,
therefore, been hitherto unwilling to allow it to be occupied.

There are many other localities equally suited for the cultivation
of _C. succirubra_ and _C. micrantha_ in Coorg; the Government will
shortly establish a chinchona nursery there; and, with so many
energetic and intelligent planters in the district, it will be strange
if the growth of this important product is not extended and rendered
profitable by private enterprise. A few rows of chinchona-plants ought
to be established in the loftiest part of each coffee-clearing; and
every settler should plant them, and encourage the cultivation among
the natives, from motives of humanity, as well as with a view to
successful commercial speculation.

We finally left Mercara before dawn, and rode for three miles down
the steep ghaut leading to the lower and more extensive valleys of
south-eastern Coorg, which we reached as the sun rose. It was a very
pleasant ride through the beautiful hill country, with uplands covered
with fine forest, and long strips of fertile valley. In the jungles we
saw immense clumps of bamboo, which overshadowed the road; a leafless
and thorny _Erythrina_ with crimson flowers; and a _Solanum_ with a
small white flower by the road-side. Here and there we came to open
grassy glades, whence little footpaths led through the neighbouring
jungle to some secluded hut. The cultivated valleys are covered with
rice, and fringed with plantain groves and _Caryota urens_.

The _Caryota urens_ is a lofty palm-tree, with large leaves, and the
Coorgs draw an immense quantity of toddy from it during the hot season.
The pith of the trunk of old trees is a kind of sago, and is made
into bread and gruel by the natives of many parts of India. Humboldt
says that the form of the leaves is very singular, the singularity
consisting in their being bipinnatisect, with the ultimate division
having the shape of the fin and tail of a fish.[474]

We passed several hundred pack-bullocks conveying Bombay salt from
the Malabar ports to the interior, and, having forded the Cauvery at
a point where the bed is full of large boulders of rock, reached the
village of Virarajendrapett. It consists of two clean streets, at
right angles, with a missionary church and school. The mountains are
here dotted with plantain-groves, and nearly every house has a small
coffee-garden attached. The surrounding country is exceedingly pretty,
the view being bounded by forest-covered mountains. The bungalow at
Virarajendrapett is on the site of an old palace of the Rajahs, and
the compound is surrounded by a high wall, with an ornamental gateway,
flanked by stone sentry-boxes.

From this point the descent into Malabar commences, through dense
forest, with bright moonlight glancing through the branches of gigantic
trees, and after a journey of fifteen miles we reached the bungalow of
Ooticully in the middle of the jungle. It is in these forests, on the
western <DW72>s of the Coorg mountains, that cardamom cultivation is
carried on to a great extent. In February parties of Coorgs start for
these western mountains, and, selecting a <DW72> facing west or north,
mark one of the largest trees on the steepest declivity. A space about
300 feet long and 40 feet broad is then cleared of brushwood, at the
foot of the tree; a platform is rigged about twelve feet up the tree,
on which a pair of woodmen stand and hew away right and left until it
falls head foremost down the side of the mountain, carrying with it a
number of smaller trees in a great crash.

Within three months after the felling, the cardamom-plants in the soil
begin to show their heads all over the cleared ground during the first
rains of the monsoon, and before the end of the rainy season they grow
two or three feet. The ground is then carefully cleared of weeds, and
left to itself for a year. In October, twenty months after the felling
of the great tree, the cardamom-plants are the height of a man, and
the ground is again carefully and thoroughly cleared. In the following
April the low fruit-bearing branches shoot forth, and are soon covered
with clusters of flowers, and afterwards with capsules. Five months
afterwards, in October, the first crop is gathered, and a full harvest
is collected in the following year. The harvests continue for six or
seven years, when they begin to fail, and another large tree must be
cut down in some other locality, so as to let the light in upon a new
crop.

The harvest takes place in October, when the grass is very high and
sharp, sorely cutting the hands, feet, and faces of the people. It is
also covered with innumerable large greedy leeches. The cultivators
pick the cardamom capsules from the branches, and convey them to a
temporary hut, where the women fill the bags with cardamoms, and carry
them home, sometimes to distances of ten or twelve miles. Some families
will gather 20 to 30 maunds annually, worth from 600 to 1000 Rs.[475]

This method of cardamom cultivation must be considered injurious to
the conservancy of fine timber in the forests, but, on the other hand,
the crops themselves are very valuable, and bring in a considerable
revenue. But there is another kind of cultivation carried on in these
vast forests on the western <DW72>s of the ghauts, which is far more
prejudicial to the production of valuable timber-trees. This is called
_kumari_, and _punam_ in Malabar. It has been altogether prohibited
in Coorg and Mysore, while in Canara it is not now allowed within nine
miles of the sea, or three of any navigable river, or in any of the
Government forests without previous permission. But in Malabar, where
all the forests are private property, the Government is unable to
interfere in the matter, and _kumari_ is quite unrestricted.

_Kumari_ is cultivation carried on in forest-clearings. A space is
cleared on a hill-<DW72> at the end of the year; the wood is left to
dry until March or April, and then burnt. The seed, generally _raggee_
(_Eleusine coracana_), is sown in the ashes on the fall of the first
rain, the ground not being touched with any implement, but merely
weeded and fenced. The produce is reaped at the end of the year, and
is said to be worth double that which could be procured under ordinary
modes of cultivation. A small crop is taken in the second, and perhaps
in the third year, and the spot is then deserted and allowed to grow
up with jungle. The same spot is cultivated again after 10 or 12 years
in Malabar, but in North Canara the wild hill tribes generally clear
patches in the virgin forest. Dr. Cleghorn reports that _kumari_
renders the land unfit for coffee-cultivation, destroys valuable
timber, and makes the locality unhealthy, dense underwood being
substituted in the abandoned clearings for tall trees under which the
air circulated freely.[476] The Kurumbers and Irulas, wild tribes of
the Neilgherries, also raise small crops by burning patches of jungle
and scattering seeds over the ashes. This system, which sounds so
wasteful and is so injurious to the yield of timber in the forests, is
exceedingly profitable to the cultivator, who has no expenses beyond
the payment of land-tax, which in these wild unfrequented spots is
often evaded. A common profit is 18 to 28 Rs. an acre.

After leaving Ooticully we still had to pass through fifteen miles
of jungle, before reaching the open cultivated country in northern
Malabar. In driving down the ghaut the views, through occasional
openings, of the wide expanses of forest were very grand. Tall trunks
of trees towered up to a great height in search of light and air,
palms and bamboos waved gracefully over the road, and the range of
Coorg mountains filled up the background. Most of the valuable timber
has been long since felled in these forests, excepting in the very
inaccessible parts. The poon-trees (_Calophyllum angustifolium_),[477]
which are chiefly found in Coorg, and yield most valuable spars
for masts, have become exceedingly scarce. The young trees are now
vigilantly preserved. Black-wood (_Dalbergia latifolia_) is also
getting scarce, though I saw a good deal of it in some of the Coorg
jungles; and teak-trees of any size have almost entirely disappeared,
excepting in the forests of North Canara.

At a distance of twenty miles from the sea the cultivated country
commences in this part of Malabar, and the road on each side is lined
with pepper-fields, with occasional groves of plantains and clumps of
cocoa and betel-nut palms. The land undulates in a succession of hills
and dales, with rice cultivation in some of the hollows. Here the
pepper is regularly grown in large fields, and not in gardens as at
Calicut. In the first place trees are planted in rows, usually such as
have rough or prickly bark--the jack, the mango, or the cashew-nut. In
the country we were passing through the tree used was an _Erythrina_,
with the bark of trunk and branches thickly covered with thorns. Until
the trees have grown to the proper size the land is often used for
raising plantains. When the trees have attained a height of 15 or 20
feet, the pepper is planted at their bases, and soon thickly covers the
stem and festoons over the branches. The pepper-cuttings or suckers are
put down by the commencement of the rains in June, and in five years
the vine begins to bear. Each vine bears 500 to 700 bunches, which
yield about 8 or 10 seers when dried. During its growth it is necessary
to remove all suckers, and the vine is pruned, thinned, and kept clear
of weeds. The vine bears for thirty years, but every ten years the old
stem is cut down and layers are trained. It is an exceedingly pretty
cultivation, and, if it was not for the crests of straggling branches
which crown the vine-covered trunks, it would not be unlike the
hop-fields of Kent.

The houses on the road were built of laterite, large and comfortable
like those at Calicut. We saw the people sitting before their doors,
busy with their heaps of pepper. When the berries have been gathered
they are dried in the sun on mats, and turn from red to black. The
white pepper is from the same plant, the fruit being freed from the
outer skin by macerating the ripe berries in water. Before reaching
Cannanore we passed over three or four miles of elevated rocky land,
without cultivation, and arrived in the cantonment late at night.

In enumerating the localities where it is likely that chinchona-plants
will thrive, the mountainous country in Mysore, north of Coorg,
including Nuggur and the Baba-Bodeen hills, must not be forgotten.
Nuggur consists of rounded hills, from 4000 to 5000 feet above the
sea, with peaks rising as high as 6000; and the adjoining Baba-Bodeen
hills attain a height of 5700 feet. The climate is exceedingly moist,
and at the town of Nuggur, on the western side of the hills, the rains
last for nine months, during six of which they are so heavy that the
inhabitants cannot leave their houses. The eastern side is drier and
more level. North of Nuggur the chain of western ghauts sinks down far
below the chinchona zone, and north of 14° they scarcely rise above the
plain of Dharwar.[478]

There are several profitable coffee plantations in Nuggur, and I
understand that it is in contemplation to establish a teak plantation
in that district. Though, as a locality for chinchona cultivation,
it is not to be compared with the Neilgherries or Pulneys, or even
with Coorg, still it is probable that some of the hardier species
might thrive there, and thus the area of the chinchona-plants would
be eventually extended from Nuggur, in 14° N., to the hills near
Courtallum, in the extreme end of the peninsula.

We embarked at Cannanore on board a little steamer for Bombay. The view
from the sea is pretty. On the left is an old fort built long ago by
the Dutch; in the centre, looking from the anchorage, is a sandy beach,
where elephants were being loaded with the luggage of a detachment of
troops just arrived from Calicut; and a little to the right is the
native town surrounded by extensive groves of cocoanut-trees, with the
blue line of the Coorg and Wynaad mountains visible in the distance.
There are three very large buildings on the sea-shore, one of which is
the palace of the Beebee, a long house, with the ground-floor let out
as a pepper warehouse.

The Portuguese built a fort at Cannanore in 1505. They were driven out
by the Dutch, who sold the place to a Moplah, from whom the present
Beebee of Cannanore is descended, the succession going in the female
line. She is much in debt, but owns the Laccadive islands, as well
as Cannanore, and the land round the town. We were told that the
Beebee considered that she had been shamefully treated by the English
Government, and that she spoke her mind very freely on the subject.
It appears that, in about 1545, the Laccadive islands were conferred
in jagheer on the head of the Moplah caste at Cannanore, the ancestor
of the Beebee, by the Rajah of Cherikul, on the payment of a certain
tribute, which was duly rendered to the Cherikul family until its
destruction by Hyder Ali in the last century. After the storming of
Cannanore by the English in 1791, the islands came into possession of
the East India Company, and in 1799 they were restored to the Beebee's
family, subject to the payment of an annual _peshcush_ of 10,000 Rs.

In April, 1847, a hurricane of unequalled violence swept over the
islands, which are only nine feet above the sea in the highest part.
The wind tore up the trees by the roots, the waves flooded the land,
and almost everything on the two most valuable islands was destroyed.
The Beebee borrowed a steamer from the Government to send supplies
for the relief of the islanders, and she also obtained a remission
of one-third of the _peshcush_ for ten years, on certain conditions
connected with reforms in her administration. Her difficulties have
chiefly arisen from being unable to pay the sum demanded for arrears
of _peshcush_, and for the use of the steamer, and in 1854 the English
Government assumed the administration of the islands until the debt was
paid. It was desired that the Beebee should give them up altogether
for a pecuniary equivalent, but to this she has resolutely refused to
consent. The islands have since been restored to her.[479]

On the day after sailing from Cannanore we put into Mangalore, where
the town, like that of Calicut, is completely hidden from the sea,
the lighthouse and a few bungalows being visible on a hill in the
rear. This was the dry season, and the coast of Canara was not nearly
so pretty as that of Malabar, looking parched and dried up. North of
Mangalore is the port of Compta, with a lighthouse on a steep conical
hill, but no town visible. Compta is now the port of shipment for the
cotton of Dharwar, and there were several _pattamars_ in the anchorage,
with their decks piled up with bales of cotton. They take it up to
Bombay, where it is pressed and shipped for England; and we heard that
the crews of the pattamars work their way into the bales, and pull out
large handfuls of cotton, filling the space up with filth. In this way
there is a petty trade in stolen cotton along the coast, and the people
work it up into gloves, stockings, &c., for sale.

Though, at the time of my visit, Compta was used as the cotton-port
for Dharwar, yet the port of Sedashighur, further north, has a great
advantage over it, and is the only place along the coast where there
is safe anchorage during the S.W. monsoon. A point of land, called
Carwar head, forms and protects the bay of Carwar and Beitcool cove,
and, with the assistance of a breakwater, there would be safe anchorage
throughout the year. A line of islands and rocks, called the Oyster
rocks, a little to the northward, also offers a place of shelter. There
is an anchorage under their lee during the S.W. monsoon, where vessels
might ride in perfect safety, and, when a lighthouse is established
on the highest Oyster rock, vessels will be able to approach this
dangerous coast, and run into the anchorage, during the summer months.
Sedashighur is nearer Dharwar than any other port; a river, the
Kala-nuddee, navigable for boats for twenty miles, falls into the sea
close to the anchorage, and a good road is all that is required to make
this place an important port for the shipment of cotton. Energetic
measures have already been adopted for this purpose, and it will
not be long before Dharwar, the only cotton district in India where
the American species has as yet been profitably cultivated, will be
supplied with a port where the cotton may be pressed and shipped direct
for England.[480]

After passing Sedashighur we put into Goa harbour, and went thence
to Vingorla, the port of the Belgaum district, and a great place for
the manufacture of earthenware chatties, which are taken up the coast
in pattamars. The following day we were at Rutnagherry, and passing
Sevendroog, the famous stronghold of the pirate Angria, we concluded
our coasting voyage by anchoring in Bombay harbour.




CHAPTER XXVII.

THE MAHABALESHWUR HILLS AND THE DECCAN.

  Journey from Bombay to Malcolm-penth--The Mahabaleshwur
  Hills--The village and its temples--Elevation of the
  hills--Formation--Soil--Climate--Vegetation--Sites for
  chinchona-plantations--Paunchgunny--Waee--Its temples--The
  babool-tree--Shirwul--The village system--Village officials--Barra
  balloota--Cultivators--Festivals--Crops and harvests--Poona--The Bhore
  ghaut--Return to Bombay.


THE districts best adapted for the cultivation of chinchona-plants are
those in the southern part of the peninsula, at suitable elevations,
which receive moisture from both monsoons. The Neilgherry hills are
the centre of these hill districts, and as we advance further from
that nucleus in a northerly direction the rainfall from the south-west
monsoon becomes heavier, while the climate of the winter, when easterly
winds are blowing, increases in dryness. In 14° N. lat. the hills of
Nuggur sink down into the plains of Dharwar, and from that point to
the Mahabaleshwur hills in 18° N. there are few parts of the western
ghauts which attain a sufficient elevation for the successful growth of
chinchona-plants.[481]

The Mahabaleshwurs, however, are upwards of 4000 feet above the sea,
and it was therefore possible that they might present localities
suitable for chinchona cultivation. In February 1861 I started from
the Mazagon bunder, at Bombay, in a bunder-boat, for the purpose of
examining these hills, and, crossing the harbour, coasted for a short
distance along the shores of the Concan, and then sailed up the
Nagotna river, with low jungle on either side. At Nagotna two sets
of _hamals_ were waiting for us, and we started for Mhar, a distance
of forty miles across the low country of the Concan. The _hamals_ or
palkee-bearers belong to the _Mhar_ or _Parwari_ caste, who are also
watchmen, porters, and guides, and are believed to be the aborigines
of the country. They are athletic men, with slender and remarkably
symmetrical figures when young, always working in gangs of twelve
to each palkee, three at each end, and the others relieving them at
intervals. They carry the weight with a skill which only a life-long
practice could give, and go over the ground at the rate of four miles
an hour, at a sort of trot.

The country is generally well covered with rice-fields, now in stubble;
and the numerous stacks of rice-straw, raised five or six feet from the
ground on stakes, formed the principal feature of the landscape. A few
miles beyond Mhar the western ghauts rise abruptly from the plain of
the Concan, in two gigantic steps. The first step is ascended by the
steep corkscrew road of the Parr ghaut, and between its summit and the
foot of the Rartunda ghaut, which winds up the second step, there is
a level cultivated plateau. To the left of the road, overlooking the
Concan, there is a steep conical hill, crowned by the famous robber
fort of Pertaubghur. Here, in 1659, Sevajee, the famous founder of
Mahratta power, assassinated Afzul Khan, the general of the Mohammedan
King of Beejapore's army, at an interview. We could see the dark walls
of the fort, with ruined buildings, and a tall tree rising behind them.
The ascent of the second ghaut brought us, almost immediately, into
the hill station of Mahabaleshwur. The view from our lodging embraced
a foreground of rounded hills covered with green wood, with ranges of
pointed, rounded, and flattened peaks in the distance, shimmering in
the rays of a hot sun.

The Mahabaleshwur hills are the loftiest part of the western ghauts
in the Bombay presidency. They form an undulating table-land of small
extent, terminated to the westward by a very abrupt descent, often
forming scarped precipices overhanging the Concan; and sloping down
more gradually on the side of the Deccan. The highest point, close
to the English station, in lat. 17° 59´ N., is only 4700 feet above
the sea. The English station, with a native bazar and village, was
formed by Sir John Malcolm in 1828, and has received the name of
Malcolm-penth. Several of the surrounding peaks are named after his
daughters. The roads are excellent, and are bordered by such trees and
shrubs as jasmine, figs, _Randias_, _Gnidias_, and _Crotalariæ_, with
a pretty white _Clematis_ climbing over them. The station is near the
edge of a range of precipitous mountain crags and cliffs overlooking
the Parr valley. The cliffs are broken by several profound ravines,
thus forming promontories commanding grand views of the hill fort of
Pertaubghur, the Concan, and even the sea on very clear days. Good
carriage-roads have been made to those points which command the best
views, such as Babington, Bombay, Sidney, and Elphinstone points, all
looking west. From Babington point there is a magnificent view. The
station, with numerous bungalows peeping out amongst the trees to the
north, is seen along the crest of a ridge which is separated from
Babington point by a profound ravine. The precipitous cliffs, now dried
up and barren, are scarped and furrowed by the water which deluges them
during the prevalence of the south-west monsoon; but there was one
bright green spot where some potatoes were cultivated in terraces, on
the edge of a precipice.

The most conspicuous object in the station is an obelisk of laterite,
erected to the memory of Sir Sidney Beckwith. From this point,
immediately above the little thatched church, there is a good view
of the station, the numerous bungalows, peeping out amongst their
shrubberies, dotted about in all directions; the billiard bungalow,
sanatarium, and public library, all built of laterite, standing in an
open space; the native bazar at our feet; and a curiously shaped mass
of mountain peaks to the south and west.

One day we rode over to the native village of Mahabaleshwur, which
is three miles from Malcolm-penth. The little village consists of
a few dozen thatched huts, on the side of a wooded hill, and some
very interesting temples. By the roadside, in the hedges surrounding
the huts, there were roses, daturas, and jambul-trees (_Eugenia
jambolanum_) with heads of graceful flowers.

The chief temple, built at the foot of a steep hill, has an open space
in front. The exterior wall is faced with pilasters painted yellow,
the intermediate space being red. In the centre there is an arched
doorway leading into an interior cloister, built round a tank. No
European is allowed to enter, but, from the outside, a cow carved in
stone is visible on the opposite side of the tank, with a stream of
water pouring from its mouth. This fountain is said to be the source of
the Krishna, and the temple is considered very sacred in consequence.
To the right, and a little in front of the temple, there is a square
chapel sacred to Siva or Mahadeo. A flight of steps leads up to three
narrow arched doorways, the centre one being occupied by an image of
the bull _Nandi_ in stone, in a sitting posture, with its back to
the people, and facing the image of the God inside. The chapel is
surmounted by a very picturesque dome, with stone tigers at each angle.
Tall trees and thick bushes cover the hill in the rear immediately
above the larger temple, and on the left there is a long native
_choultry_, with a thatched roof.

These temples were built about a century ago by a rich banker of
Sattara, but they stand on the sites of more ancient structures, the
work of Gowlee Rajahs. The Gowlees are a race of aboriginal herdsmen,
scattered over the western ghauts from Mahabaleshwur to Kolapore.
Though they now speak the Mahratta language, yet a great number of
their words, their features, and many of their customs are Canarese;
and they are evidently a branch of the great Dravidian group of nations.

The temples of Mahabaleshwur possess extensive landed property, some
of it on the <DW72>s overhanging the Parr valley. It is in charge of an
hereditary Enamdar, who lives in the Deccan, and visits the temples
once a year. He keeps them in tolerable repair, and pockets the surplus
of their revenues. From the village there is an extensive view of the
deep valley of the Krishna and Yena, to the eastward, which <DW72>s down
abruptly from the hill on which Mahabaleshwur is built.

As in Coorg there is a curious legend respecting the origin of the
Cauvery, so in the Mahabaleshwur hills an equally wild story is
attached to the source of the Krishna. It is said that two giants,
called Mahaballee and Anteeballee, made war upon the Brahmins, until
they were destroyed by Siva. Before they died they asked a favour,
which was granted, namely, that they and their followers might be
turned into rivers. This is the fabulous origin of five rivers:--the
Krishna, named in honour of one of Vishnu's avaturs; the Koina and
the Yena, flowing to the Deccan; and the rivers Sawitri and Gawitri,
finding their way through gorges to the westward, and becoming
tributaries of the Bancoot river in the Concan. The Krishna is looked
upon as a personation of the God Krishna in a female form, and is often
called _baee_ or lady Krishna. This important stream, issuing from
the cow's mouth at Mahabaleshwur, flows down a gorge bounded by steep
barren hills, terminating in rocky cliffs. We could see the river, like
a silver thread, meandering through some cultivated land far below; but
the general aspect of the country was barren and cheerless. During the
monsoon it is doubtless quite green.

The Mahabaleshwur hills average an elevation of 4500 feet above the
sea. They are composed almost entirely of laterite,[482] overlying
eruptive rocks, such as basalt, greenstone, and amygdaloid; and the
soil is a clay resulting from the disintegration of the laterite.

On these hills October is the commencement of the dry season, but
during that month the amount of aqueous vapour in the atmosphere is
still considerable, while the temperature is cool and equable. From
November the air becomes gradually drier until the end of February;
the weather is dry and cold, and a sharp dry easterly wind usually
prevails. The mean temperature of this season is 64°, with a daily
variation of about 12°. Fogs and mists commence in March, and gradually
increase until the rain begins in the end of May. The hottest month is
April. From the end of May to September there is almost incessant rain,
and the hills are constantly enveloped in clouds and fog. The mean
temperature of the rainy season is 64.5°, but the daily variation is
only 3°. The average rainfall is 227 inches, of which nearly one-third
comes down in August.[483] (See Table, next page.)

The vegetation of these hills, as might be expected from the essential
difference in the climate, is quite distinct from that of the
Neilgherries. There is a great want of forest-trees in the jungles,
and the trees and bushes are, as a rule, poor and stunted. The hills
are covered with grass and ferns, and are dotted over with a shrub
called by the natives _rumeta_. It is the _Lasiosiphon speciosus_,[484]
with flowers something like small Guelder roses, clustered in terminal
umbels. The _Randia dumetorum_, a thorny bush, is also common. In the
thickets I observed a _Memecylon_, called by the natives _anjun_, a
melastomaceous tree, with beautiful purple flowers;[485] a small
_Crotalaria_, with a bright yellow flower; a _Jasminum_; an
_Indigofera_; the _Eugenia Jambolanum_; the pretty creeping _Clematis
Wightiana_; some willows near streams; a _Solanum_; and the _Curcuma
caulina_, a kind of arrowroot, with enormous leaves, sometimes tinged
with red,[486] in flower during the rains.[487]

                        MAHABALESHWUR HILLS.
         Mean    Mean     Mean     Extreme  Extreme  Mean  Rainfall
  MONTH. Tempe-  Maximum. Minimum. Maximum. Minimum. daily   in    WIND.
         rature.                                  Variation. inches.

  Jan.   63      70      56       75       45      14     None.     N.E.

  Feb.   64      72      57       78       46      14     0.3     N.N.W.

  March  71      79      65       87       57      13     0.07       Do.

  April  74      81      67       90       56      13     1.3       N.W.

  May    71      78      66       88       57      12     1.45 Westerly.

  June   67      70      63       82       62       6    47.9     W.S.W.

  July   63      64      62       73       62       1    67.4        Do.

  Aug.   63      65      63       70       61       2    81.8        Do.

  Sept.  64      66      62       73       56       3    30.6        Do.

  Oct.   65      70      61       73       54       8     5.5  Easterly.

  Nov.   64      70      58       72       51      11     2.9        Do.

  Dec.   63      68      58       73       49      10     0.2        Do.

I reluctantly came to the conclusion that the Mahabaleshwur hills
were not well suited for the growth of chinchona-plants. The intense
dryness of the atmosphere during the greater part of the year, the poor
character of the vegetation, and even the enormous rainfall during
the summer months, which more resembles the climatic conditions of
the forests of Canelos to the eastward, than the region of "red-bark"
trees to the westward of Chimborazo, all pointed to this conclusion.
Nevertheless some seeds of chinchona-plants were forwarded to Mr.
Dalzell, the Conservator of forests in the Bombay Presidency, which
are said to have come up well at Mahabaleshwur. If these plants
should really thrive it will prove that they are capable of adapting
themselves to differences of climate to an extent of which we
previously had no idea. I sincerely trust that this may be the case,
and that some at least of the species of Chinchonæ now in India may
be successfully introduced into the Mahabaleshwur hills. Mr. Dalzell
informs me that there are high hills to the eastward of the Portuguese
settlement of Goa, but not so elevated as Mahabaleshwur, where he
thinks that some of the Chinchonæ, which flourish at low elevations,
might be acclimatized. He had observed that, in the Bombay Presidency,
a difference of 150 to 200 miles southing is equivalent to a certain
elevation, that is, that plants confined to the highest ground in lat.
18° are found at a much lower level in lat. 15°; and that members of
the family of Chinchonaceæ increase in the number of genera and species
as we travel south from Mahabaleshwur, along the summit of the range,
to lat. 15°.

The road down into the Deccan, from Malcolm-penth, leads to the
eastward over hills bare of jungle, and sprinkled over with a scanty
growth of _Lasiosiphons_ and ferns. After six miles it begins to pass
along a ridge or saddle, with the deep valley of the Krishna on one
side, and that of the Yena on the other. The hills which bound these
valleys are very precipitous, and, at this season, look grey and
barren, with ridges of rock cropping out, entirely destitute of all
vegetation. The valleys and lower <DW72>s of the hills are covered with
fields of grain, now in stubble, but which must look bright and green
during the rainy season.

At a distance of ten miles from Malcolm-penth, on a <DW72> overlooking
the Krishna valley, there are some small experimental farms, belonging
to apothecaries in Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy's hospital at Bombay,
at a place called Paunchgunny. An application was made for some
chinchona-plants, to be raised at Paunchgunny; no doubt all possible
care and attention would have been bestowed upon them; and I,
therefore, regret that it should be a locality where they are not at
all likely to flourish. Here the road descends the Tai ghaut into the
Deccan, and in a couple of hours we reached the bungalow on the banks
of the river Krishna, opposite the town of Waee.

The town on the other side of the river, with its numerous temples,
was by far the most interesting place, in an architectural point of
view, that we had yet seen. Long flights of stone steps lead up from
the waters of the sacred Krishna to the paved platform on which the
temples are built. Crowds of women and children in blue dresses, and
men in white cotton cloths and red turbans, were washing their clothes
in the river, or sitting on the steps and gazing into the water, while
naked Brahmins employed themselves in scrubbing the copper utensils of
the temples. The largest and most imposing temple is that dedicated
to Ganesa, or Gunputty as he is called in the Deccan. It is a mass of
solid masonry, whence a wide flight of stone steps leads down to the
Krishna. The shrine itself is a plain stone building, with a large
vestibule in front, consisting of four arched entrances on each side,
and three at the end. The ceiling of this porch is very curious. It
is formed of square flagstones fitted into each other, and clamped
together above, so as to make a flat surface exactly resembling the
pavement below. From the porch a square doorway leads into the shrine,
which is a small chamber without ornament or decoration, with the
colossal figure of Gunputty facing the entrance. The idol, with a huge
elephant's head, the trunk of which it holds in one of its four hands,
an enormous belly, and cross legs, is hewn out of a solid block of
black stone.

The temple of Gunputty is surmounted by a very remarkable spire,
consisting of broad concave flutings rising out of a circlet of
lotus-leaves, and approaching each other slightly as they ascend, until
they finally terminate in another circle of lotus-leaves, out of which
a fluted dome rises and crowns the spire. The whole effect is very
good, and forms the principal feature in the view of Waee from the
right bank of the Krishna.

A little further back there is a small temple dedicated to Siva or
Mahadeo, surrounded by a high wall. Within the enclosure, and in
front of the shrine, there is a canopy supported on sixteen stone
columns, the inner four being under a small dome, and the rest of
the roof consisting of a very curious pavement-like ceiling, exactly
similar to that in front of Gunputty's temple. Advancing through this
vestibule, which is a plain but perfect piece of masonry in very good
taste, we came to a large image of Siva's bull, called _Nandi_, under
a _mandap_ or canopy, supported by four pillars. The image, which is
in a sitting posture, with its head turned towards the door of the
shrine, has numerous ornaments carved about its head and neck, amongst
them a necklace of bells. It is hewn out of an immense block of stone.
Immediately in front of _Nandi_ is the shrine itself, but the interior
was too dark to enable us to discern the god. The lower part of the
building is of plain masonry, with two small square windows in fretted
stone-work; but the upper part is surmounted by a richly-carved spire
and dome, while on the cornice of the roof there are niches containing
stone figures. The spire has three tiers of gods round it in niches,
and is crowned by a fluted dome, resting on a circlet of lotus-leaves.
There is another temple on the platform facing the river, dedicated to
Parvati, Siva's wife.

By the time we had completed the examination of these temples, we were
surrounded by a great crowd of Brahmins, _hamals_, girls and boys, who
continued to follow us about.

We then went up one of the streets of this most devout little town,
and came to a temple dedicated to Vishnu, the enclosure of which is
also surrounded by a high wall, with lean-to grain-shops outside. The
interior of the enclosure is lined with betel-nut palms, and paved with
large flags, on one of which the figure of a tortoise is carved. The
temple stands in the centre, with a richly ornamented spire above it.
The interior consists of a nave, with aisles on each side, and at the
end, opposite the doorway, there is an open grating, within which is
the deity. The temple was crowded with nautch-girls, and numbers of
people were passing in and out, doing _poojah_. They first prostrated
themselves at the entrance, then before the grating, and finally
touched a bell overhead before giving place to other devotees. Nearly
opposite Vishnu's temple is another to his wife Lakshmi.

We afterwards walked through the bazar, a busy interesting scene,
crowded with people. We saw exposed for sale grains of all kinds in
baskets, heaps of red ochre for painting Gods and the sect-marks on
the forehead,[488] sweetmeats, cotton cloths, muslins, and chatties of
clay and copper. Near the river there are five smaller temples to Siva,
each with its _Nandi_ outside the door, and many sacred peepul-trees,
surrounded by walls of solid masonry.

At sunset the view of Waee from the opposite side of the river, with
the temples reflected in the water, the thickets of trees behind, and
the crowds of people in snow-white cotton dresses and red turbans, was
enchanting. Waee derives its great sanctity partly from being on the
banks of the sacred Krishna, and partly from the tradition that it was
the residence of the five Pandus, the favourite mythical heroes of
the Hindus, during part of the time of their exile. The people still
have many tales respecting their deeds, especially those of Bhima, who
was the biggest and strongest of the five. A peak rising above the
dried-up barren line of mountains behind the town is called after them
_Pandughur_. The temples of Waee were chiefly built, about a century
ago, by the head of a wealthy Mahratta family named Rastia.

From Waee we travelled over dried-up plains, with arid desolate hills
in the distance, and reached the village of Shirwul at early dawn.
There were a few banyans near the road, and some babool-trees (_Acacia
Arabica_) dotted about over the plain. The babool-tree in the Deccan
has the same uses as the carob in Peru. The hard tough wood is
extensively used for ploughshares, naves of wheels, and tent-pegs; its
necklace-shaped pods are favourite food for sheep and goats, and the
bark is used for tanning.[489] It flourishes on dry arid plains, and
especially in black cotton-soil, where other trees are rarely met with.
The hedges round Shirwul are of prickly pear or milk-bush (_Euphorbia
tirucalli_[490]).

Shirwul is one amongst many of those village communities of the Deccan
which have retained their peculiar customs and organization from time
immemorial. The Hindu Rajahs have been succeeded by Mohammedan Kings,
who in their turn have been followed by Mogul Subadars, Mahratta
Peishwas, and English Collectors, but the village communities have
continued unchanged through all these revolutions, and thus the
great mass of the people still live under institutions which excite
veneration from their immense age. The cultivator of the Deccan obeys
precisely the same rules and has the same customs as were followed
by his ancestor before the period of history commenced; and, as
the land-assessment has now been established for thirty years, on
remarkably easy terms, his condition may not disadvantageously be
compared with that of any other peasantry in the world.

The village-system of the Deccan is so curious in itself, and so
interesting from its unknown antiquity, that some account of one of
the villages a few miles from Poona, similar in all respects to that
of Shirwul, will not be out of place. I have taken it from an article
written thirty years ago.[491]

The land belonging to the village comprises 3669 acres, 1955 arable
and the rest common pasture, with hedges of milk-bush (_Euphorbia
tirucalli_) enclosing the garden-grounds. The village, which is
surrounded by a mud wall with two gates, includes 107 dwelling-houses
of sun-dried bricks with terraced roofs, a _chowree_ or town-hall, and
three temples. The houses have _wosurees_ or open porticos in front,
and the interiors consist of three or four small dark rooms with no
windows. The temples are of hewn stone and _chunam_.

The boundaries and institutions of the village have undergone no
alteration from time immemorial, and its offices are hereditary.
They consist of that of the _Pattel_ or chief magistrate, his deputy
the _Chowgulla_, the _Koolcurny_ or accountant, and of the _Barra
Balloota_, or twelve subordinate servants.

The _Pattel_ holds his office, which is hereditary and saleable, from
Government, under a written obligation specifying his duties, rank,
and the ceremonies he is entitled to. He has to collect the Government
dues from the cultivators, punish offences, redress wrongs, and settle
disputes. In important cases he summons a _Punchayet_ or sort of jury,
and when they are of a serious nature he refers them to the _Amildar_
or Collector of revenue.

The _Koolcurny_ or accountant keeps the records and accounts,
comprising a general measurement of village-lands, a list of fields, of
the inhabitants, and a detailed account of the revenue. He is generally
a Brahmin, and has lands or fees allotted to him by Government.

The _Barra Balloota_ offices are hereditary, and the holders, called
_Ballootadars_, are bound to their services to the community for a
fixed proportion of the produce of the soil, from each cultivator. They
are twelve in number, namely, the _Sutar_ or carpenter, who repairs all
wooden instruments; the _Lohar_ or blacksmith, who keeps all iron-work
in repair; the _Parit_ or washerman, who washes all the men's clothes;
the _Nahawi_ or barber, who shaves and cuts the nails of the villagers,
and kneads the muscles and cracks the joints of the Pattel and
Koolcurny; the _Kumbhar_ or potter; the _Potedar_ or silversmith; the
_Goorow_ or dresser of idols; the _Koli_ or water-carrier; the _Mang_
or ropemaker, who makes ropes of _Hibiscus cannabis_, and is of very
low caste; and the _Mhar_ or _Parwarree_, an outcast whose dwelling is
outside the village--he acts as watchman, carries letters, and gives
evidence as to village rights, before Punchayets; the _Tsamhar_ or
cobbler, and _Gramjosi_ or astrologer.

Besides the above duties, the Ballootadars have certain perquisites.
The carpenter furnishes the stool on which the brides and bridegrooms
are bathed in the marriage ceremony; the blacksmith sticks the hook
through the flesh of devotees who swing; the barber plays on the pipe
and tabor at weddings; and the potter prepares the stewed mutton
at harvest-homes. In addition to the Ballootadars there are some
other lower officials called _Alutadars_, consisting of a watchman,
gatekeeper, betel-man, gardener, bard, musician, and host of the
Ganjams of the Lingayet sect.

The cultivators of the Deccan are lean short men, with black straight
hair, kept shorn except on the upper lip, bronze complexions, high
cheek-bones, low foreheads, and teeth stained with betel. They are
temperate and hard-working, warmly attached to their children, frugal,
and not improvident, but deceitful, cunning, and false. Their food
consists of grains, pulses, greens, roots, fruits, hot spices, and oil;
together with milk and ghee. No liquor is sold in the villages. Their
every-day fare is first a cake of _bajree_,[492] or _jowaree_,[493]
baked on a plate of iron; secondly green pods or fruits cut in pieces,
and boiled with pepper, garlic, or turmeric; and thirdly a porridge
of coarse-ground _jowaree_ and salt. They have three meals daily. For
breakfast they eat a cake with spiced vegetables, and a raw onion;
their wives bring them their dinners in the fields at noon, consisting
of two cakes and green pods boiled; and porridge and milk form their
suppers. The holiday fare is cakes of pulse and sugar, and balls of
split gram and spices.[494]

These hard-working people generally wear nothing but a dirty rag
between their legs, and another round their heads. On holidays,
however, they come out in a white turban, a frock of white cloth coming
down to the knees, a cloth round the waist, and a pair of drawers. The
furniture of their dwellings generally comprises two wooden pestles
and a stone mortar, earthenware and copper utensils, a wooden dish for
kneading dough, a flat stone and rolling pin for powdering spices, two
iron cups for lamps suspended by a chain, and two couches laced with
rope; the total value being about 40 shillings.

The men, as well as the women, are very fond of attending annual
pilgrimages at the temples, and several festivals break the monotony of
their working days, the chief of which are the _Hooli_, the _Dussera_,
the _Dewallee_, and another in honour of the cattle. The _Hooli_ is
held at the full moon in April, and lasts five days. The _Dussera_,
to celebrate the destruction of the Demon Mysore by the Goddess Kali,
is in October, and the _Dewallee_ twenty days afterwards. The cattle
festival is in August, when the oxen are painted and dressed up, fed
with sugar, and worshipped by their owners. In the hot dry months the
cultivators hunt deer, hares, and wild hogs.

The agricultural implements used in the Deccan are the same as were in
use upwards of 3000 years ago. They consist of a plough, which makes
a mere scratch, made of babool-wood; a rude cart on two solid wheels;
a harrow with wooden teeth; and a drill-plough.[495] The oxen do most
of the work; and the sheep are black and white, with long hanging
ears. There are two crops, called the _Khereef_ and _Rubbee_. In the
_Khereef_ crop the sowing takes place in June and July, and the harvest
in October. _Bajree_ is sown with a drill-plough in rows, mixed with
_toor_ and other pulses. It is the chief food of the people. Next comes
the other common grain _jowaree_. Italian millet, _raggee_, _badlee_,
and the _amaranthus_ are sown in smaller quantities. All land, whether
ploughed or not, is subjected to the drag-hoe, first lengthways and
then across, loosening the surface and destroying weeds: and crops of
millets are alternated with those of pulses. When the harvest begins,
a level spot is chosen for a threshing-floor, and made dry and hard.
A pole, five feet high, is fixed in the centre, the grains are heaped
round the floor, and the women break off the ears and throw them in.
Oxen are then tied to each other and to the post, and driven round,
to beat out the corn. Winnowing is done by a man standing on a high
stool, and pouring out the grain and chaff to the winds. Ceremonies are
then performed in honour of the five Pandus, and the grain is stored
in large baskets. The pulses which are sown in the _Khereef_ crop are
_toor_ raised in _jowaree_ and _bajree_ fields, the pods of which are
detached by beating the plant with a log of wood; _moong_, sown by
itself, and when ripe pulled up by the roots; _ooreed_; _mutkee_; and
_lablab_.

Plants from which cordage is made, namely the _sun_ (_Crotalaria
juncea_) and _ambadee_ (_Hibiscus cannabinus_) are also raised. They
grow to a height of five or six feet, and are then pulled up, steeped
for some days in water, and the bark stripped off.

In the _Rubbee_, or cold season crop, the sowing takes place in October
and November, and the harvests in February. At this time wheat is sown
in rich black or loamy soil, well manured; _gram_ (_Cicer arietinum_)
in the best black soil; and flax, generally raised on the edge of
wheat-fields, in strips of four rows. The land is only ploughed once in
two years, to the depth of a span.

As the Indians of Peru live chiefly on roots, so the natives of the
parts of India which I visited find their chief sustenance in numerous
kinds of millets and pulses. Rice is certainly their favourite food;
but, from the expenses attending the necessary irrigation, it is
dearer and not so easily attainable as the other cereals, and the
great mass of the people live on dry grains and pulses. All these
cereals contain less nourishing matter than wheat, being comparatively
poor in nitrogen, but this deficiency is made up by the pulses which
are generally eaten with them. It is a most remarkable fact that the
natives habitually combine these two different kinds of food, in their
dishes, in about the same proportions as science has found to be
necessary in order that the mixture may contain the same proportion of
carbonous to nitrogenous matter as is found in wheat.[496]

Every one who has travelled much, in different parts of the world, or
who has reflected at all on the subject, well knows that there is
far more happiness than misery on this earth, that the good outweighs
the evil, and that the wars and revolutions of history are but specks
on the long periods of tranquillity which remain for ever unrecorded.
The village system of the Deccan is a venerable monument, reminding us
how little the turmoils and civil wars, invasions, and revolutions,
of which history is composed, affect the mass of the people. The
endless conspiracies, treasons, massacres, and battles which fill the
narrative of Briggs's Ferishta might not have happened in the Deccan
at all, for all the change they have effected in the institutions and
customs of the bulk of the population. The Ballootadar still holds the
same office which was filled by his ancestor centuries ago, performs
the same service, and receives the same perquisites. The cultivator
uses the same implements, raises the same crops in the same way, and
practises the same customs. As it was centuries ago, so it is now;
nothing is changed, and these time-honoured institutions continue to be
admirably adapted to the simple wants and habits of the people who live
under them. These Deccanees now enjoy their land for a very trifling
assessment unalterable for thirty years, their means are sufficient to
supply themselves and their families with all they require in the way
of clothing and furniture, they have a considerable variety in their
food, days of relaxation and festivity are not of rare occurrence,
their immediate superiors are of their own race and religion, and there
is little to remind them of the presence of foreign rulers. On the
whole, in their own simple way, they probably enjoy as much happiness
as the peasantry of most other countries in the world, while their
wants are fewer and their desires more easily attainable.

In the country between Shirwul and Poona the harvest had already been
reaped when we crossed it. In one or two places there were avenues of
mango-trees by the road-side, but generally the country was bare and
treeless. The great city of Poona, once the seat of Mahratta power,
still retains the signs of its former splendour. In the narrow crowded
streets there are many large houses of two stories, with much richly
carved wood about the balconies and doorways, and frescos painted
on the walls of Gods and Goddesses, and scenes in the lives of the
Pandus or of Krishna. The bazar is generally thronged with Brahmins,
Moslems, Lingayets, Bohrahs, Parsees, men, women, and children, while
the shops are occupied by silversmiths, workers in copper, brass, and
wood; sellers of grains, drugs, oils, and ingredients for curries; of
sweetmeats, of cloths, of blue and green bangles for women, and of
endless other wares. The temples are numerous, but none of them are
remarkable either for size or beauty. The old palace of the Peishwas
forms one side of an open space, and is surrounded by a high wall with
semicircular bastions. The entrance is by an archway, flanked on either
side by solid Norman-looking towers, with a balcony over it, extending
from one tower to the other, from which the young Peishwa Mahadeo Rao
threw himself in 1795.

In 1773 the Peishwa Narrain Rao was murdered in this gloomy-looking
castle by his uncle Ragonath Rao, and many another deed of darkness has
been done within its walls.

Leaving the town, we drove past the _Hira Bagh_ or "diamond garden,"
where there is a large tank with a wooded island in the centre, to the
foot of the rocky hill of Parbutty, on the summit of which there is a
temple to Siva. The ascent is by a well-cut flight of steps, and the
temple,[497] which crowns the hill, is surrounded by a wall of very
solid masonry, with a covered gallery having quaintly carved wooden
balconies, and an open rampart above. From one of these balconies Bajee
Rao, the last of the Peishwas, watched the defeat of his army at Kirkee
in 1817; when Poona, and all its territory, became an integral part of
British India.

The view from the Parbutty hill is very extensive. At our feet was
the _Hira Bagh_, with its broad sheet of water, and numerous groves
of trees; beyond was the great city almost hidden by trees, the roofs
of houses showing here and there, but no conspicuous towers or lofty
building. Further still we could see the windings of the rivers Mula
and Muta, tributaries of the Krishna. To the left was the village of
Kirkee, and to the right the churches, numerous bungalows, and other
buildings of the English cantonment. At this time of year the whole
mass of buildings and gardens forming and mingling with the city
and cantonment, is surrounded by brown dried-up plains, and rocky
arid-looking mountains, which furnish a sombre frame to the picture.

This magnificent view was exceedingly interesting, because it seemed
more than probable that, in a not far distant future, the city of Poona
might become the capital of British India--the seat of Government of a
vast Empire, united for the first time in history under one firm and
beneficent rule, enjoying a universal peace unknown for centuries, and
rapidly advancing in material prosperity. Calcutta must be given up
as the most distant from England, the least conveniently situated as
regards other parts of India, and the most unhealthy place that could
be selected for a capital. This point once granted, the old Mahratta
capital recommends itself as combining all the advantages in which
the pestiferous banks of the Hooghly are deficient. Poona is within
a few hours' journey of the port of Bombay by railroad; situated on
an elevated table-land, its climate is healthy and suitable both for
Europeans and natives; and it is in a central position as regards all
the Presidencies of India.

The railroad from Poona to Bombay stopped at Khandalla, on the summit
of the Bhore ghaut, where a portion of it is still unfinished. The
village of Khandalla is perched on the edge of a deep chasm, mountains
rise up into sharp peaks to the right and left, and there is a very
extensive view over the Concan plains. Here the passengers had to get
out of the train, and go down the ghaut by the excellent road made by
Sir John Malcolm, in bullock-_gharries_ or in _palkees_, on ponies or
on foot. The works of the railway were, however, progressing fast; and
when finished, the railroad up the Bhore ghaut will be one of the most
remarkable works of the kind in the world. The station at Khandalla is
1800 feet, and Kampuli, at the foot of the ghaut, barely 200 feet above
the sea. For a distance of 220 miles there are no passes for wheeled
vehicles from Bombay to the interior, except the Bhore and Tal ghauts,
so precipitous is the volcanic scarp which forms this portion of the
western mountains.

The railroad incline down the Bhore ghaut is upwards of fifteen miles
long, the rise being 1831 feet, and the average gradient 1 in 48.
In this distance there will be 2535 yards of tunnelling, besides an
immense amount of cutting and embanking, eight viaducts, and eighteen
bridges. The best known work of this kind in Europe is at Semmering,
across the Noric Alps; but that of the Bhore ghaut exceeds it in
length, in height, and in the steepness of the gradient.

At the foot of the Bhore ghaut is the village of Kampuli, whence the
railroad runs across the plains of the Concan, over an arm of the sea,
past Tannah, and through the island of Salsette, into the town of
Bombay.

I had now personally examined the Neilgherry hills, the Koondahs, the
Pulneys, Coorg, and the Mahabaleshwurs; and collected information
respecting the hills near Courtallum, the Anamallays, the Shervaroys,
Wynaad, the Baba-Bodeens, and Nuggur. After a careful consideration of
the conditions which each of these districts offer, and a comparison of
their elevations, climate, soil, and the character of their vegetation,
with those of the South American chinchona forests; I was fully
confirmed in the opinion that the mountains of the Indian peninsula
offered a splendid field for the cultivation of this new and most
valuable product.

The different species thrive in different localities, and require
various modes of treatment, but I am inclined to the belief that one
species or another will thrive in all the hills from Cape Comorin to
the parallel of 14° N. This view may prove to be too sanguine, and it
may be that the droughts at one season, and the excessive rainfall
in another, in several of the hill districts, will prove prejudicial
to successful cultivation. Under any circumstances, however, there
can be no doubt that the climates of the Neilgherries, Anamallays,
Pulneys, and probably Coorg, are admirably adapted to the production
of quinine in these precious trees. On the other hand, it is possible
that, under cultivation, the chinchonæ may be able to adapt themselves
to conditions of climate differing as much from those of their native
habitat even as the Mahabaleshwur hills, and that their cultivation
is capable of far wider extension than I am now able to expect. It
would be a source of gratification if chinchona plantations could
be established in any part of the Bombay Presidency; and while Mr.
Dalzell, the able Conservator of forests, superintends any experiments
which may be made, it will certainly not be from a want of botanical
knowledge or intelligent care, if his anticipations of success are not
realised.[498]




CHAPTER XXVIII.

  CULTIVATION OF THE CHINCHONA-PLANTS IN THE NEILGHERRY HILLS, UNDER THE
  SUPERINTENDENCE OF MR. McIVOR.


IN previous chapters detailed accounts have been given of the
proceedings connected with the collection of chinchona plants and seeds
in South America, their conveyance to India, and the selection of
suitable sites for their cultivation. It now only remains to record the
progress of this important experiment in the Neilgherry hills during
the last year, and to offer some remarks on the contemplated measures
connected with its future management. A very valuable Report by Mr.
McIvor, on the same subject, will be found in an Appendix.

It is a subject of congratulation that the Government should have at
their disposal the services of one so admirably fitted for the post
of Director of chinchona cultivation as Mr. McIvor. This gentleman
has superintended the Government gardens at Ootacamund for fourteen
years, and their beauty as well as their usefulness are due to
him;[499] while his periodical visits to the Conolly teak plantations
have been productive of the most valuable results,[500] and he has
successfully introduced a great number of English and other plants into
the Neilgherry hills.[501] Mr. McIvor combines with his attainments
as a scientific gardener great practical experience, and a thorough
acquaintance with the climates, soils, and flora of the hills. He has
long taken a deep interest in the question of the introduction of
chinchona-plants into India, and he brought the subject to the notice
of Lord Harris, then Governor of Madras, as long ago as 1855. Since
that time he has made himself master of the subject by a study of every
work of any importance which has appeared in Europe within the last
thirty years;[502] while the practical knowledge which he has acquired
of the requirements of chinchona-plants during the fifteen months that
he has now superintended their cultivation, in addition to his previous
qualifications, makes him fitter than any other person that could be
found for the direction of this most important experiment.

In July 1861 Mr. McIvor was appointed Superintendent of chinchona
cultivation by the Madras Government, with full and entire control
over the operations, in direct communication with the Government,
and subject to no interference from any intermediate authority.[503]
Orders to the same effect were sent out to Madras by the Secretary of
State for India in Council on July 2nd, 1861, and the same orders were
repeated both to the Governor-General and to the Governor of Madras,
in despatches dated February 1862. It was above all things important
that Mr. McIvor's position, in connexion with the chinchona experiment,
should be authoritatively defined, in order to protect him from
attempts at interference, which have been as vexatious as they have
been unnecessary, and which have more than once threatened to render
success impossible. These dangers are now, fortunately, at an end; and
the interest taken by Sir William Denison, the present Governor of
Madras, in a measure calculated to confer so great a benefit on the
people of India, ensures to it a fair trial, and is one of the best
guarantees of ultimate success.

Mr. McIvor's zeal and ability, his intimate knowledge of his
profession, of the Neilgherry hills, and of all questions bearing on
the subject of chinchona-plants, and his acquirements as a scientific
as well as a practical gardener, justify the confidence which has
thus been placed in him by the Secretary of State in Council, and
by the Madras Government. He has also had the advantage of personal
intercourse, for weeks together, with Mr. Cross, Mr. Weir, and myself,
after we had explored and carefully examined the chinchona forests in
South America; but his subsequent experience in the cultivation of the
plants under his charge has furnished him with means of observation
which now gives his opinion greater weight than those of persons whose
knowledge is derived from books, from short visits to the plantations
in Java, or even from personal examination of the South American
forests.

In offering my opinion on the best method of cultivating the
chinchona-plants, I have the satisfaction of knowing that my
conclusions substantially agree with those of Mr. McIvor--mine being
founded on experience gained in the chinchona forests, and his on
careful observation of the plants which he has reared in India. That
these views should be concurred in by Dr. Weddell, Mr. Howard, and Mr.
Spruce, is most satisfactory, as it supplies an additional presumption
of their correctness.

I will now proceed to give an account of the progress of the chinchona
cultivation in the Neilgherry hills. The first batch of seeds, being
those of the "grey-bark" species from Huanuco, arrived at Ootacamund
on the 13th of January, 1861, and those of the "red-bark" followed in
the end of February. On the 7th of April 463 plants of _C. succirubra_
and six of _C. Calisaya_ reached their destination on the Neilgherry
hills in very good condition, considering the length of time they had
been in Wardian cases, and thus the experiment was fairly commenced.

The first sowing, which took place in January, was not very successful,
because Mr. McIvor was induced to use too retentive a soil, having been
misled by the treatment of seeds adopted in Java; and only 3 to 4 per
cent. germinated. The second sowing took place early in March, the soil
used being of a much freer nature, half composed of burned earth; and
15 to 25 per cent. germinated. Encouraged by this result, Mr. McIvor
used a soil composed entirely of burned earth for the third sowing,
which took place in the beginning of April, and included the seeds of
the "red-bark" species. Of this sowing 60 per cent. germinated, and
of the seeds of _C. micrantha_ 90 per cent. It is to be remembered
that all these seeds were collected in the South American forests some
months before, and that they had passed through the perils of several
climates, and a voyage of many thousands of miles.

In May all the plants of _C. succirubra_ had taken fairly to the
soil, and were in a healthy and flourishing condition, those of _C.
Calisaya_ were doing well, but recovering more slowly from the effects
of the voyage, and the seedlings were growing fast. The temperature
given to the plants was 60° in the morning, rising to 75° in the day,
with plenty of light and air; this treatment having proved to be best
adapted for their rapid growth. Of course they would grow higher if
shaded, and consequently drawn up, according to the erroneous plan
adopted in Java; but this is not what is wanted, and, by giving them
plenty of light and air, they grew into fine strong plants, as broad as
they were long.

It was found that the chinchonæ are remarkably impatient of any damp at
their roots, all the species thrive better in rough and open than in
fine soil, and there is reason to believe that they will bear a much
drier climate than we originally supposed.

During the autumn of 1861 the work of propagation, by means of cuttings
and layers, progressed rapidly; and, whereas in June 1861 we only had
2114 chinchona-plants of valuable species at Ootacamund, in January
the number was increased to 9732 plants. The layers of _C. succirubra_
root sufficiently to be removed in five weeks, and cuttings in two
months; layers of the "grey-bark" taking a little longer time to root,
or about six weeks. Mr. McIvor has also made the important discovery
that chinchonæ strike freely from _eyes_, and make beautiful plants
exactly like strong seedlings. These _eyes_ will give about eight fine
strong plants for one that is obtained from cuttings, which is a great
advantage while there is not much wood in the young plants. In October
Mr. McIvor reduced the temperature of one of the propagating houses
to 55° at night, and 65° during the day; and, under this treatment,
which is also probably advantageous to the bark, the plants appeared
to grow faster, and the leaves became a very beautiful bright green.
The thickness of the bark, in the plants of _C. succirubra_, is very
remarkable, having been in some instances nearly one-seventh of an
inch last January, and in the smaller stems the average thickness of
the bark considerably exceeds that of the wood. Mr. McIvor attributes
the unusual thickness of the bark to the presence of a large number of
healthy leaves, exposed to bright light. These leaves throw back into
the bark a large quantity of highly elaborated matter. The experience
of a year's cultivation convinced Mr. McIvor that, although the most
suitable elevation and climate differs with the various species, yet
that they all require a rich, rough, and very open soil. In September
the erection of a new propagating house for chinchona-plants, in the
Government gardens at Ootacamund, was sanctioned, which was completed
early in December. It is 63 feet long by 21 broad, and will hold about
8000 plants.

The Dutch Government in Java, at the request of the Government of
India, arranged to forward some chinchona-plants of the species
cultivated in that island to Calcutta; and accordingly 100 of _C.
Calisaya_, 300 of _C. Pahudiana_, and 7 of _C. lancifolia_ were
transmitted. Of these 48 of _C. Calisaya_, 4 of _C. lancifolia_, and
250 of _C. Pahudiana_ arrived at Ootacamund on the 20th of December,
1861. In exchange for these plants a supply of _C. succirubræ_, and a
proportionate number of the other species, will be sent to Java, "not
more in return for the valuable accession actually received to our
stock of plants of _C. Calisaya_, than in acknowledgment of the very
courteous and liberal spirit evinced by the Dutch authorities."[504] At
about the same time Mr. McIvor also sent 100 plants of _C. succirubra_
and 50 of each of the "grey-bark" species to Calcutta, with a view to
the establishment of a chinchona plantation in the Sikkim or Bhotan
hills.

The plants which arrived from Java were drawn and weak, and had
evidently been grown without sufficient light. They were all more or
less affected by rot at their roots, and many of the roots were covered
with fungi. A few of the plants of _C. Calisaya_ died, but the others
recovered under Mr. McIvor's watchful care.

A large parcel of seeds of _C. Condaminea_, probably of two varieties
(_Chahuarguera_ and _Uritusinga_), and a smaller packet of seeds of
_C. crispa_, were despatched from England in January, and arrived at
Ootacamund in March, 1862. By this time Mr. McIvor had discovered the
best method of treatment for chinchona-seeds. He sows in very sandy
soil; and while so much water is never given as to make the particles
of soil adhere to each other, yet the soil is kept in a uniform
medium state of moisture. In this way the seeds not only germinate
soon, but come up very strong. There is every reason to expect that a
good per-centage of these seeds will germinate,[505] and that a large
number of these, the earliest known of all the valuable chinchona
species, will soon be growing luxuriantly in the upper _sholas_ of the
Neilgherry hills. Mr. Howard has also presented the Government with a
plant of _C. Uritusinga_ of Pavon (_C. Condaminea_, H. and B.), six
feet high, which he had raised from seed sent to him from Loxa. This
precious plant was embarked on board the steamer on the 4th of March,
1862, and arrived at Ootacamund early in April.

Thus, after two anxious years, we now have all the valuable species
of chinchonæ mentioned in the second chapter, safely established in
Southern India. In the following tabular statement will be seen at a
glance the number of species, the number of each species, the number of
plants last February, their monthly increase since June, their monthly
growth, and their present dimensions. The number is now increasing at
the rate of several thousands every month. The imported plants of _C.
succirubra_ have already produced some thousands by propagation; and in
December the seedlings had attained a size sufficient to give wood for
propagation, the first of them having even then produced a few hundred
plants.

From the total number of 10,157 chinchona-plants must be deducted 425
of the worthless _C. Pahudiana_ sent from Java, leaving a total of 9732
of valuable species on the 1st of February, with the number rapidly
increasing. The increase was not so large as it otherwise would have
been during the first two months of 1862, owing to the supply of a
number of plants to Java, and the transmission of others to Calcutta,
with a view to the formation of a plantation in the Bengal hills, and
of sixteen to Mr. Maltby for the Rajah of Travancore.

[Illustration: MONTHLY REPORTS of the Number and Growth of the
CHINCHONA PLANTS on the Neilgherry Hills.[506]]

It is exceedingly satisfactory to compare these results with those
of the Dutch cultivators in Java. After _six_ years they only had
(exclusive of the _C. Pahudiana_, which is quite worthless) 8454
chinchona-plants of valuable species;[507] whereas in rather less
than _one_ year Mr. McIvor has reared 9732, without counting several
hundreds which he has transmitted to Java, Calcutta, and Travancore.
The Dutch have only introduced _two_ good species, while we have
obtained _nine_, exclusive of the four plants of _C. lancifolia_
presented by the Dutch authorities. Thus, the average increase of
valuable species of _chinchona_-plants in Java between 1854 and 1860
being at the rate of 1409 a year, the results attained in India have
been nearly seven times as great as those of the Dutch cultivators.
These facts are not mentioned in any spirit of undue exultation, but in
order to show that it is not advisable slavishly to follow the methods
of cultivation adopted by the Dutch, as two gentlemen, in official
positions, who have recently visited the plantations in Java, appear to
imagine. On the contrary, a system of cultivation diametrically opposed
to that of the Dutch has enabled Mr. McIvor to achieve his present
success; and the sites for plantations have been selected and prepared,
not with any reference to the erroneous and comparatively unsuccessful
systems pursued in Java, but on the principle of carefully comparing
the elevations, temperature, amount of humidity, and of exposure of the
mountains where the different valuable species of chinchona thrive in
South America, with analogous situations in the hills of Southern India.

The important process of planting out has now commenced in the
Neilgherry hills, and it has been a subject of careful consideration
whether the chinchona-plants should be grown under dense shade, under
the partial shade of forest-trees, or quite in the open: in other
words--what are the elevations and amounts of exposure best suited to
the growth of the plants, and the development of their alkaloids?

In Java the chinchona-plants were at first established at far too low
an elevation, in a wretched soil, and exposed to the full glare of
the sun. Dr. Junghuhn, the present Superintendent, went to the other
extreme, and, though the proper elevation has been ascertained, yet
the error has been committed of forming the plantations in the dense
shade of the forest, with the intention of allowing some trees to be
drawn up in search of light, without a branch for thirty or forty feet,
and of cutting them down for their bark in about forty years, and of
grubbing up others in search of imaginary quinine in their roots.[508]
I understand that this plan has at last been found to be erroneous,
and that Dr. Junghuhn now directs all the trees in the vicinity of the
chinchona-plants to be cut down, though faith is still maintained in
the quinine-yielding roots of the worthless _C. Pahudiana_.[509]

If the thing was not sufficiently evident in itself, the appearance of
the barks sent from Java to the Exhibition of 1862 is quite enough to
prove that chinchona-plants ought not to be cultivated under the shade
of forest-trees. The question of the proper amount of exposure to which
each species should be subjected is, however, one which requires very
careful consideration; as upon its correct solution depends the most
important point of all, namely the method of cultivation which will
be most profitable, and most suitable to the operations of private
enterprise.

Mr. McIvor commenced experiments in planting out in the spring of 1861.
In April he planted out three plants of _C. succirubra_, two under
shade, and one in an open spot surrounded by brushwood and undergrowth.
On the 29th of the same month the S.W. monsoon set in, and the plants
under dense shade assumed a weak climber-like habit, and were injured
from the leaves being cut to pieces by the constant drip from the
forest-trees;[510] while the plant shaded by the brushwood continued
in the most luxuriant state of health, with its leaves uninjured. In
September 1861, six plants of different species were planted out in
cleared spots on the highest and most exposed points of the Neddiwuttum
site, and all of these have not only borne the cold and drought without
injury, but their growth has never even been checked, and at present
they are in the finest possible state of health. Their leaves are of
the deepest green, some of them measuring 12 inches by 9.

Between May and August fifteen "red-bark" plants were planted out at
Ootacamund. The unusual cold of December checked the growth of these
plants, but did not injure them in the least, and the leaves still keep
their deep-green colour, and measure from 7 to 9 inches.[511]

Early in January 1862, the formation of a nursery was commenced at
Neddiwuttum, large enough for 300,000 or 400,000 Chinchonæ; and 2400
were planted out. 150 acres are to be planted, at the Neddiwuttum
site, during the year; of which 75 acres will be planted under
various degrees of shade from forest-trees, in order to ascertain
the results of this method by actual experiment; and 75 quite in the
open, the young plants being protected from the direct rays of the sun
by artificial shade during the first year or two. The original stock
will be retained in the gardens at Ootacamund, for the purpose of
propagation, and the propagated plants will be used for stocking the
nurseries and plantations.

With regard to the question of whether the chinchonæ should be planted
out in dense shade of forest-trees or in the open, it will be well to
recapitulate some of the information which has been collected in their
native habitat in South America.

In the forests of Caravaya I observed that the plants of _C. Calisaya_,
when in dense shade, were tall and weak, with few branches, and without
any sign of ever having flowered or fruited. When very slightly shaded,
as on the ridge of rocks above the Yanamayu, or scarcely at all, as
on the precipice of Ccasa-sani, they spread more, have a more healthy
appearance, and are covered with capsule-bearing panicles; while the
most thriving and healthy-looking young plant that I met with, was
growing in the open, without any shade whatever. It is quite certain
that an abundance of light and air is an absolute necessity for the
full development of the alkaloids in the bark of _C. Calisaya_, and
that the trees must either grow at the edge of the forests, or else
find their way to the light, by overtopping all other trees: otherwise,
as is too often the case, they assume a weakly, straggling habit under
the baneful influence of dense shade.

Dr. Weddell is of opinion that, during the first year or two, the soil
and trunks of young trees of _C. Calisaya_ should be protected from the
direct influence of the scorching sun, as he had observed that plants
so exposed generally appeared to have a stunted growth. He refers of
course to the _Josephiana_ or shrub variety of _C. Calisaya_, but their
dwarfed habit must be attributed to the less fertile soil of the open
grass-land in which they grow, and partly also to the great altitude,
and consequently cold climate, rather than to effects of exposure to
light and air.

With respect to the "red-bark" species, there cannot be a doubt
that they should be planted in the open. On this point Mr. Spruce's
observations are quite conclusive. He says--"The trees standing in
open ground, pasture, cane-field, &c., are far healthier and more
luxuriant than those growing in the forest, where they are hemmed in
and partially shaded by other trees; and while many of the former had
flowered freely, the latter were, without exception, sterile. This
plainly shows that, although the red-bark may need shade whilst young
and tender, it really requires (like most trees) plenty of air, light,
and room, wherein to develop its proportions."[512]

The "grey-bark" species all bear the marks of exposure to free air,
cold, and sunshine; and the overspreading thallus of various _Grapideæ_
on their barks indicates that the trees have grown in open situations,
exposed to rain and sunshine.[513]

The _C. Condaminea_ trees, in the neighbourhood of Loxa, grow
sometimes in little clumps, and sometimes solitary, but always in dry
situations.[514] Dr. Seemann, who visited Loxa when serving on board
H.M.S. Herald, informs me that those which he saw, bearing ripe fruit,
were on the edge of thickets, entirely exposed to the influence of air
and sunshine.

Dr. Weddell assures me that he would never recommend that any of the
chinchona-trees should be planted in the dense shade of the forest,
as in such a situation the greater number would evidently soon be
smothered. He is of opinion that the Chinchonæ, in India, should be
planted in open ground; but he considers it important that the trunks
and soil should be shaded during the first year or two. He proposes
to effect this object either by planting the chinchonas at convenient
distances in a quincunx, alternately with some more fast-growing trees,
which might be cut away when no longer required;[515] or by planting
the chinchonas themselves close enough to oblige each other to run up,
sufficient space and air being gradually provided by judicious pruning
and thinning out. The former method might be a good one if it were
not for the faster-growing trees taking up a great proportion of the
nourishment from the soil, which would be more profitably reserved for
the chinchonas; and probably the efficient shading of the trees, while
young and tender, will be more easily and effectually provided for by
simple artificial means.

Mr. Howard, the author of '_Nueva Quinologia de Pavon_,' whose
knowledge on all questions connected with chinchona-plants is not
surpassed by that of any botanist in Europe, is clearly of opinion that
they should be planted in the open, without shade from other trees,
and that they should be cultivated as shrubs; when their branches will
yield an ample and remunerative supply of bark.

On the other hand, Dr. Junghuhn, in Java, has planted his chinchonæ
under the dense shade of forest-trees, where they must necessarily
be watery and unhealthy, where they will not flower or bear fruit,
and where he does not expect that they will yield quinine for fifty
years, when he contemplates the entire demolition of the plantations
by felling all the trees. Now, if such a system as this is to be
adopted in India, the chinchona-plants might as well never have been
introduced. The plantations would be a wasteful expense to Government,
with a remote chance of some profit, forming but a small fraction
of the outlay, about twice in a century; and the idea of chinchona
cultivation ever being undertaken by private enterprise, on this
system, is quite out of the question; for what planter in his senses
would commence the cultivation of a product which would yield him no
return for forty or fifty years?

When planted in the open chinchonæ grow luxuriantly, yield abundant
supplies of seed, and form fine thick bark, which, owing to the free
exposure of the leaves to the influence of light and fresh air,
contains a large per-centage of alkaloids; while, in the shade of
forest-trees, they run up into tall, weak, straggling plants, with
little chance of either bearing fruit, or elaborating much quinine in
their bark, until, after nearly half a century, some of them at length
overtop the other trees, and reach that essential sunshine of which
they had been so long deprived.

I not only think, with Mr. Spruce, Dr. Weddell, Mr. Howard, Mr. McIvor,
and Mr. Cross, that the chinchona-plants must be planted in the open,
and freely exposed to the influence of fresh air and sunshine; but I am
most strongly of opinion that, if the opposite system was unfortunately
adopted, it would have been far better if the expense and trouble of
introducing these precious trees into India had never been incurred.

It is true that, when planted in the forest, the chinchonæ will
look well to the casual observer, and that their cultivation can be
conducted without skill or care, as all will be left to nature; while,
in open ground, it will require great skill and constant attention to
get the young trees over the first year or two. The cleared ground
will be exposed to the full effects of evaporation and radiation, and
much judicious management will be necessary in applying artificial
shade, and in adopting other precautions. The open spaces should not, I
think, be of very great extent, without being broken up by clumps or
irregular lines of trees; and care must be taken that the supplies of
moisture and of water are not prejudiced by too much felling. But these
details may safely be left to Mr. McIvor, who now has the assistance of
two well-instructed English gardeners, named Batcock and Lyall; and he
will be able to obtain uniform and constant yearly supplies of bark,
without any damage to the trees, which, when once full-grown, will
thrive luxuriantly, and yield abundance of seeds.

The most suitable positions for chinchona-plants, as regards elevation
and climate, having been pointed out, and the best method of treatment
with respect to exposure being decided in favour of planting out in
open ground, two other questions remain to be discussed which are
intimately connected with the above,--namely, the conditions under
which the largest per-centage of febrifugal alkaloids will be formed in
the bark,[516] and the method of cultivation which is likely to yield
the largest and most remunerative supplies of bark in the shortest time.

One well-established fact, which is proved by universal experience,
is that all the species of chinchona-trees produce the thickest bark
and the largest per-centage of alkaloids when growing at the highest
elevation at which they respectively flourish. Thus, all other
circumstances being favourable, the _C. Calisaya_ and _C. succirubra_
species will yield more profitable crops when growing at an elevation
of 6000 feet, than at one of 5000 feet. The shrubby varieties of
chinchonæ are specially good when their stunted growth is owing to the
altitude of the locality.[517] Mr. Spruce ascertained, with regard to
the "red bark," that the greater the height at which the tree grows,
the larger is the proportion of alkaloids contained in the bark;[518]
and that, although the trees growing nearest the plain were generally
much larger, yet their bark was by no means so thick in proportion to
their diameter as in trees higher up. He adds that, in cutting down
trees in the hot plains, he has often been struck with the thinness of
the bark compared to that of trees growing in temperate climates.[519]

There are several other conditions under which the largest amount
of alkaloids is formed in chinchona-barks, which are as yet little
understood. Dr. Karsten suggests that the content of alkaloids in
the same species of chinchona-trees, growing in different ravines,
is affected by unceasing mists in one, and constant sunshine resting
on the vegetation in the other; the former impeding, and the latter
promoting, the formation of quinine.[520] In the Loxa region a great
difference has been noticed in the bark of _C. Condaminea_, according
as the tree has grown on the sides of the mountains most exposed to
the rays of the morning or of the evening sun: and Mr. Spruce remarks
of the "red-bark" trees that the ridges on which they grow all deviate
from an easterly and westerly direction, and that the trees are far
more abundant on their northern than on their southern <DW72>s. The
northern and eastern sides of the trees had also borne most flowers,
and scarcely a capsule ripened on their southern and western sides,
except on one tree of more open growth than the rest. This phenomenon
is due to the fact that the trees receive more sunshine from the north
and east, during the summer mornings,[521] the afternoons being usually
foggy.

All these points will receive careful attention from Mr. McIvor, in
conducting the cultivation; and his observations will soon enable him
to decide many points connected with the formation of quinine in the
bark, and to ascertain the most advantageous conditions under which the
plants should be cultivated.

The sites have been selected at Neddiwuttum and Dodabetta with
reference to the similarity of elevation and climate in those
localities to the native mountains of the species which it is intended
to cultivate in them, and because they have plenty of deep loamy soil.
It has also been determined that the best method of cultivation will be
found in planting out the chinchonæ in the open, for reasons already
given; and not only will the luxuriant and healthy growth of the
plants be provided for by this treatment, but it is also essential for
the formation of an abundant supply of alkaloids in their bark. This
process depends on the vigorous action of the leaves, and the healthful
condition of the leaves is due to a sufficient supply of sunshine. Dr.
Lindley says,--"It is to the action of leaves,--to the decomposition
of their carbonic acid, and of their water; to the separation of the
aqueous particles of the sap from the solid parts that were dissolved
in it; to the deposition thus effected of various earthy and other
substances, either introduced into plants as silex or metallic salts,
or formed there, as the vegetable alkaloids; to the extrication of
nitrogen; and, probably, to other causes as yet unknown--that the
formation of the peculiar secretions of plants, of whatever kind, is
owing. And this is brought about principally, if not exclusively, by
the agency of light. Their green colour becomes intense, in proportion
to their exposure to light within certain limits."[522]

Under cultivation the chinchona-plants must either be raised in their
shrubby form in the open, or as tall trees under the shade of the
forest. The latter system, which has been adopted by Dr. Junghuhn in
Java, is defended on the ground that, in their natural localities in
the Andes, the chinchonæ "grow in damp forests overshadowed by trees."
There are two things to be said against this. Firstly, that it is not
the case; for though it is true that some species of chinchonæ do grow
in damp shady forests, yet they never flourish in such positions, but
only when supplied with plenty of light and air; and secondly, even if
it was the case, such an argument would be worth nothing. In their wild
state, and in localities where they are indigenous, all plants find
certain conditions which are favourable to their perfect development;
but they have to struggle for existence with a multitude of neighbours.
Every condition is not supplied by Providence for the special behoof
of one particular genus, and, in virgin forests, all trees suffer more
or less from being overcrowded and overshadowed. But under cultivation
the case is different. The cultivator endeavours to combine all the
conditions best calculated to ensure the perfect development of a
particular plant, and does not subject it to the baneful influences of
too much shade, merely because it suffered from overshading in its wild
state. Mr. McIvor has very aptly illustrated this point, by mentioning
that Bruce found wheat growing wild in Upper Egypt, struggling for
existence with rushes and other weeds. An English farmer would be
surprised if he was told to sow his wheat in the hedges, instead of in
the fields, because in its wild state it is found amongst weeds and
briars!

The facts that it will be necessary to wait for thirty years before any
return can be expected; and that it will have a most injurious effect
on the formation of alkaloids in the bark, are sufficient arguments
against planting the chinchonæ in the shade of the forest, and waiting
for them to run up until the survivors overtop the surrounding trees.
It has been necessary to bring these points prominently forward,
because attempts have been made to introduce the erroneous system,
adopted by the Dutch cultivators, into India.

We now come to the other alternative, that of raising the chinchonæ in
their shrubby form, on plantations in open clearings, with plenty of
fresh air and sunshine. It is the system of cultivation which I, in
common with Mr. Howard and Mr. McIvor, consider to be the most likely
to lead to successful results, because it is the only one by which
remunerative harvests of bark can be obtained year by year, without
injuring the plants.

Two questions require consideration before adopting this method: first,
whether the chinchonæ in their shrubby form will yield a sufficient
annual supply of febrifugal alkaloids to make the cultivation
remunerative; and secondly, whether it will be possible to take the
required quantity of bark every year, without checking the growth of
the trees.

The trunk or _tabla_ bark naturally yields a much larger per-centage of
alkaloids than the _canuto_ or small bark of branches; but as a supply
of the former could only be obtained once in forty years, and then at
the cost of destroying the plantations, while the latter will yield an
annual harvest without any injury to the trees, this point is not of
much consequence.[523]

The fact is that very little _tabla_ or trunk-bark comes from
South America, and that nearly the entire bark trade is supplied
by quill-bark from the branches of shrubs. Some Calisaya bark from
Bolivia, some "red bark," and "West-coast Carthagena," from the trunks
of _C. Palton_, arrive in the form of large slabs of _tabla_-bark; but
a great deal of the Calisaya and succirubra bark, the whole of the
"crown-bark" from Loxa, and all bark from other quarters, is found only
in the form of quills from small branches. I have measured several
of the quills which come into the London market, and find that none
of them have bark equal in thickness to that already attained by some
of the young plants reared by Mr. McIvor at Ootacamund.[524] These
quills are evidently taken from small shrubs, and they yield a very
good per-centage of quinine. Several samples of quill Calisaya bark,
sold in London in March 1862, contained four per cent. of quinine.
Their bark was one-eighth of an inch thick, and the quills were just
under an inch in circumference. In a cultivated state the yield will of
course be much greater, and Mr. Howard, judging from the usual yield of
quill-bark, is of opinion that a large produce may be annually realised
by growing the chinchonæ as shrubs.[525]

In cultivating the chinchonæ in rows on cleared plantations it will
probably be found advisable to grow them to a height of ten or twelve
feet, and about twelve feet from each other, so that they may be
able to spread out until they are nearly as broad as they are long;
and they should be induced to branch as near the ground as possible.
A certain number of the branches should be lopped annually for the
quinine harvest; shoots would immediately be thrown out below the cuts,
from which one or two should be selected to take the place of the
lopped branch; and in about six years the new branches, thus formed,
would be sufficiently grown to be again removed. In the mean while
the same operation would have been going on with other branches, and
thus an annual harvest of quill-bark may be obtained for any number of
years. Mr. McIvor considers that this treatment will ensure a quick,
uniform, and constant supply of bark; and if the lopping and pruning is
judiciously conducted, the trees will be benefited rather than injured
by the annual removal of a few branches.[526] Chinchona-plants, like
oaks and willows, might also be cultivated as pollards.

By cultivating the chinchona-plants on these principles, forming
plantations in cleared open ground, giving the plants plenty of
light and air, and obtaining annual harvests of quill-bark from
the shrubs, quinine-yielding chinchona-bark will become an article
of commerce within eight years from the first introduction of the
plants into India. After the first harvest the supply will rapidly
increase. Extensive Government plantations of the different species at
Neddiwuttum and Dodabetta on the Neilgherries, will be in a position to
supply any number of chinchonæ for private enterprise, and it is to be
hoped that the Government will establish other chinchona nurseries on
the Pulney hills, in Coorg, and eventually on the Anamallays.

As quinine-yielding bark is a more valuable product than coffee,
there is every reason to believe that, as soon as the Government
plantations are proved to be successful, many planters will undertake
the cultivation; and I understand from Mr. McIvor that several persons
have already expressed a desire to give the chinchonæ a trial, and that
he expects to be able to distribute plants by June 1862.[527] Thus
another important product will be added to the resources of India,
while the Government will have an abundant and cheap annual supply
of the most indispensable of all medicines to Europeans in tropical
climates, which is now only obtained at immense expense, and in
quantities quite insufficient to meet the demand.

In a commercial point of view the introduction of chinchona-plants
into India is likely to prove very beneficial, by adding another
valuable article of export to the numerous products of that favoured
land; but an equal if not a greater result will be derived from this
important measure, in the naturalisation of these healing plants in a
country the inhabitants of which suffer so severely and constantly from
intermittent and other fevers. From motives of humanity, as well as
from personal interest, every coffee-planter, as I have before said,
ought to cultivate a few rows of chinchona-plants in the upper part of
his clearing. Even if it is not intended to rear them on account of
their commercial value, yet such a measure recommends itself as a duty,
in order to have a supply of this inestimable febrifuge constantly at
hand for the use of those who are employed on the plantations.

Many of the natives are already fully aware of the febrifugal virtues
of Peruvian bark, and it is to be hoped that, in all the hill-districts
where there is a suitable elevation and climate, they will grow
chinchona-trees in their gardens, just as is now generally done with
coffee in all the villages in Coorg. For the use of the natives there
will be no necessity to go to the expense and trouble of extracting the
alkaloids, as the green fresh bark is itself very efficacious. After
the natives have once used this unfailing remedy, and experienced the
power it has over the fevers from which they suffer, they will, like
Dr. Poeppig in the wilds of Peru, approach the beautiful healing trees
with warm feelings of gratitude,[528] their fame will spread far and
wide, and the cultivation of chinchonæ will, I trust, be extended to
its utmost limit throughout the peninsula of India.

So far as my observations extended, the impression which I had
previously received, that the natives can with difficulty be induced
to undertake the cultivation of any new plants to which they have not
been accustomed, was not confirmed. Not to mention the potato, maize,
tobacco, and capsicums, which originally came from America, and are now
generally cultivated in India, it is a fact that in Wynaad upwards of
2000 acres are taken up for coffee cultivation by the natives; and in
Coorg, where coffee was only introduced about six years ago, I scarcely
saw a single hut to which a small coffee-garden was not attached.
The extent to which the cassava (_Jatophra Manihot_), only lately
introduced, is now cultivated in Travancore, is quite remarkable; and
there is every reason to suppose that the natives will be equally ready
to cultivate a plant possessing such extraordinary febrifugal powers as
the chinchona, the value of which they will soon appreciate.

Thus will the successful cultivation of the quinine-yielding
chinchona-plants confer a great and lasting benefit upon the people
of India, as well as upon the commerce of the whole world; and the
concluding words of Dr. Weddell's Introduction[529] may, therefore,
with strict propriety, be applied to Mr. McIvor and his assistants:
"Reste la ressource de la culture, et il faut l'employer. S'il est
un arbre digne d'être acclimaté, c'est certes le Quinquina; et la
postérité bénirait ceux qui auraient mis à exécution une semblable
idée."

While speaking of the incalculable value of _quinine_-yielding
chinchona-plants, it must be understood that I include those of the
"grey-bark" species, which yield _chinchonine_; and it is the more
important to dwell upon this, because a sentence in the Introduction to
Mr. Howard's valuable work is perhaps calculated to give a different
impression.[530] It is true that chinchonine will not command so
remunerative a price in the London market; yet it produces effects
on the system precisely analogous to quinine. To stop intermittent
fever, doses of chinchonine require to be one-third larger than doses
of quinine; but it is absolutely certain that the former is as good
a febrifuge as the latter, and it costs infinitely less. Planters
will of course, in the first instance, undertake the cultivation
of those species which yield quinine, such as _C. succirubra_, _C.
Condaminea_, _C. lancifolia_, and _C. Calisaya_; but the grey-bark
species will yield barks which will afford valuable supplies to the
Government hospitals; and their naturalisation all over the plateau
of the Neilgherries and other hill districts will be a great boon
to the natives. Hereafter the latter species will well repay the
outlay and labour of cultivation. Even now there is a great demand
for chinchonine; the chinchonidine of _C. Condaminea_ is considered
by Mr. Howard to be scarcely if at all inferior to quinine, and Dr.
J. Macpherson thinks so highly of the value of chinchonine that he
considers it to be of little importance whether the species introduced
into India are rich in quinine or chinchonine. This gentleman speaks
from experience acquired by long practice in the East Indies.[531]

The following is a table of the largest amount of alkaloids extracted
from, and the price in the London markets of the barks of species of
chinchonæ now introduced into India:--

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                   Largest amount of alkaloids   Price in London per lb.
      SPECIES.      extracted from the bark.           of dried bark,
                                                       in March, 1862.
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  C. Uritusinga         |{ 3.8 per cent. of quinine     }|}    _s._ _d._
                        |{ and chinchonidine            }|}
                        |                                |}
  C. Chahuarguera       |  3.5 per cent.                 |}      2  6
                        |                                |}
  C. crispa             |  3.5 per cent.                 |}
                        |                                |
                { tabla |{ 8.5 per cent., of which      }|       8  0
                {       |{ 5 per cent. was quinine      }|
  C. succirubra {       |                                |
                { quill |{ 5 per cent. of quinine       }|
                        |{ and chinchonine              }|
                        |                                |
                { tabla |  5 per cent. of quinine        |       4  6
  C. Calisaya   {       |                                |
                { quill |  3.5 per cent. of quinine      |
                        |                                |
  C. nitida             |  2.2 per cent. of chinchonine }|
                        |                               }|
  C. micrantha          |  2.7 per cent. of chinchonine }|       1  6
                        |                               }|
  C. Peruviana          |  3 per cent. of chinchonine   }|
                        |                                |
  C. lancifolia         |{ 5 per cent. of quinine and   }|
                        |{ chinchonine                  }|       1  6
  ----------------------+--------------------------------+--------------
           Price of quinine     8_s._ per oz. } in London in March 1862.
             "      chinchonine 1_s._    "    }
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Under cultivation the barks may be expected to yield a much larger
per-centage of alkaloids than they ever do in their wild state.




CHAPTER XXIX.

CHINCHONA-CULTIVATION.

Ceylon--Sikkim--Bhotan--Khassya Hills--Pegu--Jamaica--Conclusion.


The complete success which has attended the cultivation of
chinchona-plants in the Neilgherry hills, encourages the hope that
similar happy results will follow their introduction into other hill
districts of Southern India, which have been described in more or
less detail in previous chapters. I have no doubt of the suitability
of the Pulney hills, the Koondahs, the Anamallays, and Coorg for such
experimental cultivation; and trials should hereafter be made on the
Mahabaleshwurs, the high hills east of Goa, the Baba-bodeens, Nuggur,
Wynaad, the Shervaroys, and the mountains between Tinnevelly and
Travancore.

The hill districts of the island of Ceylon, which have the
necessary elevation, and are within the region of both monsoons,
also offer peculiarly favourable conditions for the cultivation
of chinchona-plants, probably equal to the best localities on the
peninsula of India. Mr. Thwaites, the Director of the Royal Botanical
Gardens at Peradenia, takes a deep interest in this important
measure, and under his auspices there can be no doubt of its ultimate
success. It was from the first determined to send a portion of
the chinchona-seeds to Ceylon, although the whole expense of the
undertaking has been borne by the revenues of India, and no assistance
whatever has been given by those colonies which will thus profit by its
success.

The gardens at Peradenia are 1594 feet above the level of the sea, and
the following table will give a correct idea of the climate:--

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
              OBSERVATIONS taken at PERADENIA, in Ceylon, in 1857.
  ----------+--------------------+----------+---------------------------
            |     Thermometer.   | Rainfall |
            +------+------+------+    in    |
    MONTH.  | Max. |Mean. | Min. |  inches. |          REMARKS.
  ----------+------+------+------+----------+---------------------------
    1857.   |      |      |      |          |
            |      |      |      |          |
  January   | 82   | 79.3 | 74.7 |    1.8   |{ Fine and sunny. Cold dewy
            |      |      |      |          |{   nights and foggy
            |      |      |      |          |     mornings.
  February  | 82.5 | 79.8 | 76.5 |    1.3   |   Do.      do.      do.
            |      |      |      |          |
  March     | 84.2 | 82   | 77.5 |    5.8   |{ A few showers of rain in
            |      |      |      |          |{   the evenings.
            |      |      |      |          |
  April     | 86.5 | 81.9 | 77.5 |    8.4   |{ Rain in the latter part
            |      |      |      |          |{   of the month.
            |      |      |      |          |
  May       | 82.5 | 81.5 | 75   |    4.7   |{ Showery, with occasional
            |      |      |      |          |{  gales of wind.
            |      |      |      |          |
  June      | 82.5 | 81.1 | 75.5 |    6     |  Showery.
            |      |      |      |          |
  July      | 80.5 | 77.1 | 75.5 |    9.8   |  Continued rain.
            |      |      |      |          |
  August    | 81.5 | 79.2 | 77.5 |    6.4   |  Showery, with high winds.
            |      |      |      |          |
  September | 82.5 | 78.8 | 75.5 |    7.2   |  Rainy.
            |      |      |      |          |
  October   | 81.5 | 78   | 74.5 |   14.9   |{ Rainy, with occasional
            |      |      |      |          |{   sunshiny days.
            |      |      |      |          |
  November  | 82   | 77.9 | 73.5 |   22.3   |  Heavy rain.
            |      |      |      |          |
  December  | 81.5 | 78.6 | 75.5 |    2.8   |{ Fine. Cold nights and hot
            |      |      |      |          |{   days.
            |      |      |      +----------+
            |      |      |      |   96     |
  ----------+------+------+------+----------+---------------------------

It is evident that Peradenia is far too low and hot for chinchona
cultivation. The _C. succirubra_, and some other species, would
probably grow to fine large trees there, but the bark would be very
thin, and would yield little or no febrifugal alkaloids. But there are
many other localities in Ceylon admirably suited, from their elevation
and climate, for this cultivation, and sites may be selected, well
adapted to the different species, from 5000 feet to Pedrotallagalle,
which is 8280 feet above the sea. Among these is the Government garden
of Hakgalle, at Nuwera-ellia, which is 6210 feet above the sea, in a
climate with an annual temperature of about 59° Fahr., and abundantly
supplied with moisture. Here most of the chinchona-plants have been
established under the superintendence of Mr. Thwaites, who is assisted
in their cultivation by Mr. McNicoll, a zealous and intelligent
gardener from Kew. Mr. Thwaites reported, last September, that the
progress of the important experiment in the cultivation of chinchonæ
was satisfactory.

In February 1861 the first instalment of chinchona-seeds arrived
in Ceylon, being a parcel of the "grey-bark" species sent from the
Neilgherry hills by Mr. McIvor; and soon afterwards a portion of the
"red-bark" seeds was received. In April six plants of _C. Calisaya_
were transmitted from Kew, but two only survived, and are now growing
vigorously at Hakgalle. Last September eight cuttings had been taken
from them, two of which had rooted. From the seeds received early in
1861, 800 plants had been raised last September, namely, 530 of _C.
succirubra_, 180 of _C. micrantha_, 25 of _C. Peruviana_, 45 of _C.
nitida_, and 60 of the "grey-bark" species without name.

In January 1862 I forwarded parcels of seeds of _C. Condaminea_ and _C.
crispa_ to Mr. Thwaites; and early in March six Wardian cases filled
with chinchona-plants, from the depôt at Kew, were shipped for Ceylon.

Chinchona cultivation in Ceylon has thus been fairly started. It is
exceedingly gratifying to hear that many coffee-planters will be glad
to try the experiment upon their estates;[532] and that Mr. Thwaites
will shortly be in a position to distribute plants from the Hakgalle
garden.[533]

Chinchona-trees, in their wild state, have never been found at a
greater distance than one thousand miles from the equator, and they
are essentially inter-tropical plants; though they only flourish
at considerable elevations above the sea. The reason appears to be
that one of their chief requirements is a tolerably equable climate
throughout the year, which the temperate zones, with their great
differences of temperature between winter and summer, do not afford.
For this reason sites were selected, in the first instance, both
in India and Ceylon, within the tropics; and indeed this point was
essential for the first experiments, because all the other conditions
of the growth of chinchonæ could not have been found beyond the
equatorial zone. Under cultivation, however, it is probable that,
with other favouring circumstances, these plants might thrive within
the temperate zone, at short distances from the tropic, and attention
was naturally drawn to the hill districts of the Eastern Himalayas,
in Bengal. The usefulness and importance of the introduction of the
chinchonæ into India will be much enhanced if their cultivation can be
extended to these regions, and attempts will, therefore, be made to
form chinchona plantations in Sikkim, Bhotan, and subsequently in the
Khassya hills.

The province of Sikkim,[534] at the base of the mighty Himalayan peak
of Kunchinginga, consists entirely of the basin of the river Tista,
which, with its tributaries, drains the whole country. Its position,
opposite to the opening of the Gangetic valley, between the mountains
of Behar on the one hand and the Khassya hills on the other, exposes
it to the full force of the monsoon. Its rains are, therefore, heavy
and almost uninterrupted, accompanied by dense fogs and a saturated
atmosphere throughout the year. There are frequent winter rains
accompanied by cold fogs, alternating with frost, hail, and snow.
March and April are the driest months, but rains commence in May, and
continue with little intermission until October. The bounding mountains
are very lofty, and snow-clad throughout a great part of their extent;
but the central range in Sikkim, which separates the Tista from its
great tributary the Rangit, is depressed till very far into the
interior. The rainy winds have thus free access to the heart of the
province.

The snow-level is at 16,000 feet; and the mean monthly temperature of
the English hill station at Darjeeling, which is 7430 feet above the
sea, and in lat. 27° 3´ N., is as follows:--

  -----------------------------
           DARJEELING.
  +------------+--------------+
  |   MONTH.   |     Mean     |
  |            | temperature. |
  +------------+--------------+
  | January    |     40       |
  | February   |     42       |
  | March      |     50.7     |
  | April      |     55.9     |
  | May        |     57.6     |
  | June       |     61.2     |
  | July       |     61.4     |
  | August     |     61.7     |
  | September  |     59.9     |
  | October    |     58       |
  | November   |     50       |
  | December   |     42       |
  +------------+--------------+

The annual rainfall is 122.2 inches.

Of course no chinchona-plant would flourish in such a climate; and in
the latitude of 27° it will be necessary to seek for suitable sites in
much lower situations than in the hill districts of Southern India,
which are in corresponding latitudes to those of the chinchona forests.
In the Neilgherries the sites have been selected at the same altitudes
as those at which the plants are found in South America, but in the
Eastern Himalayas the localities must probably be chosen upwards of
a thousand feet lower for each species--the _C. Condaminea_ and its
companions perhaps at 5000, and the _C. succirubra_ between 3000 and
4000 feet.

From the sea-level to an elevation of 12,000 feet Sikkim is covered
with a dense forest, consisting of tall umbrageous trees, often with
dense grass jungle, and in other places accompanied by a luxuriant
undergrowth of shrubs. In the tropical zone _Myrtaceæ_, _Leguminosæ_,
and tree-ferns are common, and the air is near saturation during a
great part of the year. _Vaccinia_ are found at from 5000 to 8000,
and snow occasionally falls at 6000 feet. A sub-tropical vegetation
penetrates far into the interior along the banks of the great rivers,
and tree-ferns, rattans, plantains, and other tropical plants are found
at 5000 feet, in the Ratong valley.[535]

I should conjecture that the extreme limit for the growth of the
hardier species of chinchonæ, in Sikkim, will be found where their
constant companions the tree-ferns and _Vaccinia_ end, namely at 5000
feet; and that the best sites for such species as _C. Calisaya_ and _C.
succirubra_ are about 1000 to 2000 feet lower, amidst the sub-tropical
vegetation of the valleys.

Bhotan, which adjoins Sikkim on the east, is a mountainous district of
much the same character. In its western part the mountain ranges are
lofty and rugged, and the river-courses very deep and generally narrow.
The climate is equable, and the humidity of the winter appears to
increase in the part adjoining Sikkim. The steepness of the mountains,
and the influence of the elevated mass of the Khassya hills to the
south, make the lower <DW72>s, which skirt the plains of Assam, drier
than those more to the eastward. Deep narrow valleys carry a tropical
vegetation very far into the interior of Bhotan, among lofty mountains
capped with almost perpetual snow. These attract to themselves so much
of the moisture of the atmosphere, that the bottoms of the valleys
are comparatively dry and bare of forest. The flora resembles that of
Sikkim.[536]

The Khassya hills in 25° N. lat. form an isolated mass, rising up from
the plains of Assam and Silhet to a height of 6000 feet. They rise
abruptly from the plains of Silhet to the south, and at 3000 feet tree
vegetation ceases, and is succeeded by a bleak stony region, with a
temperate flora, up to 4000 feet, where the English station of Churra
Poorji is built. The table-land is here three miles long by two, to
the eastward flat and stony, and to the west undulating and hilly.
On the south there are rocky ridges of limestone. The southern side
of the hills is exposed to the full force of the monsoon, and the
rainfall is excessive, as much as 500 or 600 inches annually. Further
in the interior the fall is less, and it gradually decreases until
the valley of Assam is entered. This great rainfall is attributable
to the abruptness of the mountains to the south, which face the Bay
of Bengal, and are separated from it by 200 miles of Jheels and
Sunderbunds. The heavy rains on the Khassya hills are quite local, as
in Silhet the fall is only 100 inches. The plateau presents a bleak
and inhospitable aspect, and there is not a tree, and scarcely a shrub
to be seen, except occasional clumps of _Pandanus_. This desolation is
caused by the furious gales of wind, and the extraordinary amount of
rain which washes off the soil. The valleys are open, though with deep
flanks, and the hill-tops are broad. The grassy <DW72>s to the north
are covered with clumps of shrubby vegetation, and the forests are
confined to sheltered localities. Though the rainfall on the southern
side is 600 inches, twenty miles inland it is reduced to 200 inches.
The mean annual temperature of Churra Poorji is 66°, and in summer the
thermometer rises to 88° and 90°. To the westward of the Khassyas lie
the Garrows, which do not attain a greater height than 3000 to 4000
feet.[537]

The flora of the Khassya hills bears a greater resemblance to
that of the hills in Southern India than to the Sikkim and Bhotan
types. Genera and species forming masses of shrubby vegetation are
identical with those of the Neilgherry _sholas_. It is probable that
chinchona-plantations, especially of _C. succirubra_, might hereafter
be formed advantageously on the northern <DW72>s of the Khassyas, but
it is evident that the best chances of success for the species growing
at great altitudes, in South America, are offered in the Himalayan
districts of Sikkim and Bhotan.

With a view to the establishment of chinchona-plantations in the
Eastern Himalayas, plants have been forwarded by Mr. McIvor to the
Botanical Gardens at Calcutta. On January 19th, 1862, there were at
Calcutta 91 plants of _C. succirubra_, all except four supplied by Mr.
McIvor; six of _C. Calisaya_ from Java, and 133 of "grey-bark" species,
of which 106 were supplied by Mr. McIvor, and twenty-seven were raised
from the original South American seeds. Altogether there were 230 of
the valuable species of Chinchonæ, besides fifty-nine of the worthless
_C. Pahudiana_. It is intended to commence a chinchona plantation
on the lower and outer range of Darjeeling in Sikkim at once, with
a propagating-house on the model of Mr. McIvor's at Ootacamund; and
afterwards to form a nursery for species growing at lower elevations on
the Khassya hills.

There is another region in our Eastern dominions where suitable
localities may be found for the cultivation of chinchona-plants, but
it is as yet too little explored, and the difficulties of obtaining
supplies, labour, and transport would be too great at present to allow
of the possibility of forming plantations for some years to come.
I allude to the recently formed province of Pegu. Dr. Brandis, the
Conservator of Forests in Pegu, reports that it will be preferable to
delay the introduction of chinchona-plants into that province, until
their cultivation shall have proved successful in other parts.

In Pegu there are four great mountain ranges, running parallel with
the sea-coast, which separate the valleys of the principal rivers.
Commencing from the eastward, the first range is the Arracan-Yomah,
dividing Arracan from Pegu, which is not higher than 4000 feet. The
Pegu-Yomah, the principal seat of the Pegu teak, which separates the
valleys of the Irrawaddy and the Sitang, only has a mean elevation of
2000 feet. The third range consists of the Martaban and Tenasserim
coast-ranges, and barely attains a height of 5000 feet. The fourth
and most eastern range, forming the watershed between the Sitang and
Salween rivers, extends into the large and compact mountain mass of
Yoonzaleen, to the south-east of Toungoo. The area of this lofty region
is a hundred square miles, and several peaks rise to a height of 7000
and 8000 feet above the sea. The rains are heavier on these hills than
on the adjacent plains, and the temperature is much cooler and more
uniform. The formation consists of granite, gneiss, and quartzite.
Up to 3000 feet the vegetation is of a tropical character, at which
elevation teak disappears, and pines (_Pinus Khasyana_) begin, and
go up to 5000 feet on dry gravelly soil. There are plenty of small
mountain streams on these hills, with running water throughout the
year; and the valleys and <DW72>s are covered with evergreen forest.[538]

The Yoonzaleen hills are doubtless the best localities for
chinchona-plantations in Pegu, but as yet there are no facilities for
taking any steps with a view to the introduction of these inestimable
trees, which will hereafter be as great a blessing to the fever-haunted
jungles of Pegu as to those of India. The Yoonzaleens are forty
miles from the town of Toungoo, which is at a distance of fifteen
days of river navigation from Rangoon; and until a Sanatarium is
formed on those hills, or some European settlers have established
themselves there, it will be useless to attempt the introduction of the
chinchona-plants. Before many years, however, it is to be hoped that
plantations on the Yoonzaleen hills will supply quinine-yielding bark
to the inhabitants of the plains of Pegu.

In a former chapter I stated that I gave directions for the
transmission of a supply of seeds both of the "grey" and the "red-bark"
species to two of our West Indian islands--Trinidad and Jamaica. In
Trinidad they did not germinate, but in Jamaica, under the watchful
care of Mr. N. Wilson, the Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens
in that colony, they came up plentifully. By the spring of 1861 Mr.
Wilson had a good stock of all the species in the gardens on the
sweltering plains, where the "grey-bark" species naturally began to
die off, but the _C. succirubra_ plants were doing well, and sixty of
them were quite strong enough to be planted out early in June. On the
4th of June, 1861, Mr. Wilson removed 120 plants, 60 of _C. micrantha_
and 60 of _C. nitida_, to the foot of Catherine's Peak, which is
4000 feet above the sea. Here he was obliged to leave them, as the
Jamaica Government had furnished him with no efficient assistant. In
November he reported that the plants of _C. succirubra_ were doing
well, and by the latest accounts, dated March 24th, 1862, all the
plants were thriving; but the chinchona experiment is not likely to
succeed in Jamaica, owing to the listless apathy of the legislators
of this colony. They have taken no steps to supply Mr. Wilson with
assistant-gardeners, have allotted no land in suitable localities as
sites for chinchona-plantations, and have thus neglected to secure the
successful introduction of a product which would have enriched the
island, when the means of doing so were placed gratuitously at their
disposal by the Secretary of State for India.

In our Eastern possessions the successful cultivation of
quinine-yielding plants in the hills of Southern India, in Ceylon, and
in the Eastern Himalayas, will undoubtedly be productive of the most
beneficial results. Commercially this measure will add a very important
article to the list of Indian exports; the European community will
be provided with a cheap and constant supply of an article which, in
tropical climates, is to them a necessary of life; and the natives of
fever-haunted districts may everywhere have the inestimable healing
bark growing at their doors.

It is impossible to exaggerate the blessings which the introduction of
chinchona-cultivation will confer upon India. Since quinine has been
extensively used among the troops in India, there has been a steady
diminution of mortality; and whereas in 1830 the average per-centage
of deaths to cases of fever treated was 3.66, in 1856 it was only one
per cent. in a body of 18,000 men scattered from Peshawur to Pegu.[539]
The present measure will not only ensure a constant and cheap supply
of quinine to those who already enjoy its benefits, but it will also
bring its use within the means of millions who have hitherto been
unable to procure it. Many lives will thus annually be saved by its
agency. In former ages its use would perhaps have changed the history
of the world. Alexander the Great died of the common remittent fever
of Babylon, merely from the want of a few doses of quinine.[540]
Oliver Cromwell was carried off by ague, and, had Peruvian bark been
administered to him, which was even then known in London, the greatest
and most patriotic of England's rulers would have been preserved to
his country. In time to come the lives of men of equal importance to
their generation may be saved by its use, while the blessings which
it will confer on the great mass of mankind, and especially on the
inhabitants of tropical countries, are incalculable. The introduction
of chinchona-plants into our Eastern possessions will be the most
effective measure which could have been adopted to ensure a permanent
and abundant supply of febrifugal bark; and a debt of gratitude is,
therefore, due from India to Lord Stanley, who originated it, and to
Sir Charles Wood, who has sanctioned all the necessary arrangements,
until this great enterprise has finally been crowned with complete
success. To Mr. Spruce, as the most successful collector in South
America, and to Mr. McIvor, who has so ably and zealously conducted the
cultivation in India, the chief credit of having achieved so important
a result is due; but the author may be allowed to express his deep
satisfaction at having been one of the labourers in this good work,
where all have worked so zealously.

[Illustration: CANOE ON THE BEYPOOR RIVER. See page 351.]




APPENDIX A.


  GENERAL MILLER, AND THE FOREIGN OFFICERS WHO SERVED IN THE PATRIOT
  ARMIES OF CHILE AND PERU, BETWEEN 1817 AND 1830.


WHEN the war of independence broke out in South America, many gallant
spirits were attracted from different countries of Europe to fight for
liberty and justice against Spanish oppression. Fired with enthusiasm
for the cause of liberty, these knights errant, many of whom had been
distinguished in the wars of Napoleon and Wellington, went forth to
risk their lives for an idea. That they were in earnest is proved by
the fact that, out of the whole number of sixty-seven, as many as
twenty-five were killed or drowned, and eighteen were wounded.

In this band of brave adventurers, next perhaps to Lord Dundonald,
the late General Miller takes the most prominent place, as one of the
ablest, the truest, and the best. There is a halo of romance round all
who joined in this crusade for liberty; all passed through many strange
adventures, and did honour to the land from which they hailed; but the
lamented old warrior who went to his rest last year was pre-eminent
amongst his gallant companions, for his many acts of chivalrous daring
and bravery.

William Miller, a native of Kent, served in the British Field Train
Department of the Royal Artillery, during the Peninsular war, under
Lord Wellington. He was present at the sieges and storming of Ciudad
Rodrigo, Badajoz, and San Sebastian, at the battle of Vittoria, and
investment of Bayonne. He had charge of a company of Sappers and Miners
in the American war, was within a few yards of General Ross when he
received his death-wound near Baltimore, and was also present at the
attack upon New Orleans in 1814.

In 1817, having been placed on half-pay, and tired of an inactive
life, he proceeded to South America, and offered his services in the
war against the Spaniards. He was appointed Captain of artillery by
the Government of the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, crossed the
Andes into Chile, and saved two pieces of artillery, under a heavy
fire, at the battle of Talca, in March 1818. In April he became a
Major, and assisted with his regiment at the declaration of Chilian
independence on September 18th, 1818. In 1819 he commanded the Marines
in Lord Cochrane's squadron, and in March an explosion of gunpowder, on
the island of San Lorenzo, in Callao Bay, shattered one of his hands
to pieces, injured his face, and caused blindness for many days. In
October he was again at the head of his men, leading them to victory
at Pisco, when he was pierced by two balls, one passing through his
liver, and another through his breast. In February 1820, though still
weak and suffering from his former desperate wounds, he headed the
storming party in the boats, in the gallant attack and capture of the
forts of Valdivia in Chile, where he was again wounded in the head;
and in the subsequent attempt on Chiloe he received a ball through his
left groin, and a cannon-shot broke one of his feet. In May 1821 he
landed in Peru, and defeated the Spaniards in the hard-fought battle of
Mirabe; in 1823 he conducted a most adventurous and romantic campaign
through the whole range of the deserts of Peru, from Arequipa to Pisco,
defeating the Spaniards, with greatly inferior numbers, on several
occasions; and in the same year he became General of Brigade.

In May 1824 General Miller received the command of the Peruvian cavalry
of Bolivar's liberating army, and took a principal part in the victory
of Junin in the following August. Soon afterwards he assumed the
command of the whole of the cavalry of the liberating army, at the head
of which he charged, and routed the division of General Valdez in the
glorious battle of Ayacucho, at a most critical moment. This brilliant
action was fought on the 9th of December 1824, and decided the fate of
the war, the entire Spanish army of 10,000 men under General La Serna,
Viceroy of Peru, being utterly routed. In February 1825 he was Prefect
of Puno, and in April of Potosi; but in 1826 he returned to England on
leave of absence, to cure himself of his wounds, which still caused him
great suffering.

After a stay of some years in England he returned to Peru in June
1830 but, owing to the factious outbreaks in which he did not choose
to take part, he again obtained leave of absence in 1831, and visited
many of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, especially the Sandwich and
Society groups, of which he wrote a most interesting account; and only
returned to Peru after the constitutional election of General Orbegoso
as President of the Republic. In the early part of 1834 he served in a
campaign against the revolutionary chief Gamarra; and, though defeated
at Huaylacucho, his operations were on the whole successful, and he was
promoted to the rank of Grand Marshal of Peru on June 11th, 1834.

In October 1834 he was appointed Military Governor of Arequipa, Puno,
and Cuzco; and it was at this time that he conceived the idea of
forming a military colony in the valleys to the eastward of Cuzco, on
the banks of some of the tributaries of the great river Purus. In March
1835, while on the point of setting out on an exploring expedition,
a revolution broke out in Cuzco, and he was arrested by Colonel
Lopera. He was, however, allowed to set out on his expedition, with
two companions and seven Indians. He penetrated on foot to a greater
distance to the eastward of Cuzco, on this occasion, than has ever been
done before or since.

In September 1835 he again placed himself under the orders of the
Constitutional President Orbegoso, and in February 1836 he captured
Salaverry and eighty officers of his revolutionary army by a very
clever stratagem, near Islay. Shortly afterwards Santa Cruz
established the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, and General Miller was
sent as Minister Plenipotentiary to Ecuador, where he signed a treaty
of peace and amity between that Republic and the Confederation. In
August 1837 he became Governor of Callao, when all customs duties
were reduced one half, smuggling ceased, and the receipts were soon
quadrupled. He organized an efficient police; made a subterraneous
aqueduct 3 feet wide, 3-1/2 deep, and 280 yards long, for supplying
Callao with water; commenced the erection of a college; and formed a
tramway for the conveyance of goods from the mole to the custom-house.
The people of Callao still look back with satisfaction and gratitude to
the period when General Miller was their Governor.

In February 1839, on the overthrow of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation,
General Miller was banished with many other able and distinguished
men, whose names were taken off the army list by a decree dated in the
following March. This unjust and illegal act was cancelled by a law of
Congress dated October 1847.

After leaving Peru in 1839, General Miller was appointed in 1843 H.
M. Commissioner and Consul-General for the Islands in the Pacific. In
1859 he revisited Chile and Peru, partly for his health, and partly to
obtain the payment of his large arrears from the Government. When he
arrived in Peru the Vice-President Mar, while the President, General
Castilla, was absent at Guayaquil in 1859, reinstated him on the army
list of Peru, by a decree dated December 9th, the anniversary of
the battle of Ayacucho, and granted him his current pay as a Grand
Marshal of Peru, and he continued to reside at Lima until his death
on the 31st of October 1861. It is satisfactory to be able to record,
for the honour of the Peruvian nation, that the whole of his claims
were acknowledged in Congress in a most handsome way, and without a
dissentient voice. But unfortunately the executive in Peru is still
able to set the laws passed by the representatives of the people at
defiance; delays and evasions were resorted to by Castilla, and the
last days of one from whom Peru had perhaps received as valuable
services as from any of her own sons, were embittered by the treatment
which he experienced from the President of the Republic.

General Miller was a man of whom England may well be proud. He was
one of those characters who combine great ability and extraordinary
daring, almost amounting to rashness, with modesty and diffidence. If
there was any fault to be found in any part of General Miller's former
career, in the camp or in the cabinet, it would be from himself that
it would first be heard. To his bravery and prowess, his body riddled
with bullets, and the history of South American independence, bear
testimony; to his administrative ability the gratitude of the people
of Callao and Cuzco is the witness; his pure standard of honour, his
scrupulous integrity, his warmth of heart, and single-mindedness are
known to a wide circle of sorrowing friends; but of his numerous acts
of self-denial and charity few can tell, for he was one who let not his
left hand know what his right hand did.

In person he was more than six feet high, and when young he was
remarkably handsome; his features and shape of the head being of a
thoroughly English type. In society he was exceedingly agreeable to
the last; his conversation was always interesting, and often very
instructive; and there was a peculiarly gentle and winning expression
in his eyes. He took a deep interest in the attempt to introduce
chinchona cultivation into India, and I was indebted to him for much
valuable advice, and for many letters of introduction which were of
great service to me. He also supplied me with most of the material
which has enabled me to write the narrative of the insurrection of
Tupac Amaru, the last of the Incas, forming the ninth chapter of the
present work.

His memoirs, published by his brother many years ago, give by far the
fullest and most interesting account of the war of independence in
Chile and Peru, though the work of Garcia Camba, a Spanish general, is
the best military history.

General Miller breathed his last on board H.M.S. 'Naiad' in Callao Bay,
on the 31st of October 1861; and the remains of the gallant old warrior
were interred in the cemetery at Bella Vista, with all the honours
which the Peruvian Government could bestow. While the body was being
embalmed, two bullets were found in it, and twenty-two wounds were
counted on different parts of his frame. The most gratifying incident
on the occasion was that the people of Callao, who had never forgotten
the good he had done them as their Governor, insisted on carrying the
coffin.

One of the last things on which General Miller was employed was the
compilation of the list of his brave companions in arms. Such a list,
I believe, has never appeared before; and as the employment interested
and amused him during a time of much harassing annoyance, it gives me
great pleasure to be able to insert it here, in order that his labour
may not have been entirely in vain.


  A LIST of Foreign Officers, Europeans (not Spaniards) and North
  Americans, who served in the patriot armies in Chile and Peru, between
  the years 1817 and 1830, showing the killed, wounded, and not wounded.

  [The rank specified is that which each officer held when killed, or in
  1830.]


KILLED.

MAJOR-GEN. FREDERIC BRANDSEN (French).--Served on the staff of the
French army under Prince Eugène. Killed at the battle of Ituzaingo,
Feb. 20, 1827.

MAJOR-GEN. JAMES WHITTLE (Irish).--Was present at the battles of Junin
and Ayacucho. Killed in suppressing the mutiny of a battalion near
Quito in 1830.

COLONEL CHARLES O'CARROL (Irish).--Served in the British and Spanish
armies in the Peninsula. Killed in an encounter with the Araucanians at
Pangal in 1831.

COLONEL WILLIAM FERGUSON (Irish).--Present at the battles of Junin and
Ayacucho. Killed in defending General Bolivar from assassins at Bogota
on September 25th, 1828.

COLONEL PETER RAULET (French).--Was a cornet in the French cavalry
at Badajoz, when that place was taken by storm on April 6th, 1812,
and remained a prisoner of war in Scotland until the peace of 1814.
Married and left children in South America. Killed at the battle of the
Portete, Feb. 27th, 1829.

COLONEL WILLIAM DE VIC TUPPER (Guernsey).--Married and left children in
the country. Killed at the battle of Sircay, April 17th, 1830.

LIEUT.-COL. JAMES A. CHARLES (English.)--Served in the Brigade
Royal Artillery, and joined the Lusitanian Legion under the late
General Sir Robert Wilson in Portugal in 1808. Upon Sir Robert being
appointed Military Commissioner with the Russian army, he served as
his aide-de-camp in the campaigns of Russia and Germany, and received
the crosses of St. George of Russia, of Merit of Prussia, and of Maria
Theresa of Austria. Killed in the action of Pisco on November 7th, 1819.

LIEUT.-COL. CHARLES SOWERSBY (German).--Killed in the action of Junin,
August 6th, 1824.

MAJOR WILLIAM GUMER (German).--Killed at the battle of Ica, April 7th,
1822.

MAJOR THOMAS DUXBURY (English).--Present at the battle of Junin. Killed
in the affair at Matara, Dec. 3rd, 1824.

CAPTAIN QUITOSPI (Russian).--Killed in an encounter with the
Araucanians on the Bio-Bio, 1818.

CAPTAIN JOSEPH BORNE (Irish).--Married, and left children in the
country. Killed in an encounter at Arauco, May 1820.

CAPTAIN JOHN B. GOLA (French).--Killed in an encounter at San Carlos,
1821.

CAPTAIN ROBERT BELL (English).--Killed at the battle of Sircay, April
17th, 1830.

LIEUT. CHARLES ELDREDGE (U.S.).--Killed at the assault of Talcahuano,
December 6th, 1817.

LIEUT. ERNEST BRUIX (French), son of Admiral Bruix.--Killed in an
encounter with the Araucanians on the Bio-Bio, January 1819.

LIEUT. ---- GERARD (Scotch).--Killed at the battle of Cancha-rayada,
March 19th, 1818.

LIEUT. LE BAS (French).--Killed in the affair of Biobamba, April 22nd,
1822.

LIEUT. CHRIS. MARTIN (English).--Killed near Ayacucho in 1824.

CORNET DANVIETTE (French).--Killed in an encounter at Caucato near
Pisco, in 1822.

SURGEON WILLIAM WELSH (Scotch).--Killed in the action of Mirabe, on May
21st, 1821.

  TOTAL KILLED 21.


WOUNDED.

LIEUT.-GEN. WM. MILLER (English).--(See ante.)

MAJOR-GEN. FRANCIS B. O'CONNOR (Irish).--Brother to the late Fergus
O'Connor. Was for some time Chief of the Staff of the Liberating Army,
and was present at the battles of Junin and Ayacucho; was wounded at
Rio de la Hacha in 1820. He is now residing on his estate at Tarija, in
Bolivia. Married and has children in the country.

MAJOR-GEN. ARTHUR SANDS (Irish).--Wounded at the battle of Pantano
de Bargas, July 25, 1819. Was present at the battles of Junin and
Ayacucho. Died at Cuenca in 1832.

MAJOR-GEN. DANIEL F. O'LEARY (Irish).--Wounded at Pantano de Bargas.
He was Aide-de-Camp to General Bolivar in Columbia and Peru, and
subsequently H.B.M. Chargé d'Affaires and Consul General at Bogota,
where he died in 1854, having married and left children in the country.

MAJOR-GEN. PHILIP BRAUN (German).--Present at the battle of Ayacucho.
He was wounded at Junin, August 6th, 1824. He married in the country,
and now resides in Bolivia.

COLONEL GEORGE BEAUCHEF (French).--Was at the battles of Austerlitz,
Jena, Marengo, and Friedland. Wounded at the assault upon Talcahuano,
December 6th, 1817. Died in Chile 1840, having married and left
children in the country.

LIEUT.-COL. EDWARD GUITEKUE (German).--Wounded in the action of Pisco,
November 7, 1819. Died in Chile 1857. Married and left children in the
country.

LIEUT.-COL. EUGÈNE GIROUST (French).--Wounded at the cutting-out of the
'Esmeralda' under the fortresses of Callao, Nov. 5th, 1820. Was page to
King Jerome; served in the French Horse Artillery; was made prisoner at
the crossing of the Beresina, and sent to Siberia. Married in Peru, and
is now residing at Lima.

CAPTAIN PHILIP MARGUTI (Italian).--Wounded at the battle of Maypo,
April 5th, 1818. Died in Chile 1848.

CAPTAIN HENRY ROSS (U.S.).--Wounded at the battle of Yerbas-buenas,
March 31st, 1813. Died in Chile.

CAPTAIN GEORGE BROWN (English).--Present at the battle of Junin.
Wounded at Ayacucho, Dec. 9th, 1824.

CAPTAIN JAMES LISTER (English).--Wounded in the affair of Rio Hacha in
1820. Died at St. John's, New Brunswick.

CAPTAIN HENRY HIND (English).--Wounded in an attack on Callao, Oct.
2nd, 1819. Since dead.

CAPTAIN W. KENNEDY (Jamaica).--Wounded in an encounter at Rio Cuarto,
where both his eyes were shot out in 1821. Died some years afterwards
in the United States.

CAPTAIN DANL. L. V. CARSON (U. S.).--Wounded at the assault upon
Talcahuano, Dec. 6th, 1817. Married and left children in the country.
Died in Chile.

CAPTAIN HENRY WYMAN (English).--Present at the battle of Junin; wounded
at Ayacucho in 1824. Is now residing in England. Married in South
America.

LIEUT. JOHN HELDES (German).--Wounded at the battle of Cancha-rayada,
March 19th, 1818. Since dead.

LIEUT. JAMES LINDSAY (English).--Belonged to the expedition under
General Beresford. Wounded at the battle of Maypo, April 5th, 1818.
Married and left children in the country.

  TOTAL WOUNDED     18.


NOT WOUNDED.

LIEUT.-GEN. MICHAEL BRAYER (French).--Was present at the assault of
Talcahuano, Dec. 6th, 1817, and in the battle of Cancha-rayada, March
19th, 1818. He then returned to France, was reinstated in his former
rank of General of Division, and was created a Peer of France.

MAJOR-GEN. JAMES PAROISSIEN (English).--Was Surgeon-General to the
Buenos-Ayrean army under General Belgrano in 1814, and to the army of
the Andes, under General San Martin, at the battles of Chacabuco, Feb.
12th, 1817, and Maypo, April 5th, 1818. Was appointed Aide-de-Camp to
General San Martin, and became Major-General in 1821. Associated with
M. Garcia del Rio, proceeded from Lima to Europe on a political mission
in 1822, returned to Peru in 1825, and died on his passage from Callao
to Valparaiso in 1826.

COLONEL JOHN O'BRIEN (Irish).--Served at the siege and taking of
Montevideo and campaign in the Banda Oriental in 1814; was Aide-de-Camp
to General San Martin in the battles of Chacabuco and Maypo; withdrew
from active service while with the army in Peru in 1822. Joined General
Santa Cruz a short time previous to the battle of Yanacocha, at which
he was present, August 12th, 1835. He became a Major-General, and died
in 1861.

COLONEL BELFORD H. WILSON (English).--Son of the late General Sir
Robert Wilson; was Aide-de-Camp to General Bolivar from 1823 to 1830;
subsequently H.B.M. Chargé d'Affaires and Consul General at Lima and at
Caraccas. Was appointed a K.C.B. Died in London in 1858.

COLONEL ALBERT B. D'ALVE (French).--Son of the French General of the
same name. Served in the campaigns in Spain and Russia, 1809 and 1813,
and was at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. Died at Valparaiso 1821.
Married and left children in the country.

COLONEL BENJAMIN VIEL (French).--Served in the French army encamped at
Boulogne in 1804, and commanded a squadron of cavalry at the battle of
Waterloo 1815. Is now a Major-General in Chile.

COLONEL JOSEPH RONDISONI (Italian).--Is now a Major-General in Chile.

COLONEL CLEMENT ALTHAUS (German).--Was present at the battle of Junin.
Became a Major-General and died at La Concepcion in Peru, having
married and left children in the country.

COLONEL SALVADOR SOYER (French).--Was Commissary to the navy,
afterwards Aide-de-Camp to General Gamarra, and for some time charged
with the Ministry of War. Married and left children in the country.
Died at Lima.

LIEUT.-COL. LEWIS CRAMMER (French).--Retired from the army 1818; was
afterwards murdered with his wife and family by the Patagonian Indians.

LIEUT.-COL. ALEXIS BRUIX (French).--Son of Admiral Bruix; was page to
Napoleon I. Was present at the battle of Junin. Was killed by accident
at Lima in 1825.

LIEUT.-COL. CHARLES WOOD (English).--Married and left children in
Chile. Died in England while on leave of absence in 1856.

MAJOR MICHAEL O'CARROL (Irish).--Died in Chile in 1839, having married
and left children in the country.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM SMITH (English).

CAPTAIN MILLER HALLOWES (English).--Was present at the battles of Junin
and Ayacucho. Married and resides in the United States.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM HARRIS (Irish).--Is now living at Cuenca, in Ecuador.

CAPTAIN JOHN RODRIGUEZ (English).--Married and left children in the
country. Died at Callao.

CAPTAIN ROBERT YOUNG.--Belonged to the 71st under General Beresford.
Died in Chile.

LIEUT. MAGUAN (French).--Retired in 1818, and was subsequently killed
in a duel in France.

LIEUT. COUNT LUCIEN BRAYER (French).--Served as Aide-de-Camp to his
father, General Brayer, in Chile.

STAFF-SURGEON THOMAS FOLEY (Irish).--Dead.

STAFF-SURGEON CHARLES MOORE (English).--Present at Junin. Dead.

STAFF-SURGEON HUGH BLAIR (Irish).--Dead.

STAFF-SURGEON MICHAEL CRAWLEY (Scotch).--Dead, Sub-prefect of Lampa,
under General Santa Cruz, in 1837.

  Total      24.

Drowned at sea off Chiloe, in 1823, while prisoners of war on board a
Spanish privateer.--Major Soulange (French); Captain W. Hill (English);
Captain Robert Hannah (English); and Lieut. Saint Amarand (French).


ABSTRACT.

  Total of killed        21
    "      wounded       18
    "      drowned        4
    "      not wounded   24
                        ---
                         67
                        ---

_Note._--Admiral George Martin Guise, Captain George O'Brien, Lieut.
Bayley, and others killed; Admiral Thomas Lord Cochrane, Commodore (now
General) Thomas Charles Wright, and others wounded; are not included in
the foregoing list, because they belonged to the Patriot Navy.




APPENDIX B.

  BOTANICAL DESCRIPTIONS OF THE GENUS CHINCHONA, AND OF THE SPECIES OF
  CHINCHONÆ NOW GROWING IN INDIA AND CEYLON.

_From Weddell, Howard's Pavon, Spruce, and Karsten._


CHINCHONA.

(_From Weddell's 'Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas,'_ p. 17.)

_Calyx_ tubo turbinato, cum ovario connato, pubescente; limbo supero,
5-dentato, persistente; dentibus in præfloratione valvatis.

_Corolla_ hypocrateriformis, tubo tereti vel subpentagono, in angulis
baseos nonnunquam fisso, intus glabro vel rarissime pilosiusculo; limbo
5-fido: laciniis lanceolatis, intus glabris, margine piloso-barbatis
(pilis claviformibus lanatis) extus tuboque pubescentibus, æstivatione
valvatis, explicatis patulo-recurvis.

_Stamina_ 5, corollæ laciniis alterna, glabra; filamentis inferno tubo
insertis, adnatis; antheris linearibus, inclusis vel apice subexsertis,
bilocularibus, introrsis, imo dorso affixis.

_Ovarium_ disco carnoso, pulviniformi, obsolete 5-vel 10-tuberculato
coronatum.

_Ovula_ numerosa, in placentis linearibus dissepimento utrinque affixis
peltata, imbricata, anatropa.

_Stylus_ simplex, glaber, stigma bifidum, in tubo corollino latens vel
subexsertum.

_Capsula_ ovata oblonga vel lineari-lanceolata, utrinque sulcata,
limbo calycis coronata, lævis vel obscure costata, glabra pubescensve,
bilocularis, polysperma, septicide a basi ad apicem dehiscens, valvulis
sejunctis, pedicello simul longitrorsum fisso.

_Semina_ plurima in placentis angulato-alatis denique liberis peltatim
affixa, sursum imbricata, compressa, nucleo oblongo ala membranacea
margine denticulata ex toto ambitu cincto.

_Embryo_ in axi albuminis carnosi rectus; cotyledonibus ovatis
integris; radicula tereti, infera.

_Arbores_ vel _frutices_ sempervirentes, vallium Andinarum
intertropicalium inter 10° lat. Sept. et 19° lat. Austr. altitudineque
1200-3270 metr. supra Oceani ripas incolæ; trunco ramisque teretibus;
ramulis sæpius subtetragonis, cicatrices foliorum stipularumque
delapsorum monstrantibus, harumce vestigiis in ramis adultis etiam
conspicuis.

_Cortex_ amarus, Quinina et Chinchonina fœtus. _Peridermis_ varia: modo
tenuissima valde adhærens, e solo _subere_ confecta; modo incrassata
et stratis squamiformibus, e parenchymate cellulari librove externo
constantibus formata, natura frustulatim aliquando secedens, cæterum
arte haud ægre solubilis.

_Lignum_ albidum, demum flavescens, e stratis concentricis pro
arboris ætate numero variis, radiisque medullaribus secundum caulis
longitudinem singulariter protractis constans; cellulæ enim quibus isti
conflantur hic horizontaliter extenduntur sicutique in radiis vulgo
notis lateriformes seriem plerumque triplicem agunt, illic vero præter
normam longitrorsum summopere protractæ seriem simplicem exhibent;
quapropter radii in trunco nudato (adempto cortice) inspecti lineas
exiles hinc et illinc brevi spatio ellipticeque dilatatas effingunt.
Vasa porosa approximata, seriebus continuis simplicibus ordinata.

_Medulla_ ramorum vulgo tetragona.

_Folia_ opposita, integerrima, decrescenti-venosa, petiolata, glabra
varie pubescentia vel tomentosa, planiuscula aut margine leviter
revoluta; axillis venarum venularumque paginæ inferioris in nonnullis
speciebus scrobiculatis; scrobiculis simplicissimis, vacuis aut succum
adstringentem sudantibus. Epidermidis cellulæ, paginæ superioris
præsertim, ambitu vulgo sinuosæ, in quibusdam speciebus humore
translucido tumidæ, particulas foventes innumeras innatantes, oculo
armato mirantique motu rapido quasi vitali trepidantes.

_Petiolus_ limbo brevior, semicylindricus, subtus convexus, supra
planus vel subcanaliculatus, rarissime in foliis arboris junioris teres.

_Stipulæ_ interpetiolares plerumque liberæ citoque deciduæ vel basi
leviter connatæ, intus ad basim glandulis minutis lanceolatis crebre
consitæ.

_Flores_ interdum fortuitu 4 vel 6-meri, cymoso-paniculati, albi
vel sæpius carnei aut purpurascentes, mire fragrantes; paniculis
terminalibus, ramulis pedicellisque basi bracteatis.


CHINCHONA CONDAMINEA.

(_From Howard's 'Nueva Quinologia of Pavon,'_ No. i.)

[Illustration: CAPSULES AND PARTS OF THE FLOWER OF CHINCHONA
CHAHUARGUERA.

(_Magnified and natural size._)]


CHINCHONA CHAHUARGUERA.

CHINCHONA CHAHUARGUERA.--Foliis oppositis, petiolatis, lanceolatis,
oblongis ovato-lanceolatisque, undulatis, acuminatis acutisque,
pedunculis paniculatis.

_Arbor_ 3-4 orgyalis, comâ, frondosâ ramosissimâ.

_Truncus_ solitarius, erectus, cortice fusco aspero maculis cinereis
indutus, rimis longitudinalibus transversalibusque.

_Lignum_ compactum, durum.

_Rami_ erecti, teretes, cortice extus nigrescente, intus pallido
cinnamomeo.

_Ramuli_ subteretes, asperi, rimacei, colore ferrugineo-roseo.

_Folia_ opposita, petiolata, lanceolata, oblonga ovato-lanceolataque,
acuminata acutaque, utrinque glabra, subtus nervosa, venosa,
integerrima, undulata, marginibus revolutis, glandulis subtus
concavis rotundis villosis, ad sinus nervorum ortum insertis, supra
prominentibus.

_Foliola_ floralia opposita, petiolata, parva, ovata ovaliaque, glabra,
marginibus revolutis, nervis centralibus purpureis.

_Petioli_ teretes, purpurei.

_Stipulæ_ duæ oppositæ, supra-axillares, sessiles, ovatæ, integerrimæ,
acuminatæ, basi cohærentes, nervo centrali prominente, marginibus
revolutis, deciduæ.

_Pedunculi_ communes, terminales, axillaresque, subtetragoni, partiales
pubescentes, bracteolis oppositis subulatis ad pedicellorum basim,
pedicellis pubescentibus.

_Pedicelli_ bracteolis subulatis, solitariis ad basim.

_Calyx_ rosaceus.

_Corolla_ dilute purpurea, extus pubescens, laciniis reflexis supra
villoso-tomentosis, villis albicantibus.

_Antheræ_ fauce parum exsertæ.

_Capsula_ ovalis oblongaque, purpurea (nonnullæ capsulæ ventricosæ),
bilocularis, bivalvis, valvulis basi dehiscentibus.

_Habitat_ in collibus Santa Rosa nominatis, situ Huancocolla appellata,
ditione Vilcobamba, Loxa provinciâ.

_Floret_ Maio, Junio, Julio, et Augusto.

Varietas Prima, _Cascarilla amarilla fina del Rey_. Varietas Secunda?
_Cascarilla colorada fina del Rey._ Varietas Tertia? _Cascarilla
crespilla negra._


(_From Howard's 'Nueva Quinologia of Pavon,'_ No. vii.)

CHINCHONA URITUSINGA.

CHINCHONA URITUSINGA.--Foliis oppositis, petiolatis, lanceolatis;
pedunculis axillaribus terminalibusque, paniculato-corymbosis, trifidis.

_Arbor_ 20-ulnaris et ultra.

_Lignum_ compactum, luteo colore.

_Truncus_ solitarius, erectus, teres, crassus, fuscus, nonnullis
maculis nigris obsitus, _comâ_ frondosâ, valde ramosâ.

_Cortex_ scaber, fuscus, maculis nigris fuscis et albicantibus, rimis
transversalibus. _Color_ intus luteus, amarissimus, acidulus, non
ingratus.

_Rami_ erecto-patentes, teretes; superiores brachiati, complanati,
leviter pubescentes, dilute fusci.

_Ramuli_ utrinque sulcati.

_Folia_ opposita, petiolata, lanceolata, integerrima, acuta, supra
glaberrima, nervosa, venosa, subtus per nervos et venas villosiuscula;
nervis alternis, rarius oppositis; marginibus revolutis; _tenerrima_
subtus hirsuta; _glandulis_ minimis, rotundatis, subtus concavis,
circum villis albicantibus ad nervorum ortum insertis, supra
prominentibus.

_Petioli_ teretes, supra canaliculati, glabri, subtus hirsuti, basi
incrassati.

_Stipulæ_ duæ, oppositæ, interfoliaceæ, supra-axillares, ovatæ, acutæ,
erectæ, integerrimæ, cauli appressæ, pubescentes, deciduæ.

_Pedunculi communes_ axillares terminalesque, trifidi, obtusi
tetragoni, paniculato-subcorymbosi, hirsuti, solitarii, erecti,
complanati, foliis breviores; _partiales_ hirsuti, tri-septemflori
trifidique; bracteolis duabus, oppositis, minimis, ovatis, acutis,
concavis, rubris, ad basim insertis, persistentibus.

_Pedicelli_ teretes, breves, pubescentes; bracteolis solitariis,
minimis, ovatis, acutis, persistentibus, ad basim et in medio insertis.

_Flores_ nonnulli sessiles.

_Calyx_ campanulatus, ruber, glaber, in fructu ampliatus, denticulis
retroflexis persistens.

_Corolla_ albo-rosacea, extus pubescens. _Tubus_ intus glaber.
_Limbus_ quinque-partitus, patens; laciniis villoso-tomentosis; villis
albicantibus, densis, longiusculis.

_Capsula_ oblonga, angusta, striata, striis longitudinalibus
prominentibus utrinque sulcata, lævis, calyce crescente ampliato
coronata, denticulis retroflexis, bilocularis, bivalvis, basi dehiscens.

_Semina_ minima, fulva, alâ obovatâ leviter lacerâ albo-pallescente
circumdata. _Receptaculum_ lineare.

_Habitat_ prope Loxa in collibus Cajanuma, Uritusinga, Boqueron,
Villonaco, Huancabamba, et Ayavaca.

_Floret_ Maio, Junio, Julio, et Augusto.

_Vulgo_ "Cascarilla Fina."


CHINCHONA CRISPA (_Tafalla_).

(_From Howard's 'Nueva Quinologia de Pavon.'_)

CHINCHONA CRISPA. _Quina fina de Loja_, _Cascarilla crespilla buena_,
_Quina Carrasqueña_, Tafalla M.S. sec. Ruiz in M.S. Compendio, Mus.
Brit.

_C. Condaminea._ H. et B. specimen florif. in pl. x. Pl. Equin. exclus.
specim. fructif. et descriptione.

_C. Chahuarguera_, varietas (tertia). Pavon, Nueva Quinologia.

[Illustration: CAPSULE AND PARTS OF THE FLOWER OF CHINCHONA SUCCIRUBRA.]


CHINCHONA SUCCIRUBRA.

(_From Howard's 'Nueva Quinologia of Pavon,'_ _No._ iii.)

CHINCHONA SUCCIRUBRA.--Foliis oppositis, petiolatis, ovatis
ovalibusque; petiolis nervisque rubicundis, glabris, nitidis;
pedunculis racemoso-paniculatis.

_Arbor_ 6-7 orgyalis.

_Truncus_ solitarius, erectus; aliquoties duo tresve ex eadem radice
repullulant. _Coma_ frondosa ramosaque. _Lignum_ compactum.

_Cortex_ fuscus, nonnullis maculis albicantibus; rimis transversalibus
horizontalibusque.

_Rami_ erecti, nonnulli horizontales, teretes, _teneri_ pubescentes.

_Folia_ opposita, petiolata, ovata ovaliaque, integerrima, acumine
brevissimo, nonnulla subrotunda, glabra, superne parum nitida, nervosa,
venosa, venis reticulatis, nervis venisque villosis, tenuia marginibus
retroflexis. _Folia superiora_, floralia petiolata, lanceolata,
nonnulla sublinearia.

_Petioli_ subteretes, basi crassiores, pubescentes, rubicundi sicuti
nervi.

_Stipulæ_ duæ, interfoliaceæ, supra-axillares, oppositæ,
subamplexicaules, oblongæ, sessiles, integerrimæ, parum concavæ, cauli
appressæ, deciduæ.

_Pedunculi_ communes, axillares terminalesque, racemoso-paniculati,
pubescentes. _Partiales_ oppositi alternique, pubescentes.

_Pedicelli_ bracteolis lanceolato-subulatis, parvis, concavis,
deciduis, ad basim et in medio rubicundo.

_Flores_ pedicellati, nonnulli sessiles.

_Corolla_ rubicunda, marginibus laciniarum ciliatis, villis
albicantibus.

_Capsula_ oblonga, parum incurva, immatura rubicunda, bivalvis, basi
hians. _Receptaculum_ lanceolatum.

_Semina_ alis dilaceratis.

_Habitat_ ad radices collium, ad declivia Sancti Antonii, in via ad
Huaranda Provinciæ Quitensis, locis frigidis.

_Floret_ Julio et Augusto.

_Vulgo._ _Cascarilla Colorada._

In arborum corticumque amputatione, succum lacteum primum profluit;
postea, in colorem intense rubicundum transmutatur, unde _Cascarilla
Colorada_ nomen oritur.

_Chinchona Succirubra_ (Pavon MSS.) arborea; ramis teretibus; ramulis
obtuso-angulatis flavido-pubescentibus; foliis membranaceis magnis
latissime ovatis petiolatis, utrinque brevissime attenuatis, supra
saturate viridibus glabris subnitidis, subtus pallide viridibus
puberulis, ad costam nervosque primarios pubescentibus; petiolis
semiteretibus puberulis, supra canaliculatis; stipulis oblongis obtusis
carinatis subpuberulis caducis; floribus congestis in paniculam
terminalem interruptam dispositis; ramis floriferis pedunculatis
pubescentibus erectis compressis trichotomo-ramosis, inferioribus
foliosis superioribus bracteatis; bracteis subpersistentibus
oblongo-linearibus, extus subpubescentibus carinatis basi attenuatis;
calycibus turbinatis, basi bracteola minuta suffultis, tubo dense
albido pubescente, limbo cupulari quinque-dentato rubescente sparsim
pubescente, dentibus brevibus latis acutis, dorso carinatis; corollis
hypocraterimorphis brevissime pubescentibus, tubo inferne attenuato,
limbo quinquefido, laciniis ovatis acutis, intus longe (ad siccam)
luteo-barbatis; staminibus subinclusis glabris; stylo versus basim
attenuato; stigmate bipartito incluso.


(_From Spruce's Report, p. 104, described from fresh specimens._)

CHINCHONA SUCCIRUBRA, Pavon.

_Hab._--In sylvis primævis cordilleræ occidentalis Andium Quitensium
præcipue ad radices montis nivosi _Chimborazo_, alt. 2000-5000 ped.
Angl. (610-1520 metr.) supra mare.

_Descr._--_Arbor_ pulcherrima, 50-80 pedalis; caudice recto
circumferentiâ 4-usque ad 10-pedali; comâ symmetricâ elongatâ,
ramis infimis longioribus deinde superioribus sensim decrescentibus
paraboloideâ, vel ramis infimis iis proxime sequentibus sub-brevioribus
ovoideâ.

_Cortex_, caudicis ubi lichenibus non obvelatus est fusco-badius, haud
profunde longitudinaliter rimosus, demum etiam rimulis transversalibus
fissus; ramulorum annotinorum rufescens, novellorum e viridi
cinerascens secus apicem rubescens.

_Succus_ ecoloratus, cortice autem inciso, in lucem aeremque susceptus
exinde sæpius albescit, postea sensim albescit.

_Rami_ decussati, angulo 50°-80° adscendentes, teretes, e foliorum
stipularumque cicatricibus annulati; novelli tamen tetragoni foliosi
fragiles succosi, pube brevi deciduâ densiuscule vestiti.

_Folia_ opposita decussata, cujusque ramuli 4-6 paribus
contemporalibus, cujusque paris inter se subæqualia raro valde
inæqualia, sæpe perfecte ovalia, secus paniculas ovato-ovalia, raro
rotundato-ovalia, basi in petiolum sensim abrupteve attenuata, apice
abrupte acuta vel levissime acuminata rarius rotundata, nitida
subcoriacea (fragilissima tamen) læte viridia ad luteum potius quam
ad cæruleum vergentia, ætate tota sanguinea, suprà sparse decidue
puberula et inter venas plus minus bullato-elevata, subtus pubescentia,
raro in utraque facie glabrata; venis 11-12 cujusque lateris, angulo
56°-59° cum costâ tereti (siccando complanatâ) efformantibus, subtus
prominulis, a costâ ultrà, medium rectis dein sensim incurvantibus
et prope marginem anastomosantibus; petiolo tereti, e folii
laminâ decurrente suprà lineis duabus parum elevatis percurso,
tomentello. Folia ramulorum tenuiorum nonnunquam ovali- vel etiam
obovato-lanceolata.

_Stipulæ_ interpetiolares deciduæ erecto-patulæ ligulato-oblongæ
obtusæ ad costam carinatæ, basi subventricosæ superne explanatæ,
reticulato-venosæ, sub-puberulæ, juniores pallide virides, adultiores
basi roseæ vel etiam totæ sanguineæ.

_Pedunculi_ ex axillis foliorum superiorum minorum lanceolatorum
(v. etiam ad bracteas lineari-lanceolatas subulatasve redactorum)
orti, subinde paniculam elongatam pedalem vel etiam sesquipedalem
efformantes, tomentosi, bis terve decussatum pinnati dein trichotomi;
divisionibus basi bracteatis sæpe indistincte oppositis v. plane
alternis. _Pedicelli_ calycesque basi bracteolis minutis rigidis
sanguineis ovato-lanceolatis basi utrinque unidentatis suffulti.

_Calyx_ parvus dense appresso-puberulus; _tubus_
subturbinato-hemisphæricus; _limbus_ cupulatus fere ad medium usque
in lobos 5 lato-triangulares carinatos, apicibus sinubusque acutis,
fissus, pubescens raro subglabratus, persistens.

_Corolla_ calycem fere 5-ies excedens, extus dense puberula,
ante anthesin clavata postea hypocraterimorpha; _tubus_
elongato-truncato-obconicus, intus glaber; _limbus_ e lobis 5 patulis
valvatis elongato-ovato-lanceolatis, margine apiceque villis densis
albis (siccando flavidis) barbatis.

_Stamina_, corollæ tubum paululum superantia; _filamenta_ glabra
compressa à basi fere ad medium usque cum corollâ concreta; _antheræ_
elongatæ lineares.

_Stylus_ teres; _stigma_ subemersum e lobis duobus ovato-lanceolatis
crassis faciebus unisulcis erecto-patulis constans.

_Capsula_ stricta curvulave tenui-ovoideo-fusiformis à basi dehiscens,
valvulis dorso costis 5 parum elevatis percursis.

_Semina_ anguste subovali-lanceolata sæpius asymmetrica, alâ margine
lacero-fimbriatâ ciliatâ, basi angustata et ibidem integra bilobave.


CHINCHONA CALISAYA.

(_From Weddell's 'Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas,' p. 30._)

C. foliis oblongis vel lanceolato obovatis, obtusis, basi attenuatis,
rarius utrinque acutis, glabratis, nitidis vel subtus pubescentibus,
in axillis venarum scrobiculatis; filamentis quam dimidia anthera
plerumque brevioribus; capsula ovata, flores longitudine vix æquante;
seminibus margine crebre fimbriato-denticulatis.

α _Calisaya vera_, arbor foliis oblongo- vel lanceolato-obovatis,
obtusis.

β _Calisaya Josephiana_, frutex, foliis oblongo- vel ovato-lanceolatis,
acutiusculis.


α. _Calisaya Vera._

_Arbor_ excelsa, trunco recto vel e basi arcuatim ascendente, nudo,
crassitudinem corporis humani duplam non infrequenter excedente. Coma
frondosa incolas omnes sylvæ ferme superans.

_Cortex_ trunci crassus. Peridermis ejusdem quam in omnibus fere
generis speciebus crassior, e libro facile solubilis et avulsa ad hujus
superficiem sulcos impressionesve sculpturas referentes detegens,
rimis parallelis verticalibus et scissuris transversalibus plus minus
annularibus ornata, albida vel etiam nigricans. Ramorum peridermis
dealbata aut lichenum thallis diverse marmorata, rimis magis sinuatis
et scissuris angustioribus exculpta; aliis annularibus distantibus,
aliis brevioribus subapproximatis. In ramulis denique cortex tenuis
est, lævigatus et fusco-olivaceus vel nigricans.

_Folia_ oblongo vel lanceolato-obovata (3 to 6 inches) 8-15 cm. long;
(1 to 2 inches) 3-6 cm. lat. obtusa, basi acuta aut leviter attenuata,
molliuscula, patula, supra glaberrima, nitore scilicet velutino a
cellulis epidermidis prominentibus orto condecorata, obscure virentia,
venis pallidioribus, parum conspicuis, subtus dilute smaragdina,
glabrata, in axillis venarum scrobiculata, scrobiculis ab antica pagina
vix manifestis. Petiolus 1 cm. long., virescens, rarius cum costa
rubescens. In arbore juniori folia sæpius utrinque acutiuscula sunt,
flaccida, læte viridia, eximie velutina, costa et petiolo roseis,
nervis supra lacteo-albidis et limbo persæpe maculis roseosanguineis
insignito paginaque inferiori plus minus purpurascenti.

_Stipulæ_ oblongæ, obtusissimæ, petiolis longiores vel subæquales,
glaberrimæ, basi interna glandulis parce obsitæ.

_Panicula Florifera_ ovata vel subcorymbosa, vix multiflora, pedunculis
pedicellisque (2-4 mm. long.) pubescentibus. Bracteæ lanceolatæ.

_Calyx_ pubescens, limbo-crateriformi, dentibus brevibus,
triangularibus.

_Corolla_ 9-10 cm. long., tubo cylindrico vel basi subpentagono, et
leviter angustato, in angulis interdum fisso, carneo-albescente,
laciniis lanceolatis, superne roseis, villis marginalibus candidis.

_Stamina_ in medio tubo latentia; filamenta glabra, dimidiis antheris
breviora.

_Stylus_ tubum fere æquans, stigmatis lobis linearibus, subexsertis,
viridescentibus.

_Panicula Fructifera_ laxiuscula, haud raro valde depauperata,
pedunculis puberulis.

_Capsula_ ovata (.4 to .6 of an inch) 10-15 mm. long., latitudine sua
vix duplo longior, basi rotundata, ecostata, glabrata, sub maturitatem
rubiginosa, dentibus coronæ brevibus, erectiusculis.

_Semina_ elliptico-lanceolata, margine fimbriato-denticulata,
denticulis approximatis, obtusiusculis; nucleo tertiam seminis partem
circiter æquante.

_Habitat_ in declivibus et præruptis montium, ad altitud. 1500-1800 m.
fervidissimas inter valles Bolivæ et Peruviæ meridionalis, sylvas
incolit, inter 13°-16° 30' S. lat., nempe in provinciis Bolivianis
Enquisivi, Yungas, Larecaja, et Caupolican dictis, et in provincia
Caravaya Peruvianorum.

_Floret_ Aprili et Maio.


β. _C. Josephiana._

_Frutex_ (6-1/2 to 12 feet) 2-3 m. alt., trunco gracili (1 to 2 inches)
3-5 cm. crass.; ramoso, ramis erectis.

_Cortex_ ligno valde hærens, trunci ramorumque schistaceo-nigricans,
læviusculus aut lichenibus diversis ornatus scissurisque nonnullis
angustissimis, distantibus, annulatim notatus; ramulorum
brunneo-rufescens.

_Folia_ oblongo- vel ovato-lanceolata, utrinque subacuta aut
obtusiuscula, rigidula, superiora præsertim plus minus concava s.
cymbiformia, utrinque glaberrima vel subtus pubescenti-tomentosa, læte
viridia, denique sanguinea nervique et petiolus.

_Panicula_ tum florifera cum fructifera sæpissime interrupta.

_Corolla_ quam in varietate præcedente paulo longior. Stamina imo
tubo inserta, filamentis nunc brevibus ut Calisayæ Veræ, stylo simul
longiore, nunc elongatis antherisque subexsertis, stylo contra iis
breviore antherisque superato.

_Capsula_ ut in typo vel flore aliquanto longior et non raro superne
plus minus attenuata, versus maturitatem pulchre rubescens simulque
ramuli paniculæ. Dentes coronæ paululum elongatæ eleganterque patentes.


[Illustration: PARTS OF THE FLOWER AND FRUIT OF CHINCHONA MICRANTHA.]

CHINCHONA MICRANTHA.

(_From Howard's 'Nueva Quinologia of Pavon,' No._ ii.)

CHINCHONA MICRANTHA.--Foliis oppositis, petiolatis, ovalibus
obovatisque glabris; floribus minimis, paniculatis.

_Arbor_ 10-15 orgyalis, comâ frondosâ.

_Truncus_ solitarius, erectus, teres; cortice scabro-fusco-cinereo,
sapore valde amaro, acidulo non ingrato; in febribus tertianis usurpari
potest; in commercio ignoto.

_Rami_ patuli, teretes, cortice fusco-nigrescente; teneri foliosi,
obtuse tetragoni, glabri.

_Folia_ opposita, petiolata, ovalia obovataque, integerrima, obtusa,
acumine brevi, ampla, marginibus revolutis, patentia, ut plurimum
quadripalmaria, supra nitida, glaberrima, subtus nervosa, venosa,
nervis purpureis; glandulis obovatis, subtus concavis, supra
prominentibus, in foliis adolescentibus circum villosis, in senioribus
deciduis, ad nervorum axillas insertis.

_Petioli_ breves, vix pollicares, supra plano-canaliculati, subtus
semiteretes.

_Stipulæ_ supra axillares, interfoliaceæ, oppositæ, ovatæ, integerrimæ,
connatæ, caducæ.

_Panicula_ maxima diffusa, subracemosa, foliosa, floridissima,
tomentosa, helvolo colore.

_Pedunculi_ vix striati, tetragoni, compressiusculi, axillares
terminalesque, _communes_ brachiati, _partiales_ oppositi alternique,
omnes bracteis ovato-subulatis, oppositis, persistentibus, ad basim
pedunculorum pedicellorumque insertis.

_Flores_ numerosi, in corymbos parvos multifloros congesti,
subsessiles; bracteis minimis, ovatis, acutis, persistentibus ad basim
et in medio pedicellorum.

_Calyx_ minimus, quinquedentatus; denticulis acutis, dilute
purpurascentibus.

_Corolla_ parva, ut plurimum trilinearis, extus tomentosa, albicans.

_Limbus_ patens, laciniis quinque intus villoso-tomentosis, villis
albicantibus extus rubescens.

_Antheræ_ lineares, intra faucem inclusæ, luteæ.

_Capsula_ oblonga, acuta, leviter decemstriata, fusca, calyce coronata,
a basi ad apicem dehiscens.

_Semina_ fulva, alâ lineari utrinque acutâ inæqualiter lacerâ cincta.

_Habitat_ in Andium montibus altis, frigidis, et nemorosis, versus
vicum San Antonio de Playa Grande, ubi Johannes Tafalla, anno 1797,
eam observavit, et iconem, cum nonnullis exemplaribus siccis, et
descriptionem, nobiscum communicavit.

_Floret_ Maio, Junio, et Julio.

_Vulgo: Cascarilla fina. Cascarilla Provinciana._

_Chinchona Micrantha_, β. _Oblongifolia_ (Weddell).

_Chinchona Micrantha_, var. α. flor. extus roseis; var. β. flor. extus
albidis (Poeppig).

(_From Weddell's 'Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas,' p. 52._)

CHINCHONA MICRANTHA.--_Arbor_ 6-10 m. alt. sat frondosa, trunco recto,
tereti, 2-4 dm. crassitudine raro excedente; ramis patulis.

_Cortex_ trunci crassiusculus. _Peridermis_ ejusdem tenuis, libro
extus subcarioso vix hærens, plus minus lævigata, sordide grisea
fuscescensve; ramorum lævis, cinerascens; ramulorum viridescens.

_Folia_ plerumque ovato-rotundata, 12-20 cm, long. 10-15 cm. lat.
basi (præcipue in junioribus) plus minus cuneata vel attenuata,
obtusiuscula, membranacea, supra glabra nitidiuscula, læte viridia,
subtus læevissime puberula pallide virescentia, venis venulisque parce
pubescentibus, axillis pilosiusculis, pilis subfasciculatis. Petiolus
2-3 cm. long. glaber, ejusdem coloris ac costa.

_Stipulæ_ ovatæ, obtusæ, extus pubescentes, intus puberulæ, deciduæ.

_Panicula Florifera_ maxima, thyrsoidea; ramulis subpatentibus
pedicellisque (2 mm. long.) pubescentibus, cinereo-virescentibus.

_Calyx_ pubescens, limbo crateriformi, dentibus acuminatis.

_Corolla_ alba, tubo tereti 5-7 mm. long. basi et fauce leviter
coarctato, laciniis lanceolatis.

_Stamina_ imo tubo inserta, antheris inclusis filamenta subæquantibus.

_Stylus_ brevissimus; stigmatis laciniis linearibus.

_Panicula Fructifera_ ovata vel subpyramidalis, subconferta, ramulis
glabratis.

_Capsula_ lanceolata vel oblongo-lanceolata, 25-30 mm. long. 5-7 mm.
lat. utrinque attenuata, glabrata, lævis.

_Semina_ lanceolata, basi integra vel fissa, margine denticulata.

Crescit in nemoribus humidis subobscuris montium, nec non infrequentius
juxta ipsas rivulorum ripas, vallium provinciarum Larecaja et
Caupolican Bolivianorum, vallisque Tambopata provinciæ Caravaya incola;
provenit etiam in editioribus versus Chicoplaya et Playa Grande
Peruvianorum.


CHINCHONA NITIDA.

(_From Howard's 'Nueva Quinologia of Pavon,' No._ vii.)

CHINCHONA NITIDA.--Foliis oppositis, petiolatis, obovatis,
ovali-oblongis ovato-oblongisque, nitidis, paniculâ
terminali--_Cascarilla Officinal_. (Ruiz Quinologia, Art. 2, p. 56.)

_Arbor_ procera, a decem usque ad quadraginta ulnas, glabra.

_Truncus_ solitarius, erectus, teres, aliquando tres aut quinque
repullantes.

_Cortex_ extus scaber, fusco-nigricans, sæpe ex fusco et cinereo
colore variegatus; intus obscure fulvus, amarissimus, acidulus non
ingratus, in commercio et in febribus tertianis magno usu fit.

_Rami_ seniores teretes, scabri, fusco atri-cinereo colore variegati,
_teneri_ leviter tetragoni, fusci.

_Folia_ opposita, petiolata, obovata, ovali-oblonga ovato-oblongaque,
integerrima, nitidissima, decurrentia, marginibus ad basim revolutis,
subtus venosa, venis purpurascentibus, glandulis rotundis oblongisque,
supra prominentibus, subtus concavis, ad sinus nervorum ortum insertis,
villis longis albicantibus vestitis.

_Petioli_ subtus semiteretes, supra planiusculi, purpurei.

_Stipulæ_ interfoliaceæ, oppositæ, supra-axillares, basi coadunatæ,
oblongæ, sessiles, obtusæ, intus rubescentes, marginibus reflexis.

_Panicula_ terminalis, composita, subracemosa, rubescens.

_Pedunculi_ multiflori, tetragoni.

_Flores_ breviter pedicellati.

_Pedicelli_ bracteolis ovatis acumine subulato concavis ad basim
stipati, persistentes.

_Calyx_ parvus, purpureus.

_Corolla_ alba, extus dilute rubicunda, vix semipollicaris, laciniis
intus villosis, villis albicantibus.

_Capsula_ oblonga, decem-striata, rubescens, bivalvis, valvulis basi
hiantibus.

_Semina_ ovalia, fulva, alis membranaceis oblongis inæqualiter
denticulato cincta.

_Habitat_ in Andium montibus altis, nemorosis, frigidis, ad Pampamarca,
Chacahuasi, Casapi, Casapillo, Cayumba, Sapan, Cuchero, aliisque
tractibus, et in montibus Provinciarum Huamalies, Tarma, et Jauja.

_Floret_ Maio, Junio, et Julio.

_Vulgo: Cascarilla fina aut Quina fina. Cascarilla lustrosa_
(Pritchett).


(_From Weddell's 'Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas,' p. 47._)

CHINCHONA NITIDA.--C. foliis lanceolato-obovatis, acutis, basi
attenuatis, utrinque glabris, nitidis vel inferne leviter pilosis,
escrobiculatis; filamentis antheras æquantibus; capsula anguste
lanceolata, latitudine sua duplo longiori; seminibus lanceolatis,
margine denticulatis.

_Arbor_ 8-12 m. alt., trunco recto, tereti, crassitudine corporis
humani; coma parum frondosa.

_Cortex_ trunci crassus, peridermide rimosa, obscure brunnea; ramorum
peridermis inæqualis, plus minus sulcato-rimosa, brunneo-cinerascens.

_Folia_ lanceolato- vel oblongo-obovata, 9-10 cm. long., 25 mm. lat.,
utrinque acuta, basi cuneata aut attenuata, sub-membranacea; supra
glabra nitida, subtus nonnunquam (ad venas præsertim) pilosa; petiolo 1
cm. longo.

_Stipulæ_ oblongæ vel obovatæ, obtusæ, deciduæ, raro basi connatæ.

_Panicula_ ovata, subcoarctata, ramulis pedicellisque puberulis;
bracteis triangulari-lanceolatis.

_Calyx_ limbo subcampanulato, dentibus triangularibus.

_Corolla_ rosea, tubo subcylindrico, laciniis lanceolatis, villis
albidis.

_Antheræ_ apice exsertæ, filamenta æquantes vel paulo breviores.

_Stylus_ antheras haud attingens; stigmatis lobis linearibus, brevibus.

_Capsula_ lanceolata, denique glabra, læviuscula vel striata, sub
maturitatem obscure rubiginosa, dentibus coronæ erectiusculis.

_Semina_ lanceolata, utrinque acuta, margine denticulata.

_Habitat_ in montibus altis, noctu frigidiusculis, diu apricis
ventilatisque.

  (Ruiz et Pavon. Poeppig.)


CHINCHONA PERUVIANA. (_Howard._)

(_The "Pata de Gallinazo" of Pritchett's Collection._)

(_From Howard's 'Nueva Quinologia of Pavon.'_)

CHINCHONA PERUVIANA.--Foliis oppositis, petiolatis, lanceolato-ovatis,
basi attenuatis, junioribus lanceolatis, scrobiculatis, paniculâ
terminali compositâ.

_Arbor_ procera ... _Lignum_ compactum, luteum.

_Cortex_ extus scaber, rimosus, corticem _Calisayæ_ maxime æmulans,
sæpe ex albo et cinereo colore variegatis; intus obscure fulvus,
amarus, fragrans.

_Folia_ opposita, petiolata, lanceolato-ovata, nonnulla
lanceolato-obovata, alia elliptica, basi attenuata, obtuse
acuminata, juniora lanceolata, scrobiculata, scrobiculis supra valde
prominentibus, nitida, subtus venosa.

_Petioli_ subtus semi-teretes, supra planiusculi.

_Panicula_ terminalis, composita, pyramidalis.

_Capsula_ oblonga, leviter decemstriata, calyce coronata, bivalvis,
valvulis basi hiantibus.

_Semina_ ovalia, alis membranaceis, valde laceratis.

_Habitat_ in Andium montibus frigidis Cocheros aliisque tractibus.

_Vulgo_: "_Cascarilla Pata de Gallinazo_."

_Obs._:--In commercio magno usu fit.

  _Speciminibus nobis à Pritchett datis descript._


CHINCHONA LANCIFOLIA.

(_From Karsten's 'Floræ Columbiæ Specimina Selecta,'_ I. p. 21.)

_Arbor_ vasta, usque ad 24 metr. adscendens, trunco recto, 1-1½ metra
in diametro; coma subovata, ramosa, ramis teretibus adscendentibus vel
inferioribus, horizontalibus, cortice rugoso, fuscescenti, ut plurimum
hic illic profunde transversim annulato, tectis; ramulis brachiatis,
compressiusculis, uti pedicelli leviter striguloso-pilosiusculis.

_Folia_ opposita, petiolata, petiolo semitereti 16-20 m. m. longo,
supra plano, glabro, subtus pilosiusculo insidentia, lanceolata,
acuminata, basi attenuata, integerrima, glaberrima, in axilla venarum
leviter scrobiculata, et hic facie inferiore glomerulo pilorum obsita,
patentia, læte viridia, nitida, lamina 10 centim. longa, 3-1/2 centim.
lata, petiolo nervisque, demum folio integro, rubescentibus; juniora
subtus in costa minutissime pilosiuscula; vernatione applicativa.

_Stipulæ_ interpetiolares, liberæ, lanceolatæ, acutæ, pedicellorum
longitudine, glaberrimæ; intus basi pluriseriatim glandulosæ, demum
rubræ, deciduæ.

_Inflorescentia_ terminalis foliosa, paniculata, e cymis dichotomis
axillaribus composita, foliis floralibus lineari-lanceolatis;
pedunculi pedicellique bracteis minutis, glabris, lanceolato-acutis,
subpersistentibus, suffulti.

_Calycis_ tubus turbinatus, ovario adnatus, pilis minutis, adpressis
strigosus; limbus persistens campanulatus, quinquefidus, glaber,
rubescens, laciniis triangularibus, acutis.

_Corolla_ tubo cylindrico 10 m. m. longo, extus sericeo, carneo-rubro,
intus glabro; limbo quinquepartito, lobis ovatis, acutis, æstivatione
valvatis, rubris, extus sericeis, intus margine albide-villosis sub
anthesin patentibus.

_Stamina_ quinque, tubo medio inserta, paullo exserta.

_Filamenta_ subulata, glabra, 1 m. m. longa; _antheræ_ lineares,
introrse longitudinaliter birimosæ, basi sagittata affixæ, filamentis
paullo breviores, plus minus exsertæ; _pollen_ sphæricum granulosum,
triocellatum.

_Discus_ epigynus, annularis, carnosus, subpentagonus, quinquesulcatus.

_Ovarium_ inferum biloculare, loculis multiovulatis, placentis
linearibus, medio dissepimenti longitudinaliter adnatis, ovula
anatropa, pluriseriata, imbricatim adscendentia, mox peltata
gerentibus; stylus teres glaber, staminibus longior, exsertus aut
inclusus; stigmata duo linearia.

_Capsula_ oblonga, striato-costata, calva, post dehiscentiam
septicidam, a basi ad apicem progredientem, calycis limbo diutius
coronata, epicarpio cum endocarpio connato, 17-20 m. m. longa, 6-8 m.
m. lata.

_Semina_ lanceolata, applanata, 7-8 m. m. longa, 2-3 m. m. lata,
spermophoro, a valvis apertis soluto, adhærentia, caduca, ala
membranacea, hyalina, imperforata, margine crenulato-denticulata,
cincta; nucleo ovali sextam partem fere seminis longitudinis
attingente.

_Embryo_ in axi albuminis carnosi rectus, cotyledonibus ovalibus,
planis, applicativis, radicula tereti infera.

In declivitate Andium Granatensium inter 5° et 1° lat. Sept. altitudine
2500-3000 metr. supra oceani littora ad temperaturam glacialem in horis
nocturnis fere refrigerata hic illic frequenter in locis nebulosis et
illuviosis nascitur.

_Tunita_ ab incolis dicta.




APPENDIX C.

  NOTES ON THE PRINCIPAL PLANTS EMPLOYED IN INDIA, ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR
  REAL OR SUPPOSED FEBRIFUGE VIRTUES. BY ALEXANDER SMITH, ESQ.


THE following enumeration of Indian febrifuge plants, though, from
the limited time at my disposal, not so complete as could be wished,
will serve to give an idea of the great variety of indigenous plants
used by the natives of India in the treatment of the different kinds
of fevers so prevalent in that country. European physicians of the
present day rely to a great extent upon the invaluable products of the
_Chinchonas_, as the most certain remedies for these disorders; but a
couple of centuries ago, when _quinine_ and the kindred alkaloids were
undreamt of, and when even Peruvian Bark, or, as it was then called,
"Countess' Bark" or "Jesuits' Bark," was scarcely known, and its source
a jealously guarded secret, their ancestors made use of a much greater
number of substances, and highly extolled the febrifuge properties
of many of our native wild plants. Most of these, however, are now
known to be of little use and are discarded from the modern practice
of physic, though amongst rustic practitioners, or herb-doctors, they
still to a certain degree enjoy their ancient reputation. We must not
therefore be surprised that the native doctors of the East, whose
knowledge of chemistry and the allied sciences is as limited as was
that of our old herbalists, should in like manner ascribe powerful
properties to the barks, roots, stems, and other parts of plants which
in reality possess as little value in a medical point of view, as the
indigenous plants at one time used in our own country.

It must not, however, be imagined from these remarks that all the
plants mentioned below are known to be completely devoid of medicinal
properties. Some of them possibly possess qualities of the greatest
value, and, were they properly tested by the enlightened science of
the present day, might yield products useful either as tonics or
febrifuges, or prove otherwise valuable. But the great majority are
comparatively valueless, and their supposed virtues merely the result
of fancy.

  ALEX. SMITH.

_Kew, Surrey, April 5th, 1862._


RANUNCULACEÆ.


THALICTRUM FOLIOLOSUM, _D. C._

The bitter roots of this Himalayan species of Meadow Rue are used
by the natives in intermittent fevers, and have, according to
O'Shaughnessy, been experimented upon by European practitioners,
and found serviceable not only as a febrifuge, but as a tonic in
convalescence from acute diseases. The plant is an erect, branching
perennial, three or more feet high, with large quadripinnate leaves
composed of numerous small leaflets. It is common throughout the
Himalayas, and is called "Pelijuree" or "Shuprak" by the natives.


COPTIS TEETA, _Wall._

Several bitter roots are called "Teeta" in the Bengal bazaars. Those of
the present plant are brought down from the Mishmee Mountains on the
northern borders of Assam, and are consequently called "Mishmee Teeta."
They are usually packed in little baskets about two inches wide,
made of strips of rattan-cane. In the Scinde bazaars they are called
"Mahmira," and they are likewise said to be imported from China under
the name of "Sou-line" or "Chyn-len," but the plant is not known to
be a native of that country. They have an intensely bitter taste, and
the native doctors esteem them very highly as a tonic and stomachic.
M. Virey says that a decoction of them is a powerful febrifuge, but
O'Shaughnessy states that in experiments made in the Indian hospitals
they did not seem to exercise any febrifuge virtues, though their tonic
properties were very manifest. The roots of an allied American species
(_Coptis trifolia_, Salisb.) are used throughout the United States and
Canada as a tonic, under the name of "Gold Thread."


ACONITUM, _sp. pl._

The roots of several species of Aconite, common in the Himalayas, are
reputed to possess febrifuge properties, but the identification of the
particular species is very uncertain. Amongst others the most virulent
kind of "Bikh" or "Bish," that yielded by the _Aconitum ferox_,
Wall., is said to be thus employed and also in chronic rheumatism;
and likewise the "Bikhma" of Hamilton, supposed to be the _Aconitum
palmatum_, Don. The little tuber-like roots called "Atees" or "Butees,"
much esteemed for their bitter tonic properties, are afforded by the
_Aconitum heterophyllum_, Wall.


MAGNOLIACEÆ.


MICHELIA CHAMPACA, _Linn._

Several of the _Magnoliaceæ_ are known to possess powerful febrifuge
virtues, particularly the _Magnolia glauca_, Linn., and other
American species, the bark and fruits of which are greatly used in
intermittent fever. Among the Indian species, the only one reputed
to possess similar virtues is the "Champa" (_Michelia Champaca_,
Linn.), O'Shaughnessy remarking that, after several trials, its bark
appeared to him to possess the properties attributed to the _Magnolia
glauca_. It, however, contains tannin and gallic acid, both of which
are absent in the American bark. The Champa grows to a large size,
has ovate-lanceolate leaves from eight to ten inches long and two to
four broad, and bears exceedingly fragrant yellow or orange-
flowers, which the Hindus offer to their deities.


BERBERIDACEÆ.


BERBERIS LYCIUM, _Royle_.

According to the learned investigations of the late Dr. Royle, it would
appear that this species of Barberry afforded the λύκιον ινδικον of
Dioscorides. At the present day an extract of the sliced root, stem,
and branches is prepared in Nipal and the Dhoon, and employed by the
native doctors in diseases of the eyes, for which purpose the drug was
also valued by the physicians of old. It is known in Bengal by the name
of "Rusoot" or "Rasot," and in Scinde by that of "Ruswul." Employed as
a substitute for Chinchona bark this extract has been found to be a
most valuable remedial agent in common and tertian agues, checking the
fever in three days. The skin is invariably moist during its action.
The plant is a small stiff shrub with twiggy, pale-barked branches
armed with conical tripartite spines, and bearing clusters of small
obovate-lanceolate leaves, either entire or with spiny teeth along the
edges.


MENISPERMACEÆ.


TINOSPORA CORDIFOLIA, _Miers_ (= _Cocculus cordifolius_, D. C., and
_Menispermum cordifolium_, Willd.).

A tall, climbing shrub with rough corky bark, and broad, heart-shaped,
pointed leaves from two to four inches long, upon stalks of about the
same length; common in woods throughout the peninsula of India and in
Ceylon, and known in the former country by the name of "Guluncha" or
"Gurcha," and amongst the Cinghalese by that of "Rassakinda." All parts
of the plant have a bitter taste, and an infusion of the young stems
and leaves is highly esteemed by the native physicians as a febrifuge
medicine, and also as a tonic, while in some districts it is looked
upon as a certain cure for poisonous snake-bites. Ainslie says that the
bruised plant is put into the water drunk by the Brahmins at some of
their religious ceremonies.


TINOSPORA CRISPA, _Miers_ (= _Cocculus crispus_, D. C., and
_Menispermum crispum_, Linn.).

This is closely allied to the above, and is known by the same name,
"Guluncha." It has smooth bark, more oval and less heart-shaped leaves
on shorter stalks. Like the last it is greatly valued in the treatment
of intermittent fever; but the natives in Silhet consider that it is
more efficacious when found climbing upon mango-trees. It is found in
Silhet and Pegu, and in several of the Indian islands.


CISSAMPELOS PAREIRA, _Linn._

The woody stems of this widely spread tropical plant are used in
a variety of diseases, and amongst others in fevers, but it is
principally valued for its antilithic properties, on account of which
it is admitted into our Pharmacopœias under the name of Pareira-brava.
It is a tall, hard-wooded climber, indigenous to the tropics of both
hemispheres, and is found in all parts of India. In Ceylon, where it is
also used as a fever medicine, it is called "Deyamitta."


CAPPARIDACEÆ.


GYNANDROPSIS PENTAPHYLLA, _D. C._ (= _Cleome pentaphylla_, Linn.).

A decoction of the little black seeds of this plant is considered
useful in typhus fever, and in convulsive affections. The plant is
called "Vaylee" in the Tamul language; "Hurhuriya" in Bengalese;
"Caraila" by the Hindus; and "Waila" by the Cinghalese. It is an annual
plant, a foot or more in height, with hairy stems, and palmately
divided leaves usually with five, but sometimes with seven or only
three segments.


CRATÆVA NURVALA, _Ham._ (= _Cratæva Tapia_, Burm.).

A small tree, fifteen to twenty feet high, common on the banks of
rivers on the Malabar coast and in Mysore, producing an astringent
bark, a decoction of which is prescribed as a tonic in both
intermittent and typhus fevers. The Sanscrit name of the plant is
"Varuna," and it is the "Nurvala" of Rheede's Hortus Malabaricus,
according to Hamilton, who says that the real name of the plant in the
Malabar dialect is "Vala," the prefix "Nur" (water) merely denoting the
localities in which the tree is found.


MORINGACEÆ.


MORINGA PTERYGOSPERMA, _Gaertn._ (= _Hyperanthera Moringa_, Vahl.).

Well known in India as the Horse-radish tree, on account of its roots
possessing a pungent odour and biting aromatic taste similar to
those of our common horse-radish, for which they are substituted by
European residents in both the East and West Indies. They are also
used medicinally by the native doctors as a stimulant in paralysis and
intermittent fevers, and are also considered valuable as a rubefacient.
"Morunghy," from which the generic name adopted by modern botanists has
been derived, is the Tamul name; and "Sujna" or "Salijuna," the Hindu.
It is a small tree, seldom more than twenty feet high, and has large
compound three-times pinnated leaves, and axillary bunches of whitish
flowers, producing long pendulous three-sided fruits, containing
numerous winged seeds, which some authors regard as the source of the
celebrated Ben-oil.


CARYOPHYLLACEÆ.


MOLLUGO CERVIANA, _Ser._ (= _Pharnaceum Cervianum_, Linn.).

This little herb is used as a medicine in fevers in Ceylon, where it
is called "Pat-paadagan;" and as the plant is also found in the Indian
peninsula, it is most probably employed in a similar manner by the
Hindu doctors. The order to which it belongs is remarkable for little
besides the presence of _saponine_ in several species.


MALVACEÆ.


SIDA ACUTA, _Burm._ (= _Sida lanceolata_, Retz.).

The roots of this have an intensely bitter taste, and their infusion,
in conjunction with ginger, is prescribed in cases of intermittent
fever, for which they have also been tried in the Indian hospitals, but
without satisfactory results, though they were found to possess some
medicinal virtues as a tonic. The plant is called "Pata" in Sanscrit;
and "Malaytanghie" in Tamul. It is a shrub with narrow lance-shaped,
pointed leaves, coarsely toothed along the edges, and either smooth or
sprinkled with bristly hairs, especially on the veins underneath.


PAVONIA ZEYLANICA, _Cav._ (= _Hibiscus Zeylanicus_, Linn.).

A tall annual plant, with variable leaves, the lower ones being
roundish heart-shaped, and the upper deeply three to five lobed, and
whitish or pale-red flowers. It is called "Sittamootie" in Tamul, and
an infusion of the root is administered in fevers, but Ainslie states
that it does not appear to possess any virtues.


OLACACEÆ.


OLAX ZEYLANICA, _Linn._

A small tree, native of Ceylon and of some parts of India, yielding
a fœtid, salt-tasted wood, which is employed in putrid fevers. The
Cinghalese, who call the tree "Malla," eat the leaves in their curries.


AURANTIACEÆ.


ÆGLE MARMELOS, _Corr._ (= _Cratæva Marmelos_, Linn.).

The Bengal Quince-tree. Almost every part of this tree is used
medicinally by the native Indian doctors. In fever cases a decoction of
the bark of the root, and also of the stem, is employed, but when the
latter is used it is generally combined with a great variety of other
substances. The expressed juice of the leaves, diluted with water,
is also administered in incipient fevers and colds. The fruit is a
valuable remedy in diarrhœa and dysentery, and has been successfully
employed in those complaints by medical men in this country. It is a
tree of moderate size, with its young branches furnished with sharp
spines, and has ternate or rarely pinnate leaves, and axillary panicles
of few large fragrant flowers. It has a great number of vernacular
names. In Hindustanee and Bengalee it is called "Bael, Bêl, or Bêla;"
in Telinga, "Maredoo;" in Tamul, "Willamarvum;" in Malayan, "Tanghula,"
&c.


MELIACEÆ.


AZADIRACHTA INDICA, _A. de Juss._ (= _Melia Azadirachta_, Linn.).

The bitter astringent bark of this tree, the Neem or Margosa tree of
India, is considered by the native doctors to be a most valuable tonic
and febrifuge, and it has been successfully employed as a substitute
for Chinchona-bark by English physicians in India. A bitter principle
called _Azadirine_ has been obtained from it. Other parts of the tree
are likewise reputed to possess medicinal properties: the bitter oil
obtained from the pericarp being employed as an anthelmintic, and the
olive-like fruit itself in leprosy, while the leaves are universally
used in India for poultices. The Neem forms a large ornamental tree,
and has pinnate leaves with unequal-sided smooth leaflets sharply
toothed at the edges, and loose axillary panicles of bluish flowers.
"Neem" or "Nim" is its Hindustanee and Bengalee name; "Nimba," in
Sanscrit; "Vaypun" or "Vapan," in Tamul; and "Kohomba," in Cinghalese.


CEDRELACEÆ.


CEDRELA TOONA, _Roxb._

The Toon-tree grows to a large size, and yields a valuable reddish
timber, resembling some kinds of mahogany. It has abruptly pinnate
leaves composed of from six to twelve pairs of opposite, usually
entire, smooth leaflets of an ovate-lanceolate shape; and its flowers
are small, yellowish, and sweet-scented, and are disposed in terminal
drooping panicles. Toon bark is powerfully astringent, but is said
to be devoid of bitterness. It is much esteemed in the treatment of
intermittent fever, though seldom administered alone, but generally
prescribed in combination with the excessively bitter seed of the
_Guilandina Bonducella_. The flowers yield a yellow dye, but the colour
is not permanent.


SOYMIDA FEBRIFUGA, _A. de Juss._ (= _Swietenia febrifuga_, Roxb.).

The specific name of this tree indicates its use as a medicine in
fevers. The part employed is the bark, which is of a reddish colour and
has a very bitter, slightly astringent, but not unpleasant taste. It
was long ago highly recommended as a substitute for Peruvian bark by
several English doctors in India, and appears to possess considerable
medicinal virtues, though Ainslie found that when given in large doses
it deranged the nervous system, occasioned vertigo and subsequent
stupor. The tree is called "Shemmarum" by the Tamuls; "Soimido" by the
Telingas (whence the generic name adopted by botanists); and "Rohuna"
by the Bengalese. It is a very large, hard-wooded tree, with abruptly
pinnate leaves composed of from three to six pairs of opposite,
oval-oblong blunt leaflets; and produces large panicles of small
yellowish flowers towards the points of the young branches.

The bark of another large Indian tree belonging to this order, the
"Chikrassee" of the Bengalese (_Chickrassia tabularis_, A. de Juss.),
is a powerful astringent, but, like the Toon bark, devoid of bitterness.


OXALIDACEÆ.


AVERRHOA BILIMBI, _Linn._

A syrup prepared with the juice of the excessively acid gherkin-like
fruits of the Bilimbi is used by the native doctors in the treatment
of fevers, as also is a conserve of the flowers. The Bilimbi is a
small tree, with unequally pinnate leaves, which, like those of the
well-known sensitive plant, are irritable and close their leaflets
together when touched. Its fruits are commonly used for pickling by
Europeans, both in the East and in the West Indies.


XANTHOXYLACEÆ.


TODDALIA ACULEATA, _Pers._ (= _Scopolia aculeata_, Smith).

Powerful stimulating properties are ascribed to all parts of this
plant. The fresh bark of its root is administered by the Telinga
physicians, who call the plant "Conda cashinda," for the cure of the
kind of remittent fever known by the name of "hill fever," from its
being caught in the jungles of the Indian hills. It is a moderately
tall shrub with prickly stems and branches, alternate, trifoliate,
smooth leaves marked with numberless pellucid dots, and usually having
prickles on their stalks and on the midribs of the leaflets; and its
flowers, which are whitish and strong scented, are borne in simple or
compound racemes. Its Cinghalese name is "Koodoomirris-wel."


SIMARUBACEÆ.


SAMADERA INDICA, _Gaertn._

All parts of this tree partake of the excessively bitter qualities
common to the order. The decoction of the rasped wood has recently been
extensively and successfully employed in Ceylon, in the treatment of
intermittent fever, and is recommended to be given in combination with
Myrobalan galls. The wood is of a pale colour, resembling quassia-wood,
and is very light. The tree is indigenous to Ceylon, and also to the
Indian peninsula, and is the "Karin-njotti" of Rheede. It attains a
considerable size, and has oblong-elliptical, alternate leaves, and
long, pendulous, compressed flower-stalks, divided at the top into a
many-flowered umbel. The bark, called "Niepa bark," also possesses
febrifugal properties.


RHAMNACEÆ.


ZIZYPHUS JUJUBA, _Lam._ (= _Rhamnus Jujuba_, Linn.)

The root of this common Indian tree is a reputed febrifuge, and an
infusion of it, combined with some warm seed, is said to be employed
as such in the Moluccas, while the bark is used in diarrhœa. It is a
small tree, with prickly branches, usually having the spines in pairs,
and elliptical or oblong obtuse leaves, covered on the under side, as
also are the branches, with dense short tawny tomentum, and it bears
small greenish-yellow flowers, which produce roundish, yellow, edible
fruits about the size of cherries. Its Sanscrit name is "Vadari," and
its Bengalese "Kool."


LEGUMINOSÆ.


CASSIA FISTULA, _Linn._ (= _Cathartocarpus Fistula_, Pers.).

The black, sweet-tasted pulp contained in the long cylindrical
pipe-like pods of this common tropical plant is well known as a gentle
laxative medicine; and its roots are reputed to be an excellent
febrifuge. It is the "Sonali" of the Bengalese, the "Amultas" of the
Hindus, and the "Ahalla" of the Cinghalese, and is a moderately large
tree, with very long pinnate leaves, and loose drooping racemes of
bright-yellow fragrant flowers.


GUILANDINA BONDUCELLA, _Linn._ (= _Cæsalpinia Bonducella_, Fleming).

The seeds and bark, but particularly the former, have an intensely
bitter taste, and are supposed to possess powerful tonic virtues.
The seeds, called Bonduc nuts, are lead or ash  and most
excessively hard. Their cotyledons, powdered and combined with spices
or other medicinal substances, are prescribed with beneficial results
in intermittent fever. The root is also said to be a good tonic in
dyspeptic complaints; in fact, all parts of the plant are reputed to
possess medicinal properties. The plant is a prickly, trailing shrub,
with abruptly twice-pinnate leaves, each pinna consisting of from five
to eight pairs of oval leaflets, and bears racemes of rusty-yellow
flowers. The Tamuls call it "Kalichikai;" the Telingas "Getsakaia;"
the Hindus "Cat-caleyi" and "Natacaranja;" and the Cinghalese
"Koombooroo-wel." It is a common plant throughout the tropics of both
hemispheres.


PHASEOLUS TRILOBUS, _Roth._ (= _Dolichos trilobus_, Linn.).

Ainslie says that "this plant was brought to Dr. F. Hamilton in Bahar,
where he was informed by the Vytians of that district that the fresh
herb was given in decoction in cases of irregular fever." It is a
procumbent, spreading, herbaceous plant, with leaves composed of three
roundish, entire, or three-lobed leaflets on long stalks, and bears a
few pea-like flowers at the ends of long ascending stalks.


ORMOCARPUM SENNOIDES, _D. C._ (= _Hedysarum sennoides_, Willd.).

A shrub with glutinous hairy shoots, unequally pinnate leaves, and
short axillary racemes bearing a few pea-like flowers, producing
jointed pods. The decoction of the roots of this shrub, which is called
"Caat Morungie" in the Tamul language, and "Adivie moonaga" in Telinga,
is prescribed by the native physicians as a tonic and stimulant in
fevers, and a liniment made of the powdered bark and sesamum oil is
applied externally in paralysis and lumbago.


COMBRETACEÆ.


TERMINALIA TOMENTOSA, _W. et A._ (= _Terminalia alata_, Roth.).

This is a large tree with deeply-cracked bark, and nearly opposite,
linear, oblong, obtuse leaves, somewhat cordate at the base, crenulate,
and clothed with pubescence underneath. It is the "Peea-sal" or "Usan"
of the Bengalese; the "Nella madoo" of the Telingas; and the "Aans"
of the Hindus. The reddish-brown, cracked bark has a strong but not
unpleasant astringent taste, and is classed amongst the febrifuge
medicines by the native doctors: powdered and mixed with oil it is
employed in apthæ.


MYRTACEÆ.


SYZYGIUM CARYOPHYLLIFOLIUM, _D. C._ (= _Calyptranthes
caryophyllifolia_, Willd.).

"Nawel" of the Tamuls; "Nereddie" of the Telingas; and "Madang" of
the Cinghalese. The thick, brownish- bark of this tree has an
astringent, slightly aromatic taste, and a decoction of it is sometimes
prescribed by native doctors in fevers and bowel complaints, and is
also employed as a wash for foul ulcers. It has been recommended as a
tanning substance, but it does not possess sufficient astringency to
render it suitable for that purpose. The tree has smooth, entire leaves
of an oblong-lanceolate shape and attenuated at the base, and bears
cymose panicles of flowers upon the old branches, producing little
edible fruits about the size of peas.


BARRINGTONIACEÆ.


BARRINGTONIA RACEMOSA, _Roxb._ (= _Eugenia racemosa_, Linn.).

"Cadapum" (Tam.); "Kamtee" (Tel.); and "Deya-midella" (Cing.). Ainslie
says that the reddish- bark of the Cadapum is supposed
to possess virtues similar to those of Chinchona bark. Medicinal
properties are also ascribed to the root and seed, both of which
have a bitter though not unpleasant taste. It is a large tree, with
cuneate-oblong, acuminate, serrulate leaves, crowded together towards
the ends of the branches, and long pendulous racemes of large flowers,
producing ovate, bluntly quadrangular fruits.


CUCURBITACEÆ.

ZANONIA INDICA, _Linn._

Mr. Thwaites says that the Cinghalese value this plant as a febrifuge,
and call it "Wal-rasakinda." It is also found in India, and is the
"Penar-valli" of Rheede's Hortus Malabaricus. The plant is a climber,
supporting itself by means of tendrils, and has alternate, elliptical,
pointed leaves, slightly cordate at the base, and axillary racemes of
flowers.


TRICHOSANTHES CUCUMERINA, _Linn._

This is another cucurbitaceous plant much used by the Cinghalese as a
febrifuge, and from the experiments made with it in the hospitals at
Badulla it appears to possess considerable efficacy. It is astringent
and contains a bitter principle, which it yields to boiling water, and
is therefore recommended to be used in the form of an infusion, made
with the dried stem and leaves. The plant is called "Doommaala" by
the Cinghalese, and is very common both in Ceylon and India. It is an
annual climbing plant, with three-cleft tendrils, and broadly-cordate,
angular or lobed leaves toothed along the edges. Its seeds are used in
bowel complaints.


UMBELLIFERÆ.


HYDROCOTYLE ASIATICA, _Linn._

The Asiatic Pennywort has recently been discovered to be a valuable
remedy in leprosy, scrofula, venereal, and other complaints. The native
doctors, however, have hitherto considered it serviceable only in bowel
complaints and fevers, administering it in the form of an infusion of
the toasted leaves in combination with fenugreek. It has a bitter,
pungent, disagreeable taste, and when bruised gives off a peculiar
offensive odour. The active principle of the plant is said to be due to
a thick pale-yellow oil or extract, which has been called _Vellarine_,
from the Tamul name of the plant, "Vullarei." Its Telinga name is
"Babassa;" its Hindu, "Thulkura;" and its Cinghalese, "Heen-gotookola."
By the latter people it is used as an anthelmintic. Though named
_Asiatica_ by botanists, it is by no means confined to that continent,
but is spread very generally throughout the tropics. It has creeping
stems, and tufts of roundish kidney-shaped leaves.


CHINCHONACEÆ.


HYMENODYCTION EXCELSUM, _Wall._ (= _Cinchona excelsa_, Roxb.)

Roxburgh supposed this tree to belong to the same genus as the Peruvian
barks, but no species of true _Chinchona_ has ever been found wild in
the Eastern hemisphere. The present tree grows to a large size and
yields a thick bark, the inner coatings of which possess the bitterness
and astringency of the real Peruvian bark, especially when fresh; but
the bitterness, though more durable, is not so quickly communicated to
the taste. It is called "Bundaroo" by the Telingas.


COMPOSITÆ.


VERBESINA CINEREA, _Less._ (= _Conyza cinerea_, Linn.).

A low-growing annual plant, widely spread throughout the tropics of the
old world, and considered by the Hindus to possess medicinal virtues, a
decoction of the entire herb being administered in febrile affections
in order to promote perspiration. It is the "Seera shengalaneer" of the
Tamuls, and the "Gherutti Kamma" of the Telingas.


AUCKLANDIA COSTUS, _Falc._

In an elaborate memoir upon this plant, Dr. Falconer has shown it
to be the source of the celebrated "Costus" of the ancients, which
was previously referred to the _Costus Arabicus_, Linn. (= _Costus
speciosus_, Sm.), a plant belonging to the order _Zingiberaceæ_. It
is a gregarious herbaceous plant with a perennial root sending up
annual erect stems six or seven feet high, bearing large, somewhat
lyrate pinnatifid leaves. Costus-root is collected in large quantities
in Cashmere, but the only use made of it there is for perfuming bales
of shawls, and thus protecting them from insects, the great bulk of
it being exported to China and Persia, in both of which countries it
is highly esteemed as a medicine, the Persian doctors regarding it
as an efficacious remedy in nearly all the ills human nature is heir
to. Ainslie says that the native practitioners in India prescribe an
infusion of it as a stomachic and tonic, and also in the advanced
stages of typhus fever. In Cashmere it is called "Koot," which agrees
with the Arabic "Koost:" in Bengal it is known by the name of "Putchuk."


EMILIA SONCHIFOLIA, _D. C._ (= _Cacalia sonchifolia_, Linn.).

"Shudimudi" of the Bengalese, or "Kadoo-para" of the Cinghalese. An
annual, with erect or spreading, branching stems, and variously shaped
leaves, the lower ones being usually lyrate, and the upper more or less
amplexicaul, with blunt or sharp auricles. On the Malabar coast the
native practitioners, according to Rheede, consider a decoction of this
plant to possess antifebrile qualities.


EBENACEÆ.


DIOSPYROS EMBRYOPTERIS, _Pers._ (= _Embryopteris glutinifera_, Roxb.).

An American species of _Diospyros_ (_D. Virginiana_, Linn.) is
employed as a febrifuge by rustic practitioners in the United States,
and O'Shaughnessy states that the bark of the present tree has been
given in India, but with doubtful results, in the treatment of
intermittent fevers. It is well known as the Gaub-tree, and the viscid,
excessively astringent juice of its fruit is used for tanning, and
for paying the seams of boats. It is a middle-sized tree, with long
elliptic-lanceolate, smooth, coriaceous leaves, and whitish flowers.


APOCYNACEÆ.


OPHIOXYLON SERPENTINUM, _Willd._

"Chivan amelpodi" in Tamul; "Chota Chand" in Hindostanee; "Chandra" in
Bengalee; "Patalganni" in Telinga; and "Aikawaireya" in Cinghalese.
The root of the Chandra is very bitter, and is administered by the
Telinga and also by the Javanese doctors in the form of a decoction,
as a remedy in fever cases. It is one of the numberless supposed
remedies for the bites of venomous snakes, but, as in many other
similar instances, its virtues are fanciful, and its great reputation
is probably ascribable to the old doctrine of _signatures_, the plant
being a climber and having a twining stem.


WRIGHTIA ANTIDYSENTERICA, _R. Br._ (= _Nerium antidysentericum_, Linn.).

The bark of this species of _Wrightia_ is included in some European
works on Materia Medica under the name of Tellicherry or Conessi
bark. It has long enjoyed a high reputation in India as a tonic and
febrifuge; but other parts of the plant likewise appear to possess
similar properties, a decoction of the long oat-like seeds being
employed in ardent fever. The bark is also given in dysentery. Among
the Tamuls it goes by the name of "Veppalei," while the Hindus call it
"Curayia," and the Telingas "Pala codija." It is a small tree producing
a white ivory-like wood, which has been tried for engraving purposes,
but found unsuitable on account of it not being of even quality
throughout. It has obovate-oblong, shortly acuminate, smooth leaves,
and nearly terminal corymbs of jasmine-like flowers.


ASCLEPIADACEÆ.


CALOTROPIS GIGANTEA, _R. Br._ (= _Asclepias gigantea_, Linn.).

Various parts of the Yercum-plant have long been employed for medicinal
purposes by the native doctors, and experiments made by Anglo-Indian
practitioners have proved that the inner bark of the root, called Mudar
bark, is a valuable remedy in leprosy, and that it may also be given
with advantage in several other complaints, including intermittent and
other fevers. An elastic gum and a valuable fibre are also obtained
from the plant. There are two varieties of Yercum, one with white and
the other with purple flowers, the former forming a tree fifteen or
twenty feet high, and the latter a shrub.


LOGANIACEÆ.


STRYCHNOS NUX-VOMICA, _Linn._

According to Roxburgh the exceedingly bitter wood of the Nux Vomica
is employed as a remedy in fevers of the intermittent kind, and also
for the cure of snake-bites, when that of the next species cannot be
obtained. The poisonous bark is commonly sold in the Indian bazaars in
place of the febrifuge "Rohuna bark," which is in reality the produce
of _Soymida febrifuga_. It is the false Angostura bark of our Materia
Medica. Nux Vomica seeds have also been administered with some benefit
in intermittent fever. The _Strychnos Nux-Vomica_ forms a small tree,
has oval, entire, shining leaves, strongly marked with from three to
five longitudinal nerves, and bears small corymbs of greenish-white
flowers.


STRYCHNOS COLUBRINA, _Linn._

The "Naga musadi" of the Telingas, or "Koochilaluta" of the Bengalese.
The wood of this species is greatly esteemed by the natives as a remedy
for snake-bites, and is also given in cases of intermittent fever.
It is a climbing shrub with thick woody tendrils, elliptic-oblong,
blunt-pointed, three-nerved leaves, and small corymbs of yellowish
flowers.


GENTIANACEÆ.


OPHELIA CHIRATA, _Griseb._ (= _Gentiana Chirayta_, Roxb., and
_Agathotes Chirayta_, Don.).

The name "Chirata" or "Chirayta," by which this plant is commonly known
in India, is derived from the Sanscrit "Kirataticta." The dried stems
of the Chirata have long been famed amongst the natives of India as a
tonic and febrifuge; and they have also gained considerable reputation
amongst European practitioners in India, who, however, have found them
to be more efficacious in the cure of intermittent fever when employed
in combination with the seeds of the _Guilandina Bonducella_, mentioned
above. It is an annual plant, two or three feet high, with smooth round
stems and opposite, ovate or somewhat cordate, acuminate leaves, marked
with from five to seven nerves, and bears yellow flowers. Chirata is
included in the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia.


OPHELIA ANGUSTIFOLIA, _Don._ (= _Swertia angustifolia_, Ham.).

The stems of this species are called "Pukaree Chirata" in the
Himalayas, and are substituted for the true Chirata. The species is
distinguished by its stems being somewhat four-sided, by its much
narrower, sharper-pointed, obscurely three-nerved, short-stalked
leaves, and by its white, violet-spotted flowers. Both this and the
true Chirata are natives of the Himalayas.


OPHELIA ELEGANS, _Wight._

It has recently been discovered that the stems of this South Indian
species are made up into bundles in the same manner as the Himalayan
Chiratas, with which they have hitherto been confounded in the
bazaars. The plant, however, has a different native name, being called
"Salaras" or "Salajit" by the inhabitants of the Pulney hills; but it
is considered equally efficacious as a febrifuge. It has obsoletely
four-sided stems, narrow, ovate-lanceolate, sessile, three-nerved
leaves, tapering to a slender point, and beautiful pale-blue flowers.


SALVADORACEÆ.


SALVADORA, _sp._

A decoction of the bark of a species of _Salvadora_ is recommended by
Hindu doctors in cases of low fever, and as a tonic. Great confusion,
however, exists among the species of this genus, and it is therefore
uncertain which one is thus employed. Ainslie mentions _Salvadora
Persica_, but it is very doubtful whether that species is found in any
part of India.


CORDIACEÆ.


CORDIA MYXA, _Linn._

Tonic and febrifuge properties are ascribed to the bark of this tree,
it being, according to Horsfield, one of the chief remedies used in
fevers by the Javanese, who call it "Kendal." It is a small tree
with rounded branches, ovate leaves, smooth on the upper surface
but roughish underneath, and usually terminal panicles of flowers,
producing yellow, sweet-tasted pulpy fruits about the size of cherries.
In the Tamul language it is called "Vidi marum;" "Nekra" in Telinga;
"Lesura" in Hindostanee; and "Loloo" in Cinghalese.


SOLANACEÆ.


SOLANUM XANTHOCARPUM, _Schrad. et Wendl._ (= _Solanum Jacquini_,
Willd.).

There are two varieties of this plant, one of which was formerly
considered a distinct species, and named _Solanum Jacquini_. All parts
of the latter variety are used medicinally, and it is one of the fever
remedies employed by the Cinghalese, who call it "Kattoo-wel-battoo."
It is a decumbent, spreading annual plant, armed with numerous long
white prickles, and has sinuately-pinnatifid prickly leaves. The Tamuls
call it "Kandung Kattiri."


SCROPHULARIACEÆ.


PICRORHIZA KURROOA, _Royle._

A small perennial herbaceous plant found in Kemaon, at Gossain-than,
and other parts of the Himalayan mountains, where its roots, which
are called "Hooling" in Tibet, and have a powerful bitter taste, are
used as a febrifuge by the natives, and also sent down to the bazaars
of Bengal, where they form one of the many bitter roots sold under
the name of "Teeta." The plant grows about six inches high, and has
scarcely any stem, its leaves all rising from the summit of the thick
root, and also its flower-stalks, which are five or six inches high,
and bear a dense spike of small bluish flowers at the top.


HERPESTIS MONNIERIA, _Humb._ (= _Gratiola Monnieria_, Linn.)

The Cinghalese consider this plant to possess febrifuge virtues: they
call it "Loonoo Weela." In India its expressed juice is mixed with
petroleum, and used as a topical application in rheumatism. It is a
little creeping plant, common in moist places throughout the tropics
of both hemispheres, and has obovate-cuneate leaves, bearing solitary
long-stalked pale-blue flowers in their axils. The Bengalese call it
"Adha birni," and the Telingas "Sambrani-chittoo."


ACANTHACEÆ.


ANDROGRAPHIS PANICULATA, _Nees ab Essen._ (= _Justicia paniculata_,
Burm.).

This is the celebrated Creyat, the principal ingredient in the famous
bitter tincture called _drogue amère_, so highly esteemed in India for
its tonic and stomachic properties, and also as a febrifuge. The entire
plant is employed, the intensely bitter principle being found in all
parts of it. It is an annual, with stiff quadrangular stems from one
to two feet high, bearing smooth lanceolate leaves, attenuated at the
base. In the Telinga language it is called "Nella vemoo;" in Bengalese,
"Kala-megh;" in Hindustanee, "Calapnath;" and in Tamul, "Kiriat," hence
the common Indian name of the plant, Creat or Creyat.


JUSTICIA ADHATODA, _Linn._ (= _Adhatoda Vasica_, Nees ab Essen.)

The flowers, leaves, and roots have a bitterish and somewhat aromatic
taste, and are supposed to possess antispasmodic properties. An
infusion of them, especially of the flowers, is given to prevent
the return of rigour in intermittent fever. In Ceylon it is used as
an expectorant for children. The Bengalese call the plant "Bakus;"
the Tamuls, "Adhatodey;" the Cinghalese, "Paawetta;" the Telingas,
"Adasara;" and in Sanscrit it is called "Vasica" or "Uroos." It forms
a tree fifteen or twenty feet high, with elliptic oblong leaves,
attenuated to both ends, and pale- flowers with purple stripes
and rusty spots.


LABIATÆ.


OCIMUM SANCTUM, _Linn._

The Tamul physicians prescribe a decoction of the root of this common
Indian species of Basil in fever cases, and the juice of the leaves in
catarrhal affections. The Brahmins consider the plant sacred to Vishnu,
and cultivate it in the vicinity of temples, while the Malays strew it
upon the graves of their departed friends. The whole plant generally
has a purplish tinge, and grows about a foot high: it has long-stalked,
downy, oval leaves, toothed along the edges, and small pale-purple
flowers. Its Tamul name is "Toolasee;" its Bengalese, "Kala-toolsee;"
and its Cinghalese "Madooroo-tallu."


ANISOMELES MALABARICA, _R. Br._ (= _Nepeta Malabarica_, Linn.).

"Pemayrutie" of the Tamuls; "Moga beerakoo" of the Telingas; and
"Bootan Kooshum" in Sanscrit. A shrub, 2 to 5 feet high, clothed with
short tomentum, and having oblong-lanceolate leaves, narrowed at the
base, and purplish flowers disposed in distant whorls. The leaves are
bitter, astringent, and somewhat aromatic, and are given in infusion
in the later stages of dysentery and in intermittent fevers. Patients
suffering under the last-mentioned disease are also made to inhale the
vapour rising from an infusion of the whole plant, in order to induce a
copious perspiration.


GENIOSPORUM PROSTRATUM, _Benth._ (= _Ocimum prostratum_, Linn.).

A small herb used as a febrifuge by the natives of the Madras
presidency. It has a prostrate stem and numerous hispid branches,
bearing small oblong-lanceolate, serrated leaves, and long spike-like
racemes of very small flowers.


ROYLEA ELEGANS, _Wall._ (= _Phlomis calycina_, Roxb., and _Ballota
cinerea_, Don.).

According to the late Dr. Royle, after whom the genus is named, this
plant is employed as a febrifuge in the Himalayas, where it is called
"Putkuroo." It is a much-branched, erect shrub from three to five feet
high, having the branches clothed with ash- tomentum, and
bearing ovate, sharp-pointed, coarsely toothed leaves, slightly cordate
at the base. Its flowers vary from white to pale-rose colour.


VERBENACEÆ.


PREMNA SERRATIFOLIA, _Linn._ (= _Premna integrifolia_, Linn.).

The warm, bitterish-tasted root of this plant is prescribed in
decoction by the native practitioners as a gentle stomachic and cordial
in fevers. It has an agreeable odour. The tree is called "Moonnee" by
the Tamuls; "Ghebboonellie" by the Telingas; and "Middee-gass" by the
Cinghalese. Its trunk and large branches are armed with spines, and
its leaves are ovate or oval, entire or toothed towards the top, of a
shining green above and paler underneath.


VITEX TRIFOLIA, _Linn._

Different parts of this plant are employed medicinally, in various ways
and for various diseases, by native doctors in India and also in Java.
The part used as a remedy for intermittent fever is the leaves, which
are powdered and taken in water. Pillows stuffed with them are used
to cure cold in the head, and headache. It is a decumbent shrub, with
the branches, under side of the leaves, and inflorescence mealy-white.
There are two varieties: one with trifoliate and the other with simple
leaves. Its Tamul name is "Neer-noochie;" its Telinga, "Neela vavilie;"
and its Hindustanee, "Nisindha," or "Seduari."


VITEX NEGUNDO, _Linn._

This species is considered to have medicinal properties similar to
but weaker than the last. The decoction of the root has a pleasant
bitter taste, and is administered in cases of intermittent and typhus
fever. In Tamul it is called "Noochie;" in Telinga, "Wayalakoo;" in
Hindustanee, "Nisunda;" and in Cinghalese, "Sooddoo-nikka." It is
a more erect shrub than the last, and its leaves are all compound,
consisting of from three to five entire or toothed or deeply pinnatifid
leaflets, covered with white meal underneath, as also are the branches
and flowers.


NYCTAGINACEÆ.


BOERHAAVIA DIFFUSA, _Linn._ (= _Boerhaavia procumbens_, Roxb.).

The roots of several species of _Boerhaavia_ are employed medicinally
by the natives of various parts of the world. In India those of the
present have the reputation of being antifebrile, and Ainslie also
says that the native practitioners include them amongst their laxative
medicines. This plant is a herbaceous perennial with decumbent, smooth,
or rarely pubescent stems and leaves, the latter varying very much in
shape. Among the Bengalese it is known by the name of "Gadha-poorna;"
and it is the "Pittasooddopala" of the Cinghalese. Its leaves are eaten
as a potherb.


EUPHORBIACEÆ.


TRAGIA CANNABINA, _Willd._

"Sirroo canchorie" in the Tamul; and "Doolya-gunda" in the Telinga
language. The root of this plant has a pleasant odour when fresh:
the native doctors consider it to possess diaphoretic and alterative
qualities, and they prescribe an infusion of it in ardent fever. It is
an erect shrub, about four feet high, with hispid stems and leaves, the
latter being divided into three sinuated lobes. Roxburgh says that the
hairs on this plant sting as bad as those of the common nettle.


PIPERACEÆ.


CHAVICA BETLE, _Miq._ (= _Piper Betle_, Linn.).

This affords the celebrated Betle leaves, so extensively employed as a
masticatory in the East. Ainslie says that the warm juice of the leaves
is prescribed by the native doctors as a febrifuge, in the quantity of
a small spoonful twice daily.


PIPER NIGRUM, _Linn._

Black pepper has long been known to possess febrifuge powers: an
infusion of it in some kind of spirit is a popular remedy for
preventing the return of the paroxysms in intermittent fevers. The
root, however, is the part used by the native doctors in India, and
is administered in the form of a decoction. _Piperin_, one of the
constituents of pepper, has been said to be a more certain and speedy
febrifuge than the chinchona alkaloids, but O'Shaughnessy says that
after repeated and careful trials he found it was not of the least
utility. The Tamul name of the plant is "Shuvium."


ZINGIBERACEÆ.


CURCUMA LONGA, _Linn._

The uses of the various kinds of Turmeric for dyeing purposes and as
a condiment, particularly for the preparation of curry-powder, are
well known, both in this country and to the natives of India; but the
latter consider that it also possesses medicinal virtues, and give it
as a stimulant and tonic in intermittent fever and some other diseases.
European practitioners at one time regarded it as useful in jaundice.


LILIACEÆ.


ALLIUM SATIVUM, _Linn._

Ainslie says that the Hindus express a stimulating oil from common
garlic, which they prescribe internally in ague to prevent the
recurrence of the paroxysms, and use externally in paralytic and
rheumatic affections. Garlic is called "Vullay poondoo" in Tamul;
"Lassun" in Hindostanee; and "Lasuna" in Sanscrit.


ORONTIACEÆ.


ACORUS CALAMUS, _Linn._

The rhizomes of the common Sweet-Flag are well known in some parts of
England as a cure for ague, and the natives of the East are well aware
of their virtues in this respect. Indian practitioners also reckon it
valuable in the "indigestions, stomach-aches, and bowel affections of
children," so much so, indeed, that, according to Ainslie, "there is
a penalty incurred by any druggist who will not open his door in the
middle of the night and sell it if demanded." The Bengalese call it
"Shwet buch;" the Cinghalese, "Wadakaha;" and the Hindus, "Bach."


POTHOS SCANDENS, _Linn._

The native practitioners use this plant in putrid fevers. It is an
epiphyte with slender rooting stems adhering to the branches of trees
like ivy, and has entire, lanceolate, smooth, coriaceous leaves,
tapering upwards to a point and blunt and rounded at the base, where
they are articulated with the winged stalk.


GRAMINACEÆ.


ANDROPOGON MURICATUS, _Retz._

The fragrant aromatic roots of this grass, called Cuscus or Vetivert,
are only employed for perfumery purposes in this country, but in India
they are well known as the material of which window and door screens
are made, and the native doctors, moreover, consider them to possess
medicinal virtues, prescribing an infusion of them as a diaphoretic
and gentle stimulant in some kinds of fever. "Vittie" is the Tamul
name of the plant, and "Vayr" in the same language signifies _root_,
and, by combining and corrupting these, Europeans have formed the word
_Vetivert_; while its other European name, Cuscus, is derived from
the Persian "Khus-Khus." In Hindustanee it is called "Useer;" and in
Sanscrit "Viratara."


ANDROPOGON IWARANCUSA, _Roxb._

The natives administer an infusion of the roots of this grass, combined
with pepper, in fevers, of both the continued and intermittent kind.
It has a bitter, warm, pungent taste, and fragrant odour. The specific
name is derived from the Bengalee and Hindustanee, which is variously
spelt "Ibharankusha," "Iwarankusha," "Kurankusha," or "Iwarancussa."


ANDROPOGON CALAMUS-AROMATICUS, _Royle_.

According to Royle, this is the κάλαμος ἀραματικός of the ancient
Greeks, and the Sweet-cane or Calamus of the Bible. When chewed it has
a strong taste of ginger, whence it is commonly called Ginger-grass.
The native doctors give an infusion of it as a stomachic and febrifuge;
and they also prepare from it a very fragrant aromatic oil, which they
esteem very highly as a liniment in chronic rheumatism. This is sent
to this country as grass-oil, or ginger-grass oil, and is sold by our
perfumers as oil of geranium or spikenard.




APPENDIX D.

  REPORT ON THE CULTIVATION OF CHINCHONAS IN SOUTHERN INDIA. BY WILLIAM
  G. McIVOR, ESQ., SUPERINTENDENT OF CHINCHONA-CULTIVATION IN THE
  NEILGHERRY HILLS.


_Rearing Seeds._--THE first sowing of imported seeds took place in
the beginning of February 1860. No certain data being given for the
treatment of Chinchona-seeds, our first operations were necessarily
experimental, and a good number of seeds were lost by being sown in too
retentive a soil, and supplied with what, to Chinchona-seeds, proved
to be an excess of moisture; the greatest success we obtained in our
first attempts was with the use of a soil composed almost entirely of
burned earth, and of this sowing nearly sixty per cent. germinated, the
temperature of the earth being about 70°. The number of days required
before germination took place in the several sowings varied from
sixty-two to sixty-eight. The seedlings made but little progress for
the first six weeks, but after that time they sprung into rapid growth,
averaging from 1-1/4 to 2 inches per mensem.

Seeds of the valuable Chinchona Condaminea, received on the 16th
February 1862, were sown on the same day in a very light open soil
composed of a beautifully open sort of sand, with a very small
admixture of leaf-mould. Our experience with the first seeds having
established beyond all doubt that the Chinchonas are very impatient of
any excess of moisture, particular care was taken in the preparation
of the soil used in this sowing. The earth was in the first instance
exposed to the sun for two or three days and thoroughly dried, it
was then heated to about 212° in order to destroy all grubs or larva
of insects; after being allowed to cool, it was brought into the
potting-shed and watered sufficiently to make it moist, but only to
that degree of moisture that the particles of soil would not adhere
together on being pressed firmly with the hand, that is, the earth on
being laid down was sufficiently dry to break and fall into its usual
form. With the soil in this state the pots were filled, the surface
lightly pressed down, and the seeds sown thereon, being lightly covered
with a sprinkling of sand. The pots were then placed on a slight bottom
heat of about 72°. These were never watered in the strict sense of the
word; when the surface got dry they were slightly sprinkled with a fine
syringe just sufficient to damp the surface, but never to penetrate
the soil. Under this treatment the seeds began to germinate very
vigorously on the sixteenth day after sowing, and now, 17th March 1862,
or twenty-nine days after sowing, upwards of sixty per cent. of the
whole of the perfect seeds sown have germinated, and we may fairly hope
to rear over ninety per cent. of this sowing. I may, however, observe
that these seeds possessed the great advantage of being forwarded to
India in a letter, and thus they were never subjected to the damaging
effects produced on seeds sent out in air-tight parcels. The reason of
this is the want of a circulation of air through the packets, and a
consequent deposit of moisture on the interior of the outer covering
by every increase and decrease of temperature on the voyage. As soon
as the seeds germinate they are carefully pricked out into fresh pots
(the soil being prepared as before described for the seeds). This must
of course be done with very great care, the radicle being carefully
covered with soil, while the seed and cotyledons are kept above the
surface. In this way about twenty-five seedlings are transplanted into
a four-inch pot, and treated in every respect the same as the seeds;
that is, they are never watered, the soil being merely sprinkled as
before stated to keep it in that medium state of moisture in which
it was first put into the pots. This prevents the damping off of the
seedlings, to which they are very liable when treated otherwise; it
also greatly facilitates their growth and the formation of roots,
the soil being so perfectly open that it is readily affected by
the atmosphere, and thus kept in the most favourable condition for
promoting vegetation. When treated in this way our seedlings have made
an average growth in ten months of over eighteen inches, the growth
being much more rapid towards the end of the ten months than in the
earlier stages.

_Propagation._--As soon as the seedlings and imported plants attained
sufficient size, they were propagated by being layered; in this way it
was found that they rooted readily in about six weeks or two months,
and threw out shoots from every bud; and not only this, but many
latent buds were developed, and a fine growth of young wood produced
for succeeding layers and cuttings. The principle of layering, being
so well known to English gardeners, requires no detail; but in the
Chinchona-plants it was found that the layers were very liable to
_bleed_, and this not only weakened the plants but retarded the
formation of roots; this we found to be remedied in a great degree by
inserting in the cut a triangular piece of perfectly dry broken porous
brick. An abundance of young wood being produced, we proceeded to
propagate by cuttings, the earth being prepared with great care, the
same as for the seeds, with the exception of not being heated. The ends
of the cuttings are placed upon pieces of perfectly dry porous brick,
around the sides of the pots. They are then placed on a bottom heat of
75° or 80°; and, with this treatment, young and tender wood roots in
about three weeks or one month, older wood in about six weeks to two
months. With cuttings of the young wood our loss has not exceeded two
per cent., and with older wood about ten per cent.

Our object being to produce the largest number of plants in the
shortest possible space of time, it was found that cuttings and layers
required more wood than could be conveniently spared, and it was
resolved to try the propagation by buds; in this respect the success
has been most satisfactory. The secret of success entirely lies in the
amount of moisture given; if in excess, they rot immediately, but, if
sufficient care is exercised in reference to moisture, the losses will
not exceed three or four per cent. Six C. Calisaya buds put in on the
30th January all rooted in forty-one days. It may be observed that it
is not necessary that a leaf should be attached to the bud: this is no
doubt an advantage, although we have struck many buds of the red bark
without leaves, and also a few of the Calisayas.

It ought to be explained that the reason why the earth is brought to a
medium state of moisture before being put into the pots is because it
is never afterwards watered to such an extent as to render it really
wet, being in fact just kept in that state of moisture in which it was
originally placed in the pots, and this uniform and medium state of
moisture is more easily retained by the pots being plunged in beds of
earth. The reason why we found this system necessary was, that, when
the soil was watered in the usual way after the seedlings or cuttings
were placed in it, it was found, from its expansion and adhesion by
the action of the water, that its particles were forced far too close
together to be beneficial to the growth of the plants, and in many
instances this proved to be injurious, vastly retarding their growth.

In the nurseries in the open air the same principle of cultivation
and propagation as that described above has been adopted, and, with
reference to the condition of the plants and layers, with nearly equal
success, the period of rooting of the layers being from two months to
ten weeks, while cuttings take from two to three months, the average
loss being about fifteen per cent.: this occurs from the impossibility,
in the open air, of keeping a uniform state of the atmosphere around
the cuttings. With layers this is not so important, as they root quite
as surely (though slower) as in the propagating-houses, and flourish
equally well.

_Formation of Plantations._--The mode of cultivation of these plants
likely to prove the most advantageous being uncertain, it was resolved
in May and June of 1861 to place out a number of plants under different
conditions of shade, exposure, &c., and the result has been that the
plants placed without the protection of living shade have made the
most satisfactory progress, and borne the dry season without the least
injury. The plants placed under living shade were found to be damaged
in some degree during the rains by the incessant drip, but on the
weather clearing up they threw out new leaves and quickly recovered.
Nine months after planting, or at the end of our dry season, these
plants were found to be suffering considerably from the drought; and
on taking a few of them up, it was found that the holes in which these
Chinchonas were planted had become entirely filled by the fibres of
the roots of the living trees in their neighbourhood, which had drawn
up the whole of the moisture and nourishment from the soil in which
the Chinchona-plants were placed. In putting the plants out, which
were placed in the open, we of course saw from the first that with the
young plants we had to combat the bad effects of excessive evaporation
during our dry season, under a bright and scorching sun; we also saw
the injury likely to be done to the plants by radiation during bright
and cloudless nights. To obviate these disadvantages the plants were
sheltered on the approach of the dry season by a rough enclosure of
bamboo-branches, with the leaves adhering to them, so as to give them
sufficient shade both from the effects of evaporation and radiation.
The enclosure is left open on the north side, and enclosed on the
south, east, and west; the sun's declination being south during the
dry weather. The ground will not be impoverished by the roots of
other trees, and the whole of its nourishment is preserved for the
Chinchona-plants. At the same time they will, by this treatment, be far
more efficiently protected from evaporation and radiation than they
would be by the use of living shade, whether caused by forest-trees or
by the admixture of faster-growing plants. In addition to this shade
of the branches of cut bamboos, the soil around the roots of some of
the young Chinchona-plants was covered one or two inches in thickness
with half-decayed leaves, and the plants thus treated show a very
great luxuriance, which is not exceeded by any of the plants in our
propagating-houses. To ascertain the cause of this luxuriance a few
of the plants were recently examined, and although at the end of the
dry season the soil about the roots was found to be perfectly moist;
thousands of young rootlets of great strength were found to have been
thrown into the covering of decayed leaves, so that it had become one
matted mass of beautiful white roots, many of them nearly the thickness
of a crow-quill. On the strength of these observations we have resolved
to place out this season seventy-five acres of Chinchona-plants in
cleared land, and exactly under the conditions and treatment last
described; we also propose planting seventy-five acres under various
degrees of living shade, in which every attempt will be made to
mitigate as much as possible the injurious effects of this system
already described. The cultivation of these plants being experimental,
it is necessary that we should give every method of cultivation which
appears reasonable a fair trial, and that only developed facts should
influence us in giving preference to one method of cultivation over
that of another. The distances at which we have prepared to place
the plants are for the larger growing species from nine to ten feet
apart, for the sorts of medium size eight feet, and for the shrubby
sorts seven feet: these distances are of course too close to admit
of the plants attaining a full size, but we believe that it will be
advantageous to plant them close in the first instance, and thin them
out afterwards. In order to illustrate the extreme growth of our
plants, it is worthy of note that one or two of them, although not yet
twelve months old, have attained a height of about five feet by three
and a half feet in diameter through the branches; we may therefore
conclude that the plants will in about two years fairly cover the
ground if placed at the distances given above. When they begin to crowd
and impede the growth of each other they will of course be thinned
out and pruned; and it is anticipated that a good supply of bark may
be obtained by these means in from eight to twelve years, or perhaps
earlier.

_Ootacamund, 19th March, 1862._

       *       *       *       *       *

P.S. On the 5th of April the seeds of _C. Condaminea_ were coming up
plentifully, and 4193 seedlings had already been transplanted. 100
seedlings of _C. crispa_ had also come up. The seeds of _C. Condaminea_
were coming up at the rate of 500 a-day. At this date there were 25,000
Chinchona-plants on the Neilgherry hills, and all the species, except
_C. lancifolia_, were increasing rapidly. It will be some time before
Mr. McIvor will be able to propagate from the latter species, owing
to the very unhealthy state in which the plants arrived from Java. In
April 50 acres of ground were prepared for planting at the Dodabetta
site, and 70 acres at Neddiwuttum.




APPENDIX E.

  NOTE ON THE EXPORT TRADE IN PERUVIAN BARK FROM THE PORTS OF SOUTH
  AMERICA, AND ON THE IMPORT TRADE INTO ENGLAND.


ARICA, the port for the "_Calisaya_" bark from Bolivia. In 1859
the export of bark amounted to 192,600 lbs., valued at 17,334_l._;
and between January and November, 1860, to 388,800 lbs., valued at
35,000_l._

ISLAY, another port for the "_Calisaya_" bark from Bolivia. In 1859 the
export of bark amounted to 146,000 lbs., valued at 13,460_l._ (of which
136,500 lbs. went to England, and 9500 lbs. to France); and between
January and November, 1860, to 107,700 lbs., valued at 9770_l._

PAYTA, the port for the "_Crown_" barks from Loxa. The price of bark
at this port for the last nine years has been twenty-four dollars the
cwt.; but during the last year the price has risen to thirty dollars,
where it is likely to remain for some time. The usual annual export
amounts to 140,000 lbs., the actual quantity shipped in 1861, and it is
valued at 8400_l._

GUAYAQUIL, the port for the "_Red_" bark and the "_West Coast
Carthagena_" bark. The quantity exported varies very much in different
years, the price being at present about twenty dollars the cwt. In 1857
the export of bark amounted to 516,600 lbs.; in 1858 to 533,300 lbs.;
in 1859 to 201,700 lbs.; in 1860 to 91,500 lbs.; and in 1861 to 443,700
lbs.; valued in the last of these years at 17,748_l._

The "_Grey_" barks were exported, in former years, from CALLAO, and in
small quantities from HUANCHACO and LAMBAYEQUE, but of late years none
has been exported.

The "_Carthagena_" barks from New Granada are exported from the ports
of CARTHAGENA and SANTA MARTHA, and also from the little port of TUMACO
on the Pacific coast. From 1849 to 1855 great quantities were exported,
but in the latter year the supply began to fail. The existing civil
war in New Granada has still further injured this trade. No reliable
account of the export of bark from the above ports of New Granada has
been received.

From the four ports of ARICA, ISLAY, PAYTA, and GUAYAQUIL the average
amount of bark annually exported may be taken at 912,900 lbs., valued
at 59,076_l._ Small quantities may come from other ports, of which no
authentic account has been obtained; so that the total amount annually
exported from South America may be estimated at considerably over
2,000,000 lbs.

There being no duty on the importation of Peruvian bark into England,
the returns of the amount imported are much less carefully kept than
was formerly the case. The returns, too, are in packages, and not in
lbs. or cwts., and these packages vary in weight from 120 lbs. to 60
lbs. The number of packages of Peruvian bark imported into England in
1858 was 19,831; in 1859 the number was 10,651; in 1860 it was 10,456;
and in 1861 it was 20,748. Taking the average of the weight of the
packages at 80 lbs. each, the quantity imported into England during the
last four years would be 4,934,880 lbs., and in the year 1861 about
1,659,840 lbs.

The quantity of Peruvian bark imported into England during the three
months ending on March 31st, 1861, was reported to be 306,300 lbs.,
and during the same period, in the present year, 310,700 lbs. At this
rate the annual import would be a little over 1,200,000 lbs., which is
probably more correct than the above estimate from the packages.


THE END.


LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, AND CHARING
CROSS.

[Illustration:   MAP
                 of
             PART OF PERU
            to illustrate
        M^R. C. MARKHAM'S JOURNEY
                 TO
        THE CHINCHONA FORESTS OF
               CARAVAYA.]




FOOTNOTES:

[1] The only valid argument against this change is that it may cause
confusion, but the alteration is too slight for this to be possible;
and it is not uncommon, among botanists, to correct the usual spelling
of genera or species of plants, when it is found to be erroneous. Among
other examples of such changes may be enumerated those of _Plumeria_,
now altered to _Plumieria_; _Bufonia_ to _Buffonia_; and _Gesneria_ to
_Gesnera_.

[2] _See page 490._

[3] In Quichua, when the name of a plant is reduplicated, it almost
invariably implies that it possesses some medicinal quality.

[4] La Condamine, Jussieu, and Ruiz all believed that the Indians
were aware of the medicinal qualities of Peruvian bark, and that they
imparted their knowledge to the Spaniards. Humboldt and Ulloa were of
an opposite opinion. The stories of its virtues having been discovered
by watching the pumas or South-American lions chewing the bark to cure
their fevers, mentioned by Condamine; and of an Indian having found it
out by drinking of the waters of a lake into which a chinchona-tree had
fallen--told by Geoffroy--are of modern and European origin.

[5] Jussieu says that it is certain that the first knowledge of the
efficacy of this bark was derived from the Indians of Malacotas, some
leagues south of Loxa.--Weddell, _Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas_,
p. 15.

[6] Poëppig, _Reise_.

[7] Mr. Spruce's _Report_, p. 25.

[8] The first Marquis of Astorga married Leonora, daughter of Don
Fadrique Henriquez, Admiral of Spain, and sister of the Queen of
Aragon, who was mother of King Ferdinand the Catholic: so that Ana was
sixth cousin to her contemporary King Philip IV

[9] _Nobiliario genealogico de los Titulos de España, por Alonzo Lopez
de Haro, Madrid, 1626._

[10] Alcedo.

[11] _Creacion y Privilegios de los Titulos de Castilla, por Don José
Berni._ The Counts of Chinchon were hereditary Alcaides of the Alcazar
of Segovia. In 1623 the Count of Chinchon here received Charles I. of
England, and gave him a supper of "certaine trouts of extraordinary
greatnesse." In 1764 the then Count of Chinchon ceded the Alcazar to
the crown.

[12] A large supply of seeds of this kind has been sent to India and
Ceylon.

[13] Howard's _Nueva Quinologia de Pavon_, No. 1.

[14] Sebastian Badus asserts that bark was brought to Alcala de Henares
as early as 1632.--Humboldt's _Aspects_, ii. p. 268.

[15] I translated and edited Acuña's Voyage for the Hakluyt Society in
1859.

[16] _Disertacion por Dr. Don Hipolito Unanue._

[17] Torti's work, _De Febribus_, was published at Venice in 1732.

[18] _Traité Thérapeutique du Quinquina_, par P. Briquet. Paris, 1856.

[19] _Voyage de Condamine_, p. 31.

[20] 1738, p. 226.

[21] _Noticias Secretas_, p. 572.

[22] _Semanario de la Nueva Granada_, p. 283.

[23] Endlicher separated the species whose capsules begin to
open from the top, and formed them into a sub-genus, which he
called _Cascarilla_. Klotzsch, combining these with other species
characterised by a six-parted corolla, raised them to an independent
genus called _Ladenbergia_.

[24] _Histoire naturelle des Quinquinas_, p. 72.

[25] Dr. Weddell's list is as follows:--

   1. C. CALISAYA         (_Weddell_)          Bolivia and Caravaya.
   2. C. CONDAMINEA       (_Humboldt_)         Loxa.
   3. C. SCROBICULATA     (_Humboldt_)         Peru.
   4. C. AMYGDALIFOLIA    (_Weddell_)          Peru and Bolivia.
   5. C. NITIDA           (_Ruiz and Pavon_)   N. Peru.
   6. C. AUSTRALIS        (_Weddell_)          Southern Bolivia.
   7. C. BOLIVIANA        (_Weddell_)          Caravaya and Bolivia
   8. C. MICRANTHA        (_Ruiz and Pavon_)   Peru and Bolivia.
   9. C. PUBESCENS        (_Vahl_)             Peru and Bolivia.
  10. C. CORDIFOLIA       (_Mutis_)            New Granada.
  11. C. PURPURASCENS     (_Weddell_)          Bolivia.
  12. C. OVATA            (_Ruiz and Pavon_)   Peru and Bolivia.
  13. C. CHOMELIANA       (_Weddell_)          Bolivia.
  14. C. GLANDULIFERA     (_Ruiz and Pavon_)   N. Peru.
  15. C. ASPERIFOLIA      (_Weddell_)          Bolivia.
  16. C. HUMBOLDTIANA     (_Lambert_)          Jaen.
  17. C. CARABAYENSIS     (_Weddell_)          Caravaya.
  18. C. MUTISII          (_Lambert_)          Loxa.
  19. C. HIRSUTA          (_Ruiz and Pavon_)   N. Peru.


  _Doubtful._

      C. DISCOLOR         (_Klotzsch_)         N. Peru.
      C. PALALBA          (_Pavon_)            Peru.

[26] M. Delondre decided that the fruit and flowers, though having
a bitter principle, did not contain the alkaloids, while the roots
contained them, though in smaller proportion than the bark of the trunk
and branches.

[27] Weddell.

[28] Briquet, p. 22.

[29] _Nueva Quinologia de Pavon_, No. 10.

[30] _Aricine_, as a sulphate, does not crystallize, but forms a
peculiar trembling jelly. It was so named from the port of Arica,
whence the bark of _C. pubescens_ is exported.

[31] Pereira says that, if a substance suspected to contain _quina_ be
powdered, then shaken with ether, and afterwards successively treated
with chlorine and ammonia, the liquid will assume a green colour if the
slightest trace of quina be present.--_Mat. Med._ ii. part ii. p. 119.
One or two pounds of bark suffice well for an analysis.

[32] _Traité Thérapeutique du Quinquina et de ses préparations_, par P.
Briquet, Paris, 1855. Also Pereira's _Materia Medica_.

[33] The word _quinquina_ is generally adopted for the medical
preparations which are taken from Peruvian bark. _Quina_ signifies
_bark_ in Quichua, and _quinquina_ is a bark possessing some medicinal
property. _Quinine_ is, of course, derived from _quina_, _chinchonine_
from _chinchona_. The Spaniards corrupted the word _quina_ into
_china_; and in homœopathy the word _china_ is still retained. In 1735,
when M. de la Condamine visited Peru, the native name of _quina-quina_
was almost entirely replaced by the Spanish term _cascarilla_, which
also means bark.

[34] _Autobiography of Sir James MacGrigor_, chap. xii. p. 241.

[35] _Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales_, quoted by Delondre, p. 7.

[36] _Aspects_, ii. p. 267.

[37] _Semanario de la Nueva Granada._

[38] From Martius: a note in No. 1 of Howard's _Nueva Quinologia de
Pavon_.

[39] Some of these MSS. are, I believe, in possession of Don Pedro
Carbo, of Guayaquil.

[40] Spanish edition of General Miller's _Memoirs_, i. p. 42.

[41] It is the form of _C. Condaminea_, represented in the unshaded
branch with capsules, Plate x. of the _Plantes Equinoctiales_.

[42] It comes in very small quills, as if taken from a mere shrub.

[43] Besides _quinine_ several other febrifugal alkaloids are found
in the chinchona barks, one of the most important of which is
_chinchonidine_, discovered by Pasteur in 1852.

[44] I found some very beautiful dried specimens of this species in
the botanical gardens at Madrid last year. The lanceolate leaves and
panicles of flowers still retained their colour. They were marked
"_Cascarilla fina de Uritusinga de Loxa, Quin. de Pavon_."

[45] Howard's _Nueva Quinologia de Pavon_.

[46] _Howard_, from MS. of Ruiz.

[47] Mr. Cross's _Report_, Nov. 1861.

[48] Pereira, _Materia Medica_, ii. p. 106.

[49] Afterwards published in a pamphlet of 57 pages, with plates.

[50] In 1856 Mr. Howard shared Dr. Weddell's belief that the "red bark"
belonged to a variety of _C. ovata_.--_Pharmaceutical Journal_, Oct.
1856.

[51] Howard.

[52] With "red bark" another kind, known as "West coast Carthagena," is
exported from Guayaquil. The name is absurd. Mr. Howard believes it to
be derived from the _C. Palton_ of Pavon, which is found in the woods
of Cuenca, and in the province of Loxa. Samples of this bark yield 2.05
of alkaloids, 1.34 of chinchonidine, and 0.7 of quinine.

[53] Alcedo.

[54] Mutis was born at Cadiz in 1732. He resided in South America for
forty years, and corresponded with Linnæus. Dying in 1808, the greater
portion of his papers was destroyed in the revolution at Bogota; but a
part of his collection of dried plants is now in the botanical gardens
at Madrid, in a disgraceful state of disorder.

[55] In 1776 Don Sebastian José Lopez Ruiz, a physician at Bogota,
persuaded the Spanish government that he was the first discoverer
of chinchona-trees in New Granada, and obtained a yearly pension of
2000 dollars as a reward; but he was afterwards considered to be an
impostor, and the viceroy deprived him of it.

[56] The pupil and fellow-workman of Mutis, from whose notes he wrote.

[57] _Anales de la Historia Natural de Madrid_, 1800.

[58] _Floræ Columbiæ specimina selecta_, i. p. 21: Berlin, 1858. A
superbly illustrated work by Dr. Karsten.

[59] _Die medicinischen Chinarinden Neu-Granadas_, von H. Karsten:
Berlin, 1858. I have had this pamphlet translated for the use of those
intrusted with, or interested in, the chinchona cultivation in India
and Ceylon. It contains a great deal of valuable information respecting
the most favourable situations for the production of alkaloids in
chinchona barks, and other particulars respecting the growth of the
bark, and the methods of collecting it. Dr. Karsten is a careful
observer and a scientific botanist and chemist, and his observations
form a very important addition to our knowledge of this subject.

[60] _Report of the Administrador Don Ignacio Cavero, Semanario_, p.
183.

[61] 300 dried specimens, and 242  drawings, sent in the ship
'Buen Consejo.'

[62] Namely:--

  1. _C. lanceolata_        (_Cascarilla bobo amarillo_).
  2. _C. purpurea_          (     "     _de hoja morada_).
  3. _C. ovata_             (     "     _pata de gallareta_).
  4. _C. nitida_            (     "     _fino_).
  5. _C. hirsuta_           (     "     _fino delgado_).
  6. _C. magnifolia_       {(     "     _flor de Azahar_).
                           {(     "     _magnifolia--Wedd_).
  7. _C. glandulifera_      (     "     _negrilla_).

[63] I have examined Pavon's dried specimens from Huanuco, now in the
botanical gardens at Madrid.

There are leaves of _C. lanceolata_, from the forests of Muña; leaves
and capsules of _C. ovata_, some of the former very slightly cordate,
from Panao and Pillao; leaves, flowers, and capsules of _C. purpurea_;
and leaves and capsules of _C. nitida_, from Cuchero.

[64] Ruiz published his _Quinologia_ in 1792.

[65] At first, in the best years, as many as 25,000 arrobas of bark
were exported from the province of Huanuco, and some large fortunes
were made.--_Poeppig._ An arroba = 25 lbs.

[66] _Mercurio Peruano._

[67] A Peruvian who was for many years Director of the Cabinet of
Natural History in Madrid, during the reign of Charles III.

[68] _Reise in Peru, während der Jahre 1827-32_, von Eduard Poeppig,
Professor an der Universität zu Leipzig, ii. pp. 217-23, 257-64.

[69] Stevenson, however, says that large quantities of bark were
brought from the woods east of Huamalies in 1825.--_Travels_, ii. p. 66.

[70] Poeppig. Van Tschudi, p. 399.

[71] Poeppig.

[72] Howard.

[73] I have caused the part of Poeppig's work which relates to
chinchona-trees and their barks to be translated for circulation in
India and Ceylon.

[74] As early as 1790 the calisaya bark was highly prized in Madrid.

[75] The valuable species found in Bolivia and Southern Peru. Dr.
Weddell derives the name from the Quichua words _colli_ (red) and
_saya_ (form); Poeppig from _colla_ (a remedy) and _salla_ (rocky
ground); Van Tschudi from _collisara_ (reddish maize). Dr. Laefdael,
the Judge of Caravaya, told me it came from _ccali_ (strong) and
_sayay_ (become, or be thou). Calisaya is the name of a family of
Indian Caciques in Caravaya, one of whom acted an important part in the
revolt of 1780-1. The plant may have been called after him.

[76] The bark of _C. Calisaya_, known as "yellow bark" in commerce, was
at first erroneously believed to come from _C. cordifolia_, because
Mutis had called the bark from that species _cascarilla amarilla_, or
"yellow bark." See p. 28.

[77] This account of the Bolivian bark trade is from Dr. Weddell's
_Voyage dans le Nord de Bolivie, et dans les partes voisines de Pérou_.
Paris, 1853. Chap. xiii. p. 235.

[78] Gibbon's _Valley of the Amazon_, p. 147.

[79] _Mercurio del Vapor_, Dec. 15, 1859.

[80] _Yuncu_ is a tropical valley in Quichua, hence _yungus_, a Spanish
corruption of the same word.

[81] _Quinologie_, par M. A. Delondre. Paris, 1854.

[82] _Voyage dans le Nord de Bolivie, et dans les partes voisines de
Pérou_, par H. A. Weddell. Paris, 1853. Dr. Weddell is now engaged in
the publication of a work on the plants of the more elevated parts of
the Andes, entitled _Chloris Andina_.

[83] An account of it was published in the Journal of the Horticultural
Society, vol. vii. p. 272.

[84] Pereira, _Mat. Med._ ii. part ii. p. 118.

[85] Weddell, _Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas_.

[86] Weddell, _Voyage dans le Nord de Bolivie_.

[87] _Mém. de l' Acad. Roy. des Sciences_, 1738, p. 226.

[88] _Noticias Secretas_, p. 572.

[89] MS. quoted by Howard.

[90] Poeppig.

[91] Karsten.

[92] I. p. 245. Probably the idea was first conceived much earlier by
Dr. Ainslie, who, half a century ago, remarked that it was matter of
regret that "it had never been attempted to rear those articles of the
Materia Medica in India, for which the world is now solely indebted to
America."--Ainslie's _Materia Medica_, p. 66 (_note_).

[93] _Cours d'Hist. Nat. Pharm._ ii. p. 252.

[94] _Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas_, p. 13.

[95] _Quinologie_, par M. A. Delondre, p. 15.

[96] So convinced is Dr. Weddell that there is imminent danger of the
supplies of bark eventually being exhausted, that he says, "Avant
que la malheur que je prévois n'arrive (et ce ne sera pas de notre
temps) la science aura peut-être fait la conquête de quelque nouveau
médicament qui rendra moins regrettable la perte de l'écorce de
Pérou."--_Voyage dans le Nord de Bolivie_, p. 245.

[97] Howard.

[98] Howard.

[99] _Ychu_ is grass in Quichua, and _corpa_ a lodging.

[100] Information from Gironda, then Governor of Sina.

[101] _Kew Miscellany_, Oct. and Nov. 1856.

[102] Dr. Macpherson's Report, Dec. 19, 1860, No. 50, para. 8.

[103] _Bonplandia_, March, 1859, p. 72. The pay of an
Assistant-Resident in Java is 500_l._ a-year.--Money's _Java_.

[104] A lofty tree, 150 to 200 feet high, with a very close-grained
wood. It yields a fragrant resin called _storax_.

[105] Report of Mr. Fraser, H. M. Consul at Batavia.

[106] Dr. Junghuhn called some of the plants _C. lanceolata_, and
others _C. succirubra_; but he has himself allowed that the former
are a mere variety of the worthless species, seeds of which were sent
by M. Hasskarl from Uchubamba; and the latter certainly cannot be
_C. succirubra_, as that valuable kind is not found in the Peruvian
districts visited by M. Hasskarl.

[107] Dr. Macpherson's Report, Dec. 19, 1860. No. 50.

[108] Dr. Anderson's Report, Dec. 14, 1861, No. 326; and Dr.
Macpherson's Report, Dec. 19, 1860, No. 50, para. 12.

[109] Report of Mr. Fraser, late H. M. Consul at Batavia.

[110] Howard's _Nueva Quinologia de Pavon_. No. 7.

[111] He left Java in September, 1861, after a residence of six years.

[112] Howard. No. 7 (_note_).

[113] Report of Mr. Fraser.

[114] Dr. Junghuhn has published two very interesting reports on the
cultivation of the chinchona-plants in Java, in the _Bonplandia_, a
German botanical journal: the first in Nos. 4 and 5 of 1858, and the
second in the numbers for July and August, 1860. I have caused these
reports to be translated and circulated for the information of those
who are intrusted with, or interested in, the chinchona cultivation in
India or Ceylon.

[115] Mr. Spruce's remark on the eventual necessity of cultivating the
chinchona tree is important. He says, "I have seen enough of collecting
the products of the forests to convince me that _whatever vegetable
substance is needful to man, he must ultimately cultivate the plant
producing it_."--_Report_, p. 83.

[116] It appears, by a government return, that 2051 lbs. of quinine
were sent to India in 1856, and 1180 lbs. in 1857.

The _Friend of India_ of December 10th, 1860, however, quoting from
the _Lancet_, states that the consumption of quinine and bark in the
government hospitals in India in 1857-8 was 6815 lbs., and that in
1858-9 it amounted to 5087 lbs. The writer of the article adds that
the government druggists in India sell quinine at 1_l._ an ounce; but,
taking the cost of an ounce of quinine at 10_s._, the expenditure
on this medicine, according to the above figures, would amount to
54,520_l._ in 1857-8, and to 40,696_l._ in 1858-9!

[117] Nevertheless we now have plants of _C. lancifolia_, the species
which should have been procured from New Granada, thriving in India.
They have been received from Java, in exchange for other species, and
were originally raised from seeds sent by Dr. Karsten.

[118] When it was founded by General La Fuente, then Prefect of
Arequipa.--_Castelnau_, iii. p. 443.

[119] There is anchorage for 20 or 25 vessels in 10 or 12 fathoms; but
there is always a rather heavy swell, so that a hawser is necessary to
keep a vessels bow to it, even in fine weather.

[120] In the following proportions:--

  To England             Alpaca wool    22,500 cwts  worth £192,729
      "                  Sheep's wool   18,669  "      "     67,306
      "                  Vicuña wool        72  "      "      1,537
      "                  Copper                        "        333
      "                  Bark            1,365  "      "     12,383
      "                  Specie                              34,706
  To France              Wool              877  "      "      1,886
      "                  Bark               95  "      "      1,077
  To the United States   Wool            8,054  "      "     24,884
                                                           --------
                                                           £336,842
                                                           --------

[121] The analysis of this soil, by Dr. Forbes Watson, gave the
following result:--

  Water, and a little organic matter     7.100
  Silica, as silicate and as silex      59.800
  Peroxide of iron                      12.100
  Alumina                               12.300
  Lime                                   4.100
  Magnesia                               2.100
  Soda                                   0.724
  Chloride of sodium                     0.408
  Phosphoric acid                        0.117
  Carbonic acid
  Sulphuric acid                         0.082
                                       -------
                                        99.681
              Loss                        .319
                                       -------
                                       100.000
                                       -------

[122] "Tambo" is a Spanish corruption of the Quichua word _Tampu_, an
inn or post-house.

[123] Almost all the woollen clothing of the Peruvian Indians is now
imported from Yorkshire, and their shirtings from Lowell. Formerly it
was all of home manufacture.

[124] Probably from the Quichua word _Chiri_--cold.

[125] _El Peru en_ 1860, por Alfredo Leubel.

[126] The republic of Peru has had 37 years and 7 months of existence,
of which _28 years and 8 months_ have been passed in peace, 2 years in
foreign war, and 6 years and 11 months in civil dissensions.

  1824 to 1828 inclusive            At peace.
  Jan. to July, 1829                At war with Colombia.
  July, 1829, to the end of 1833    At peace, under President Gamarra.
  Jan. 1834, to Feb. 1836           In civil dissensions.
  Feb. 1836, to Aug. 1838           At peace, under General Santa Cruz.
  Aug. 1838, to Jan. 1839           At war with Chile.
  Jan. 1839, to Jan. 1841           At peace, under President Gamarra.
  Jan. 1841, to July, 1841          In civil dissensions.
  July, 1841, to June, 1842         At war with Bolivia.
  Aug. 1842, to July, 1844          In civil dissensions.
  July, 1844, to June, 1854         At peace under Presidents Castilla
                                    and Echenique.
  June, 1854, to Jan. 1855          In civil war.
  Jan. 1855, to Oct. 1856           At peace, under President Castilla.
  Oct. 1856, to March, 1858         An insurrection at Arequipa.
  March, 1858, to March, 1862       At peace, under President Castilla.

These are the plain facts of the case, which are preferable to vague
and ignorant statements that Peru has been in a constant state of civil
war ever since the War of Independence.

[127] The elevations were taken with one of Negretti and Zambra's
boiling-point thermometers.

[128] So called from being covered with small round pebbles, like
comfits.

[129] At this elevation grows an asclepiad (_Pentagonium flavum_), a
little lowly plant with yellow flowers.--_Chloris Andina_, ii. p. 49.

[130] _Baccharis Incarum_ of Weddell.--_Chloris Andina_, i. p. 170.

[131] Dr. Weddell mentions a composita (_Merope piptolepis_) as being
common near the shores of these lakes.--_Chloris Andina_, i. p. 162.
And an oxalis in the crevices of the rocks near La Compuerta.--_Oxalis
Nubigena_, ii. p. 291.

In the neighbourhood of La Compuerta there are several other lowly
alpine plants--a St. John's wort (_Hypericum brevistylum_), another
oxalis, and two mallows, &c. &c.

[132] M. de Castelnau says that vessels exactly resembling those of
lake Titicaca are represented on the tomb of Rameses III. at Thebes.

[133] Gonzalez Montoya was the best Governor that Puno has ever known.
He was a benevolent as well as a determined man, and abolished the
_mitas_, or drafting of Indians for forced labour in the mines of
Potosi. When ordered by the Government to restore the _mitas_, he
replied, "Obedesco pero no cumplo."

[134] Garcilasso de la Vega says that the Indians boil the leaves of
the _sunchu_, and then dry them in the sun, and keep them to eat in the
winter.--I. lib. 8, cap. xv. p. 284.

[135] In 1663 the mines of Laycaycota, Cancharani, and San Antonio de
Esquilache, near Puno, produced 1,500,000 dollars' worth of silver in
one year!--Miller's _Memoirs_, ii. p. 238.

[136] _Compendio del hecho y apuntamiento de derechos de Fisco, en
la causa contra José de Salcedo, sobre las sediciones y tumultos del
asiento de minas de Laycocota._ _Papeles Varios_ 2, in the National
Library at Lima.

[137] This was the Count of Medellin who married Catalina Ponce de
Leon, sister of the Duchess of Gandia, whose husband was brother of the
Countess of Lemos.

[138] _Declaracion de todo lo que contiene la demonstracion hecha por
los Vehedores Don Juan Eusebio Ximenes, y Don Valentin Calderon de la
Barca, de Orden Real, a Cancharani, Laycocota la alta, y Laycocota la
baja, sus situaciones y vetas, desde la villa de Puno en distancia a
una legua a cuya falda esta la gran laguna de Chucuito_, 1718. MS.
Report at Puno, with a map, which has unfortunately been lost.

[139] The men who broke out the ores with picks got 5 rials a day; and
6 men worked out 6 to 8 cwts. of mineral daily, working 12 hours. The
rest of the workmen got 4 rials a-day

[140] A small shrub (_Baccharis Incarum_) often covering the hills.

[141] It yields about 30 per cent. of silver.

[142] In 1845 Bustamante placed the value of the exports at 2,500,000
dol.!

[143] From the _Geografia del Peru_. Lima, 1859.

[144] An Englishman had a schooner on the lake, but I believe she is
now abandoned or broken up; and there is no craft at present but the
reed balsas.

[145] The Peruvian Government answered this decree in a noble spirit,
by declaring that they would not retaliate, but, on the contrary, would
assist commercial traffic between the two countries by every means in
their power. Linares rescinded his barbarous edict on October 17th.

[146] All the bark shipped at Islay is smuggled across the Bolivian
frontier; Arica is the recognised port of Bolivia; and the bark
exported from Payta comes from the neighbouring republic of Ecuador.

[147] Evaporation, however, goes on at all seasons, owing to the
excessive elevation of the waters.

[148] So say the people of Puno, but the island is all limestone.

[149] The name is more modern; given, as tradition relates, by one
of the Incas, who happened to be encamped here when a _chasqui_ or
messenger arrived with extraordinary rapidity from Cuzco. The Inca
exclaimed, "_Tia-huanaco!_" "Be seated, O Huanaco!"--the huanaco being
the swiftest animal in Peru.

[150] The Hindoo god Siva is also represented with a necklace of human
heads.

[151] For descriptions of the ruins at Cuzco, see my former work,
_Cuzco and Lima_, chap. iv. and v.

[152] It is now introduced into our greenhouses.

[153] The lizard appears to have been a favourite device amongst the
ancient Aymaras. There is also one carved on a block of stone amongst
the ruins of Tiahuanaco.

[154] The idol of Copacabana was made of a beautiful blue stone, hence
the name. It had an ugly human head, and a fish's body, and it was
adored as the God of the Lake.

[155] Calancha.

[156] Facing the road on the mainland, between Juli and Pomata.

[157] He nominated Apu Inca Sucso, a grandson of the Inca Viracocha,
as Governor; who was father of Apuchalco Yupanqui, the grandfather of
Don Alonzo Viracocha Inca, and his brother Don Pablo, who governed the
island of Titicaca, under the Spaniards, in A.D. 1621.

[158] Fray Alonzo Ramas says that in 1611 an old woman, aged 120 years,
died at Viacha, a day's journey from La Paz, who confessed that she had
been a Virgin of the Sun.

[159] _Cronica Moralizada de la Provincia del Peru, del Orden de San
Agustin, por el Padre Fray Antonio de la Calancha._ Lima, 1653.

[160] Mr. Merivale, in his _Colonization and Colonies_, says, "It must
be admitted that, had the legislation of Spain in other respects been
as well conceived as that respecting the Indians, the loss of her
Western empire would have been an unmerited visitation."

[161] Others say that the word _Cacique_ was brought from the Old World
by the Spaniards, and that it is a corruption of the Arabic _Sheikh_.

[162] Prince of Esquilache's despatch, A.D. 1618, No. 6, p. 344, H. 53.
MS. despatches in the national library at Madrid.

[163] See the sentence of death passed on the Inca Tupac Amaru in 1782,
by the Visitador Areche, in which the use of these dresses, and the
celebration of festivals and plays, are prohibited for the future.

[164] See _Money's Java_, i. p. 215, where there is an account of the
position and functions of the native "Regents."

[165] The pay of an Indian was usually 1 rial (6_d._) a week in the
farms, and 20 rials (about 10_s._) in the mines. But the miners kept
back a third of the Indian's wages, nominally to form a fund to pay for
his return to his home at the end of his period of service.

[166] The Marquis of Montes Claros derives the word _mita_ from the
Quichua _mitta_, "time," and says that the _mita_ was established to
prevent idleness, and for the good of the Indians!--_Memorias_, i. p.
21.

[167] _Report of the Viceroy Prince of Esquilache_, 1620. This,
however, is not quite clear: it is more probable that Indians were
lawlessly torn from their homes to work in the mines when the _mita_ of
a seventh did not yield a sufficient number of labourers. In North Peru
the proportion was a sixth, and in Quito a fifth.

[168] Montes Claros describes them as Indians domiciled on the estates
or in the houses of Spaniards, like servants; their masters giving them
food, clothes, and a bit of land, and paying their tribute for them.
Lest the system should degenerate into slavery, the king, in a _cedula_
of 1601, declared that they were free, and desired that this should be
made known to them.--_Memorias_, i. p. 27.

[169] _Ordenanzas_, No. 34, 12, 140.

[170] Especially in those of the Count of Alba de Liste in 1660. In
September of that year this viceroy assembled a Junta, in obedience to
an order from Spain, to consult respecting the instruction and good
treatment of the Indians. The proceedings, still in MS., may be seen in
the national library at Lima.

[171] _Cuzco and Lima_, chap. vii., from the _Noticias Secretas_ of the
Ulloas.

[172] II. p. 304 of the _Memorias de los Vireyes_. But no safe
calculation can be made respecting the actual population from these
numbers.

[173] _Papeles Varios._ No. 4. MS. in the library at Lima.

[174] The amalgamation with quicksilver was introduced at Potosi by
Velasco in 1571. The quicksilver was sent down from Huancavelica to
the port of Chincha, thence to Arica by sea, and from Arica over the
cordillera to Potosi.--_Report of the Prince of Esquilache._

[175] _Carta sobre trabajos, agravios, y injusticias que padecen los
Indios del Peru_; por Don Juan de Padilla, 1657.--MS. in the National
Library at Lima.

[176] _Papeles Varios._ No. 4. MS.

[177] MS. in Lima library.

[178] _Manifesto de los agravios que padecen los Indios._--MS. at Lima.

[179] _Funes_, iii. p. 242-333.

[180] _Calancha._

[181] In 1591 a duty of 2 per cent. was placed on all merchandise, and
5 per cent. on coca.--_Report of the Prince of Esquilache_, 1620.

[182] This system of _repartimientos_ or _repartos_ was also introduced
in the first instance with a benevolent intent, that of supplying
the people with European goods at a reasonable price. I use the word
_reparto_ in future, to distinguish this system from that of the
_repartimiento_ during the earlier period of Spanish domination in
Peru, which, with the same word, had a very different meaning.

[183] _Informe por Diego Tupac Amaru.--Azangaro._ Oct. 18, 1781.
(Angelis).

[184] Letter from Gen. del Valle to two friends at Lima, Oct. 3, 1781.

[185] _Colonization and Colonies_, p. 6 and p. 283 (_note_).

[186] _Papeles Varios_, No. 4.--MS. at Lima.

[187] _Manifesto de Don Juan de Padilla_.--MS. at Lima.

[188] _Sumario del Concilio II., Provincial en Lima_, 1567. Also,
letter from Dr. Juan Moscoso, Bishop of Cuzco, July 20, 1782, MS.; and
in the collection of Angelis.

[189] _Practica de visitas y Residencias_, Naples, 1696; and _Papeles
Varios_, No. 4.

[190] See Temple's _Travels in Peru_ for an authentic account of the
rebellion of the Cataris in Upper Peru, and the siege of La Paz.

[191] Report of the Cabildo of Cuzco, January, 1784, MS.; also in Nos.
9 to 20 of the _Museo Erudito_ of Cuzco, July, 1837.

[192] Letter from Moscoso, Bishop of Cuzco, MS.

[193] _Ensayo de la Historia civil del Paraguay, Buenos Ayres, y
Tucuman, por el Dr. Don Gregorio Funes, Dean de la Santa Iglesia
Catedral de Cordova._--Buenos Ayres, 1817, 4 vols, tom. iii. pp.
242-333. This work contains a detailed and very interesting account of
the insurrections of Tupac Amaru, and of the Cataris in Upper Peru.

[194] An account of the copious materials from which my information
respecting Tupac Amaru is derived will be found in a note at the
beginning of the following chapter.

[195] "Native races must in every instance either perish, or be
amalgamated with the general population of their country."--Merivale's
_Colonies and Colonization_, p. 510.

[196] _Spanish Conquest in America_, iv. p. 368.

[197] _Colonies and Colonization_, p. 522.

[198] _Amaru_ means serpent in Quichua, and _Tupac_ royal or excellent.
_Tupac_ also may be the participle of _Tupani_, I rend.

Serpents are frequently carved in relief on the masonry of Inca
edifices.

[199] These particulars are given by the monk Gonzalez, in his
_Historia de lo acaecido en Paucartambo_, a narrative still in MS.;
besides which, the materials for the history of the rebellion of Tupac
Amaru consist of a large collection of original documents, including
narratives, letters, despatches, and edicts, printed in the _Coleccion
de obras y documentos relativos a la historia antiqua y moderna de las
provincias de Rio de la Plata_, por Pedro de Angelis (Buenos Ayres,
1836), tom. v. pp. 109-286; the Report of the Cabildo of Cuzco, printed
in the _Museo Erudito del Cuzco_; a large collection of original MSS.
which were given to the late Gen. Miller in 1833, by Padre José Xavier
de Guzman, of the Franciscan convent in Santiago de Chile; the letter
from Tupac Amaru to Areche, and the sentence of death pronounced by
Areche, which are printed in the Appendix to the Spanish edition of
Gen. Miller's _Memoirs_; the work of Don Gregorio Funes, Dean of
Cordova, published at Buenos Ayres in 1817 (4 vols.); and the diary of
Don Sebastian de Segurola, Governor of La Paz, during its siege by the
Indians, published in Temple's _Travels in Peru_, ii. p. 103-78. I also
obtained a copy of Areche's reply to Tupac Amaru, from a MS. in the
public library at Lima.

Weddell has given an account of the insurrection of Tupac Amaru in his
_Voyage dans le Nord de Bolivie_, chap. xv. p. 263-88. This chapter is
a résumé of the collection of original documents in the work of Angelis.

[200] Information from Don Pablo Astete, aged 80, given to Gen. Miller
at Cuzco in 1835. Astete's father had been an intimate friend of Tupac
Amaru, but afterwards served against him.

[201] Information from Dominga Bastidas, a cousin of Tupac Amaru's
wife, given to Gen. Miller at Cuzco in 1835. She said that Micaela was
always considered to have been very beautiful; and added, that the sons
of Tupac Amaru, when at college at Cuzco, spent the feast-days at her
house. In 1835 she was a very old woman.

[202] This description of Tupac Amaru is almost word for word as it was
given to Gen. Miller by Don Pablo Astete, who well remembered him.

[203] The inhabitants of Tungasuca, about 500 in number, were as
remarkable for their agricultural industry in 1853, when I saw them, as
they formerly were as muleteers.

[204] From a MS. at Lima, headed "_En el Cuzco, Dec. 3, 1780_."

[205] Inca Manco had two sons, Sayri Tupac and Tupac Amaru. Clara
Beatriz Coya, daughter of Sayri Tupac, married Don Martin Garcia de
Loyola, and had a daughter, Lorenza, created Marchioness of Oropesa
and Countess of Alcanises, with remainder to the descendants of her
great-uncle, Tupac Amaru. She married Don Juan Henriquez de Borja, but,
in 1770, there were no descendants of this marriage, and the descendant
of Tupac Amaru was the lawful heir to the marquisate.

The decision of the Royal Audience of Lima disposes of the statement
of Baron Humboldt (_Political Essay_, i. p. 208), that "the pretended
Inca was a Mestizo, and his true father a monk." Humboldt was certainly
misinformed, as there is not a shadow of grounds for the assertion.
Tupac Amaru's birth is never questioned in any of the documents in my
possession, consisting of his sentence of death, proclamations, and
letters from his enemies, in which no opportunity is lost of blackening
his memory.

[206] _Despachos que el Exmo. Señor Principe de Esquilache, Virey de
los reynos del Peru, envio a su Magestad._ No. 6, p. 344. Lima, April
16, 1618.--MS. in the National Library at Madrid, H. 53.

[207] From the collection of Angelis.

[208] Funes.

[209] In my review of the language and literature of the Incas in
a former work (_Cuzco and Lima_, chap. vi.) I gave some translated
extracts from the drama of _Ollantay_, and an abstract of the plot. I
then stated that it was an ancient play, which had been handed down
from the time of the Incas; but I have since discovered that Dr.
Valdez was its author, although it contains several ancient songs and
speeches, and though the plot is undoubtedly ancient. I was led into
the error by the opinion expressed by the Peruvian antiquary, Mariano
Rivero,[210] a very high authority, that the drama had been handed down
from the time of the Incas.

The original MS. is now in the possession of Don Narciso Cuentas, of
Tinta, the nephew and heir of Dr. Valdez; but there are numerous MS.
copies in Peru, and it has been printed at the end of Dr. Von Tschudi's
_Kechua Sprache_.

There is a review of this Quichua drama of Dr. Valdez, in the _Museo
Erudito_ (Nos. 5 to 9), a periodical published at Cuzco in 1837, by the
editor, Don José Palacios. He says that the story respecting Ollantay
was handed down by immemorial tradition, but that the drama was written
by Dr. Valdez. The writer criticizes the plot, objecting that the
treason of Ollantay is rewarded, while the heroic conduct of Rumi-ñaui
remains unnoticed. Palacios had inquired of Don Juan Hualpa, a noble
Cacique of Belem in Cuzco, and of the Caciques of San Sebastian and San
Blas, who agreed in their account of the tradition, which was that the
rebellion of Ollantay arose from the abduction of an _Aclla_ or Virgin
of the Sun from her convent, but they had not heard her name, nor who
she was.

These particulars respecting the origin of the drama of _Ollantay_ may
be interesting to readers who have paid any attention to the history
of the civilization of the Incas. Though not so ancient as I once
supposed, the drama is still very curious, because it contains songs
and long passages of undoubted antiquity.

[210] Antiquedades Peruanas, p. 116.

[211] Two and a half leagues from Tinta, and two miles from Yanaoca.

[212] Near the port of Islay, and westward of Cornejo point, the coast
forms a shallow bay, in which is the small cove of Aranta, 13 miles
from the valley of Quilca. Its capabilities as a port were personally
examined by the President Castilla three years ago.

[213] One mile from Tungasuca.

[214] A coat of arms was granted to the family of the Incas by Charles
V., at Valladolid, in 1544. Tierce in fess. On a chief azure, a Sun
with glory proper; on a fess vert an eagle displayed sable, between a
rainbow and two serpents proper; on a base gules, a castle proper.

These partitions, by tiercing the shield, are not used in English
heraldry.

[215] _Quispi_, flint; and _cancha_, a place.

[216] The Spaniards declared that the Indians set the church on fire,
and that all perished.--(_Report of the Cabildo of Cuzco_, MS.) But the
above account of the affair was given by the Inca himself to Don Miguel
Andrade of Azangaro, and he denied positively that the church was set
on fire.--_Sublevacion de Tupac Amaru._ Angelis.

[217] Landa, the Governor of Paucartambo, had formerly led an exploring
expedition into the montaña, in search of the great river of Madre de
Dios or Purus.--_Cuzco and Lima_, p. 263.

[218] This Cacique Sahuaraura was the father of the late Dr. Justo
Sahuaraura, of Cuzco, who published a little genealogical work in
Paris, in 1850, in which he claimed descent from the Incas. I hear,
however, that his genealogy is apocryphal. In 1835 he wrote to
the editor of the _Museo Erudito_ of Cuzco, offering to write the
traditions of his family in that periodical, as an Inca. A Dr. Gallego,
of Cuzco, replied that no Inca was ever called Sahuaraura, but that the
Inca Rocca once had a servant of that name, and that he might possibly
be descended from him. This silenced Don Justo for a long time.
(_Sahuay_, a flame; _raurac_, make. He had to light the Inca's fire).

[219] Letter from Dr. Moscoso, Bishop of Cuzco, July 20,
1782.--_Angelis._

[220] In the collection of Angelis.

[221] _Angelis_ and _Guzman_, MSS.

[222] _Historia de lo acaecido en el Real Asunto de Paucartambo, en la
rebelion sucitada por José Gabriel Tupac Amaru._ A manuscript account
of the siege of Paucartambo, by Fray Raymundo Gonzalez, Religioso
Mercedario, written in 1782. The original is still at Paucartambo,
where I saw it, and there are two or three copies at Cuzco.

[223] Namely:--

  Pumacagua of Chinchero.
  Rosas of Anta.
  Sucacahua of Umachiri.
  Huaranca of Santa Rosa.
  Chuquihuanca of Azangaro.
  Game of Paruro.
  Espinosa of Catoca.
  Carlos Visa of Achalla.
  Chuquicallata of Saman.
  Huambo Tupa of Yauri.
  Callu of Sicuani.
  Aronis of Checacupe.
  Cotacellapa of Caravaya.
  Sahuaraura of Oropesa.
  Choquechua of Belem, in Cuzco.
  Bustinza Uffucana of S^{ta.} Anna, in
  Cuzco.--_Letter from Dr. Moscoso,
  Bishop of Cuzco._

[224] The way in which this valuable despatch of the Inca Tupac Amaru
became public is very curious. In 1806 Dr. Tadeo Garate, of La Paz,
Secretary to Bishop Las Heras (afterwards Archbishop of Lima), was
ordered by the Viceroy Marquis of Aviles to publish a history of
the Rebellion of Tupac Amaru in 1780-1; and, to guard against the
possibility of authentic counter-statements, this despatch was taken
from the archives of Cuzco, and sent to La Paz in charge of an Indian
student named Pasoscanki, who perused it on the road, and was so struck
with the magnanimity and heroism of his native prince, that he did not
deliver the papers. He afterwards emigrated to Buenos Ayres, and, in
1812, went to England, and commissioned Mr. Wood, of Poppin's-court,
Fleet-street, to print Tupac Amaru's despatch; but, for want of funds,
this was not done, and, Pasoscanki returning to Buenos Ayres, the
publication was abandoned. In 1828 the same printer was employed to
print the Spanish edition of Gen. Miller's _Memoirs_, and at that time
the despatch was found amongst some old papers in Mr. Wood's office.
It was finally published in an appendix to the Spanish edition of Gen.
Miller's _Memoirs_.

[225] Report of Gen. del Valle, Sept. 30, 1781, MS. Letter of Areche.
MS., in the library at Lima.

[226] This draft of an edict is amongst the papers in Angelis. It is
possible, however, that it may have been forged by the Spaniards, in
order to produce written evidence of the intentions of Tupac Amaru.

[227] Tomas Parvina de Colquemarca, "Justicia Mayor," and Felipe
Bermudez, a Spaniard, belonged to the "Junta Privada," or Privy
Council, of the Inca. Bermudez had acted as the Inca's secretary.

[228] There is said to be a picture in the church at Tinta representing
this massacre.

[229] He is said to have been dressed in Incarial robes, with the arms
of the Incas embroidered in gold at the corners.

[230] A list of the prisoners is given amongst the Angelis papers.

[231] It is printed in the appendix to the Spanish edition of Gen.
Miller's _Memoirs_, vol. i.

[232] One account says that he was tortured until one arm was
dislocated, by the _garruche_, by order of Matta Linares. _Guzman_ MSS.

[233] Letter from Gen. del Valle, Sept. 30, 1781.

[234] One of these was Dr. Don Toribio Carrasco, afterwards Cura of
Belem in Cuzco, who, in 1835, mentioned the circumstance, and the
impression it had made, to Gen. Miller.

[235] These executions, in all their revolting details, were certified
by Juan Bautista Gamarra, public notary to the Cabildo of Cuzco, in a
document dated May 20, 1781.

[236] _Report of the Cabildo of Cuzco._

[237] The edict, fixing the destinations of the different parts of each
victim, is printed amongst the papers in Angelis.

[238] The Pizarros and their companions were angels of mercy when
compared with such vile wretches as Areche and Matta Linares; yet
we are told by one of his flatterers that "the tender heart of the
visitador was filled with piety and humanity, and that early on the day
after the execution he went to the cathedral, and, having confessed and
partaken of the sacrament, he paid for several masses for the souls of
the culprits, and heard them all on his knees, thus edifying the whole
city." Hypocritical hyæna!--_Guzman_ MSS.

[239] When Señor Zea, of Bogota, was in Paris, Kotzebue undertook a
journey on purpose to obtain information from him respecting Tupac
Amaru, having conceived the idea of writing a tragedy founded on his
rebellion. But Zea, being a Colombian, knew little or nothing about it.

Kotzebue, however, continued his inquiries respecting Peru, which
resulted in his play _The Virgins of the Sun_, and hence Sheridan's
_Pizarro_.

[240] Orellana was a native of Cuenca, and descended from the great
navigator of the Amazons.

[241] _Relacion del Gobernador de Puno, de sus expediciones, sitios,
defensa, y varios acaecimientos, hasta que despoblo la villa de orden
del Inspector y Commandante General Don José Antonio del Valle: corre
desde 16 Noviembre 1780, hasta 17 de Julio 1781._

[242] During my stay at Puno I lived in the house which was occupied by
Orellana during the siege. It is now the property of Don Manuel Costas.

[243] Information from Gen. San Roman.

[244] One thousand nine hundred and fifty men deserted in six
days.--_Letter from del Valle._

[245] _Manifesto del Gen. del Valle. Se queja amargamente contra el
visitador Areche._ Cuzco, Septre. 1781.--_Guzman_ MSS.

[246] Information from Don Luis Quiñones of Azangaro.

[247] Angelis.

[248] Custom-house officers.

[249] _Informe por Don Diego Tupac Amaru._ Azangaro, Oct. 18, 1781.

[250] Angelis.

[251] By far the best account of the rebellion of the Cataris in Upper
Peru, and of the two sieges of La Paz, is to be found in the work of
Dean Funes.

[252] The Bishop of Cuzco, Dr. Don Juan Manuel Moscoso y Peralta,
afterwards had twenty-two accusations or charges brought against
him connected with this rebellion, which he answered in detail in a
work published at Madrid. One is that he excommunicated a priest for
betraying the secrets of the Indians told under the seal of confession;
another that he tried to save the lives of several Indian rebels;
another that he asked for a general pardon after the death of the Inca;
another that he permitted Mariano Tupac Amaru to celebrate the funeral
of his father, &c. If these accusations were true, they all redound to
the bishop's honour; and it is to be regretted that he was so anxious
to defend himself against them. At the end of his book there are some
letters to him from Diego Tupac Amaru. "_Inocencia justificada contra
los artificios de la calumnia. Papel que escribio en defensa de su
honor y distinguidos servicios hechos con motivo de la rebelion del
Reyno del Peru, por José Gabriel Tupac Amaru: el Illustrissimo Señor
Don Juan Manuel Moscoso y Peralta, Obispo del Cuzco._" (Fol. Madrid).

[253] _Oficio del Inspector Don José del Valle, al Virey de Buenos
Ayres._ Ayaviri, July 14, 1782.

[254] Report of the Cabildo of Cuzco.

[255] Report of Don Augustin de Jauregui, Viceroy of Peru. Lima, March
29, 1783.

[256] _Oficio de Don Gabriel de Aviles, a Don Sebastian de Segurola._
Cuzco.

[257] _Sentencia contra el reo Tupac Amaru, y demas acomplices,
pronunciada por Don Gabriel de Aviles, y Don Benito de la Matta
Linares._ July, 1783.

[258] Information from Don Luis Quiñones of Azangaro. Dr. Valdez died
in 1816. Don Pablo Pimentel, the worthy Subprefect of Caravaya, told
me that he remembered the old cura well, as a tall man with a stately
walk, who always gave him a dollar when he met him in Sicuani.

[259] A fabulous region supposed to exist far to the eastward of the
Andes, in the unknown parts of the Amazonian valley.

[260] _Oficio de Don Felipe Carrera, Corregidor de Parinacochas_, Julio
12, 1783. Also _Sentencia dado por el Virey de Lima, contra los reos_,
Julio, 1783. Angelis.

[261] A person calling himself Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru, and
professing to have been one of the sufferers, printed a pamphlet,
which was deposited in the archives of Buenos Ayres. In it he relates
the tale of his miseries in uncouth Spanish. He says that he beheld
his fettered mother perish of thirst on the road to Lima, in presence
of guards who turned a deaf ear to her cries for water. He saw his
faithful wife die on board the ship, without being allowed length of
chain enough to approach her. During an imprisonment of forty years at
Ceuta the sentries never relaxed their cruelties until the ministry
which came into power in Spain, after the military movement of 1820,
set the few survivors at liberty.

It is now confidently asserted that the author of this pamphlet was
an impostor. He came to Buenos Ayres in 1822, and the republican
government granted him a house, and a pension for life of 30 dollars a
month.

[262] The words of the Cura of Belem, who heard it.

[263] Don Luis Ocampo related this anecdote to Gen. Miller in 1835,
when he was still living at Cuzco, but upwards of eighty years of age.
After Peru had become independent, in about 1828, a person, calling
himself Fernando Tupac Amaru, appeared in Buenos Ayres, and went on to
Lima, becoming a monk in the convent of San Pedro; but he is believed
to have been an impostor.

[264] Goyeneche was created Count of Huaqui. His brother, the late
Bishop of Arequipa, and present Archbishop of Lima, is probably the
senior Bishop of Christendom, dating his appointment from 1809; and he
is certainly the richest man in all South America.

[265] _Confesion de Pumacagua._

[266] Information from Gen. San Roman, who called them _Fresaderos_.

[267] _Diario de la expedicion del Mariscal de Campo Don Juan Ramirez,
sobre las provincias interiores de la Paz, Puno, Arequipa, y Cuzco, por
Don José Alcon, Teniente Coronel agregado a la misma expedicion._ Lima,
1815. (1 tom. 4°, 112 paginas).

[268] Information from Gen. San Roman, whose father, a native of Puno,
joined Pumacagua at Cavanilla.

[269] Colonel Alcon.

[270] Gen. San Roman.

[271] _Documento_, i. _Oficio de Vicente Angulo a Ramirez._ Feb. 28,
1815.

[272] _Documento_ ii. _Oficio de Pumacagua a Ramirez._ Marzo 6, 1815.

[273] _Documento_ iii. _Contestacion de Ramirez a Pumacagua._ Marzo 7,
1815.

[274] Information from Gen. San Roman.

[275] Gen. San Roman, who gave me the account of this battle, was
himself present at it, with his father, when a very little boy. His
father was afterwards shot in the plaza of Puno, by the Spaniards, and
when the liberating army arrived on the coast of Peru, in 1822, the
young San Roman hurried down from his mountain home to join their ranks.

[276] In October, 1823, Gen. Miller saw the fair object of the
poet Melgar's adoration, at Camana, on the coast of Peru. She was
a native of Arequipa, with light hair, blue eyes, and a fair clear
complexion. She refused Melgar, married another, and, being obliged
to flee with her husband to escape the persecution of the Royalists,
found an asylum on the banks of the river Camana. Her maiden name was
Paredes.--Miller's _Memoirs_, ii. p. 90.

Melgar's brother is now Minister of Foreign Affairs at Lima.

[277] Information from Don Luis Quiñones of Azangaro.

[278] So strong is the feeling of the Peruvian people generally against
this oppressive system, that, in the reformed constitution promulgated
on Nov. 25, 1860, forced recruiting was declared to be a crime.

"El reclutamiento es un crimen."--_Titulo_ xvi., _art._ 123.

[279] In 1859 there was a very formidable rising of the Indians in
Chayanta, which was not put down until after much bloodshed.

[280] Humboldt.

[281] Hatun-colla was once the capital of the great Inca province of
the Collao.

[282] The three latter are also mentioned by Haenke.

[283] _Antiquedades Peruanas._

[284] One of the manufacturers, Don Manuel Zenon Ramos, has been very
active in seeking for instruction, designs, and models from Europe.

[285] _Lupinus Paniculatus._--Chloris Andina, ii. p. 252.

[286] Landa sent in a report of his expedition to the Corregidor of
Cuzco. My friend Dr. Don Julian Ochoa, the rector of the university of
Cuzco, has recently searched the archives of the ancient municipality
of that city, as well as private collections, for this interesting
document, at my request, but without success.

[287] See _Cuzco and Lima_, chap. viii.; also _Roy. Geo. Soc. Journal_
for 1855.

[288] This is not the great river which flows near Cuzco, and falls
into the Ucayali. The Indians call all rivers which serve as the trunk
or centre of a system of streams _Huilca_ or _Vilca-mayu_.

[289] Brother of the present rector of the university of Cuzco.

[290] Account of the Valleys of Marcapata, by Don José Maria Pacheco.
_Museo Erudito del Cuzco_, 1839, No. 21. See also an account of a
journey down the course of the river Marcapata as far as its junction
with the Ollachea, signed Paul Marcoy, in the _Revue Contemporaine_,
tom. 4^{me}, 1860. _Scènes et Paysages dans les Andes._

[291] _Comm. Real_, ii. lib. iii. cap. xix. p. 174.

[292] Lib. iv. cap. iv.

[293] Don Pablo Pimentel says that the ancient name of the province was
_Inahuaya_.

[294] _Bosquejo del estado actual de la provincia de Carabaya, y
majorias que proponen al Supremo Gobierno el Suprefecto de ella, Don
Pablo Pimentel._ Arequipa, 1846.

[295] _Memorias de los Vireyeo_, i. p. 36.

[296] _Memorial de cosas tocantes las minas de Caravaya._ J. 58, p.
441. A very illegible manuscript in the national library at Madrid.

[297] _Relacion del Conde de Castellar_, p. 222.

[298] _Relacion del Obispo Melchor Liñan y Cisneros_, p. 299.

[299] This appears from the _Informe_ of Diego Tupac Amaru, dated
Azangaro, Oct. 18, 1781; in which he stipulates that the coca estate
near San Gavan, in Caravaya, shall be granted to Mariano Tupac Amaru as
his rightful possession, because it belonged to his father the Inca.

[300] _Bosquejo_, &c.

[301] There is one other town, or rather wretched village, on this
Arctic plain, within Caravaya, called Macusani, about 30 miles
north-west of Crucero.

[302] A Quichua poem was written on the Cura Cabrera, and his breed of
paco-vicuñas, by Don M. M. Basagoitia. _Rivero's Antiq. Per._ 112-13.

[303] According to Don Pablo Pimentel. The people of Sandia told me
45,000 cestos, or 900,000 lbs.; and Lieut. Gibbon, U.S.N., in his work,
says 500,000 lbs.

[304] These Chunchos of Caravaya belong to the same tribe as the fierce
Indians of the Paucartambo valleys, for some account of whom see my
former work, _Cuzco and Lima_, p. 272.

Don Pablo Pimentel calls the wild tribes of Caravaya _Caranques_ and
_Sumahuanes_, but I think this is a mistake. Garcilasso de la Vega
mentions the _Coranques_ as a fierce tribe to the north of Quito, who
were conquered by the Inca Huayna Capac.--_Comm. Real_, i. lib. viii.
cap. vii. p. 274.

[305] _Challhua_, fish, in Quichua; and _uma_, water, in Aymara.

[306] _Lijera descripcion que hace Juan Bustamante, de su viaje a
Carabaya, y del estado actual de sus lavaderos y minerales._ Arequipa,
1850. Bustamante says that, at the time of his visit, there were a
hundred people at the _lavaderos_ of the Challuma, and that the Indians
received 4 rials a day.

[307] _On the Geology of Bolivia and Southern Peru_, by David Forbes,
Esq., in the Journal of the Geological Society for Feb. 1861, p. 53.

Mr. Forbes had, of course, personally examined only a portion of this
great Silurian region. At Tipuani, in Bolivia, there is a very rich
auriferous country, composed of blue-clay slates, with no fossils;
while the beds near Sorata contain fossils, and consist of blue-clay
shales, micaceous slates, grauwacke, and clay slates, with gold-bearing
quartz, metallic bismuths, iron-ore, and argentiferous galena. "The
whole of this Silurian formation is eminently auriferous, and contains
everywhere frequent veins of auriferous quartz, usually associated with
iron pyrites."

[308] The thermometer was at 25° Fahr. inside the hut.

[309] Observations by Negretti and Zambra's boiling-point thermometer.

[310] Titulo 14, s. 104.

[311] The _Juntas Departmentales_ have since been abolished by the
Reformed Constitution, promulgated in Nov. 1860. Up to May, 1860, Gen.
Castilla, the President, had never permitted them to meet.

[312] Titulo 15, s. 114.

[313] _La Revista de Lima_, tom. i. p. 159-60. Nov. 15, 1859. An
article by G. A. Flores.

[314] The same was once the case all over Peru, in the good old days of
the Incas, as we know from the curious dying confession of the last of
the conquerors, Marcio Serra de Lejesama, addressed to Philip II., A.D.
1589.

"Your Majesty must understand that my reason for making this statement
is to relieve my conscience, for we have destroyed the government
of this people by our bad example. Crimes were once so little known
among them, that an Indian with 100,000 pieces of gold and silver in
his house left it open, only placing a little stick across the door,
as a sign that the master was out; and nobody went in. But when they
saw that we placed locks in our doors, they understood that it was
from fear of theft; and when they saw that we had thieves amongst
us, they thought little of us; but now these natives, through our
bad example, have come to such a pass that no crime is unknown to
them."--_Calancha_, lib. i. cap. 15, p. 98.

[315] G. de la Vega, _Com. Real._ i. lib. viii. cap. 15.

[316] _Acosta_, lib. iv. cap. 22, who cannot agree with those who
believe its reputed virtues to be the effects of imagination.

[317] _Cedula_, 18 Oct. 1569.

[318] _Solorzano_, _Polit. Ind._, lib. ii. cap. 10, quoted by Unanue.

[319] J. de Jussieu was the first botanist who sent specimens of coca
to Europe, in 1750.

Dr. Weddell suggests that the word comes from the Aymara _khoka_, a
tree, i. e. _the_ tree _par excellence_, like _yerba_, _the_ plant
of Paraguay. The Inca historian Garcilasso, however, spells the word
_cuca_.

[320] The cesto of coca sells at 8 dollars in Sandia. In Huanuco it is
5 dollars the arroba of 25 lbs.

[321] Report of the Prince of Esquilache.

[322] Poeppig calculates the yield of Huanuco at 500,000 lbs.

[323] Poeppig, _Reise_, ii. p. 252; also Van Tschudi, p. 455.

[324] In Caravaya the _llipta_ is made into a pointed lump, and kept
in a horn, or sometimes in a silver receptacle, in the _chuspa_. With
it there is also a pointed instrument, with which the _llipta_ is
scratched, and the powder is applied to the pellet of coca-leaves.
In some provinces they keep a small calabash full of lime in their
_chuspas_, called _iscupurus_.

[325] _Bonplandia_, viii. p. 355-78.

[326] The information in this chapter is derived from personal
observation; from the essay on coca by Dr. Don Hipolito Unanue, in Nos.
3 to 8 of the _Museo Erudito_; and from the works treating of coca, by
Van Tschudi, _Travels in Peru_, p. 455; Dr. Poeppig, _Reise in Peru_,
ii. p. 248; Dr. Weddell, _Voyage dans le Nord de Bolivie_, p. 516; the
_Bonplandia_; and a memorandum by Dr. Booth, of La Paz. These are the
best authorities on the subject.

[327] Dr. Weddell, the discoverer of this species, had never seen
it in flower. I brought home leaves, flowers, and fruit of the _C.
Caravayensis_, which are now in the herbarium at Kew.

[328] An Umbellifer. The roots taste something like a parsnip, and
there are four kinds--white, yellow, brown, and reddish.

[329] _Lenco_ appears to mean "sticky mud," and _huayccu_ is a ravine,
in Quichua.

[330] _Com. Real._ i. lib. viii. cap. 15.

[331] Lib. iv. cap. 29.

[332] Not, of course, the famous gold-bearing river of the same name.

[333] _Carhua-carhua-blanca (Lasionema ?) Tree._--30 or 40 feet high,
growing in moist parts of the valley of Tambopata.

_Leaves._--Opposite, entire, petiolate, oblong, acute, smooth on both
sides, dark green above, lighter beneath, with veins and midrib nearly
white. 2-1/2 feet long by 9 or 10 inches broad. Coarse, bulging, and
wrinkled between the veins.

_Calyx._--Deep purple and green, leathery, 5-toothed, teeth rounded.

_Corolla._--Tube white, tinged with light purple, leathery, 5 laciniæ,
smooth and reflexed.

_Stamens._--5, attached to the middle of the tube of the corolla,
exserted. Filaments pillose at the base, tinged with purple. Anthers a
little shorter than the filaments, all lying on the lower sides of the
tube of the corolla, light brown.

_Style._--Exserted, but a little shorter than the stamens, light green
colour. _Stigma_, bi-cleft.

_Panicles._--Corymbose and multiflor, in threes, 6 to 15 buds on each.
_Pedicels_ a brownish purple.

I have attempted to describe this tree, because I have been unable to
identify it with any of the chinchonaceous plants in Dr. Weddell's work.

[334] _Yana_, in Quichua, is black; and _mayu_ a river.

[335] _Rupicola Peruviana_ (family of _Ampelidæ_). Van Tschudi says
that they feed on the seeds of chinchona-trees.--_Travels in Peru_, p.
427.

[336] The bark, leaves, and capsules from this tree are deposited in
the herbarium and museum at Kew.

[337] I brought home a bunch of the capsules, now in the herbarium at
Kew.

[338] There we also found the _Trichomanes muscoides_, a pretty little
fern which, I am informed by Mr. J. Smith, of Kew, though common in the
West Indies, was not previously known to be a native of Peru.

[339] Specimens from this locality were examined and reported upon at
28, Jermyn-street.

[340] Described by Dr. Weddell, in his _Histoire Naturelle des
Quinquinas_, in a note under the genus _Pimentelia_.

[341] In Peru the father of a child is _compadre_ to its godfather. It
is considered a very close and sacred relationship.

[342] Hence the name _Lenco-huayccu_. _Lenqui_ is anything sticky in
Quichua, and _huayccu_ a ravine.

[343] _Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society_, Feb. 1, 1860, p.
59.

[344] Dr. Weddell believes it to be a distinct species from the _C.
Micrantha_ of Huanuco, and has named it _C. Affinis_.

[345] "_Alcalde Municipal del Distrito de Quiaca, al Señor Juez de Paz
Don Juan de la Cruz Gironda._

  _"6 de Mayo de 1860._

"Teniendo positivas noticias de que sea internado a los puntos de
Tambopata un estranjero Ingles, con objeto de estraer plantas de
cascarilla, me es de absoluta necesidad pasarle a vm esta nota, para
que sin permitir que en grave perjuicio de los hijos del pais, lo tome
ni una planta, por lo que como autoridad debe vm de aberiguar bien
para capturar a el y al persona quien se propone a facilitarle dichas
plantas, y conducirlos a este.

  "Dios guarde a vm.,

  "JOSÉ MARIANO BOBADILLA."

[346] Hence the name of the Peruvian province of _Parinacochas_.
_Parihuana-cocha_, the Flamingo lake.--G. de la Vega, _Comm. Real._ i.
lib. iii. cap. ix. p. 83.

[347] "We give here the notices which we have collected respecting the
existence and position of a lake which is not to be found in any map,
and which bears the name of Arapa. It is said to be 6 leagues to the
north of lake Titicaca, and is 30 leagues in circumference. It extends
from the foot of a very abrupt chain of mountains, and its figure is
that of a half-moon. It contains some islands. Its waters, having
traversed two other smaller lakes to the west, fall into the Ramiz,
which is thus rendered navigable at all seasons. The principal villages
around the lake of Arapa are Chacamana, Chupan, Arapa, and Vetansas.
Round the latter place it is said that there are many veins of silver
and mines of precious stones."--_Castelnau_, tom. iii. chap. xxxix. p.
420.

[348] _Taya_ is an Aymara word, meaning "cold."

[349] _La Balsa de Arequipa_, Junio 15.

"Las cuestiones municipales han hecho gran daño al puerto de Islay,
pues todo va mal con el desacuerdo que reina entre el cuerpo y las
demas autoridades que lo combaten escandalosamente.

"Quiero que se sepa en esa ciudad que los estranjeros han dado en
esportar per esta plantas de cascarilla, que es sabido esta prohibido
hacerlo: acaba de embarcar un Ingles una multitud de ellas para la
India, por comision official de su Gobierno. Yo no sé como es que esto
se tolera, defraudando asi uno de los mejores y mas esclusivos ramos de
nuestra riqueza."

[350]

  "_Ministerio de Hacienda y Comercio._

  _Lima, Junio 20 de 1860._

En el expediente relativa a la medida tomada por el Administrador de la
Aduana de Islay, impediendo la extraccion de cierto numero de plantas
de cascarilla, ha recaido con fecha de hoy, el siguiente decreto.

Visto este expediente, y atendiendo a que no esta prohibida por
reglamento de Comercio, la extraccion de plantas de cascarilla, y
a que de impedirse su exportacion, con detrimento de la libertad
comercial que las leyes de la Republica, y ese reglamento protejan, no
se conseguiria en manera alguna el objeto que el Administrador de la
Aduana se ha propuesto al impedir el embarque de varias plantas de esa
especie, se desaprueba dicha prohibicion, sin que por este se entiende
que el Gobierno deja de apreciar el celo y patriotismo que revela en el
preindicado Administrador la enunciada medida.

  Dios guarda a V. S.,

  JUAN JOSÉ SALCEDO."

[351] In an Appendix will be found a list of these knights errant in
the cause of liberty. It was one of the last things upon which that
gallant old warrior, General Miller, the most distinguished of their
number, was engaged before his death in November 1861.

[352] "Pos las narraciones tan calumniosas como absurdas de algunos
aventureros maldicientes, se nos considera punto menos que salvages,"
says a Peruvian writer.

[353] In Spanish times there were 83 "titulos de Castilla" in Peru,
consisting of 1 duke, 46 marquises, 35 counts, and 1 viscount. The
descendants of several of these noblemen still reside on their estates
in Peru.

[354] The boundary between Ecuador and Peru is now founded on the _uti
possidetis_ of 1810, and the treaty of 1829.

[355] _Pruvonena_, i. p. 688.

[356] Pedro Castilla discovered the class of ore called _lecheador_
(chloro-bromide of silver). See Bollaert's _Antiquarian and other
Researches in Peru_, &c. In this work there is a full and interesting
account of the province of Tarapaca, and of the nitrate of soda works,
and other mineral products of that part of Peru.

[357] This province also yields great quantities of tobacco, sugar,
rice, and maize; and the adjoining province of Truxillo produces
cochineal, which was introduced by Mr. Blackwood.

[358] 1 _fanegada_ = 41,472 square _varas_ (yards), and 1 acre = 4840
varas. In Arequipa the square measure is called a _topu_. 1 _topu_ =
5000 square _varas_.

[359] Mr. Gerard Garland is about to commence a cotton plantation
in the littoral province of Payta; and, if his project succeeds, it
will doubtless induce others to follow his example.--_Cotton Supply
Reporter_, March 15th, 1862.

[360] The use of guano as a manure was well known to the ancient
Peruvians long before the Spanish conquest. Garcilasso de la Vega, the
historian of the Incas, thus describes the use made by them of the
deposits of guano on the coast of Peru:--

"On the shores of the sea, from below Arequipa to Tarapaca, which is
more than 200 leagues of coast, they use no other manure than that of
sea-birds, which abound in all the coasts of Peru, and go in such great
flocks that it would be incredible to one who had not seen them. They
breed on certain uninhabited islands which are on that coast; and the
manure which they deposit is in such quantities that it would also seem
incredible. From afar the heaps of manure appear like the peaks of some
snowy mountain range. In the time of the kings, who were Incas, such
care was taken to guard these birds in the breeding season, that it was
not lawful for any one to land on the isles, on pain of death, that the
birds might not be frightened, nor driven from their nests. Neither was
it lawful to kill them at any time, either on the islands or elsewhere,
also on pain of death. Each island was, by order of the Incas, set
apart for the use of a particular province, and the guano was fairly
divided, each village receiving a due portion. Now in these times it
is wasted after a different fashion. There is much fertility in this
bird-manure."--II. lib. v. cap. iii. p. 134-5. (Madrid, 1723.)

Frezier mentions that, when he was on the coast in 1713, guano was
brought from Iquique and other ports along the coast, and landed at
Arica and Ylo, for the aji-pepper and other crops.--Frezier's _South
Sea_, p. 152. (London, 1717.)

[361] _Informes sobre la existencia de Huano, en las Islas de Chincha,
por la comision nombrada por el Gobierno Peruano_, 1854. A small
pamphlet, with plans.

[362] Bollaert's _Account of Tarapaca_.

[363] In 1858 there were 52 ships loading at the Kooria Mooria islands,
off the coast of Arabia. In Jibleea the guano is found coating nearly
the whole of the island (about 500,000 tons), white and polished, so as
to be very slippery, which is very different from the guano of Peru. In
May, 1857, this guano from Jibleea island was analyzed at Bombay by Dr.
Giraud, with the following result:--

  Water                                      6·88
  Azotized matter, with ammoniacal salts    38·75
  Fixed alkaline salts                       6·
  Sand                                      26·25
  Sulphate of lime                           3·77
  Phosphate of lime                         18·35
                                           ------
                                           100·00
                                           ------

Thus the quantity of phosphate of lime is very small, and it appears
that the rains have washed it down, and that it has formed a
stalactitic deposit on the surface of the rock beneath the guano. A
cargo of this deposit was shipped and sold at Liverpool for 8_l._ a ton.

The composition of Peruvian guano is as follows:--

  Water                                  13·73
  Organic matter and ammoniacal salts    53·16
  Phosphates                             23·48
  Alkaline salts                          7·97
  Sand                                    1·66
                                        ------
                                        100.00
                                        ------

Of Ichaboe guano:--

  Water                                   24·21
  Organic matter, and ammoniacal salts    39·30
  Phosphates                              30·00
  Alkaline salts                           4·19
  Sand                                     2·30
                                         ------
                                         100·00
                                         ------

[364] The Peruvian Government contracted three loans in London between
1822 and 1825, amounting to 1,816,000_l._, bearing interest at 6 per
cent.

No interest was paid from 1825 to 1849, when the sales of guano had
greatly increased the resources of Peru. In 1849 Señor Osma made an
agreement with the bondholders to issue New Bonds at 4 per cent. per
annum, the rate to increase 1/2 per cent. annually up to 6 per cent.
Arrears of interest, about 2,615,000_l._, were to be capitalized, and
Deferred Bonds to be issued to represent 75 per cent. of these arrears,
and to bear interest at 1 per cent. per annum, increasing 1/2 per cent.
annually up to 3 per cent.

In 1852 the Congress authorised General Mendiburu to effect a loan in
London for 2,600,000_l._ to redeem the remainder of the 6 per cent.
loan, and to refund other home and Chile debts.

The annual interest and sinking fund amount, respectively, to
267,000_l._ and 82,000_l._; the payment of which is secured on the
profits of guano sold in Great Britain.

There is also a French loan of 800,000_l._ secured on the profits of
guano sold in France.

The whole foreign debt of Peru amounted to 4,491,042_l._ in 1857; and
the domestic debt to 4,835,708_l._ The foreign debt is annually reduced
by means of a sinking fund.

[365] _Memorias de los Vireyes que han gobernado el Peru._ (Lima, 1859.)

[366] After his death 22 wounds were found on his body, and 2 bullets
lodged.

[367] Mr. Howard has recently obtained 8·5 per cent. of alkaloids from
a specimen of red bark.

[368] There is no ascertained law by which many of the species of the
chinchona genus are thus limited to narrow zones as regards latitude.
Mr. Spruce mentions that on the lower regions of the Andes of Pasto
and Popayan, in New Granada, there are the conditions of climate and
altitude requisite for the growth of _C. succirubra_, but it has not
been found there.

[369] This is not the same as the _pata de gallinazo_ of Huanuco, which
has been named by Mr. Howard _C. Peruviana_.

[370] Mr. Cross sowed eight of the seeds; one began to germinate on
the fourth day, and at the end of a fortnight four seeds had pushed
their radicles. In three weeks one had the seed-leaves completely
developed; and on the twenty-eighth day after sowing, the last of
the eight pushed its radicle. Eight chinchona-seeds, gathered by Mr.
Spruce in 1859, were sown at Guayaquil, which had remained nine months
in his herbarium. Of these four germinated, which clearly shows that
well-ripened and properly-dried seeds do not lose their vitality for
a much longer period than their excessive delicacy would lead one to
suspect.

[371] 1. _Notes of a visit to the Chinchona Forests_, by R. Spruce,
Esq., printed by the Linnæan Society, vol. iv. of their _Proceedings_.

2. Mr. Spruce's _Report to the Under Secretary of State for India_,
Oct. 12, 1860.

3. _Report of the Expedition to procure Plants and Seeds of the
Chinchona succirubra_, by R. Spruce, Esq., Sept. 22, 1861.

[372] Letter from Mr. Pritchett to the Under Secretary of State for
India, dated July 9, 1861.

[373] Letter from Mr. Pritchett to the Under Secretary of State for
India, dated Dec. 13, 1860.

[374] Smyth's _Journey from Lima to Para_, p. 63.

[375] Herndon's _Valley of the Amazon_, p. 126.

[376] Herndon's _Valley of the Amazon_, p. 136.

[377] Smyth, p. 115; who says that, according to a register which had
been kept there, it rains at Casapi on more than half the days of the
year.

"From May to November the sun shines very powerfully in the valley
of Chinchao, and consequently the soil, when it is cleared of wood,
becomes so parched that its surface opens in chinks, but underneath
it always preserves humidity, and therefore needs no irrigation. From
November to May it rains much, sometimes six or seven days without
intermission."--Dr. A. Smith's _Peru as It Is_, ii. p. 57.

[378] Of the identity of the species collected by Mr. Pritchett there
is no doubt. He brought home specimens from the trees whence the seeds
were obtained, which have been examined by Mr. Howard, and proved to
belong to _C. nitida_, _C. micrantha_, and _C. Peruviana_. The barks
also have been found to contain a satisfactory percentage of alkaloids.
Some further particulars respecting these species have already been
given in chap. ii. p. 30-35.

[379] Pavon gives its height at from 18 to 24 feet, and 8 to 9 inches
in diameter.

[380] They yield the _crown bark_ of commerce.

[381] Seemann's _Voyage of H. M. S. Herald_, i. p. 177. For some
further particulars respecting the chinchona region of Loxa, see chap.
ii. p. 21-25.

[382] _Nueva Quinologia de Pavon._ _C. Chahuarguera_ and _C. crispa_.

[383] Mr. Cross transmitted the following dried specimens of the parts
of chinchona-trees from Loxa:--

1. Very characteristic specimens of the bark, leaves, flowers, and
capsules of _C. Condaminea_ (_C. Chahuarguera_, Pavon). This kind
yields the rusty crown bark of commerce.

2. Bark, leaves, and flowers of _C. crispa_, Tafalla, a kind which is
included in the _C. Condaminea_, H. and B. It yields the _quina fina de
Loxa_, or _cascarilla crespilla_.

3. Bark and leaves of _C. Lucumæfolia_ of Pavon, from Zamora. This
is the _cascarilla de hoja de lucma_ of the natives. Mr. Cross made
no attempt to collect the seeds, as this species is comparatively
worthless.

[384] My collection of dried specimens is deposited in the museum and
herbarium at Kew. It consists of leaves, flowers, fruit, and bark of
_C. Calisaya_; leaves and flowers of _C. micrantha_; leaves and fruit
of _C. Caravayensis_; fruit of _Pimentelia glomerata_; and bark from
the branches of almost every species of chinchona and allied genera in
the Caravayan forests.

Mr. Spruce's collection of all the parts of _C. succirubra_ is in the
herbarium at Kew.

Mr. Pritchett's collection of leaves, fruit, and bark of _C. nitida_,
_C. micrantha_, _C. Peruviana_, and _C. obovata_, is in the possession
of Mr. Howard.

Mr. Cross's dried specimens of leaves, flowers, fruit, and bark of _C.
Condaminea_ (_C. Chahuarguera_ of Pavon), bark, leaves, and flowers of
_C. crispa_ of Tafalla, and bark and leaves of _C. Lucumæfolia_, are
partly in my possession, partly in that of Mr. Howard, and partly in
that of Mr. Veitch.

[385] Six cases of chinchona-plants from this depôt were despatched to
Ceylon by the mail of March 4, 1862.

[386] See Fortune's _Tea Districts_, chap. xxi. p. 358-9.

[387] Mr. Cross says that Wardian cases, as they are at present
constructed, are notoriously unfit for the growth of plants of any
description. He adds that the plants must be healthy root and top
before they are deposited in the cases. They ought to be exposed for at
least a month to the full action of the sun and atmosphere, so that the
juices, stems, and leaves may be fully developed and matured. Plants
taken out of hothouses, or from dense forests, are not in a fit state
to be sent away immediately in Wardian cases. They are then "blanched,"
and are easily affected by adverse influences, such as excess of
moisture or drought.

[388] In October, 1861, the _Schinus molle_ plants were 3 feet high;
and the chirimoyas 15 inches. Plants of both have been sent to the
gardens at Bangalore.

[389] Seemann's _Voyage of the Herald_, i. p. 171.

[390] These 11 classes are:--1. The _Kirüm Nairs_, who are
agriculturists, clerks, and accountants, and do the cooking on all
public occasions, a sure sign of transcendent rank. 2. The _Sudra
Nairs_. 3. The _Charnadus_. 4. The _Villiums_, who are palkee-bearers
to Namburis and Rajahs. 5. The _Wattacotas_, or oil-makers. 6. The
_Atticourchis_, or cultivators. 7. The _Wallacutras_, or barbers. 8.
The _Wallateratas_, or washermen. 9. The _Tunars_, or tailors. 10. The
_Andoras_, or pot-makers. 11. The _Taragons_, or weavers, who are very
low in the scale, for even a potter must purify himself if he chances
to touch a weaver.--Buchanan, ii. p. 408.

[391] Buchanan.

[392] Temulporum and Palghaut.

[393] They range from 12 to 60 reas, or 6 pies to 2 annas 5 pies per
tree.

[394] The value of the exported nuts, kernels, oil, and coir of the
cocoanuts in 1859, was 157,995_l._

[395] Drury's _Useful Plants of India_.

[396] The best soil for ginger-cultivation is red earth free from
gravel. At the commencement of the monsoon beds of 10 or 12 feet by 3
or 4 are formed, in which holes are dug a foot apart, which are filled
with manure. The roots, hitherto carefully buried under sheds, are dug
out, chipped into suitable sizes for planting (1-1/2 to 2 inches long),
and buried in the holes. The bed is then covered with a thick layer
of green leaves, which serve as manure, while they keep the beds from
too much dampness. Rain is requisite, but the beds must be kept from
inundation, and drains are therefore cut between them. The roots or
rhizomes, when old, are scalded, scraped, and dried, and thus form the
white ginger of commerce.--Drury's _Useful Plants of India_.

[397] The tallipot or fan-palm (_Corypha umbraculifera_) has a stem 60
or 70 feet high, crowned with enormous fan-shaped leaves, with 40 or 50
pairs of segments. These fronds, when dried, are very strong, and are
used for hats and umbrellas. The petiole is seven feet long, and the
blade six feet long and thirteen feet broad.

[398] The sumach-tree (_Cæsalpinia coriaria_) was introduced into India
from America, by Dr. Wallich, in 1842. The pods are much used for
tanning purposes.

[399] _Nil_, blue, and _giri_, a mountain; from the blue _Justitias_
which cover many of the hill-<DW72>s.

[400] _Report of Captain J. Ouchterlony, Superintendent of the
Neilgherry Survey in 1848._

[401] Ferdosi.

[402] Dr. Wight says that this plant might be collected in vast
quantities with little trouble or expense, and yields an excellent red
dye.

[403] This nettle is frequent all over the higher ranges of the
Neilgherries. The bark yields a fine strong fibre, which the
natives obtain by first boiling the whole plant, to deprive it
of its virulently-stinging properties, and then peeling the
stalks. The textile material thus obtained is of great delicacy
and strength.--Wight's _Spicelegium Neilgherense_. The fibre of
the Neilgherry nettle is worth 200_l._ a ton in England, and its
cultivation is likely to be a remunerative speculation.

[404] _Tribes inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills, from the rough Notes of
a German Missionary._ (Madras, 1856.)

[405] _Vocabulary of the Dialect spoken by the Todars of the Nilagiri
Mountains_, by the Rev. F. Metz, of the German Evangelical Mission.
(Madras, 1857.)

[406] _Antiquities of the Neilgherry Hills_, by Captain H. Congreve,
1847. Also, Caldwell's _Comparative Dravidian Grammar_. The German
missionaries believe that these cairns were the work of the Kurumbers,
another wild hill tribe.

[407] Todars pay two taxes to Government in return, on female buffaloes
and on grazing land, both small in amount.

[408] _Raggee_, however, is the least nourishing of all the cereals,
although it forms the chief part of the diet of the poorer classes in
Mysore and on the Neilgherries. In good seasons it yields 120-fold, but
it is very poor fare.

[409] In 1807 Buchanan mentioned the Badagas of the Neilgherries, as
gatherers of honey and wax in the hills south of Wynaad.--ii. p. 246
and p. 273.

[410] Literally "one stone village."

[411] The great Tamil scholar.

[412] _Hooli_, a tiger in the Badaga language; and _cul_, a rock or
stone in Tamil and Canarese. _Pili_ is a tiger in Tamil.

[413] Mr. Fowler, in his evidence before a Committee of the House of
Commons, gave 2500 to 4000 feet as the most favourable elevation for
the growth of coffee.

[414] There are 11,386 acres of land under coffee cultivation in
Wynaad, 7358 owned by Europeans, and 4028 by natives: of these 7224 are
liable to assessment, that is, the coffee-trees are in bearing.

[415] Besides a _jemmi_ fee on Government land, of eight annas an acre.

[416] Cleghorn's _Forests and Gardens of Southern India_, p. 16.

[417] Several species of _Chinchonæ_ flourish at altitudes from 8000
to over 10,000 feet above the sea, and within the region of frequent
frosts.

[418] Karsten.

[419] Smyth's _Journey from Lima to Para_, p. 115.

[420] Dr. A. Smith's _Peru as It Is_, ii. p. 57.

[421] Mr. Spruce's _Report_, p. 27.

[422] Called _Cinchona excelsa_ by Dr. Roxburgh, but excluded from the
list of Chinchonæ by Dr. Wallich, who gave the plant its present name.

[423] In the _Mahabharata_ the five Pandus, who contended with the
100 Kurus or vices, were--Yudisthira, the personification of modesty;
and his brothers Arjuna, or courage; Bhima, or strength; Nakal, or
beauty; and Sahadeva, or harmony. The conversation between Arjuna and
the incarnate deity Krishna, in the _Bhagavat Gita_, an episode in the
_Mahabharata_, is perhaps the finest passage in the whole range of
Sanscrit literature.

[424] _Cæsalpinia sappan_, a handsome tree, with curiously-shaped pods.
It yields a valuable dye.

[425] Called _jowaree_, in Bengalee; _jonna_, in Telugu; _yawanul_, in
Sanscrit; and _doora_, in Egypt.

[426] _Dolichos lablab_, a kind of pulse much eaten by the poor people.

[427] Cotton (_Gossypium Indicum_) is called _parati_, in Tamil;
_putti_, in Telugu; and _kurpas_, in Sanscrit.

[428] The former of these grains has already been mentioned. The
latter is _Panicum spicatum_, or spiked millet. It is called _bajree_,
in Guzeratee; and _kunghoo_, in Sanscrit; and is made into cakes and
porridge.

[429] "The black cotton soil seems to have arisen from the
decomposition of basalt and trap. When dry it is dark-,
and glistens from the presence of nearly pure grains of silica. It
possesses extraordinary attraction for water, and forms with it a most
tenacious mud."--_Dr. Forbes Watson._

[430] "The district of Coimbatore lies opposite the great gap in the
Peninsular chain between the southern <DW72>s of the Nilgiri mountains,
and the northern face of those of Travancor. Across this depression
the S.W. monsoon has almost a free passage to the eastward; but the
great elevation of the mountains on both sides, and the absence of any
considerable hills in the district, cause the monsoon wind to pass over
without depositing much of its moisture; and, though the climate is
humid, the rainfall is very trifling. During the N.E. monsoon the hills
of Salem intercept the moisture."--Hooker's _Flora Indica_, i. p. 132.

[431] Lindley's _Theory and Practice of Horticulture_, p. 487.

[432] "This is an assurance which no private tenant in any country, not
even in England, has obtained."--_East India Company's Memorandum_,
1858, p. 17.

[433] _Koda_, a shade or umbrella; and _karnal_, a jungle.

[434] Literally "Fruit-hills."

[435] Yet I missed the _Berberis Mahonia_, which in the Neilgherries is
not found beyond the limits of the S.W. monsoon.

[436] For short accounts of the Pulney hills, see--

1. _Memoir of the Varagherry Hills_, by Capt. B. S. Ward, _Madras
Journal of Literature and Science_, Oct. 1837, vol. vi. p. 280.

2. _Observations on the Pulney Mountains_, by Dr. Wight, _Madras
Journal_, v. p. 280.

3. _Report on the Pulneys_, by Lieut. R. H. Beddome, _Madras Journal_,
1857.

4. Sir Charles Trevelyan's _Official Tour in the South of India_.
He says, "It is an important fact that, as regards much the largest
portion of this tract, there is no claim to the soil which can
interfere with the establishment of the most absolute freehold."

[437] For a very interesting account of the Anamallay hills, see
_Forests and Gardens of South India_, p. 289-302, by Dr. Cleghorn,
Conservator of Forests in the Madras Presidency.

[438] Tamil is spoken throughout the Carnatic, in the southern part
of Travancore, and north part of Ceylon, by about 10,000,000 souls.
Telugu, the first of the Dravidian languages in euphonious sweetness,
is spoken in the Ceded districts, Kurnool, part of the Nizam's
territory, and part of Nagpore; Canarese in Canara and Mysore; and
Malayalam in Malabar. The whole Dravidian race numbers 30,000,000
souls. The Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam languages have each a system
of written characters peculiar to itself: the Canarese letters are
borrowed from the Telugu.

[439] Caldwell's _Comparative Dravidian Grammar_. Preface, p. v.

[440] _Lectures on the Science of Language_, p. 341.

[441] Adam Smith says that numerals are among the most abstract ideas
which the human mind is capable of forming. See a paper read before the
Ethnological Society in Feb. 1862, _On the numerals as evidence of the
progress of civilization_, by Mr. Crawford.

[442] Caldwell, p. 2.

[443] _Kolki_ of the Periplus; perhaps _Kilkhar_, on the Coromandel
coast, opposite Rameswaram.

[444] In Sanscrit.

[445] In 1802 a pot of Roman coins was dug up near Dharaparum, in
Coimbatore, of the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius, with _Cæsarea_
marked on them, the place where they were struck. Buchanan's _Travels_,
ii. p. 318.

One coin, a Roman _aureus_, has been found in a cairn on the Neilgherry
hills.--Captain H. Congreve's _Antiquities of the Neilgherry Hills_.

[446] The author of the Periplus of the Erythræan Sea mentions Nelcynda
(Neliceram), Paralia (Malabar), and Comari (Cape Comorin), as under
King Pandion (Regio Pandionis); and Dr. Vincent thinks that the Pandyan
Kings of Madura lost Malabar between the time of the author of the
Periplus and that of Ptolemy; because the latter does not allude to
Pandion until Cape Comorin is passed. Chira is the modern Coimbatore,
and the capital of the Chira state was at Caroor. The state of Chola is
the modern Tanjore. The word _Pandya_ is probably of Sanscrit origin,
but the masculine termination of _on_ is Tamil.

[447] "In Tamil few Brahmins have written anything worthy of
preservation: but the language has been cultivated and developed with
immense zeal and success by native Sudras."--_Caldwell_, p. 33. Tamil
literature, now extant, dates from the eighth or ninth century: p. 68.

[448] Dr. Ainslie, in his _Materia Medica_, gives a list of twenty
works by Aghastya, chiefly on medical subjects, some of them translated
from Sanscrit.

[449] For a list of kings of Madura, of the Pandyan and Naik dynasties,
see a paper in the Asiatic Society's Journals, by H. H. Wilson; from
MS. collections of the late Colonel Mackenzie.

[450] Tanjore was seized by the Mahrattas in 1675. The last Naik
sovereign of Madura was installed as a tributary of the Nawab of the
Carnatic.

[451] Namely the _Michelia Champacca_, a golden- flower
with a strong aromatic smell, also dedicated to Krishna; the
mango-flower-called _amra_; the _Pavonia odorata_ with a sweet flower,
called _bulla_; the _Strychnos potatorum_; and the _Mesua ferea_, a
guttiferous plant, with a flower white outside, and yellow inside the
tube, with a smell like sweet-briar.

[452] While on the subject of sacred Hindu plants, I may also
mention the _soma_ juice, so often alluded to in the Vedas, which
comes from a leafless asclepiad (_Sarcostemma viminale_) with white
flowers in terminal umbels, which appear during the rains, in the
Deccan: the holy _kusa_-grass (_Poa cynosuroides_), made into ropes
in the N.W. provinces: the peepul-tree, the banyan, the neem (_Melia
Azadyraclita_): the _Cratæva religiosa_, specially sacred to Siva:
the _Nerium odorum_, sacred to Vishnu and Siva: the _Cæsalpinia
pulcherrima_, sacred to Siva: the _Guettarda speciosa_, sacred to
Siva and Vishnu: the _Origanum marjoranum_, a labiate plant sacred
to Vishnu and Siva: the _Caryophyllum inophyllum_, sacred to Vishnu
and Siva: the _Pandanus odoratissimus_, sacred to Vishnu and Mariama,
but offensive to Siva: the _Artemisia astriaka_, sacred to Vishnu and
Siva: the _Ocimum sanctum_ or _toolsu_, a labiate plant with a white
flower, specially sacred to Vishnu and Krishna: and the _Chrisanthemum
Indicum_, a yellow flower, sacred to Vishnu and Siva.

[453] Mr. Caldwell considers that these lines do not allude to any of
the avaturs of the Hindu Deities, but that they are borrowed, in some
unexplained way, from Christianity.

[454] In Fergusson's _Architecture_, i. p. 105, the hall is represented
with an arched roof, in a sketch from Daniell's _Views of Hindostan_.

[455] There was a Portuguese Jesuit mission, with two Christian
churches, established at Madura during the reign of Tirumalla Naik. It
was founded by Robert de Nobilibus, a nephew of Cardinal Bellarmin, and
the missionaries wore the sacred thread, declaring themselves to be
Brahmins from the West.

[456] The Brahmins of course are of mixed blood, through intercourse
with Tamil women. Children are therefore Sudras, and are not Brahmins
until they are invested with the sacred thread.

[457] From _Parei_, a drum, as they act as drummers at funerals.

[458] Caldwell's _Comparative Dravidian Grammar_, Appendix, p. 491.

[459] _Proceedings of the South India Missionary Conference_, 1858, p.
283.

[460] _Reports connected with the duties of the Corps of Engineers of
the Madras Presidency_, 1846, vol. ii., p. 108. _Report of Captain
Bell_, p. 117.

[461] There was formerly a peculiar system of collecting land revenue
prevalent in Tanjore and part of Tinnevelly, called _Oolungoo_, by
which the Government demand was dependent on the current price of
grain. A standard grain assessment was fixed on each village, and
also a standard rate according to which the grain demand was to
be commuted into money; but if prices rose more than 10 per cent.
above the standard commutation rate, or fell more than 5 per cent.
below it, the Government, and not the cultivator, was to receive the
profit and to bear the loss. The advantage of the system was that
the Government participated in the benefit of high prices with the
cultivator, while the latter was relieved from loss when prices were
much depressed.--Mill's _India in 1858_, p. 119.

This Oolungoo system was introduced into Tanjore in 1825. It was
found that the system was fertile in fraud and corruption, especially
in connection with the determination of the annual price, and
with claims for alleged deficiency of produce. In July, 1859, the
Government resolved to abolish the Oolungoo system, and to substitute
a fixed money demand, similar to that which prevails in all other
districts. By 1860 this change had been completed, both in Tanjore
and Tinnevelly.--_Principal Measures of Sir Charles Trevelyan's
Administration at Madras_ (_Madras_, 1860), p. 55.

[462] The largest temple in Southern India, next to that of Madura.

[463] From _Kar_, black, and _ur_ a town, in Tamil.

[464] Hooker's _Flora Indica_, i. p. 124.

[465] Ibid., i. p. 133.

[466] Dr. Cleghorn states that the Seegoor forest has been much
exhausted by unscrupulous contractors. "It is important," he adds,
"that it should be allowed to recover, as it is the main source of
supply to Ootacamund for housebuilding purposes." Captain Morgan has
been placed in charge of it, and it is hoped that the sale of sandal
and jungle-wood will cover the expenses, while the young teak is coming
on for future supply, P. 36.

[467] The areca-palm requires a low moist situation, with rather
a sandy soil, either under the _bund_ of a tank, or in a position
otherwise favourable for irrigation. The seeds are put into holes six
feet apart, and the tree comes into bearing in about eight years. It
yields fruit for fifty years, and, when in full bearing, produces 1-1/2
lbs. of nuts.

[468] The Lingayets are members of the _Vira Saiva_ sect, or
worshippers of Siva as the _Linga_, a representation of which they
carry round their necks. The sect is numerous in the central and
southern parts of the peninsula. It is of modern origin, having been
founded by a Brahmin of Kalyan in the middle of the 12th century.
Its members deny the sanctity of the Brahmins and the authority of
the Vedas, recognize various divinities, and virtually abolish the
distinction of castes and the inferiority of women. They are divided
into _Aradhyas_, by birth Brahmins, and often well versed in Sanscrit
literature; _Jangamas_, who have a literature of their own, written in
Karnata and Telugu; and Bhaktas.--Wilson's _Indian Glossary_, p. 311.

[469] The whole population of Coorg is about 119,160.

[470] Namely, the _Amma Kodagas_ or Cauvery Brahmins; the _Kodagas_ or
chief tribe; the _Himbokulu_ or herdsmen; the _Heggade_ or cultivators;
the _Ari_ or carpenters; the _Badige_ or smiths; the _Kuruba_ or honey
gatherers; the _Kavati_ or jungle cultivators; the _Budiya_ or drawers
of toddy from the _Caryota urens_ palm; the _Meda_ or basket-makers;
the _Kaleya_ or farm-labourers; the _Holeya_ or slaves; and the
_Yerawa_ or slaves from Malabar, cheaper than cattle.

[471] _Coorg_, by Rev. H. Moegling. (Mangalore, 1855.)

[472] Observations by Dr. R. Baikie. _Madras Journal_, 1837, vi. p. 342.

[473]

  1860-61.

     _Revenue of Coorg._      |      _Expenditure._
                              |
  Land revenue        £14,727 | General expenditure     £10,211
  Excise and stamps     3,611 | Public works              1,153
  Income tax               98 |
  Miscellaneous         8,300 |
                       ------ |                          ------
                      £26,736 |                         £11,364
                       ------ |                          ------

[474] Seemann's _Popular History of the Palms_, p. 134.

[475] Moegling's _Coorg_, pp. 74-77; also Buchanan's _Travels_, ii. p.
511, and Drury's _Useful Plants of India_.

[476] Cleghorn's _Forests and Gardens of South India_, pp. 126-44,
where the official correspondence respecting _kumari_ will be found.

[477] _Cleghorn_, p. 11. Poon spars are also obtained from _Stercula
fœtida_, a tree with brownish flowers, emitting a most horrible smell.

[478] Hooker's _Flora Indica_, i. p. 126.

[479] The inhabitants of the Laccadive islands are Sooni Mussulmans.
They have some songs commemorating the introduction of Islam 500 years
ago, but do not know when the Beebee of Cannanore got possession.
Menakoy, the largest island, is a mass of coral 5-1/2 miles in
diameter. The land is less than a mile wide, the rest being a reef
encircling a large lagoon. Within a hundred yards of the reef there
is no bottom. The lagoon, which abounds in turtle and fish, has three
entrances from the sea, one of which has a depth of two fathoms. The
soil of the island is a coarse powdered coral, with a little vegetable
matter. It is quite flat, no part being destitute of vegetation; the
south thickly covered with cocoanut-trees and underwood, and the north
more sparingly. Rats abound, there are some cats, a few cows and goats,
large grey cranes, ducks occasionally, and the mosquitos are fearful.

The population is 2500; of these 116 are _Malikans_, the aristocracy
of the islands, who own vessels trading to Bengal. The _Koornakar_, or
agent of the Beebee, is generally a _Malikan_; he collects rents, and
superintends her traffic. The _Malikans_ have the exclusive privilege
of wearing shoes, live in large houses built round courtyards, and
possess English quadrants, charts, compasses, and telescopes. Below
them are 180 _Malummies_, or pilots, a rank obtained by merit.
Then 1107 _Klasies_, forming the bulk of the population, who are
small landed proprietors, go to sea for regular wages, but are very
independent. Then 583 _Maylacherries_, or tree-climbers for hire. The
head-men are elected by the people. The islanders have six or seven
vessels fit for the Bengal trade, and three or four for coasting. They
go with money to Goa and Mangalore for salt and rice, with coir to
Bengal, with cocoanuts to Galle, and bring Calcutta cloths home.--Mr.
Thomas's _Report_.

[480] The gross exports of cotton from the ports in the various
districts of the Madras Presidency in 1859-60 were as follows:--

  Vizagapatam              40,758 lbs.   Valued at          £783
  Gosavery                  3,000            "                36
  Krishna                 198,670            "             1,591
  Nellore                  21,075            "               230
  Fort St. George       7,960,368            "           128,648
  Tinnevelly           18,562,546            "           274,380
  Malabar               2,509,132            "            49,900
  N. and S. Canara     33,264,498            "           504,905
                      -----------                       --------
              Total    62,560,047            "           960,473
                      -----------                       --------

In 1860-61 the total export of cotton from Bombay amounted to
355,393,894 lbs.; of which 278,868,126 lbs. went to Great Britain.

In the same year the ports of Malabar and Canara sent 55,182,181 lbs.
to Bombay.

[481] In lat. 15° N. the western ghauts are not more than 1100 feet
above the sea.

[482] The trap formation of the northern part of the ghauts terminates
in 18° N., and is succeeded by laterite.

[483] _Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Bombay for
1838_, i. p. 92.

[484] Or _Gnidia eriocephala_ of Graham.--Dalzell's _Bombay Flora_, p.
221.

[485] Dalzell's _Bombay Flora_, p. 93.

[486] Ibid., p. 275.

[487] The following list of shrubs, trees, and ferns growing at
Mahabaleshwur has been kindly furnished by Mr. Dalzell.

LIST OF SHRUBS AND TREES GROWING ON THE HIGHEST GROUND AT MAHABALESHWUR.

  Eugenia Jambolanum.
  Memecylon tinctorium.
  Mæsa Indica.
  Pygeum Zeylanicum.
  Indigofera pulchella.
  Actinodaphne (2 sp.).
  Bradleia lanceolaria.
  Elæagnus Kologa.
  Osyris Wightiana.
  Lasiosiphon speciosus.
  Salix tetrasperma.
  Callicarpa cana.
  Strobilanthus asperrimus and callosus.
  Ligustrum Neilgherrense.
  Olea dioica and Roxburgiana.
  Ilex Wightiana.
  Maba nigrescens.
  Diospyros (3 sp.)
  Hopea spicata and racemosa.
  Embelia ribes and glandulifera.
  Notonia grandiflora.
  Artemisia parviflora and Indica.

CHINCHONACEÆ.

  Grumilea vaginans.
  Pavetta Indica.
  Ixora nigricans and parviflora.
  Canthium umbellatum.
  Vangueria edulis.
  Santia venulosa.
  Wendlandia Notoniana.
  Hymenodictyon obovatum and excelsum.
  Griffithia fragrans.
  Randia dumetorum.

FERNS AT MAHABALESHWUR.

  Lastrea densa and cochleata.
  Nephrodium molle.
  Sagenia hippocrepis.
  Athyrium filix fœmina.
  Asplenium planicaule and erectum.
  Diplazium esculentum.
  Pteris quadrialata, lucida, and aquilina.
  Campteria Rottleriana.
  Adiantum lunulatum.
  Cheilanthes farinosa.
  Polypodium quercifolium.
  Pleopeltis nuda.
  Pœcilopteris virens.
  Leptochilus lanceolatus.
  Acrostichum aureum.
  Lygodium scandens.
  Osmunda regalis.

[488] Every Hindu wears a sect-mark on his forehead. These marks are
thick daubs of white earth, red ochre, or sandal-wood, and there are
several forms according to the different sects. The grand distinctions
are between worshippers of Vishnu and Siva, the latter wearing his mark
horizontal, and the former perpendicular. Any conical or triangular
mark is a symbol of the _linga_. Two perpendicular lines and a dot
between, denotes a worshipper of Vishnu as Rama or Krishna, &c. &c.

[489] Cleghorn, p. 222. Dalzell, p. 86.

[490] Or _Euphorbia neriifolia_. Dalzell, p. 226.

[491] _Account of the village of Lony_, by T. Coats. _Transactions of
the Bombay Literary Society_, 1823, vol. iii. p. 172.

[492] The _cumboo_ of the Madras Presidency (_Holcus spicatus_).

[493] The _cholum_ of Madras (_Sorghum vulgare_).

[494] The natives of India are supplied, by Nature, with an endless
variety of condiments to season their food, many of them growing wild.
In the different parts of India I noticed as many as twenty-five
ingredients used in curries and porridges. The tender leaves and
legumes of the _agati_ (_Agati grandiflora_); oil from the _elloopa_
fruit (_Bassia longifolia_); young unripe gourds of the _Benincasa
cerifera_; the _papaw_ fruit; cocoanut-oil; the leaves of _Canthium
parviflorum_; capsicums; cinnamon; leaves of _Cocculus villosus_;
turmeric; cardamoms; _jhingo_ (_Luffa acutangula_); the fruit of
_Momordica charantia_; green fruit of _Morinda citrifolia_; the legumes
of the horse-radish-tree (_Hyperanthera Moringa_); the plantain; the
tender shoots of the lotus; the pickled seeds of a _Nymphæa_; the
leaves of _Premna latifolia_; berries of _Solanum verbascifolium_;
legumes of _Trigonella tetrapetala_; the white centre of the leaf culms
of lemon-grass; the _Lablab cultratus_; onions; the fruit of _Sapota
elingoides_ in the Neilgherries; the _moong_ (_Phaseolus mungo_); and
many other pulses.

[495] The ploughs, and the carts on wheels bringing home the food from
the fields, are mentioned in the 1st Ashtaka of the Rig Veda.

[496] Dr. Forbes Watson has made some very interesting calculations on
the amount of pulses rich in nitrogen, which must be added to rice and
other cereals comparatively poor in that constituent, in order that the
mixture may contain the same proportion of carbonous to nitrogenous
matter as is found in wheat, namely six to one. (See Table, next page.)

The cereals which I saw growing in the peninsula of India, besides
rice, maize, wheat, and barley, were:--

1. _Setaria Italica_, called _tennay_ in Tamil, and _samee_ by the
tribes on the Neilgherry hills, which is the Italian millet. The seeds
are used for cakes and porridge. In the Deccan it is only cultivated
in small quantities for the ryot's own use, and seldom for market. The
grain is very small.

2. _Panicum Miliaceum_, called _varagoo_ on the Pulney hills, and
_warree_ in the Deccan: a small millet, generally sown broadcast on the
sides of hills. In the Neilgherries it is used as an offering to the
gods, mixed with honey, and wrapped in plantain-leaves.

3. _Panicum pilosum_, or _badlee_, will grow in the worst soil, but is
not much cultivated, unless the rains happen to be too scanty for other
crops. The seed is very small, forming a long hairy spike.

4. _Cynosurus corocanus_, or _ragee_, is a very prolific grain, and
forms the staple food of the poorer classes in Mysore, and on the
<DW72>s of the ghauts. It requires a light good soil, from which the
water readily flows. In the Deccan they raise it in seed-beds, and
transplant when a few inches high. It is made into dark brown cakes.

5. _Holcus spicatus_, or spiked millet, called _cumboo_ in Madras, and
_bajree_ in the Deccan, where it is the chief food of the inhabitants,
and is considered very nutritious.

6. _Sorghum vulgare_, or great millet, called _cholum_ in Madras, and
_jowaree_ in the Deccan. It is made into cakes and porridge, and the
stalks, which contain sugar, are excellent fodder for cattle. It grows
six or eight feet high, and soon exhausts the soil, so that two crops
are never taken in succession.

7. _Sesamum Indicum_, or gingelee oil-plant, called _till_ in the
Deccan. Oil is expressed from the seeds, which are also toasted and
ground into meal for food. In the Deccan it is sown on gravelly or red
soil, and the plants grow three or four feet high. Presents of the
seed, made up in little boxes, are exchanged by friends on the day that
the sun takes its northerly declination; and they are also acceptable
as offerings to the god Mahadeo or Siva.

With these seven grains, the following pulses are usually raised:--

1. _Cicer arietinum_, or Bengal gram, the seeds of which are eaten, and
the oxalic acid, which exudes from all parts of the plant, is used as
vinegar for curries.

2. _Dolichos unifloris_, or horse gram, with grey seeds, used for
feeding horses and cattle.

3. _Dolichos sinensis_, or _lobia_, a twining annual, with large pale
violet flowers. The seeds are much used for food.

4. _Cajanus Indicus_, pigeon-pea, or _toor_. A shrub three to six feet
high, with yellow papilionaceous flowers. This is an excellent pulse,
and makes a good peas-pudding.

5. _Phaseolus mungo_, black gram, or _moong_. A nearly erect, hairy
annual, with greenish-yellow flowers. It is much cultivated, and is a
very important article of food.

6. _Phaseolus rostratus_, or _hullounda_, a twining plant, with large,
deep rose-purple, papilionaceous flowers, grown in Malabar, and other
parts of the peninsula.

7. Another kind of _moong_, called _ooreed_, with black and white seeds.

8. _Lablab cultratus_, a twining plant, with white, red, or purple
papilionaceous flowers; much cultivated in gardens, and used for food.

9. _Dolichos lablab_, or _bulla_, a twining plant of which there are
several varieties. The seeds are much eaten by the poorer classes when
rice is dear, and are reckoned a wholesome substantial food. Cattle are
very fond of the stalks. One variety, with white flowers, is cultivated
in gardens, supported on poles, forming arbours about the doors of
houses. The pods are eaten, but not the seeds.

[Illustration: Cereals.]

[497] Built in 1749 by the Peishwa Balajee Bajee Rao.

[498] "The cultivation of the chinchona-trees may succeed in localities
not appearing to offer exactly the same conditions regarding climate
and the general character of the country as are peculiar to their
native forests."--_Report by Dr. Brandis_ (Supplement to the _Calcutta
Gazette_, August 31, 1861), p. 467.

[499] "Mr. McIvor deserves great credit for the manner in which he
has laid out the garden. It is both a beautiful pleasure-ground, and
a valuable public institution for the improvement of indigenous, and
the naturalisation of foreign plants; and it has been formed from the
commencement by Mr. McIvor, with great industry and artistic skill, out
of a rude ravine."--_Minute by Sir Charles Trevelyan_, Feb. 24th, 1860.

[500] _Cleghorn_, p. 318.

[501] _Cleghorn_, p. 180 and 359.

[502] I have supplied Mr. McIvor with the following works on the
chinchona-plants:--

1. Weddell's _Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas_.

2. Howard's _Nueva Quinologia de Pavon_.

3. Poeppig's _Notes on the Chinchona Trees and Barks of Huanuco_.

4. Karsten's _Medicinal Chinchona Barks of New Granada_.

5. Markham's _Report of a Visit to the Chinchona Forests of Caravaya_.

6. Spruce's _Expedition to procure Seeds and Plants of C. succirubra_.

7. Pritchett's _Report on the Chinchona Plants of Huanuco_.

8. Cross's _Report on the C. Condaminea_.

9. Junghuhn's _Cultivation of the Quina-tree in Java_, 1859.

10. _Botanical Descriptions of Species of Chinchonæ now growing in
India._

[503] _Order of the Madras Government_, July 3rd, 1861, No. 1328.

[504] _Secretary to the Government of India, to the Secretary to the
Government of Fort St. George_, Dec. 9th, 1861.

[505] I sent a smaller parcel of C. Condaminea seeds in a letter, which
arrived first at Ootacamund, in the middle of February. Sixteen days
after sowing, twelve seeds were found to have germinated; and early in
March 138 seedlings were up, or 30 per cent. of the total number of
seeds sown. The large parcel of seeds arrived at Ootacamund on March
4th, and were sown at once. See p. 570.

[506] This is a variety of _C. nitida_.

[507] The chinchona-plantations were commenced in Java in December
1854. On the 31st of December, 1860, they had of

  _C. Calisaya_ plants:  5510 in the germinating sheds.
                         1806 planted out.
                         1030 living cuttings.
  _C. lancifolia_ plants:  38 in the nursery sheds.
                           42 planted out.
                           28 living cuttings.
                         ----
            Total        8454

Their other species is worthless.--Mr. Fraser's _Report_, p. 2.

[508] "It is the height of improvidence for the collectors to strip
off the bark from the roots, thus securing a worthless product at the
expense of any possible future renovation of the tree."--_Howard_.

[509] See chap. iii. p. 58.

[510] This is provided for in Java by placing a shed over the young
plants.

[511] Mr. McIvor informs me that the winter of 1861-62 was the coldest
he has experienced since he came to the Neilgherry hills, a period of
fourteen years.

[512] Spruce's _Report_, p. 23.

[513] Howard, _Nueva Quinologia_, Nos. 2 and 7.

[514] Cross's _Report_, p. 5.

[515] See also Weddell's _Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas_, p. 32.

[516] Mr. Howard thinks that the alkaloids are formed in the barks,
by a reaction between ammonia and chincho-tannic acid. The alkaloids
are pure in the bark of the branches, somewhat less so in that of
the trunk, and most impure in that of the roots.--_Microscopic
Observations_, p. 2.

[517] Howard.

[518] Spruce's _Report_, p. 83.

[519] Ibid., p. 27. See also _Karsten_, p. 20.

[520] _Karsten_, p. 20.

[521] Spruce's _Report_, p. 23.

[522] Lindley's _Theory and Practice of Horticulture_, p. 70.

[523] In quills from large branches there is more alkaloid than in the
smaller branches: in the bark of the trunk the proportion is still
further increased, but this diminishes in quantity and deteriorates in
quality in the bark of the roots.--_Howard._

[524] Mr. McIvor reports the thickness of the bark of some of the young
plants at Ootacamund to be nearly a quarter of an inch. The bark of
quills of _C. Calisaya_ given me by Mr. Howard, as samples from a lot
on sale, is only one-eighth of an inch in thickness.

[525] The only reason why the value of quill-bark is much less than
that of _tabla_-bark is that the former is usually mixed with spurious
barks. Otherwise the value of quill-bark would only be about threepence
per lb. less than _tabla_-bark.

[526] Cinnamon is one of the plants which, like the chinchonæ, are
cultivated solely for their bark. Mr. Thwaites, the Director of the
Botanical Gardens in Ceylon, has supplied me with a few particulars
respecting the cultivation of cinnamon. The young shoots are peeled
twice during the year, at a particular period of growth, when the bark
comes off readily. This time is known at once by the peelers, from the
appearance of the young shoots, and the process of peeling is then a
very expeditious one, with practised hands. Young plants are raised
from seeds in nurseries, and planted six feet apart, when they are a
foot or eighteen inches long. They will commonly bear peeling in three
or four years after being transplanted, if in a favourable locality
and properly attended to. The roots are earthed up frequently, to keep
the soil loose and free from weeds. In 1858, 750,744 lbs. of cinnamon
were exported from Ceylon, worth 37,537_l._ There are forty-nine
cinnamon-gardens in the island.

[527] Mr. McIvor observes that the leaves of all the chinchona-plants
at Ootacamund are exceedingly bitter to the taste, and he suggests that
these leaves, which naturally fall off the trees in succession, may
be turned to account by being imported to England as a substitute for
hops in the manufacture of beer. They would no doubt prove a healthy
ingredient in beer, but it remains to be proved whether their bitter
would preserve it as well as hops.

[528] "Attacked with violent tertian ague, and without any medicine,
in Pampa-yacu, I made use of the green bark direct from the
chinchona-tree, which I peeled from one growing a few hundred steps
distant; and although, in consequence of unavoidable exposure in the
rainy season, and the very great exhaustion after eight months' wild
forest life, the disease returned on three occasions, it was each time
conquered within a week. The very unpleasant additional effect, in this
case, of the green bark, of producing obstinate obstructions, demands
consideration. It might be well obviated by a plentiful addition of
Epsom salts to the infusion. After the first dose of this fresh and
unadulterated remedy, a sensation of general well-being is felt, and
after recovery, on the first excursion, one approaches the healing
trees with warm feelings of gratitude, whose beautiful reddish blossoms
appear in such quantities in January, and their round crowns can be
distinguished at a distance."--Poeppig, _Reise_, ii. p. 223.

[529] _Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas_, p. 13.

[530] "From the unfitness of the 'Grey Bark' species for the production
of quinine, comparatively small good will be likely to result from
their naturalisation."--Howard, _Introduction_, p. xiii.

[531] _Quinine and Antiperiodics in their Therapeutic Relations_, by
Dr. J. Macpherson (Calcutta, 1856), p. 27.

[532] There are 477 coffee estates in Ceylon; and in 1858-59 the
quantity of coffee exported was 601,595 cwts., valued at 1,488,019_l._
In the same year the revenue was 654,961_l._, expenditure 594,382_l._,
value of imports 3,444,889_l._, and of exports 2,328,790_l._

[533] See Mr. Thwaites's _Report_, dated Peradenia, Sept. 28th, 1861.

[534] I have taken the following brief notices of Sikkim, Bhotan, and
the Khassya hills, from Dr. Hooker's _Flora Indica_, and _Himalayan
Journals_.

[535] _Flora Indica_, i., p. 178.

[536] _Ibid._, i., p. 175.

[537] _Flora Indica_, i., p. 233. _Himalayan Journals_, ii., p. 277.

[538] _Report_ by Dr. Brandis, _Supplement to the Calcutta Gazette_,
August 31st, 1861, No. 55, p. 467.

[539] _Quinine and Antiperiodics in their Therapeutic Relations_, by
Dr. J. Macpherson (Calcutta, 1856).

[540] _Macpherson_, p. 2.

        *        *        *        *        *

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

        Compound nouns, names, and hyphenated words
        are not consistent in the original text.

        Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical
        errors.

        Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.

        Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.

        The caret symbol (^) has been used as in M^r.

        All footnotes have been moved to the end of the text
        and renumbered.

        Where possible tables have been included though at some
        aesthetic cost. Those tables simply too large to fit in
        this text version have been marked as illustrations.

        *        *        *        *        *








End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Travels in Peru and India, by 
Clements Robert Markham

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