THE CINCHONA-TREES.
In about two weeks from their arrival in the valley, the house, with a
stable for the horse and mule, was completed, and all the necessary
furniture as well. Had you entered the establishment about this time,
you would have observed many odd articles and implements, most of them
quite new. You would have seen boxes woven out of palm leaves, and bags
made of the fibrous, cloth-like spathe of the "bussu," filled with the
soft, silky cotton of the bombax, to be afterwards spun and woven for
shirts and dresses.
You would have seen baskets of various shapes and sizes woven out of the
rind of the leaf-stalks of a singular palm called "Iú," which has no
stem, but only leaves of ten feet long, growing directly out of the
ground. You would have seen chairs made of split palms and bamboo, and a
good-sized table, upon which, at meal-time, might be noticed a
table-cloth, not of diaper, but, what served equally well, the broad
smooth silken leaves of the plantain. There were cups, too, and plates,
and bowls, and dishes, and bottles, of the light gourd-shell
(_Crescentia cujete_), some of the bottles holding useful liquids, and
corked with the elastic pith of a palm. Other vessels of a boat-shape
might be noticed.
There were large wooden vessels pointed at the ends like little canoes.
They were nothing more than the spathes or flower-sheaths of one of the
largest of palms, the "_Inaga_." This noble tree rises to the height of
one hundred feet, and carries feathery fronds of more than fifty feet in
length. The spathes are so large that they are used by the Indian women
for cradles and baskets; and their wood is so hard, that hunters often
cook meat in them, hanging them over the fire when filled with water!
Many other singular implements might have been noticed in the new home.
One, a cylinder of what appeared to be wood, covered thickly with
spinous points, hung against the wall. That was a grater, used for the
manioc, or yucca roots; and it was a grater of nature's own making, for
it was nothing more than a piece of one of the air roots of the
"pashiuba" palm, already described. Another curious object hung near
this last. It was a sort of conical bag, woven out of palm-fibre, with a
loop at the bottom, through which loop a strong pole was passed, that
acted as a lever when the article was in use. This wicker-work bag was
the "tipiti." Its use was to compress the grated pulp of the manioc
roots, so as to separate the juice from it, and thus make "cassava." The
roots of the yucca, or manioc plant, grow in bunches like potatoes.
Some of them are oblong--the length of a man's arm--and more than twenty
pounds in weight. When required for use, the bark is scraped off, and
they are grated down. They are then put into the tipiti, already
mentioned; and the bag is hung up to a strong pin, while the lever is
passed through the loop at the bottom. Its short end goes under a firm
notch, and then some one usually sits upon the long end until the pulp
is squeezed sufficiently dry. The bag is so formed that its extension,
by the force of the lever, causes its sides to close upon the pulp, and
thus press out the juice. The pulp is next dried in an oven, and becomes
the famous "cassava" or "farinha," which, throughout the greater part of
South America, is the only bread that is used. The juice, of course,
runs through the wicker-work of the _tipiti_ into a vessel below, and
there produces a sediment, which is the well-known "tapioca."
There are two kinds of the yucca or manioc-root,--the _yucca dulce_, and
_yucca amarga_--the sweet and bitter. One may be eaten raw without
danger. The other, which very closely resembles it, if eaten raw, would
produce almost instant death, as its juice is one of the deadliest of
vegetable poisons. Even while it is dripping from the tipiti into the
vessel placed below, great care is always taken lest children or other
animals should drink of it.
There were no beds--such things are hardly to be found in any part of
tropical America--at least not in the low hot countries. To sleep in a
bed in these climates is far from being pleasant. The sleeper would be
at the mercy of a thousand crawling things,--insects and reptiles.
Hammocks, or "redes," as they are called, take the place of bedsteads;
and five hammocks, of different dimensions, could be seen about the new
house. Some were strung up within, others in the porch in front, for, in
building his house, Don Pablo had fashioned it so that the roof
protruded in front, and formed a shaded verandah--a pleasant place in
which to enjoy the evenings. Guapo had made the hammocks, having woven
the cords out of the epidermis of the leaf of a noble palm, called
"tucum."
Their home being now sufficiently comfortable, Don Pablo began to turn
his attention to the object for which he had settled on that spot. He
had already examined the cinchona-trees, and saw that they were of the
finest species. They were, in fact, the same which have since become
celebrated as producing the "Cuzconin," and known as _Cascarilla de
Cuzco_ (Cuzco bark).
Of the Peruvian-bark trees there are many species,--between twenty and
thirty. Most of these are true cinchona-trees, but there are also many
kinds of the genus _Exostemma_, whose bark is collected as a febrifuge,
and passes in commerce under the name of _Peruvian bark_. All these are
of different qualities and value. Some are utterly worthless, and, like
many other kinds of "goods," form a sad commentary on the honesty of
commerce.
The species, which grew on the sides of the adjacent hills, Don Pablo
recognised as one of the most valuable. It was a nearly-allied species
to the tree of Loxa, which produces the best bark. It was a tall slender
tree--when full grown, rising to the height of eighty feet; but there
were some of every age and size. Its leaves were five inches long and
about half that breadth, of a reddish colour, and with a glistening
surface, which rendered them easily distinguished from the foliage of
the other trees. Now it is a fortunate circumstance that the
Peruvian-bark trees differ from all others in the colour of their
leaves.
Were this not the case, "bark-hunting" would be a very troublesome
operation. The labour of finding the trees would not be repaid with
double the price obtained for the bark. You may be thinking, my young
friend, that a "cascarillero," or bark-hunter, has nothing to do but
find a wood of these trees; and then the trouble of searching is over,
and nothing remains but to go to work and fell them. So it would be, did
the cinchona-trees grow together in large numbers, but they do not. Only
a few--sometimes only a single tree--will be found in one place; and I
may here remark that the same is true of most of the trees of the Great
Montaña of South America. This is a curious fact, because it is a
different arrangement from that made by nature in the forests of North
America.
There a whole country will be covered with timber of a single, or at
most two or three species; whereas, in South America, the forests are
composed of an endless variety. Hence it has been found difficult to
establish saw-mills in these forests, as no one timber can be
conveniently furnished in sufficient quantity to make it worth while.
Some of the palms, as the great _morichi_, form an exception to this
rule. These are found in vast _palmares_, or palm-woods, extending over
large tracts of country, and monopolising the soil to themselves.
Don Pablo, having spent the whole of a day in examining the cinchonas,
returned home quite satisfied with them, both as regarded their quantity
and value. He saw, from a high tree which he had climbed, "_manchas_,"
or spots of the glistening reddish leaves, nearly an acre in breadth.
This was a fortune in itself. Could he only collect 100,000 lbs. of this
bark, and convey it down stream to the mouth of the Amazon, it would
there yield him the handsome sum of 40,000 or 50,000 dollars! How long
before he could accomplish this task he had not yet calculated; but he
resolved to set about it at once.
[Illustration: GUAPO AND THE 'NIMBLE PETERS.']
A large house had been already constructed for storing the bark, and in
the dry hot climate of the high Montaña, where they now were, Don Pablo
knew it could be dried in the woods, where it was stripped from the
trees.