560 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1113 



This expedition did not succeed in discov- 

 ering the fate of Sir John Franklin and his 

 crews, but it was one of twenty or more under- 

 takings which between 1847 and 1857 went 

 into the unknown north and turned the map 

 of the Arctic circle from a blank into a well- 

 charted region of desolate land and ice. 



In 1852 Markham retired from the navy in 

 order to travel and went to Peru, chiefly to 

 study traces of the Incas. Reaching Lima 

 from Panama, he rode on horseback along the 

 coast south as far as Nasca, noting the won- 

 derful Inca system of irrigation (the main 

 trenches four feet high with roof and sides of 

 stones) and then turned inland up to Ayacu- 

 cho, and by OUantaytambo to Cuzco. Prom 

 there he went on by Paucartambo down the 

 eastern side of the Andes and followed the 

 course of the river Tono as far as its junction 

 with the Purus. The Purus at that time was 

 unexplored and there are other great blanks 

 in the map made by Markham in 1859 for his 

 Hakluyt edition of the early Spanish expedi- 

 tions to the valley of the Amazons. In the 

 course of this trip he learned Quichua, being 

 at places where every one spoke that language, 

 and he copied and studied the ancient native 

 drama of OUanta. Everywhere he got on well 

 with the people, receiving hospitality in pri- 

 vate houses, traveling with no luggage except 

 saddlebags and making light of difficulties in 

 the fashion of those days. He returned by 

 sea from Islay to Lima. The pleasantly 

 written " Cuzco and Lima " (1856) contains 

 much general information and a chapter on 

 Quichua grammar, a subject of study for the 

 rest of his life. In the Introductory to the 

 grammar and vocabidary published in 1864 he 

 wrote : 



Ever since I was a midshipman on the Pacific 

 station the land of the Ineas has had for me an 

 indescribable charm. I greedily devoured the pages 

 of Preseott while anchored under the shadow of the 

 mighty Cordilleras; and the story of the conquest 

 and of the gentle children of the Sun, made an 

 impression on me then^ which time will never 

 efface. 



He goes on to say that, unable himself to 

 continue the study of Quichua in the Andes, 



he hopes that his work may help others to 

 make a start where he was obliged to leave off. 

 In 1871 he published " OUanta," from a good 

 copy possessed by P. Justiniani (a descendant 

 of the Incas), with an English translation. 

 A revised translation forms the appendix to 

 "Incas of Peru" (1910). He was assured by 

 the natives in 1853 that the drama was un- 

 doubtedly composed before the Spaniards 

 came: 



No European language can describe an action 

 with anything like the precision and accuracy com- 

 bined with brevity, of which Quichua is capable 

 and the wonderfully abundant vocabulary produces 

 great variety in composition. 



This trip to Peru led to a second, for he had 

 seen the shrub of the Peruvian bark and its 

 use for malarial fever, and urged its introduc- 

 tion into India.^ The Secretary of State for 

 India consequently charged him with this im- 

 portant mission and in " Travels in Peru and 

 India " (1862), he described his successful 

 efforts. The Ecuador forest region he en- 

 trusted to R. Spruce,- who searched the west- 

 ern slopes of Chimborazo, took 1,000 cuttings 

 and made a large number grow. He also col- 

 lected seeds after carefully watching them 

 ripen. Pritchett was told to collect in Huan- 

 uco and Markham himself reached Islay in 

 March, 1860, and went first to Puno in the 

 hope of interesting the Bolivian government 

 but found opposition to any plan that might 

 interfere with the local monopoly. He there- 

 fore went down to the Montana over Peruvian 

 ground by the Tambopata valley to Sandia in 

 Caravaya, with Weir, a collector. There he 

 found three desirable species, 0. micrantha 

 growing nearest the river, 0. Calisaya in a 

 zone above and G. ovala in a third zone, six 

 to eight hundred feet above the river. He 

 brought away 529 plants of six species, chiefly 

 C. Calisaya and C. morada, retujned safely by 

 Lima and Panama to England and thence 

 conveyed his precious cargo to India and the 



1 It was then excessively costly, as the collectors 

 cut down the trees to get the bark. 



2 See Spruce's "Diary," edited by Alfred Wal- 

 lace, 1908. 



