Establishment of the plants in Wardian cases.
On May 11th Mr. Weir completed the packing of the plants, and we were preparing for the journey up into the pajonales on the following day, having previously fixed on the Calisaya-trees from which we intended to obtain a supply of seeds in August, when Gironda received an ominous letter from Don José Mariano Bobadilla, the Alcalde Municipal of Quiaca, ordering him to prevent me from taking away a single plant; to arrest both myself and the person who had acted as my guide; and to send us to Quiaca.[345] I found that an outcry against my proceedings had been raised by Don Manuel Martel, the red-faced man whom I had met on the road to Sandia, and that the people of Sandia and Quiaca had been excited by assertions that the exportation of cascarilla-seeds would prove the ruin of themselves and their descendants. Gironda, though friendly and hospitable, feared that the finger of scorn would be pointed at him, as the man who had allowed the stranger to injure his countrymen. He wanted to throw away all the plants, except a few which we might take without observation, and, if we had not kept constant guard over them, he would have carried his views into effect without consulting us. I saw that in an immediate retreat was the only hope of saving the plants; and I explained to Gironda that his views were incorrect, and that, if necessary, we were prepared to defend our property by force.
At the same time I addressed a letter to Don José Bobadilla, stating that his interference was an unwarrantable step which I would not tolerate; and that, as I understood the provisions of the Constitution of 1856, the functions of the Juntas Municipales were purely consultative and legislative, conferring no executive powers whatever, concluding with an expression of my sense of his patriotic zeal, and of regret that it should be accompanied by such misguided and lamentable ignorance of the true interests of his country. Nevertheless, I felt the imperative necessity of immediate flight, especially as I obtained information from an Indian of Quiaca that Martel's son and his party, who had brought the letter, were only the vanguard of a body of mestizos, who were coming down the valley to seize me, and destroy my collection of chinchona-plants.
Early in the morning of May 12th we took leave of our kind and hospitable old friend Gironda, without whose assistance we should have been exposed to much suffering from want of food; and of the honest forester Martinez. I expressed my sincere regret to Gironda that any misunderstanding should have arisen at the close of our acquaintance, and promised Martinez to obtain guarantees that he should suffer no molestation on account of the services he had rendered to me. The most melancholy part of travelling is the parting with friends, never to meet again.
After a laborious ascent through the forest we found Martel's son and his party stationed on the verge of the pajonal. They were evidently waiting for us, but did not attempt to impede our passage, and a display of my revolver, although it may have been very efficacious, was perfectly harmless, as the powder was quite damp. The young Martel asked the Indians in Quichua how they dared to carry the plants, and called after them that they would be seized at Sandia; but he was civil to me, and we continued our journey peaceably, though full of apprehensions at the turn affairs might take on our arrival at Sandia.
We had to cross the same country as we had traversed in our journey to the Tambopata valley; and, in skirting along the verge of a ridge, near the Marun-kunka, the cargo-mule fell headlong down a precipice of twenty feet, into a dense mass of trees and underwood. We could see the poor beast's legs kicking in the air, but it was long before we could reach her, and more than two hours before a circuitous path could be cut and cleared away to extricate her. We encamped on the pajonal, and next day, after a very laborious walk of twelve hours, we reached the Ypara tambo, in the valley of Sandia, Mr. Weir having collected twenty plants of Calisaya Josephiana on the way. On May 14th we continued our journey towards Sandia, and collected fifty-five more plants of Calisaya Josephiana on the pajonal of Paccay-samana, chiefly seedlings.
The water of the numerous cascades is very refreshing, and as beautiful in its limpid transparency as when it dashes down the rocks in dazzling streams of purest white. We were now too in the land of luscious oranges and chirimoyas. The commonest bird in the valley of Sandia is the cuchu, a kind of large crow, with a shrill weak caw. It has a long yellow bill, greenish-brown body and wings, rump-feathers red, and a long bright yellow tail, with a black line down the centre. The cuchus walk about the fields eating the young maize, and perch upon the adjoining trees. Humming-birds are numerous, and very beautiful; I saw also a little cream-coloured hawk, and lordly eagles were soaring over the ravine, having their eyries in the inaccessible parts of the lofty cliffs. Approaching Sandia in the early morning of May 15th, I came upon many groups of Indians, with their wives and daughters, who had slept in the road, on their way to and from their coca-harvests. They were boiling their breakfasts of potatoes over little fires of dry sticks, which crackled pleasantly. Grand precipices towered up on either side of the valley, and in the bottom, where the bright river was murmuring on its way, there was a hut in a field of maize, surrounded by the drooping crimson flowers of the "love-lies-bleeding," with a girl in a bright blue woollen dress sitting at the door.
On arriving at Sandia I went through the ceremony of paying off my Indians, and taking leave; and Vilca, Ccuri, and Quispi returned to their homes. I formed a very high opinion of the Indian character from my experience with these my fellow-labourers. Suspicious they certainly were at times, and with good reason after the treatment they have usually met with from white men, but willing, hard-working, intelligent, good-humoured, always ready to help each other, quick in forming the encampments, conversing quietly and without noise round the camp-fires, and always kind to animals; altogether very efficient and companionable people.
I found things at Sandia in a very alarming state; most of the people had been excited by letters from Quiaca to prevent me from continuing my journey with the chinchona-plants, and a sort of league had been made with other Juntas Municipales to protect their interests, and prevent foreigners from injuring them. The tactics which were adopted would have succeeded in their object, but for a great piece of good luck. I was prevented from hiring mules, except to go to Crucero, where I knew Martel was stationed, with the intention of raising obstacles to my further progress until the plants had been killed by the frost. I was in despair, and meditated setting out on foot, with all the four bundles of plants on my own mule, when Don Manuel Mena told me confidentially that, if I would give him my gun, he would get an Indian to supply beasts, and accompany me to Vilque, on the road to Arequipa. I willingly agreed to this bargain, and sent Mr. Weir and Pablo to Crucero, so as to throw Martel off the scent, while I hurried the plants down to the coast by the most unfrequented line of country.
An alarm had, however, been spread through all the villages bordering on the chinchona forests, both in Caravaya and Bolivia, and I ascertained that effectual measures had been taken to prevent my return for seeds in August. Martel had also written to the towns and villages between Crucero and Arequipa, to put obstacles in the way of my retreat, so that I found it necessary to avoid entering any town or village, and to shape a direct compass-course over the cordilleras from Sandia to Vilque. I also reluctantly abandoned my intention of returning to collect seeds in August, and made the best arrangements in my power to obtain a supply, through a reliable agent, in the ensuing year. Martel was a mischievous meddling fellow, but the members of the Juntas Municipales may have been influenced by misguided zeal for the interests of their country, and for the preservation of a strict monopoly in a trade which has ceased to exist, for no bark is now-exported from Caravaya.