Travels in Peru and India

THE introduction of quinine-yielding Chinchona-trees into India, andthe cultivation of the "Peruvian Bark" in our Eastern possessions,where that inestimable febrifuge is almost a necessary of life, hasfor some years engaged the attention of the Indian Government. In 1859the author of the present work was intrusted, by the Secretary ofState for India in Council, with the duty of superintending all thenecessary arrangements for the collection of Chinchona-plants and seedsof the species esteemed in commerce, in South America, and for theirintroduction into India. This important measure has now been crownedwith complete success, and it is the object of the following pagesto relate the previous history of the Chinchona-plant; to describethe forests in South America where the most valuable species grow; torecord the labours of those who were engaged in exploring them; and togive an account of all the proceedings connected with the cultivationof Chinchona-plants in India.In the performance of this service it was a part of my duty to explorethe forests of the Peruvian province of Caravaya, which has never yetbeen described by any English traveller; and the first part of the workis occupied by an account of the various species of Chinchona-plantsand their previous history, a narrative of my travels in Peru, and arecord of the labours of the agents whom I employed to collect plantsand seeds of the various species of Chinchonæ in other parts of SouthAmerica.The traveller who ascends to the lofty plateau of the Cordillerascannot fail to be deeply interested in the former history andmelancholy fate of the Peruvian Indians; and some account of theircondition under Spanish colonial rule, and of the insurrection ofTupac Amaru, the last of the Incas, will, I trust, not be unwelcome.I have devoted three chapters to these subjects, which will form ashort digression on our way to the Chinchona forests. I am indebtedto the late General Miller, and to Dr. Vigil, the learned Director ofthe National Library at Lima, for much new and very curious materialthrowing light on that period of Spanish colonial history whichincludes the great rebellion of the Peruvian Indians in 1780.