Travels in Peru and India

by Markham, Clements Robert, Sir

• ISBN13: 9781108046718
• ISBN10: 1108046711
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-06-07
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Sir Clements Robert Markham (1830-1916) had a lifelong interest in Peru. Having already travelled there in his early twenties, he was commissioned to return ten years later to supervise the collection of sufficient specimens of the cinchona tree for its introduction to India. The bark of the tree yielded quinine, by then a well-known febrifuge and one of the few effective treatments for malaria. This book, originally published in 1862, is Markham's personal account of his travels. His story moves from the misty heights of the Peruvian mountains, where he suffered from altitude sickness, to the Malabar coastline and its complex, remarkable caste system. Markham also includes a detailed history of the use of cinchona bark, both by Europeans and aboriginal Peruvians, and a discussion of Incan culture since the arrival of the Spanish. His work is still a valuable resource for students of scientific and colonial history.

Table of Contents

Preface

Travels in Peru

Discovery of Peruvian Bark

The valuable species of chinchona-trees, their history, their discoveries, and their forests

Rapid destruction of chinchona-trees in South America

Introduction of chinchona-plants into India

Islay and Arequipa

Journey across the Cordillera to Puno

The Aymara Indians

The Peruvian Indians

Narrative of the insurrection of José Gabriel Tupac Amaru, the last of the Incas

Diego Tupac Amaru

Journey from Pumo to Crucero, the capital of Caravaya

The Province of Caravaya

Caravaya

Coca cultivation

Caravaya

General remarks on the chinchona-plants of Caravaya

Journey from the forests of Tambopata to the port of Islay

Present condition and future prospects of Peru

Mr. Spruce's expedition to procure plants and seeds of the 'red bark', or C. succirubra

Conveyance of chinchona-plants and seeds from South America to India

Travels in India

Malabar

Neilgherry Hills

Selection of sites for Chinchona-plantations on the Neilgherry Hills

Journey to the Pulney Hills

Madura and Trichinopoly

Mysore and Coorg

The Mahabaleshwur hills and the Deccan

Cultivation of the chinchona-plants in the Neilgherry Hills, under the superintendence of Mr. McIvr

Chinchona cultivation

Appendix

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