QUININE 147 



before, and where no roads of any kind existed, and where 

 creepers and tangled undergrowth tripped them up at every 

 step. Often their route lay along the edge of forest-clad 

 precipices which overhung foaming dashing torrents hundreds 

 of feet below. But after all their labours in these pathless 

 wilds worse troubles awaited them. 



In describing their journey Sir Clements says : ' At Acco- 

 kunka I met a red-faced man, about 50 years of age.' It was 

 this red-faced man who stirred up strife and was the cause of 

 all their difficulties. 



There was no law in Bolivia against collecting Chinchona 

 plants, and, moreover, the explorers had received special 

 permission to make their collections, yet now orders came to 

 arrest them, and it was only by using the utmost precaution 

 and by dint of the most strenuous endeavours that they 

 managed to reach the coast by another route. But they had 

 their plants safe. They were carefully packed in specially 

 made cases and conveyed across the Isthmus of Panama. 

 During the night, while the cases containing the plants were 

 awaiting shipment, an attempt was made to kill them by 

 pouring boiling water upon them. 



They reached Southampton in a flourishing condition, but, 

 sad to say, after all this care, and toil and danger the heat of 

 the Red Sea in summer proved too much for them, and they 

 died on their way to India. However, the seeds survived, 

 and these and other seeds and plants from the other regions 

 explored were safely landed in India. Plantations were 

 formed on the Nilgiri Hills, where ' the warmth is not heat, 

 and the coolness is not cold ', and from here other districts 

 received seeds and plants, so that now there are flourishing 

 plantations in Sikkim, and Burmah, and Ceylon, as well as 

 in Southern India. 



The tree is also cultivated in Jamaica and South Africa. 



The result of these enterprises is that whereas in India 

 quinine used to be sold at 20s. an ounce, and was, therefore, 

 quite beyond the means of the poor fever-stricken native, now 



K2 



