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 slopes 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 slopes 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
slopes and in the valleys and ravines of the mountains, surrounded
by the most majestic scenery, never descending below an elevation of
2500, and ascending as high as 9000 feet above the sea. Within these
limits their usual companions are tree ferns, melastomaceæ, arborescent
passion-flowers, and allied genera of chinchonaceous plants. Below them
are the forests abounding in palms and bamboos, above their highest
limits are a few lowly Alpine shrubs. But within this wide zone grow
many species of chinchonæ, each within its own narrower belt as regards
elevation above the sea, some yielding the inestimable bark, and others
commercially worthless. And the species of chinchonæ, in their native
forests, are not only divided from each other by zones as regards
height above the sea, but also by parallels of latitude. In Bolivia
and Caravaya, for instance, the valuable _C. Calisaya_ abounds, but it
is never found nearer the equator than 12° S. Between that parallel
and 10° S. the forests are for the most part occupied by worthless
species, while in Northern Peru the important grey barks of commerce
are found. In each of these latitudinal regions the different species
are again divided by belts of altitude. Yet this confinement within
zones of latitude and altitude is not a constant rule; for several of
the hardier and stronger species have a wider range; while the more
sensitive, and these are usually the most precious kinds, are close
prisoners within their allotted zones, and never pass more than a
hundred yards beyond them. All the species are, of course, affected by
local circumstances, which more or less modify the positions of their
zones, as regards altitude.
Thus, to give a geographical summary of the chinchona region, beginning
from the south, it commences in the Bolivian province of Cochabamba in
19° S., passes through the yungus of La Paz, Larecaja, Caupolican, and
Munecas, into the Peruvian province of Caravaya; thence through the
Peruvian forests, on the eastern slopes of the Andes, of Marcapata,
Paucartambo, Santa Anna, Guanta, and Uchubamba, to Huanuco and
Huamalies, where the grey bark is found. It then continues through
Jaen, to the forests near Loxa and Cuenca, and on the western slopes of
Chimborazo. It begins again in latitude 1° 51´ N. at Almaguer, passes
through the province of Popayan, and along the slopes of the Andes of
Quindiu, until it reaches its extreme northern limit on the wooded
heights of Merida and Santa Martha.
Humboldt remarks that, beyond these limits, the Silla de Caraccas, and
other mountains in the province of Cumana, possess a suitable altitude
and climate for the growth of chinchona-trees, as well as some parts
of Mexico, yet that they have never been found either in Cumana or
Mexico; and he suggests that this may be accounted for by the breaks
which take place in Venezuela on the one hand, and on the isthmus of
Panama on the other, where tracts of country of low elevation intervene
between the lofty mountains of Cumana and Mexico and the chinchona
region of the main Andes. In these low districts the chinchona-trees
may have encountered obstacles which prevented their propagation to
the northward: otherwise we might expect to find them in the beautiful
Mexican woods of Jalapa, whither the soil and climate, and their usual
companions the tree ferns and melastomaceæ, would seem to invite
them.[22]
Be this how it may, the chinchona-plant has never been found in any
part of the world beyond the limits already described.
The chinchonas, when in good soil and under other favourable
circumstances, become large forest trees; on higher elevations, and
when crowded, and growing in rocky ground, they frequently run up to
great heights without a branch; and at the upper limit of their zone
they become mere shrubs. The leaves are of a great variety of shapes
and sizes, but, in most of the finest species, they are lanceolate,
with a shining surface of bright green, traversed by crimson veins,
and petioles of the same colour. The flowers are very small, but hang
in clustering panicles, like lilacs, generally of a deep roseate
colour, paler near the stalk, dark crimson within the tube, with white
curly hairs bordering the laciniæ of the corolla. The flowers of _C.
micrantha_ are entirely white. They send forth a delicious fragrance
which scents the air in their vicinity.
The earliest botanists gave the name of Chinchona to a vast number of
allied genera, which have since been separated, and grouped under other
names.[23] There are three characteristics by which a true chinchona
may invariably be known; the presence of curly hairs bordering the
laciniæ of the corolla, the peculiar mode of dehiscence of the capsule
from below upwards, and the little pits at the axils of the veins
on the under sides of the leaves. These characters distinguish the
chinchona from many trees which grow with it, and which might at
first sight be taken for the same genus. The fact, established by the
investigations of chemists, that none of these allied genera contain
any of the medicinal alkaloids, has confirmed the propriety of their
expulsion from the chinchona genus by botanists; and Dr. Weddell gives
a list of seventy-three plants, once received as Chinchonæ, which are
now more properly classed under allied genera, such as _Cosmibuena_,
_Cascarilla_, _Exostemma_, _Remijia_, _Ladenbergia_, _Lasionema_,
&c.[24]
Thus thinned out and reduced in numbers, the list of species of
Chinchonæ has been established by Dr. Weddell at nineteen, and two
doubtful;[25] but even the classification of this eminent authority,
published in 1849, already requires much alteration and revision. For
instance: Dr. Weddell gives no place to the "red-bark" species, the
richest in alkaloids, and one of the most important, which, through
the recent investigations of Mr. Spruce, will now probably be admitted
by botanists as a distinct species, the _C. succirubra_ (Pavon). A new
grey bark now introduced into India as _C. Peruviana_ (Howard), and
the _C. Pahudiana_ (Howard), a worthless kind, cultivated by the Dutch
in Java, will also be received as additional species. It seems likely
also that the _C. Condaminea_ requires to be divided into two or three
distinct species; while the _C. Boliviana_ (Weddell) will sink into a
mere variety of the _C. Calisaya_.
The commercially valuable species, however, comprise but a small
proportion of the whole; and, as all these have now been introduced
into India, they alone deserve our attention. They are as follows:--
_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 slopes 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]