Publisher's Synopsis
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 Chinchonae 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.
