306 TRANSPLANTATION OF THE PERUVIAN BARK 



of experience in travelling, particularly in overcoming the difficulties 

 which so often ai'ise out of the nature of a tropical soil. 



Prom his sound judgment and caution there was every reason to be- 

 lieve him particularly fit for this mission ; it is not to be wondered at, 

 then, that he immediately attracted the Minister's attention who pro- 

 posed him to the King for this important service. Expectation was 

 not disappointed, as the result has shown, for the object of Mr. Hass- 

 karl's mission to South America has been attained. 



A plan was prepared and proposed, though he was left to his own 

 judgment and prudence, and was only charged not to confine himself 

 to the Calisaya Quinquina plant, but to collect as many as possible of 

 the other sorts of Quinquina, which are found at various heights above 

 the level of the sea. He was to go from' Southampton to Chagres, 

 and so on over Panama to Guayaquil and Loxa, whence he was to jour- 

 ney inland. To save time, preference was given to the steam- voyage 

 to Panama, above the longer one of doubling Cape Horn, which would 

 have caused a delay of three months at least before the traveller could 

 reach the places from which he would have to direct his course towards 

 the interior of South America. 



On the 4th of December, 1852, Mr. Hasskarl left the Netherlands 

 for Southampton, which he quitted on the 17th of December, on board 

 the steamboat La Plata, arriving at St. Thomas on the 1st of January, 

 1853 ; on the 12th, at Aspinwall, by Chagres; and at Panama on the 

 14th, just three days too late to continue his voyage by the steamboat 

 that touches at the ports on the west coast of South America. 



Being thus detained, he on the 25th continued his route to Payta, 

 to go thence to Guayaquil. With the knowledge however that the ramy 

 season would render his journey fruitless, he changed his plan and 

 went to Lima. 



In the beginning of May he ascended the first, and then the second 

 Cordilleras, thence he descended into the lower part of Peru. Here 

 it was that he saw, for the first time since leaving Panama, a luxuriaut 

 vegetation, but which however was far from being comparable with that 

 of the last-mentioned country. 



To what difficulties such journeys are subject, may be generally 

 known from the accounts of travellers in the pursuit of natural history ; 

 but it may not be uninteresting to the reader to be informed of Mr. 

 Haaskarl's experience in that respect. 



