Chap. XVI J. JOUKNEY CONTINUED. 279 



raising obstacles to my further progress until the plants 

 had been killed by the frost. I was in despair, and medi- 

 tated 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 

 JMartel 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 retm'n 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 fi-om Sandia to Yilque. 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. jMartel 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. 



In the morning of May 17th I left Saudia on my own 

 trusty mule, driving two others with the plants before me, 

 and accompanied by their owner on foot, an Indian named 

 Angelino Paco, a middle-aged respectable-looking man, who 

 had been one of the Alcaldes of Sandia in 1 859. Mr. Weii- 

 started for Arequipa on the same day, by way of Crucero. 

 Passing through Cuyo-cu}o without stoppuig, I continued to 



