against it, and the President, General Belzu, put an end to its existence in March 1849. Free trade, with a duty of twenty dollars the quintal, was then established during one year; but in 1850 exclusive privileges were again granted to Messrs. Aramayo Brothers and Co., who were to pay the Government 142,000 dollars a year for the right of exporting 7000 quintals of bark annually, to be purchased of the cascarilleros, the tabla or trunk bark at sixty dollars the quintal, and the canuto or quill bark at thirty to thirty-six dollars the quintal. The Pinto company had only paid eighteen to twenty-two dollars the quintal for tabla, and eight to ten dollars for canuto bark. The favourable conditions thus offered to cascarilleros induced so great a number of persons to undertake the business, that at the end of the first year more than 20,000 quintals of bark arrived at La Paz-that is to say, more than twice as much as the company had agreed for, and more than the Pinto company had exported in five years. The Government then issued a decree to prevent the smuggling of bark, and another that no bark should be cut except for the company: but these measures caused much discontent, and in 1851 the Congress voted that the Executive had exceeded its powers in making these arrangements with the Aramayo company, and declared them to be null and void. The Aramayo company purchased 14,000 quintals of the bark, and agreed to take the same quantity during the two following years, paying only a third of the price in ready money; but a new company, formed under the name of Pedro Blaye and Co., engaged to purchase all the bark that was for sale, both at La Paz and Cochabamba, for ready money. It was evident that one or the other of these companies must break, and finally that of Blaye fell. The Government then determined to export the bark which remained in store on its own account, paying the same price as had been agreed on by the company. These two companies lasted for two years, during which time the Bolivian forests yielded 3,000,000 lbs. of bark. Such was the result of the high prices which followed the fall of the Pinto monopoly; but it was the rich contractors, and not the poor bark-collectors, who derived benefit from the change. In 1851 Government prohibited the cutting of bark entirely, from the 1st of January, 1852, to the 1st of January, 1854. In 1858 a decree was issued to regulate the transition of the system of monopoly to that of free-trade in bark, which caused an improvement in the prices in European markets; and in November, 1859, Dr. Linares, then President of Bolivia, declared the right to cut bark in the forests to be free, and reduced the duty 25 per cent. on the current prices, to be fixed at the beginning of each year. This is the law which now regulates the bark trade in Bolivia, and, after a course of short-sighted meddling legislation, extending over twenty years, in 1850 it still brought 142,000 dollars annually into the public treasury, being a fifteenth part of the whole revenue of the Republic. 8 For exportation the bark is wrapped in fresh bullockhides, having been previously sewn up in thick cotton bags containing 155 lbs. each. These hide packages are called serons, a mule-load being 285 lbs., and the transport to the coast costing about ten dollars for each mule-load. It is to the persevering energy and great talent of that distinguished French botanist Dr. Weddell that we owe our knowledge of the chinchona regions of Bolivia and Southern Peru, and especially of the inestimable quinine-yielding species which he identified as the C. Calisaya. Dr. Weddell accompanied the scientific expedition of the Count de Castel nau, which was sent out by Louis Philippe to South America, and, after crossing the vast empire of Brazil, entered Bolivia by the country of the Chiquitos in August, 1845. It was Dr. Weddell's chief object to examine the chinchona region of this country, and his first step was to proceed to Tarija, to ascertain the extreme southern limit of the chinchonatrees, which he discovered in 19° S. lat. He named the species C. Australis. Dr. Weddell then commenced a thorough exploration of the Bolivian chinchona forests, making his way over the most difficult country, from Cochabamba, through Ayopaya, Enquisivi, and the yungus9 of La Paz; where the species of chinchona continued to multiply under his eye. In Enquisivi he first met with and studied the C. Calisaya, which he named and described, collecting much information respecting the trade, and the methods of collecting bark. In 1847 he entered the province of Capaulican, descending the river Tipuani, where he was attacked by fever, and ascending the Mapiri. At Apollobamba, the centre of the most ancient bark-collecting district, he found that the surrounding forests were quite cleared of chinchona-trees, and that it was necessary to seek for them at a distance of ten or twelve days' journey from any inhabited place. In June 1847 Dr. Weddell entered the Peruvian province of Caravaya, examined the chinchona forests of the valleys of Sandia (San Juan del Oro) and Tambopata, and concluded his investigations by a visit to the lovely ravine of Santa Anna, near Cuzco. Dr. Weddell was accompanied in his visit to the valleys of Santa Anna by M. Delondre, a manufacturer of quinine at Havre, who, after contemplating the project of paying a personal visit to the chinchona forests for twenty years, had at length set out, landed at Islay in July, 1847, and proceeded 9 Yuncu is a tropical valley in Quichua, hence yungus, a Spanish corruption of the same word. by way of Arequipa to Cuzco. M. Delondre appears to have employed a contractor to supply him with bark, who failed in his engagements, and of whom the French quinine manufacturer bitterly complains as a second Dousterswivel.1 MM. Weddell and Delondre finally left the chinchona forests in September, 1847, and set out for the coast of Peru. Dr. Weddell's valuable monograph on the chinchona genus, ' Histoire naturelle des Quinquinas,' the most important work that has yet appeared on the subject, was published at Paris in 1849. In 1851 Dr. Weddell undertook a second voyage to South America, and in 1852 he entered the Bolivian chinchona region of Tipuani by way of Sorata. In descending the eastern slopes of the Andes he describes the vegetation as taking new forms at every mile of the descent. The undergrowth was formed of Melastomacea with violet-coloured flowers (Chatogastra), myrtles, Gaultherias, and Andromedas; lower down there were many superb species of Thibaudias; and, where the great forests succeed to the smaller growth of the more elevated region, the predominant trees were Escallonias, arborescent Eupatorias, Bocconias, and a fruit-bearing Papilionacea with a scarlet corolla. He encountered the first forest chinchona-trees at an elevation of 7138 feet, being the C. ovata var. a vulgaris. Descending still, he came to paccay-trees (Mimosa Inga) in flower, and met with the first plant of the shrubby variety of C. Calisaya, on an open grassy ridge or pajonal, at an elevation of 4800 feet. Dr. Weddell descended the river Tipuani to Guanay, a mission of Lecos Indians, and ascended the Coroico in a canoe made of the wood of a species of Bombax. The forests bordering on the river Coroico abounded in many species of palms, chiefly Maximilianas and Iriarteas, the latter a singular kind with a trunk supported on long aërial roots. There were 1 Quinologie, par M. A. Delondre. Paris, 1851. also many trees of C. micrantha on the banks of the Coroico, a species of chinchona, the peculiarity of which is its fondness for the bottoms of valleys and banks of rivers, while most of the others prefer elevated ridges or slopes of the mountains. With it were growing trees of the beautiful Cascarilla magnifolia, an allied genus with deliciously fragrant flowers. The cascarilleros of Bolivia lead a hard and dangerous life. They only value the C. Calisaya, the other species being for them carhua-carhua, a name given to all the inferior kinds. Those who carry the bark on their shoulders from the interior of the forests receive fifteen dollars for every quintal, and they also have to carry all their provisions and covering for the night. If by any accident they are lost, or their provisions are destroyed, they die of hunger. Dr. Weddell, on one occasion, while ascending the Coroico, landed with the intention of passing the night on a beach well shaded by trees. Here he found the hut of a cascarillero, and near it a man stretched out on the ground in the agonies of death. He was nearly naked, and covered with myriads of insects, whose stings had hastened his end. His face was so swollen as to be wholly unrecognisable, and his limbs were in a frightful state. On the leaves which formed the roof of the hut were the remains of this unfortunate man's clothes, a straw hat and some rags, with a knife, and an earthen pot containing the remains of his last meal, a little maize, and two or three chuñus. Such is the end to which their hazardous occupation exposes the bark-collectors-death in the midst of the forests, far from all friends-a death without help, and without consolation. Dr. Weddell returned to La Paz by ascending the Coroico, and the results of his second visit to the chinchona forests appeared in an entertaining book of travels. To this able 2 Voyage dans le Nord de Bolivie, et dans les partes voisines de Pérou, par H. A. Weddell. Paris, 1853. Dr. Weddell is now engaged in the publi 2 cation of a work on the plants of the more elevated parts of the Andes, entitled Chloris Andina. |