XVI 
RESIDENCE AT TARAPOTO 
59 
win the heart of and actually marry the daughter 
of the oldest Portuguese colonist, Senhor Brandao, 
who (as he himself has told me) considered him- 
self of the same race as our ancient Dukes of 
Suffolk. Arrived at Para, the resident merchants 
and druggists, deceived by the appearance of the 
bark, and probably at that epoch unable to test it 
chemically, offered to buy the whole cargo at a 
price that would have amply remunerated the 
adventurers, who, however, now thoroughly per- 
suaded of the genuineness of their bark, and be- 
lieving they could obtain a far higher price for it in 
England, determined to proceed with it to Liver- 
pool. They accordingly freighted a vessel of 
Singlehurst's, partly on borrowed money and 
partly on credit of the proceeds of the sale they 
hoped to effect. It must have been a sorrowful 
moment for them when their bark, having been 
analysed at Liverpool by competent judges, was 
pronounced to be utterly worthless, and not Peru- 
vian Bark at all. When ulterior analysis only 
confirmed the sentence, nothing was left for them 
but to abandon their hoped-for source of wealth 
and return to their own country, which they were 
only enabled to do by the beneficence of the mer- 
chants of Liverpool. Mr. Singlehurst had the 
unsaleable bark left on his hands, in lieu of £400 
due to him on freight from Para, and for expenses 
incurred in England. 
At Lamas I was shown the spurious bark-tree, 
still growing in tolerable abundance, and recognised 
it as one I had gathered in flower and fruit on hill- 
sides at Tarapoto. It is the Co7idammea corym- 
bosa of Decandolle, and belongs to the same family 
