286 



PLANTS EMBAEKED. 



Chap. XVII. 



by tlie 3rcl all the plants were established in the Wardian 

 cases by Mr. Weir. But the difBculties of getting the plants 

 out of the country were not entirely ended by my escape from 

 Martel and the Juntas Municipales of the interior. The 

 Superintendent of the custom-house of Islay declared it to 

 be illegal to export cascarilla-plants, and refused to allow 

 them to be shipped without an express order from the 

 Minister of Finance and Commerce at Lima. He had 

 probably received intelligence respecting the contents of the 

 cases from Vilque, where all news centres at the time of the 

 fair. This obliged me to go to Lima to obtain the necessary 

 order from Colonel Salcedo, the Minister of Finance, which, 

 after much difficulty, I succeeded in doing, and retm-ned with 

 it to Islay on June 23rd.® 



Meanwhile, since the plants had been established in the 

 Wardian cases, they had begun to bud and throw out young 

 leaves, which seemed to prove that they had quite recovered 

 from then- journey across the arctic climate of the Andes. 

 In the evening of the 23rd the cases were hoisted into a 

 launch, ready to go on board the steamer on the following 

 morning ; and during the night attempts were made to 

 bribe the man in charge to bore holes and kill the plants by 

 pom'ing in boiling water, but Avithout success. On the fol- 

 lowing day they were safely lodged on board the steamer 

 bound for Panama. 



'' " Minister io de Hacienda y Comercio. 

 " Lima, Junio 20 de 1860. 



" En el cxpediente relativa a la me- 

 dicla tomada por el Administrador de 

 la Aduana de Islay, impediendo la ex- 

 traccion de cierto umuero de plantas 

 de cascarilla, ha recaido con fecha de 

 hoy, el siguiente decreto. 



" Visto este cxpediente, y atendiendo 

 a que no esta prohibida por reglamento 

 de Comercio, la extraccion de plantas 

 de cascariUa, y a que de impedirse su 

 exportacion, con detriniento de la h- 

 bertad comercial que las leyes de la 



Repubhca, y ese reglamento jirotejan, 

 no se conseguiria en manera alguna 

 el objeto que el Administrador de la 

 Aduana se ha propuesto al impedir el 

 embarque de varias plantas de esa 

 especie, se desaprueba dicha prohibi- 

 cion, sin que por este se entiende que 

 el Gobierno deja de apreciar el celo y 

 patriotismo que revela en el preindi- 

 cado Administrador la enunciada me- 

 dida. 



" Dios guarda a V. S., 



" Juan Jose Salcedo." 



