1952] 



PLANT HUNTING IN ECUADOR 



3 



to the "jumping off* place of an expedition, it was Giler who would arrange for 

 the hire of the vehicle. He had a way of getting them at local prices and also an 

 uncanny ability to pick one in sufficient repair to take us to our destination with- 

 out undue delays because of recurrent break-down, no mean feat in itself for to me 

 each looked as if it scarcely could limp another mile. 



In many ways the three were a remarkable crew. They were individualists to 

 the core and with very different personalities, each equally capable of working 

 alone. Yet when they worked as a group the special talents of each were so com- 

 plementary that they functioned as an effective whole. No j'efe de expedicion 

 could ask for more. 



There is little point here in detailing the various comings and goings of our 

 hunt for Cinchona. There were trips by muleback into the eastern Cordillera— 

 across the Cordillera de Zamora and into the valley of the Rio Zamora, where my 

 first contact with the Jivaros was made. It was an eerie experience. I was alone, 

 ahead of the party and just off the trail examining some minute Peperomias. There 

 was a chattering ahead and I saw a small band coming toward me, naked except 

 for their loin cloths, their spears, blow-guns, and quivers of poisoned darts. They 

 spied me in the shadows at a distance of about 30 paces. They stopped, seemingly 

 in mid-step, and almost before one's eyes silently melted into the jungle on either 

 side of the trail, completely disappearing from sight. Although I could not see them 

 I knew they were watching me. I therefore went on with my work as if I had not 

 seen them, for long ago I learned that such people will tolerate a person collect- 

 ing plants. It is a thing they understand, for they also collect plants, for food, for 

 medicine, and for their arts. We were soon to make friends with this group. 



There were trips across several ranges of the Andes to Zaruma and beyond. 

 At Zaruma in the Province of EI Oro they still mine for gold from the same mother 

 lode from which the ancient Incan miners took the metal. There were trips by Jeep 

 between Loja and Cuenca, using the still incomplete Pan-American Highway. 

 There were trips when one crossed through the Paso Cajanuma, perhaps the de 

 facto type locality of the genus Cinchona; a few sprout trees of corteza fina, the 

 real C. officinalis^ still may be encountered there. At least tradition has it that 

 the first European to be cured of intermittent fever by the use of cascarilla bark 

 was in the tiny village of Malacatos, which nestles at the foot of this rugged 

 mountain pass in the southern part of the Province of Loja. 



THE CUTUCU 



Once, while I was working on the escarpment east of Cuenca, the weather 

 was sufficiently clear so that one could see further toward the Amazonian low- 

 lands. Ahead in the blue mists there loomed yet another but lower range. It was 

 the Cordillera Cutucii. A hasty instrumentation indicated that its upper slopes 

 and crest ought to be at about the correct altitude to sustain certain types of 

 high-yielding barks for which we were especially searching. As a result permis- 

 sion was granted to organize a special expedition to investigate this little known 

 area. The local governmental officials in Cuenca washed their hands of the af- 

 fair. It was in the Oriente, outside their jurisdiction. Later, at Mendez, the com- 

 mandante of the local outpost garrison shrugged his shoulders and wished me 

 luck. There was reason for this indifference. There is gold to be panned in 

 the rivers of the region. Only several years previous the Jivaros had become tired 

 of the gold miners in their territory, of their insolence, their disregard for per- 

 sonal rights, their many attempts to violate the Jivaro women, and the murder of 

 the men when such actions were protested. The Jivaros planned it carefully and 



