INTRODUCTION OF CHINCHONA-PLANTS INTO INDIA.
PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS.
THE distribution of valuable products of the vegetable kingdom amongst
the nations of the earth--their introduction from countries where they
are indigenous into distant lands with suitable soils and climates--is
one of the greatest benefits that civilization has conferred upon
mankind. Such measures ensure immediate material increase of comfort
and profit, while their effects are more durable than the proudest
monuments of engineering skill. With all their shortcomings, the
Spaniards can point to vast plains covered with wheat and barley,
to valleys waving with sugar-cane, and to hill-slopes enriched by
vineyards and coffee-plantations, as the fruits of their conquest of
South America. On the other hand, India owes to America the aloes which
line the roads in Mysore, the delicious anonas, the arnotto-tree,
the sumach, the capsicums so extensively used in native curries, the
pimento, the papaw, the cassava which now forms the staple food of the
people of Travancore, the potato, tobacco, Indian corn, pine-apples,
American cotton, and lastly the chinchona: while the slopes of the
Himalayas are enriched by tea-plantations, and the hills of Southern
India are covered with rows of coffee-trees.
It is by thus adding to the sources of Indian wealth that England
will best discharge the immense responsibility she has incurred by
the conquest of India, so far as the material interests of that vast
empire are concerned. Thus too will she leave behind her by far the
most durable monument of the benefits conferred by her rule. The
canals and other works of the Moguls were in ruins before the English
occupied the country; but the melons which the Emperor Baber, the
founder of the Mogul dynasty, introduced into India, and which caused
him to shed tears while thinking of his far-off mountain-home, still
flourish round Delhi and Agra. Centuries after the Ganges canal has
become a ruin, and the great Vehar reservoir a dry valley, the people
of India will probably have cause to bless the healing effects of the
fever-dispelling chinchona-trees, which will still be found on their
southern mountains.
The introduction of the chinchona-plant into India was surrounded by
difficulties from which all other undertakings of a similar nature
have been free. When tea was introduced into the Himalayan districts,
it had been a cultivated plant in China for many ages, and experienced
Chinese cultivators came with it. But the chinchona had never been
cultivated; since the discovery of its value in 1638 it had remained
a wild forest tree; all information concerning it was solely derived
from the observations of European travellers who had penetrated into
the virgin forests; and the only guidance for cultivators in India is
to be found in the reports of these travellers, and in the experience
slowly acquired by careful and intelligent trials.[115] Great as these
difficulties were, they were probably exceeded by the perils and risks
of every description which must be encountered in collecting plants and
seeds in South America, and conveying them in safety to India.
But the vast importance of the introduction of these plants into
our Indian empire, and the inestimable benefits which would thus be
conferred on the millions who inhabit the fever-haunted plains and
jungles, were commensurate with the difficulties of the undertaking.
The subject had occupied the attention of the Indian Government from
time to time, ever since Dr. Royle in 1839 advocated the introduction
of quinine-yielding trees into India, in his work on Himalayan Botany;
but it was not until twenty years afterwards, in 1859, that any
adequate steps were taken to effect this most desirable end, and to
bring an antidote within the reach of the fever-stricken people of
India, while adding a new source of wealth to the resources of that
great dependency.
The proposal to introduce the chinchona-plants into India was
first made officially in a despatch from the Governor-General,
dated March 27th, 1852. It was referred to the late Dr. Royle, the
reporter on Indian products to the East India Company, who drew up
an able memorandum on the subject, dated June, 1852:--"To the Indian
Government," he said, "the home supply of a drug which already costs
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 slopes of the Andes, navigable rivers flowing through
them to the Pacific Ocean, and there being, therefore, no necessity of
conveying the plants over the snowy wilds of the cordilleras. I also
requested Mr. Spruce to make an arrangement for procuring seeds of the
valuable species from the forests of Loxa.
For the forests of the Peruvian province of Huanuco I procured the
services of Mr. Pritchett, a gentleman who had passed some years in
South America, and who was well acquainted with that particular region.
He was to collect plants and seeds of the species yielding grey bark.
I myself undertook to explore the forests either of Caravaya or
Bolivia, and to collect the _C. Calisaya_ and other important species
of that more distant region. This part of the enterprise was surrounded
by peculiar difficulties, arising from the jealousy of the people,
habitual with the Bolivians, and recently excited in the minds of the
Peruvians of Caravaya by the proceedings of M. Hasskarl, the Dutch
agent; while the forests are far more inaccessible, and the journey to
the coast is longer and more formidable.
It was the opinion of Sir William Hooker, who gave me the advantage
of his valuable advice, that a good practical working gardener should
accompany both Mr. Spruce and myself, and he considered this an
imperative requirement, in order that they might attend to the packing
of the plants in the forests, their establishment in Wardian cases, and
have charge of them during the voyage to India. I appointed Mr. Cross,
at his recommendation, to act under the orders of Mr. Spruce; and Mr.
Weir, who was recommended to me by Mr. Veitch, accompanied me to the
chinchona forests of Caravaya.
In employing several agents in districts widely removed from each
other, my chief object was to effect the introduction of as many
valuable species as possible; but I also reflected on the extreme
difficulty of the undertaking, and the overwhelming chances against
success which confronted a single-handed attempt. In such wild
unfrequented regions all is uncertainty. Along the dizzy paths of the
Andes a single false step may dash the fairest hopes, disappoint the
most careful calculations. Add to these dangers the probability of
obstacles raised by the natives, and it will at once be seen that three
independent expeditions materially increased the chances of ultimate
success.
By the end of 1859 I had completed all the preliminary arrangements;
and there was at length a prospect of securing the successful
introduction into India of a plant the inestimable value of which had
been felt, and the importance of its cultivation discussed, for twenty
years. On December 17th, 1859, we sailed from England, and, crossing
the isthmus of Panama, arrived in Lima, the capital of Peru, on January
26th, 1860. Thirty Wardian cases for the plants had been sent out round
Cape Horn, and I forwarded fifteen to Guayaquil for Mr. Spruce's
collection, and fifteen to the port of Islay in Southern Peru, to await
my return from the chinchona forests. After a month's residence in Lima
we embarked on board one of the mail-steamers for the southward, and on
the 2nd of March, 1860, we landed at Islay, which is more conveniently
situated than any other port for a journey to the chinchona forests of
Southern Peru or Bolivia.