Lippincott\'s Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, No. 23, February, 1873, Vol. XI. written by Various
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Various >> Lippincott\'s Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, No. 23, February, 1873, Vol. XI.
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17 LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE
OF
_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE_.
FEBRUARY, 1873.
Vol. XI., No. 23.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU.
Concluding Paper.
A GLANCE AT THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS By J.L.T. PHILLIPS.
COMMONPLACE By CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON.
PROBATIONER LEONHARD; OR, THREE NIGHTS IN THE HAPPY VALLEY
By CAROLINE CHESEBRO.
Chapter IV.--The Test--With Mental Reservations.
Chapter V.--Sister Benigna.
Chapter VI.--The Men Of Spenersberg.
Chapter VII.--The Book.
Chapter VIII.--Conference Meeting.
Chapter IX.--Will The Architect Have Employment?
COUNTRY-HOUSE LIFE IN ENGLAND By REGINALD WYNFORD.
THE FOREST OF ARDEN By ITA ANIOL PROKOP.
JACK, THE REGULAR By THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH.
OBSERVATIONS AND ADVENTURES IN SUBMARINE DIVING By WILL WALLACE HARNEY.
CONFIDENTIAL.
GLIMPSES OF JOHN CHINAMAN By PRENTICE MULFORD.
A WINTER REVERIE By MILLIE W. CARPENTER.
"PASSPORTS, GENTLEMEN!" By A.H.
OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.
The Cornwallis Family.
Novelties In Ethnology.
The Steam-whistle.
Siamese News.
Madison As A Temperance Man.
NOTES.
LITERATURE OF THE DAY.
Books Received.
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Cones of Patabamba.
"Pepe Garcia, Who Marched Ahead, Announced the Print Of A South
American Tiger."
"Napoleon-like, They Washed Their Dirty Linen in The Family"
"Aragon and his Men Fell Upon the Deserters Without Mercy."
"They Greeted These Indian Relics As Crusoe Did The Footprints of the
Savages."
"Another Savage Had Found a Pair of Linen Pantaloons."
View of the Acropolis and The Columns Of The Temple Of Jupiter Olympus.
Theatre of Dionysus (Bacchus).
Victory Untying Her Sandals.
Temple of Victory.
The Parthenon.
Bas Relief of the Gods (Frieze Of The Parthenon).
Porch of the Caryatides.
Monument of Lysicrates.
SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU.
CONCLUDING PAPER.
Early on a brilliant morning, with baggage repacked, and the lessening
amount of provisions more firmly strapped on the shoulders of the
Indians, the explorers left their pleasant site on the banks of the
Maniri. The repose allowed to the bulk of the party during the absence
of their Bolivian companions had been wholesome and refreshing. The
success of the bark-hunters in their search for cinchonas had cheered
all hearts, and the luxurious supper of dried mutton and chuno
arranged for them on their return gave a reminiscence of splendor to
the thatched hut on the banks of the stream. This edifice, the last of
civilized construction they expected to see, had the effect of a home
in the wilderness. The bivouac there had been enjoyed with a sentiment
of tranquil carelessness. Little did the travelers think that savage
eyes had been peeping through the forest upon their fancied security,
and that the wild people of the valleys who were to work them all
kinds of mischief were upon their track from this station forth.
The enormous fire kindled for breakfast mingled with the stain of
sunrise to cast a glow upon their departure. Across the vale of the
Cconi, as though a pair of sturdy porters had arisen to celebrate
their leavetaking, the cones of Patabamba caught the first rays of
the sun and held them aloft like hospitable torches. These huge forms,
soldered together at the waist like Chang and Eng, and clothed with
shaggy woods up to the top, had been the guardian watchers over their
days in the ajoupa at Maniri. The sun just rising empurpled their
double cones, while the base and the surrounding landscape were washed
with the neutral tints of twilight.
After passing the narrow affluent after which the camping-ground of
Maniri was named, the party pursued the course of the Cconi through
a more level tract of country. The stones and precipices became more
rare, but in revenge the sandy banks soon began to reflect a heat that
was hardly bearable. As the implacable sun neared its zenith the party
walked with bent heads and blinded eyes, now dashing through great
plains of bamboos, now following the hatchets of the peons through
thickets of heated shrubbery.
Whenever the country became more wooded in its character, the
bark-hunters, whose quest obliged them to stray in short flights
around the wings of the column, redoubled their mazes. The careless
air of these Bolivian retrievers, their voluntary doublings through
the most difficult jungles, and their easy way of walking over
everything with their noses in the air, proved well their indifference
to the obstacles which were almost insurmountable to the rest.
[Illustration: THE CONES OF PATABAMBA.]
Nothing could be more singular and interesting than to see them
consulting one by one the indications scattered around them, and
deciding on their probabilities or promises. Where the height and
thickness of the foliage prevented them from seeing the sky, or
even the shade of the surrounding green, they walked bent toward the
ground, stirring up the rubbish, and choosing among the dead foliage
certain leaves, of which they carefully examined the two sides and the
stem. When by accident they found themselves near enough to speak to
each other--a rare chance, for each peon undertook a separate line of
search--they asked their friends, showing the leaves they had found,
whether their discoveries appertained to the neighboring trees or
whether the wind had brought the pieces from a distance. This kind
of investigation, pursued by men who had prowled through forests
all their lives, might seem slightly puerile if the reader does
not understand that it is often difficult, or even impossible, to
recognize the growing tree by its bark, covered as it is from base
to branches with parasitic vegetation of every sort. In those forests
whatever has a stout stem is used without scruple by the bignonias and
air-plants, which race over the trunk, plant their root-claws in the
cracks, leap over the whole tree at a single jet, or strangle it with
multiplied knots, all the while adorning it with a superb mantle of
leaves and blossoms. This is a difficulty which the most experienced
_cascarilleros_ are not able to overcome. As an instance, the history
is cited of a _practico_ or speculator who led an exploration for
these trees in the valley of Apolobamba. After having caused to be
felled, barked, measured, dried and trimmed all the cinchonas of one
of those natural thickets called _manchas_--an operation which had
occupied four months--he was about to abandon the spot and pursue
the exploration elsewhere, when accident led him to discover, in
the enormous trunk buried in creepers against which he had built his
cabin, a _Cinchona nitida_, the forefather of all the trees he had
stripped.
In this kind of search the caravan pursued the borders of the
river, sometimes on this side and sometimes on that, now passing the
two-headed mountain Camanti, now sighting the tufted peak of Basiri,
now crossing the torrent called the Garote. In the latter, where
the dam and hydraulic works of an old Spanish gold-hunter were still
visible in a state of ruin, the sacred golden thirst of Colonel Perez
once more attacked him. Two or three pins' heads of the insane metal
were actually unearthed by the colonel and displayed in a pie-dish;
but the business of the party was one which made even the finding of
gold insignificant, and they pursued their way.
The flanks of these mountains, however, were really of importance to
the botanical motive of the expedition. Along the side of the Camanti,
where the yellow Garote leaked downward in a rocky ravine, the
Bolivians were again successful. They brought to Marcoy specimens of
half a dozen cinchonas, for him to sketch, analyze and decorate with
Latin names. The colors of two or three of these barks promised
well, but the pearl of the collection was a specimen of the genuine
_Calisaya_, with its silver-gray envelope and leaf ribbed with
carmine. This proud discovery was a boon for science and for commerce.
It threw a new light upon the geographical locality of the most
precious species of cinchona. It was incontestably the plant, and
the Bolivians appeared amazed rather than pleased to have discovered
outside of their own country a kind of bark proper only to Bolivia,
and hardly known to overpass the northern extremity of the valley of
Apolobamba. This discovery would rehabilitate, in the European market,
the quinine-plants of Lower Peru, heretofore considered as inferior to
those of Upper Peru and Bolivia. The latter country has for some time
secured the most favorable reputation for its barks--a reputation
ably sustained by the efforts of the company De la Paz, to whom the
government has long granted a monopoly. This reputation is based on
the abundance in that country of two species, the _Cinchona calisaya_
and _Boliviana,_ the best known and most valued in the market. But
for two valuable cinchonas possessed by Bolivia, Peru can show twenty,
many of them excellent in quality, and awaiting only the enterprise of
the government and the natural exhaustion of the forests to the south.
This magnificent bit of luck, the finding of the calisaya, awakened
in the susceptible bosom of Mr. Marcoy an ardent desire to explore
for himself the site of its discovery. But Eusebio, the chief of the
cascarilleros, assuming a mysterious and warning expression, informed
the traveler that the place was quite inaccessible for a white man,
and that he had risked his own neck a score of times in descending the
ravine which separated the route from the hillside where the fortunate
plants were growing. He promised, however, to point out the locality
from afar, and to show, by a certain changeable gloss proper to the
leaf, the precise stratum of the calisaya amongst the belts of the
forest. This promise he forgot to execute more particularly, but it
appeared that the locality would never be excessively hard to find,
marked as it was by Nature with the gigantic finger-post of Mount
Camanti. Placing, then, in security these precious specimens among
their baggage, the explorers continued their advance along the valley.
The footing was level and easy. Rocks and precipices were left behind,
and were displaced by a soft, slippery sort of sand, where from space
to space were planted, like so many oases in a desert, clumps of giant
reeds. By a strange but natural caprice these beds of rustling verdure
were cut in an infinity of well-defined geometric forms. Seen from an
eminence and at a distance, this arrangement gave a singular effect.
In the midst of these native garden-beds were cut distinct and narrow
alleys, where the drifting sands were packed like artificial paths.
It is unnecessary to add that the soft footways, notwithstanding
their advertisement of verdure and shade, proved to be of African
temperature.
The last hours of daylight surprised the travelers among the
labyrinths of these strange gardens. A suitable spot was chosen for
the halt. As the porters were preparing to throw down their packs,
Pepe Garcia, who marched ahead, announced the print of a South
American tiger. The first care of the Indians, on hearing this news,
was to send forth a horrible cry and to throng around the marks. The
footprints disappeared at the thickest part of the jungle. After
an examination of the traces, which resembled a large trefoil, they
precipitated themselves on the interpreter-in-chief, representing
how impossible it was to camp out in the neighborhood of the dreaded
animal. But Pepe Garcia, accustomed as he was by profession to try his
strength with the ferocious bear and the wily boar, was not the man to
be afraid of a tiger, even of a genuine tiger from Bengal. To prove
to the porters how slight was the estimation he placed on the supposed
enemy, and also to drill them in the case of similar rencounters, he
pushed the whole troop pellmell into the thickest part of the reeds,
with the surly order to cut down the canes for sheds. Drawing his own
knife, he slashed right and left among the stems, which the Indians,
trembling with fear, were obliged to make into sheaves on the spot and
transport to the beach selected for the bivouac. Double rows of these
_arundos_, driven into the sand, formed the partitions of the cabins,
for which their interwoven leaves made an appropriate thatch. The
green halls with matted vaults were picturesque enough; each peon,
seeing how easily they were constructed, chose to have a house for
himself; and the Tiger's Beach quickly presented the appearance of a
camp disposed in a long straight line, of which the timorous Indians
occupied the extremity nearest the river.
No "tiger" appeared to justify the apprehensions of the porters; but
what was lacking to their fears from beasts with four feet was made
up to them by beasts with wings. The night closed in dry and serene.
Since leaving Maniri, whether because of the broadening of the valley,
the rarity of the water-courses or the decreasing altitude of the
hills, the adventurers had been little troubled with fogs at night.
The fauna of the region, too, had offered nothing of an alarming
complexion, except the footprints of the tiger in question: an
occasional tapir or peccary from the woods, and otters and fish from
the streams, had attracted the shots of the party, but merely as
welcome additions to their game-bags, not as food for their fears.
To-night, however, the veritable bugbear of the tropical forest paid
them a visit, and left a real souvenir of his presence. As the Indian
servants stretched themselves out in slumber under the bright stars
and in the partial shelter of their ajoupas, a bat of the vampire
species, attracted by the emanations of their bodies, came sailing
over them, and emboldened by the silence reigning everywhere, selected
a victim for attack. Hovering over the fellow's exposed foot, he bit
the great toe, and fanning his prey in the traditional yet inevitable
manner by the natural movement of his wings, he gorged himself with
blood without disturbing the mozo. The latter, on awakening in the
morning, observed a slight swelling in the perforated part, and on
examination discovered a round hole large enough to admit a pea.
Without rising, the man summoned his companions, who formed a group
around him for the purpose of furnishing a certain natural remedy in
the shape of a secretion which each one drew out of his ears. With
this the patient made himself a plaster for his wound, and appeared to
think but little of it. Questioned as to his sensations by the white
travelers, who found themselves a good deal more disturbed with the
idea of the vampire than they had been by any indications of tigers or
wild-boars, the fellow explained that he had felt no sensation, unless
it might have been an agreeable coolness of his sand-baked feet.
The incident seemed so disagreeable and so likely of recurrence
that Colonel Perez ever afterward slept with his feet rolled up in a
variety of fantastic draperies, while Mr. Marcoy for several nights
retained his boots.
[Illustration: "PEPE GARCIA, WHO MARCHED AHEAD, ANNOUNCED THE PRINT OF
A SOUTH AMERICAN TIGER."--P. 132.]
The path along the river-sands would have been voluntarily followed by
all the more irresponsible portion of the party, notwithstanding the
blinding heats, on account of its smoother footing. The cascarilleros,
however, objected that its tufts of canes and passifloras offered no
promise for their researches. A compromise was effected. The porters,
under the command of Juan of Aragon, were allowed to follow the shore,
and were armed with a supply of fish-hooks to induce them to add from
time to time to the alarmingly diminished supply of provisions. The
grandees of the party followed the Bolivians, whose specialty entitled
them to control practically the direction of the route, and plunged
into the woods to botanize, to explore and to search for game.
A system of conversation by means of shouts and pistol-shots was
established between the two divisions. The next night proved the
wisdom of this bifurcation. The united booty of earth, air and water,
under the form of a squirrel, a pair of toucans and a variety of fish,
afforded a meal which the porters described as _comida opipara_ or
a sumptuous festival. Lulled and comforted by the sensation which a
contented stomach wafts toward the brain, the explorers, after
washing their hands and rinsing their mouths at the riverside, betook
themselves to a cheerful repose _sub jove_, the locality offering no
reeds of the articulated species with which to construct a shelter.
The party, then, betook themselves to slumber with unusual
contentment, repeating the splendid supper in their dreams, with the
addition of every famous wine that Oporto and Rheims could dispense,
when they were awakened by a sudden and terrible storm. A waterspout
stooped over the forest and sucked up a mass of crackling branches.
The camp-fire hissed and went out in a fume of smoke. A continuity of
thunder, far off at first, but approaching nearer and nearer, kept up
a constant and increasing fusillade, to whose reports was soon added
the voice of the Cconi, lashed in its bed and bellowing like the sea.
The surprising tumult went on in a _crescendo_. The hardly-interrupted
charges of the lightning gave to the eye a strange vision of flying
woods and soaring branches. Startled, trembling and sitting bolt
upright, the adventurers asked if their last hour were come. The rain
undertook to answer in spinning down upon their heads drops that were
like bullets, and which for some time were taken for hail. Fearing to
be maimed or blinded as they sat, the party crowded together, placing
themselves back to back; and, unable to lay their heads under their
wings like the birds, sheltered them upon their knees under the
protection of their crossed arms. The fearful deluge of heated shot
lasted until morning. Then, as if in laughter, the sun came radiantly
out, the landscape readjusted its disheveled beauties, and the ground,
covered with boughs distributed by the whirlwind, greedily drank in
the waters from heaven. Soon there remained nothing of the memorable
tempest but the diamonds falling in measured cadence from the
refreshed and stiffened leaves.
Up to sunrise the unfortunates rested stoically silent, their knees in
their mouths, and receiving the visitation like a group of statuary.
The rain ceasing with the same promptitude with which it had risen,
they raised their heads and looked each other in the face, like the
enemies over the fire in Byron's _Dream_. Each countenance was blue,
and decorated with long flat locks of adhesive hair. The teeth of the
whole party were chattering like a concert of castanets. The sun, like
a practical joker, laughed ironically at the general picture.
The first hours of morning were consecrated to a general examination
of the stores, especially the precious specimens of cinchona. Bundles
were restrapped, the damp provisions laid out in the sun, and the
clothing of the party, even to the most intimate garment, was taken
down to the river to be refreshed and furbished up. A common disaster
had created a common cause amongst the whole troop, and with one
accord everybody--peons, mozos, interpreters, bark-strippers and
gentlemen--set in motion a grand cleaning-up day. Napoleon-like, they
washed their dirty linen in the family. Whoever had seen the strangers
coming and going from the beach to the woods, clothed in most
abbreviated fashion, and seeming as familiar to the uniform as if they
had always worn it under the charitable mantle of the woods, would
have taken them for a savage tribe in the midst of its encampment. It
is probable they were so seen.
Thanks to the intense heat of the sun-shine, the garments and baggage
of the expedition were quickly dried. The first were donned, the last
was loaded on the porters, and the line of march was taken up. Up to
noon the road lay along the blazing sands under a sun of fire. All the
members of the party felt fresh and hardy after the involuntary bath,
except one of the Indians, who was affected with a kind of ophthalmia.
This attack, which Mr. Marcoy attributed partly to the glare, partly
to the wet, and partly to a singular hobby peculiar to the individual
of sleeping with his eyes wide open, was of no long duration. The pain
which he complained of disappeared with a few hours of exercise and
with the determination he showed in staring straight at the god of
day, who, as if in memory of the worship formerly extended toward him
in the country, deigned to serve as oculist for the sufferer. A little
before sunset halt was made for the night-camp in the centre of a
beach protected by clumps of reeds in three quarters of the wind. The
Indian porters, despatched for fish and firewood, returned suddenly
with a frightened mien to say that they had fallen into the midst of
a camp of savages. The white men quickly rejoined them at the spot
indicated, where they found a single hut in ruins, made of reeds which
appeared to have been cut for the construction some fortnight before,
and strewn with fire-brands, banana skins and the tail of a large
fish. Pepe Garcia, consulted on these indications, explained that it
was in reality the camping-place of some of the savage Siriniris, but
that the narrowness of the hut seemed to indicate that not more than
two of the Indians, probably a man and woman, had resided there during
a short fishing-excursion.
This discovery cast a shade over the countenances of the porters.
After having collected the provisions necessary for a slender supper,
they drew apart, and, while cooking was going on, began to converse
with each other in a low voice. No notice was taken of their behavior,
however, though it would have required little imagination to guess
the subject of their parliament. The tired eyes of the explorers were
already closed, while their ears, more alert, could hear the confused
murmur proceeding from the Indians' quarter, where the disposition
seemed to be to prolong the watch indefinitely.
[Illustration: "NAPOLEON-LIKE, THEY WASHED THEIR DIRTY LINEN IN THE
FAMILY"--P. 135.]
The dark hours filed past, and jocund day, according to Shakespeare
and Romeo, stood tiptoe on the mountain-tops of Camanti and Basiri,
when the travelers were awakened by a fierce and terrible cry. Lifting
their heads in astonishment, they perceived the faithful Pepe Garcia,
his face disfigured with rage, and his fist shaking vigorously in the
direction of the Indians, who sat lowering and sullen in their places.
Aragon and the cascarilleros, collected around the chief interpreter,
far from trying to calm his anger, appeared to feed it by their
suggestions. An explanation of the scene was demanded. Eight of the
bearers, it appeared, had deserted, leaving to their comrades the
pleasure of watching over the packages of cinchona, but assuming for
their part the charge of a good fraction of the provisions, which
they had disappeared with for the relief of their fellow-porters.
This copious bleeding of the larder drew from Colonel Perez a terrible
oath, and occasioned a more vivid sentiment in the entrails of Marcoy
than the defection of the men. If the evil was grand, the remedy was
correspondingly difficult. Indolent or mercurial at pleasure, the
Indians had doubtless threaded the woods with winged feet, and were
now far away. Mr. Marcoy proposed therefore to continue the march
without them, but to set down a heavy account of bastinadoes to their
credit when they should turn up again at Marcapata. This proposition,
as it erred on the side of mercy, was unanimously rejected, and a
scouting-party was ordered in pursuit, consisting of the bark-hunters
and Juan of Aragon, to whom for the occasion Pepe Garcia confided his
remarkable fowling-piece.
[Illustration: "ARAGON AND HIS MEN FELL UPON THE DESERTERS WITHOUT
MERCY."--P. 138.]
In the afternoon the extemporized police reappeared. The fugitives had
been found tranquilly sitting on the banks of the river, distending
their abdomens with the stolen preserves and chocolate. Aragon and his
men fell upon the deserters without mercy. The former, battering away
at them with the stock of his gun, and the latter, exercising upon
their shoulders whatever they possessed in the way of lassoes,
axe-handles and sabre-blades, maintained the argument effectually for
some time in this way, and did not descend to questions until muscular
fatigue caused them to desist. The catechism subsequently put to the
porters elicited the reply, from the spokesman of the recusants,
that they were tired of being afraid of the wild Indians; that they
objected to marching into the dens of tigers; that, perceiving their
rations diminished from day to day, they had imagined the time not far
distant when the same would be withdrawn altogether. It was curious,
as it seemed to Marcoy when the argument was rehearsed to him
presently, that the fellows made no complaint of being footsore,
overcharged with burdens or conducted into paths too difficult for
them. A lurking admiration for the vigor with which, after all, they
played their crushing part of beasts of burden, procured them immunity
from further punishment after their return. Their bivouacs were simply
watched on the succeeding nights by Bolivian sentinels.
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