626 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1895. 
When thus equip'd with Tea they do resale ; 
When that is drank they haste across the dale : 1 
The loving husband by his wife's desire. 
Quirk sets the smutty kettle (in the lire ; 
The water hoils, the cups ami saucers elat, 
The cheerhig tea again revives their chat i 
They all repair In lied when tea IB done, 
liaeh one next morning rinhig with the sun. 
The Hop Garden t A Voefn, by Martie, Wadhurst. 
No fleeces wave in torrid climes. 
Which verdure boast of trees and shrubs alone, 
Shrubs aroma tir, can fee wild, or the,.. 
Nutmeg or cinnamon, or fiery clove, 
Unapt to feed the fleece. The f ood of wool 
Is grass or herbage soft, that ever blooms 
Tn tenlp'rate air, in the delicious downs 
Of Albion, on the banks of all her streams. 
The Fleece : A Poem, by John Dyer. 17o7. 
Book I. 1. 211. 
IN TROPICAL LANDS. 
Recent Thavels to the Sources of the Amazon-, 
the West Indian Islands, and Ceylon. By 
Arthur Sinclair. Ab :rdeen : D. Wyllie and Son. 
In this work, a neat, handsome volume of sonic 
200 pages, a well-known Aberdeen gentleman, 
Mr. Arthur Sinclair, gives an account of his ad- i 
ventures and observations when engaged a few I 
years ago, in company with two other gentiemen j 
of experience as planters, in an expedition to 
the inland region of Peru, for the purpose of \ 
examining and reporting upon the capabilities 
of the country for the growth of coffee, cocoa, 
and other tropical products. Mr. Sinclair and | 
his fellow-commissioners, in the course of their | 
journey to and from Kngland, visited some of | 
the West Indian islands— in particular Grenada 
and Trinidad — with a view to the observation 
Of facts bearing on the subject of their inquiry ; j 
and to what they saw in these natural gardens 
of the West a long and very interesting 
Chapter is devoted. To the account of the- 
expedition thus given a supplementary chapter ia 
adtled on Ceylon — where our author himself 
bus spent between thirty and forty years as a i 
planter — sketching some of the leading points of I 
interest for the general reader in connection with I 
that famous island, with which so many in Aber- I 
deen and the north-east of Scotland have business 
or personal relations. Mr. Sinclair has from the 
material thus indicated, produced a bright and 
interesting book, The narrative is less connected 
than it might be, but it abounds in incidents of a 
novel and frequently striking character. The ex- 
periences of the travellers in crossing the Andes 
and in exploring on the lower grounds of the 
Upper Amazon were at times exciting enough, 
although the country visited is supposed to be 
under civilised rule ; and there was much to in- j 
terest them alike in the people and their habits ' 
of life, and in the topography and botany of the 
country. Mr. Sinclair shows himself, in his ac- 
count of their wanderings, to be possessed both of 
an observant eye and good powers of descrip- 
tion. As the objects of the expedition related 
mainly to the natural products of the country ex- 
• plored, it was the botanical character and economic 
qualities of the plants of the region that chiefly 
engaged attention ; and on these heads the ex- 
tensive and valuable experience of our author as 
a planter in tropical lands is shown to much 
advantage in the abundant notes lie gives on the 
vegetation in general, and the more important 
economic plants in particular, that came under 
notice. 
Mr. Sinclaii and his companions crossed the 
Isthmus of Panama, and went inland from Lima, 
the capital of Peru, They got as far as Chicla, 
a distance of 87 mile* — but at the enormous ele- 
vation for the distance of I2J215 feet — by railway; 
but for the rest of their journeying* they had 
to depend on mules and other primitive means 
of conveyance. Crossing tlx- watershed of the 
Andes, at an elevation of I". 000 feet, they d.» 
eended on the eastern side until t hey wen- dow n 
at as low an elevation as from 2S00TO looofeet, 
ami here, on the 1'erene, amain tributary uf the 
Amazon, they made the ■election of land' for the 
purpose of the contemplated settlement. 1'etiae 
nig their steps until well up the Andean 
slope, they made another descent, this time 
down to Huanueo. on the main bead stream of 
the great river itself, from whence they returned 
to Lima. Into the details of the jouriieyings of 
the party we must leave the reader to follow 
the author himself in the interesting ac- 
count given in the book. It must sutlice 
us to note here that of the resources of 
| the country visited, ami of the possibilities of 
its reclamation and development under settled 
rule and industrial enterprise, Mr Sinclair writes 
in the highest possible terms. From what the 
party saw they were satisfied that there was 
practically no limit to its capabilities in the 
respects indicated. Under tlie Spanish rule, with 
which, in common with so much of South America, 
it was so lona cursed, progress was impossible \ 
and the political condition now existing, as Mr. 
Sinclair fully explains and illustrates, arc 
.almost equally hopeless. The only ho|ie 
seems to lie in the acquisition of proprie- 
torial and other rights by men of the Anglo- 
Saxon race ; and it is to Ik? hoped that tho 
experiment now being tried, in the initiation 
of which our author and his companions 
were engaged, of the establishment of a planting 
colony by a strong British Corporation, will not 
only be a success in itself, but pioneer the way for a 
general opening up and development of a country 
so richly favoured by Nature and so capable of 
ministering to the needs and the comtorts of the 
human race in other lands. Says Mr. Sinclair of the 
region selected for this enterprise— 
This beautiful valley of the Perene has now become 
the property of a Jiritish Corpoiation, the concession 
having been duly ratified by the Peruvian Government 
and arrangements are in progress for establishing a plant- 
ing colony upon a scale never before attempted in Peru. 
This land, as selected and conceded, extends to l,250,UUO 
acres, sufficient to grow the world's present require 9 
ments in coffee, cocoa, coca, cinchona, rubber, sarsa- 
parilla, and vanilla, &c. for all of which both soil and 
climate are admirably adapted. Here will be a f avonr ; 
able opening for many a trained Indian planter, and 
many a restive youth in England and Scotland will here 
find elbow-room of the most interesting and lucrative 
description, helping, I hope, to solve to many an 
anxious father the problem " what to do with our 
boys." 
The most interesting, and what may come to be one 
of the most important, economically, of the plants 
above named is the coca. Of this remarkable plant 
and its use by the native Indians, Mr. Sinclair 
says — 
Coca, from which t'-.e invaluable drug cocaine is ob- 
tained, is a native of this locality. It is a p'ant not 
unlike the Chinese tea, though scarcely ^o sturdy in 
habit, growing to a heipht of from four to five feet, with 
blight green leaves and white blossoms, foLowed by 
reddish berries. The leaves are pluckel when wed 
matured, dried in the sun. and simply pacl-.el in 
bundles for use or export. Of the sustaining p >wer of 
coca there can be no possible doubt ; the Chuncftos 
(the native Indians) seem not only to exist, b it to 
thrive upon this stimulant, often travelling for days 
with very little, if anything else, to sustain tjem. Un- 
qaestionably it is much superior and less liable to bush 
than the tobae:o, betel, or opium of other na- 
