THE STORY OF PLANTATION RUBBER 55 



be detained under plea for instruction from the Central 

 Government at Rio, if not interdicted altogether. I 

 had heard of the difficulties encountered in the Clements 

 Markham introduction of the Cliinchonas in getting 

 them out from the Montafia of Peru. Any such delay 

 would have rendered my precious freight quite value- 

 less and useless. But again fortune favoured. I had 

 ' a friend at court ' in the person of Consul Green. 

 He, quite entering into the spirit of the thing, went 



himself with me on a special call on the Barao do S , 



' chief of the Alf andiga, ' and backed me up as I repre- 

 sented ' to his Excellency my difficulty and anxiety, 

 being in charge of, and having on board a ship anchored 

 out in the stream, exceedingly delicate botanical 

 specimens specially designated for delivery to Her 

 Britannic Majesty's own Royal Gardens of Kew. 

 Even while doing myself the honour of thus calling on 

 his Excellency, I had given orders to the captain of the 

 ship to keep up steam, having ventured to trust that 

 his Excellency would see his way to furnish me with 

 immediate dispatch.' An interview most polite, full 

 of mutual compliments in best Portuguese manner, 

 enabled us to get under way as soon as Murray had got 

 the dingey hauled aboard. 



" Now fairly away, I could breathe freely, and soon 

 had the hatches off with the open-work. crates slung 

 up on lines fore and aft in the air, and free of danger 

 from ship's rats. Again blessed with fine weather, I 

 was able to keep the hatches off all the way over. 



" I got Murray to put me ashore at Havre, and there 

 posted over to Kew, saw Sir Joseph Hooker, so as to 

 enable him to dispatch a night goods-train to meet the 

 ship Amazonas on arrival at the Liverpool docks. 



