268 PLATEAU OF CAXAMAECA. 



either, as Sebastian Badus asserts, to Alcala de Henares in 

 1632, or to Madrid in 1640, on the arrival of the wife of 

 the Yiceroy, the Countess of Chinchon ( 2 ), who had been 

 cured of intermittent fever at Lima, accompanied by her 

 physician, Juan del Vego. The trees which yield the finest 

 quality of Quina de Loxa are found from 8 to 12 miles 

 to the south east of the town, in the mountains of Uritusinga, 

 Yillonaco, and Rumisitana, growing on. mica-slate and gneiss, 

 at very moderate elevations above the level of the sea, being 

 between 5400 and 7200 (5755 and 7673 English) feet, 

 heights about equal respectively to those of the Hospice on 

 the Grimsel and the Pass of the great St. Bernard. The 

 proper boundaries of the Quina-woods in this quarter are 

 the small rivers Zamora and Cachiyacu. 



The tree is cut down in its first flowering season, or in 

 the fourth or seventh year of its age, according as it has 

 sprung from a vigorous root-shoot, or from a seed : we 

 heard with astonishment that at the period of my journey, 

 according to official computations, the collectors of Quina 

 (Cascarilleros and Cazadores de Quina, Quina Hunters), 

 only brought in 110 'hundred weight of the Bark of the 

 Cinchona condaminea annually. None of this precious 

 store found its way at that time into commerce ; the whole 

 was sent from the port of Payta on the Pacific, round Cape 

 Horn to Cadiz, for the use of the Spanish Court. In order 

 to furnish this small quantity of 11000 Spanish pounds, 

 eight or nine hundred trees were cut down every year. The 

 older and thicker stems have become more and more scarce ; 



